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Using Disruptive Design and Systems Thinking to Build a Better World
As entrepreneurs, we create products and services. As we create them we often are thinking of the use of the product or service but we rarely think about what happens at the end of a product lifecycle. What if we thought about those very products and services as a complete system? What is the lifecycle of that product or service? What happens when the products initial use case is finished? Listen to this inspiring conversation about disrupting the way we think about what we create.
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Leyla Acaroglu
Design disruptor, creative boundary pusher, and cultural provocateur, Dr. Leyla Acaroglu (A-jar-a-loo) embodies the innovation that instigates positive environmental and social change. A New York-based Australian designer, social scientist, and sustainability expert, she is internationally recognized as a leader in the use of disruptive design across sustainability and educational initiatives. Leyla was awarded 2016 Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme, and her 2013 mainstage TED talk that has collected over one million views is one of the most watched TED talks on sustainability.
In 2014, Leyla completed her PhD at RMIT in change-centric disruptive design and started developing the Disruptive Design Method, which is the backbone of her unique approach to design-led social change. She has won a host of awards for her work, was named one of Melbourne’s 100 Most Influential People, and has been forging positive change through creative practice in multiple ways for over a decade. Her systems-based thinking coupled with her highly-skilled communication techniques is featured in several publications, including the New York Times.
Leyla is the founder of two design agencies, Disrupt Design in New York and Melbourne-based Eco Innovators, as well as the UnSchool, her uniquely rebellious experimental knowledge lab that is all about disrupting the mainstream way that knowledge is gained and shared. It runs innovative pop-up programs around the world and recently won a CORE77 Design Education Initiative Award. With Leyla’s expertise at the helm, each of these operatives serve as multidisciplinary approaches to pioneering social and environmental change through design.
As a designer, her works such as Design Play Cards, Game Changer Game, Secret Life of Things, Designercise, and the AIGA Gender Equity Toolkit are at the forefront of activated experience design. She has authored several handbooks for change makers and continues to agitate for new ways of solving complex social problems through beautifully designed interventions. Leyla’s creative work is highly acclaimed, having been featured in a permanent exhibition in the Leonardo di Vinci museum in Milan and earning commissions from the National Gallery of Victoria.
She is an internationally respected keynote speaker and trusted expert, having led thousands of hours of workshops, lectures, activations, and educational experiences around the world. Leyla was a visiting scholar at NYU and an Innovator in Residence at the Center for Social Innovation NYC. She was also an invited Artist in Residence with Autodesk and managed the development of ‘Greenfly,’one of the first online life cycle assessment tools for designers. Leyla is regularly invited to provide her professional opinions on radio and TV, having been a regular judge on the ABC TV show The New Inventors, along with a host of international programs.
Creating change is difficult. It requires us to think differently and be open to new possibilities and different views of reality. But this is not easy because we have our own beliefs that to us are 100% true and correct. Yet others have their own set of beliefs that are 100% true and correct to them. So how can we possibly create any sort of change, be it settling an argument with your spouse, convincing your team on a new direction with your company, or even selling a solution to a client?
Dave Gray is a leader and manager with a background in design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies, as well as mid-sized businesses, startups, executives, and individuals.