Weaving Design Thinking into Teams, Leaders and Organizations with Holly O'Driscoll — DT101 E51

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today’s guest is Holly O'Driscoll, the founder and CEO of Ampersand Innovation, a boutique consultancy focusing on bringing more human-centered design, innovation, strategy, and leadership development to the world. During the conversation, you'll learn about intersections between innovation and leadership, designing and facilitating innovation teams, and insights into shaping organizational innovation. Host:  Dawan Stanford.</span></p> <p><strong>Show Summary</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Holly believes her journey into design began when she was kicked out of kindergarten after only two weeks (only to be promoted to first grade) for her precocious behavior. Later, in middle school, she started her own business, renting out pens and pencils to her fellow classmates. She’s continued pushing boundaries, asking difficult questions, and challenging assumptions.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Her undergraduate degree was in Chemistry, with her future plans aimed at going to medical school, but a chance interview with Proctor & Gamble on her college campus changed her career trajectory. She ended up getting an MBA and working at P&G for 22 years, traveling all around the world servicing plants, before moving into the corporate design organization in the company, which was still in its early stages. Holly’s introduction to design thinking would also come during her time at P&G, when she returned to work after maternity leave – and it changed her life. After that first training, Holly entered a rigorous design thinking training program co-developed by Stanford d.school. She would eventually take over P&G’s North American design thinking role, and two years later, she became the head of the company’s Global design thinking.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 2018, Holly left P&G to start her own consultancy after numerous requests from business colleagues asking her to come and do the same team training and work she was doing for P&G. Now, sh