Design thinking is praised as a new management practice to foster creativity and innovation in organizations. But proven success of the concept’s value-creation is rare; 70% of all change initiatives still fail. This talk contributes with a study of the challenges and opportunities of design thinking in order to implement innovation into organizations. The concept of the Diplomatic Rebel is proposed, an individual intrapreneur combining the characteristics of a rebel (Design Thinker) and a diplomat (manager).
The rebel is the main driver of for corporate innovation, in order to challenge status quo, break rules and come up with novel solutions. Similar as the Design Thinker, the rebel is explorative, ambiguity-tolerant and able to solve wicked problems. But the rebel alone is not be able to implement innovation successfully: Pushing novelty into organizations, the rebel often faces resistance. The talk calls for diplomatic rebels – who incorporate emotional intelligence and empathy.