Conversation, empathy and shattering bias

The Royal British Columbia Museum is in the midst of reinventing its exhibits and displays to become a more inclusive and modern institution, with the help of Royal Roads’ Design Thinking Challenge. Royal Roads students will offer ideas on how the Royal B.C. Museum can be something more than a place that stores collections and historical records.

“Some people think of museums as dusty places with only old stories and history in them,” said Kim Gough, learning program developer at the Royal B.C. Museum. “But I think museums can be much more about our contemporary society. They can be about current issues and they can also be forward-thinking.”

Design ­thinking is an approach to ­solving complex problems using empathy and continuous ­prototyping, and allows Royal Roads students to step into an important public conversation at a pivotal time for the museum. Museums are at a critical time of “reckoning,” including dealing with issues of systemic racism, Gough said.

Royal Roads Bachelor of Commerce student Amar Singh said design thinking lends itself ­perfectly to the process of discovering what people value. Singh adds, “I hope to develop and take away the skill of listening with empathy to others.”

Read the full story in The Times Colonist.