This post goes out to my JVs (Jesuit Volunteers) and why they’d be great design thinkers (and hence should apply to Challenge Detroit).

I’ve never been shy about integrating my work and my faith, so here goes, I’m going to connect design thinking with values I learned from my year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC). When I entered a year of service with JVC, I knew I would be impacted for life as I sought to better understand their core values, simple living, social justice, community, and spirituality. In delving into these values, I gained deeper knowledge about listening, ministry of presence, imaginative/contemplative prayer, and the link between freedom and detachment. These values and styles of prayer, rooted in Ignatian spirituality, assist us in becoming ‘contemplatives in action.’ They’ve also helped me on my quest to become an expert design thinker.

For those unfamiliar, design thinking consists of six steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate. Design-thinking shifts problem-solving from an impersonal effort to a human-centered experience. In becoming a better empathizer, ideator, and prototyper, I’ve found myself incorporating aspects of my spiritual life to design better.

Empathy: The practice of empathy is probably the easiest connection to make to Ignatian values. In JVC, we heard over and over again to try and “meet others where they are at” and truly listen. In empathizing, it is important to put aside your bias and focus on the user’s needs and struggles. You aren’t designing for you; you are desiging for the human user. Their needs are more important than your biases.

Ideate: Imaginative prayer is a huge style of prayer championed by St. Ignatius and adopted by the Jesuits. In imaginative prayer, you pick a person from a Scripture story and imagine yourself in the story. Not only are you empathizing, but, for a few minutes,  you are stepping out of the world, into an unbounded reality. In ideation, for a few minutes also, you suspend reality and come up with as many ideas-big, small, crazy, normal, out-of-this-world, whatever-as you can to aid the user in solving a problem. A good ideator needs a good imagination-the ability to put themselves in the user’s shoes and imagine new solutions.

Prototyping: Aside from the JV’s typical love of crafting and feeling like a kindergartener, the Ignatian value of detachment assists greatly in the prototyping phase. When you start building an idea out, it is hard not to become attached to your idea. You start pitching it, instead of listening. Just as quickly as you imagined solutions in ideation, you need to step away and let go of your ideas. It’s time to refine and test, and attachment is a huge barrier to success through this step. Jesuits teach detachment so we can reach our full capacity to love and serve. It just happens to make good prototypers too.

There you have it: why a JV has the makings of a great design thinker. Here’s the part of the post where I disclaim this being the view of Challenge Detroit and Jesuit Volunteer Corps and assert this is just my opinion. So, yes, this is my opinion. It’s my opinion that FJVs are well on their way to being expert empathizers, ideators, prototypers, and hence-design thinkers. Y’all should apply to Challenge Detroit.

P.S.- For those unfamiliar with Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuits and want to learn more, I’d highly recommend The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by Reverend James Martin, SJ.