An interesting article on where design is going. Some reflections on the reflections:
For me much of the activity around what design is has greatest value in opening up design and bringing others in. In business design needs to be relational and participatory to be strategic.

I’m working through what is unique at the intersection between design and business.

Vision resilience. For designers vision is about depth through divergence & convergence, for business it’s about clarity and resilience, robustness.

Collaboration engagement. For designers relationship is about creativity, for business it’s about frameworks, rules of engagement, consensus.

Communication timing. For designers it’s continual and flexible, for business it’s about implications and closure.

Creativity appropriation. For designers recognition is respect, in business respect is day to day appropriation (of ideas and process). This is perhaps the most directly interesting and relevant point for the article. Grasping too thinly at the creative process and accomplishments doesn’t make for a strategic role in business. A generous willingness to mix with the messy and release ownership of the juicy core of design is a start point. Clarity on what design thinking is can help a lot, in the context of learning the uniqueness at the intersection of design and business.

I guess the summary is that when design meets business high quality design expertise is essential but not the ‘solution’.