Mindset in Motion (MIM)
Mindset in Motion (MIM) is a podcast made for university and college educators, career counselors, and leaders invested in supporting students and recent graduates with the tools and resources to thrive in their hopeful careers. Tune in to hear about the groundbreaking research, insights, and stories shaping experiential learning delivery excellence - all on one platform. MIM is brought to you by Symplicity's Mindset and hosted and produced by Director of Mindset, Bill Heinrich. Symplicity is a two-decade-long leader in technological innovation and deployment supporting higher education partners to deliver on the promise of student career readiness. Mindset connects big ideas to repeatable educational practices, guiding informed decision making, and learning experiences that support student success.
Mindset in Motion (MIM)
Design Thinking & Experiential Learning
- Design thinking is about designing "with" rather than "for" people - bringing stakeholders into the creative problem-solving process
- Students must unlearn traditional academic approaches and embrace ambiguity, failure, and uncertainty as part of the learning process
- Design thinking transforms both mindset and practice, creating lasting change in how participants approach problems in education and life
Guests
Dr. Stacy Neier Beran, Senior Ignatian lecturer and faculty director of experiential learning at Loyola University Chicago
Julia Allworth, Manager of innovation projects at the University of Toronto
Brian LeDuc, Principal Design Strategist at Learning, Designed and Designer-in-Residence at UC San Diego Design Lab
This episode explores how design thinking functions as both a method and mindset in higher education. The panelists discuss how they implement design thinking in various contexts: from student-led redesign projects of university spaces and experiences, to faculty development, to community engagement. They highlight tensions between academic culture and design thinking approaches, noting how the process builds crucial workplace skills like creativity, empathy, and comfort with uncertainty. All panelists observed that design thinking fundamentally changes participants, creating confidence and empowerment as they learn to embrace failure as learning and develop solutions through collaborative, human-centered processes.
Links
Think by Design: Celebrating Design Thinking and Experiential Learning.
Design Thinking in Student Affairs: A Primer
Learning, Designed newsletter
https://brianfleduc.substack.com/
Hidden Potential, by Adam Grant
https://adamgrant.net/book/hidden-potential/
Design for a Better World, Don Norman