Benefits to you and your organisation include:

• Access global best practice and research in design thinking and the future of work
• Understanding of creative thinking and strategic design thinking principles as applied to emerging challenges around the future of work and workplace
• A new model to reframe future-of-work projects through a design-led, human-centric lens
• Empathic understanding of workers both office-based and hybrid/remote
• Return to your organisation with new techniques and strategies to put into practice
• Experience critical, creative and insightful thinking
• Practice ideation and visualisation skills to realise solutions
• Interact and experience working collaboratively with an international network with peers
• Certificate of online attendance

You will learn:

• An overview of the state of current transformation in work and workplace
• An introduction to creative thinking and strategic design thinking principles – theoretical principles and practical building blocks – and how it can be applied to the new hybrid workplace
• Workplace and organisational applications of creative strategy-making and its outcomes
• Strategies for improving decision making by reframing work and workplace challenges in a people-centred way
• Ways to work effectively in teams
• Global best practice in how design thinking can help shape work and workplace

Learning will take place over four live online sessions, each three-and-a-half hours in duration where participants are taught as a group and work in smaller teams.

Each team will have a dedicated facilitator and online tools will support a series of fast-paced ethnographic, brainstorming, creative making and concept evaluation exercises.

Delegates will be able to choose and vote on key topics to investigate in a series of fast-paced team-activities, and a range of industry experts will join the masterclass to guide projects and share current practice and case studies.

The sessions include a mix of:

• Introductory keynote lectures from experts in the field of workplace research, strategy and innovation
• ‘People’, ‘place’ and ‘technology’ modules backed by a series of practical exercises
• Design ‘sprints’ through different stage of the creative strategy model
• Team creative workshops 
• A final crit of project presentations by a panel of experts. 

At a time when every organisation and every worker is grappling with the implications of the new world of work, this short course will give you a comprehensive methodology to ask the right questions and shape the right solutions.

Post course, we offer a 1:1 session with the course leader, Professor Jeremy Myerson, where participants have an opportunity to discuss key take-outs from the masterclass (this is optional).

The 2023 programme includes:

Day 1

Session 1: Setting the Context (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

Session 2: Design Thinking and the Double Diamond Model (Led by: Stephan Bechtold ET Group)

Session 3: Co-Creation and User Engagement (Led by: Key Kawamura, Studio Banana)

Day 2

Session 4: Experience Mapping and Prototyping (Led by: Adam Scott, Freestate, author of The Experience Book)

Session 5: Design Ethnography (Led by: Prof Jo-Anne Bichard, Royal College of Art)

Session 6: Data Analytics (Led by: Arraz Makhzani UnWork)

Session 7: Set-Up for Group Work (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett, Worktech Academy)

Day 3

Session 8: Discover Phase – Double Diamond model (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

Session 9: Define Phase – Double Diamond model (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

Session 10: Develop Phase – Double Diamond model (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

Day 4

Session 11: Deliver Phase – Double Diamond model (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

Session 12: Preparation for Final Presentations

Session 13: Final Presentations of Group Work with external expert panel gives feedback:

• Prof Lynda Gratton, London Business School
• Guzman De Yarza, Head of Workplace Strategy, JLL
• Maria Gonzalez, founder, Centre for the Architecture of (Common) Work (CAW)

Session 14: Closing Recap and Reflections (Led by: Jeremy Myerson and Imogen Privett Worktech Academy)

You will come away from this course with:

• A clear understanding of the new landscape of work and workplace – and its implications for individuals and organisations
• Creative confidence to work in a team on design-led, human-centric innovation 
• Knowledge of how to use the different stages of the design thinking model
• Practical experience of applying creative thinking on a workplace project relevant to you
• A reinvigorated sense of what can be achieved when taking a people-centred approach
• Tools and frameworks to enable you to take a leadership role in workplace strategy back in your own organisation

The course is led by Professor Emeritus Jeremy Myerson alongside Imogen Privett of Worktech Academy/Unwork.

Guest contributors for the 2023 programme include:

• Key Kawamura, Studio Banana
• Stephan Berchtold, ET Group Canada
• Adam Scott, Freestate, author of The Experience Book
• Arraz Makhzani, Associate Director and data specialist, Unwork  
• Prof Jo-Anne Bichard, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art

The panel for final group projects includes:

• Professor Lynda Gratton, London Business School
• Guzman De Yarza, Head of Workplace Strategy, JLL
• Maria Gonzalez, founder, Centre for the Architecture of (Common) Work (CAW)

This masterclass is aimed at a wide range of professionals in the workplace industry, drawn from across the design, architectural, technology, developer and real estate sectors.

It will also appeal to strategists, HR leaders, innovation managers and R&D team members in organisations seeking to get to grips with rapid workplace change, as well as policy makers, entrepreneurs, business managers and marketing teams.

The masterclass is organised in synchronous sessions in a live virtual environment that combines various digital platforms and tools.

Zoom
Using the videoconferencing service Zoom, the RCA's esteemed academics and facilitators deliver a mix of:

• live lectures
• case studies
• guided assessments
• presentations

Participants interact with the faculty and peers in breakout rooms in real time.

Miro

Participants engage in cross-functional team work with the use of visual collaboration tools.

Through the online whiteboard platform Miro, participants get to:

• interact with various formats and templates
• plan and brainstorm ideas
• create processes and workshop activities in the digital workspace.

Moodle

The College's learning platform Moodle is personalised according to the course's requirements to provide participants with a secure integrated system where they can access the course content.

The hub hosts a range of useful resources to enable the learning experience, including comprehensive timetables, pre-reading materials, course slides, curated videos, tutorials and session recordings.

Slack

Participants stay connected and communicate via the channel-based messaging platform Slack throughout the whole duration of the course.

In this space, the academics, facilitators and delegates get to network, plan the course activities, share documents and files during the live sessions or offline.

WORKTECH Academy is the world’s leading knowledge platform and member club exploring how we’ll work tomorrow. We look at innovation in the world of work and workplace through five key lenses: people, place, technology, design and culture. We engage with our powerful network of over 10,000 individual members and more than 70 corporate, design and technology organisations around the world to deliver content on the latest trends, research and best practice in work and workplace.

WORKTECH Academy Members discounted fee available, contact: short-courses@rca.ac.uk

Order Jeremy Myerson's new book Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office here