In this talk, I explore how at the heart of the movement to embrace design in organizations is not a silver bullet process, role or methods. Instead it is how we deal with the complexity of an incomplete picture and build an understanding to act towards managing ambiguity. I will focus on key characteristics associated with the work of iconic designers and their relationship to ambiguity. I will break design leadership down further into the characteristics assessed from iconic design leaders in relationship to their management of ambiguous situation in their work.

Secondly, To deal with this state of unknown and complexity, I will share why business must embrace ambiguity as a tool by creating an environment for framing, sketching and invention, just as it did for optimization, efficacy and performance metrics. And how, in this new reality, the required leadership to deal with this state of ambiguous decision-making is evolving. CEOs know this and according to Tim Brown, President and CEO of IDEO, “many of the best CEOs are also natural design thinkers.” Known as “Design Leadership,” this natural approach to problem solving begins to create a balance that embraces ambiguity in business.