Official Launch of "THINKING," a Co-creation Workshop for Business Professionals and Creators

good Inc., a design innovator company (Headquarters: Meguro-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Taichi Sekiguchi), is officially launching "THINKING," a workshop that deepens mutual understanding between business professionals and creators through dialogue and co-creation. The program already has a track record of being provided to multiple major corporations.

THINKING is positioned as one of good Inc.'s own social implementation projects, aimed at training the "quality of thought" of individuals and organizations, focusing on three key areas: "perspective," "questioning ability," and "problem-setting ability."

■ Background: Stagnation in Creative Utilization Due to a "Lack of Leaders" The importance of design and creativity in business is widely recognized, yet in practice, very few people on the business frontline can speak about how to leverage it with real conviction.

- **Challenges for Business Professionals:** While understanding that creativity is important, they tend to rely solely on their own experience and business frameworks because they lack experience in actually using it. - **Challenges for Creators:** With little experience leading business-related conversations, they cannot break out of the "waiting for requests" pattern and fail to position themselves to drive the business.

To solve this structural problem, good Inc. developed "THINKING," a program that provides a platform for mutual understanding between business professionals and creators.

■ What is THINKING? This workshop brings business professionals and creators (mainly art university students) together to experience and realize "where to apply creativity within a business." By intentionally setting abstract themes that are difficult to answer with business-like thinking alone, it fosters understanding and respect for each other's thinking styles and values through equal dialogue.

■ Program Structure: 3 Steps + Follow-up Report

### ① THINK Warm-up A preparatory exercise where participants answer an online diagnostic drill to objectively understand their own thinking style. A report is generated based on six axes: "divergent thinking," "convergent thinking," "logical organization," "visual organization," "expressive power," and "dialogue style."

### ② THINK Experiment Creators, such as art university students, and corporate business professionals gather to engage in creative dialogue on abstract themes. Ground rules like "there is no single answer to the question" and "be mindful of not emphasizing differences in knowledge levels" ensure a discussion on equal footing.

Theme examples: "What would lifestyles be like if we acquired a new sense of body?" and "What can be conveyed through words, and what cannot?"

### ③ THINK Sprint A sprint period where teams repeatedly practice with practical, business-like themes (such as new business development) and output a business proposal pitch deck. Creators and business professionals collaborate through online meetings to refine their output.

### ④ THINK Cool-down Changes in participants' thinking styles throughout the program are summarized in individual reports, visualizing their growth and transformation.

The full picture of THINKING, from the program's design background to details of each step and scenes from actual workshops, can be viewed in the case study article on Cocoda.

▶︎ Creating a Connection Between Business and Creativity — "THINKING," a Place for Business Professionals to Experience the Creative Process

■ Implementation Record and Participant Feedback Through providing the program to major corporations, much feedback has been received from both business professionals and art students.

### From Business Professionals "The dialogue starting from a question stimulated my creativity." "I realized our thinking was trapped in a box." "I had new insights on how to design conversations." "I found the ways of thinking, which I wouldn't come up with in my daily work, to be fresh."

### From Art University Students (Creators) "I could feel that the creativity I have learned can connect with society." "I experienced a new step in thinking that I had never encountered before."

Furthermore, measurements of thinking style changes before and after the program have confirmed two growth patterns: "overall strengths expand and grow" and "significant changes occur in previously under-emphasized thinking styles." This is beginning to prove the program's effectiveness in changing the fixed mindsets of business professionals.

■ Significance of the Offering Until now, good Inc. has participated in companies as a design innovator, promoting business and organizational growth as a team member (Design Partner Business). Its practical knowledge, such as supporting the launch of a design organization at Mizuho Bank and building an in-house development organization at Yakuodo, has been published as case studies on Cocoda (*).

THINKING was born from the insight gained through these field experiences: "the more business professionals there are who can lead the creative process, the higher the overall driving force of the organization becomes." It is the cornerstone of the Social Implementation Business, one of the two businesses good Inc. is developing, which is being officially released this time.

- **Design Partner Business:** Supporting client companies' business growth as a design innovator. - **Social Implementation Business (THINKING, etc.):** Operating our own services to tackle social issues as a business owner. ← **Released this time**

Based on the belief that "it is important not only for good Inc. to provide direct support, but also for the number of people who can handle design and creativity within all companies to increase," we will openly share the knowledge we have cultivated through practice.

* For case study details, please refer to the articles on Cocoda. ・Yakuodo: Launching Yakuodo's first "in-house developed app." The behind-the-scenes of design innovator company good Inc.'s new product launch support. ・Mizuho Bank: Changing character according to the organizational phase. The role of the "design innovator" supporting Mizuho Bank's design organization.

■ Future Developments Going forward, we will expand our community of art university students while strengthening industry-academia collaboration with universities, and promote the provision of the program to more companies and participants. We also aim to further improve the quality and effectiveness measurement of the program by developing digital tools (thinking style analysis dashboard).

■ Company Profile Name: good Inc. Representative: Taichi Sekiguchi Business Content: Design Partner Business / Social Implementation Business Established: July 2018 Location: LANTIQUE 207, 1-1-17 Nakameguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Corporate Site: [link]