2nd Retreat Camp for Project CHANGE Held
On October 18-19, we conducted the 2nd retreat camp for Project CHANGE at the Shonan International Village Center in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture. This annual event aims to strengthen collaboration among project members from a total of 36 organizations, with 367 participants involved. This year, we focused on the theme of 'Fundamentals and Practice of Design Thinking,' with 74 attendees divided into eight groups for lectures and workshops.
On the first day, Prof. Naohiko Kohtake from Keio University Graduate School of System Design and Management delivered a lecture and conducted a workshop on 'Design Thinking and System Thinking.' Participants explored how to improve the quality of 'monitoring' in community healthcare by not only considering the needs of the customers (care providers) through design thinking but also incorporating the roles of related stakeholders through system thinking. Ideas were generated and categorized based on social impact (vertical axis) and feasibility (horizontal axis). Finally, participants created future newspapers to visualize their vision and consider the processes needed to achieve it.
On the second day, with the goal of fostering the idea that 'care businesses are not just about generating revenue, but also about improving future living conditions,' Shinji Metsugi, CEO of i-Communication, gave a lecture titled 'Always for Someone – Although an IT Venture, Our Customers Are Those Who Cannot Use IT; Our Customers Are Those Who Cannot Spend Money.' This was followed by a workshop reflecting on the 'Sanpo Yoshi' principle of Omi merchants, exploring the concept of 'Good for Society.' Participants engaged in discussions about the extent to which they could help others and the necessity of support from others for business success, which resonated with them and highlighted the importance of societal satisfaction in business.
Feedback from retreat participants included comments such as, 'It was great to have insights that allowed for enjoyable thinking,' 'The approach to business model development differed from traditional corporate thinking,' 'The user-centered tool development was very informative,' and 'I feel like I’ve been in a cycle of continuously searching for people to help realize what I want to do, and new ideas emerge from conversations with those I meet.' Additionally, at the end of the first day, an opinion exchange session was held, providing a valuable opportunity for participants to enjoy conversations with various members whom they rarely meet face-to-face, contributing to the future progress of Project CHANGE.
