The present study examined how design thinking processes help to facilitate difficult conversations for fostering organizational change toward greater inclusion and equity in undergraduate engineering programs. Regardless of the type of organization or institution, sustainable diversity and inclusion integration requires difficult conversations that can correspond with locale‐specific interventions and deep cultural transformation. We led a series of design sessions with stakeholders from two undergraduate engineering programs at a large, Midwestern, research university aimed at creating prototype solutions to diversity and inclusion problems. Following the sessions, we conducted interviews with 19 stakeholders to understand their perceptions of the design process in facilitating both difficult conversations and in enacting meaningful change. Our study uncovered that organizational cultures impacted participants’ perceptions of change possibilities and their role in change. We conclude with recommendations for adopting design practices and communication‐as‐design processes to create structures and interactive approaches for facilitating conversations toward inclusionary organizational change.

中文翻译：

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用设计思想解决工程中的组织文化冲突

本研究研究了设计思维过程如何帮助促进艰难的对话，以促进组织变革，以期在本科工程项目中实现更大的包容性和公平性。无论组织或机构的类型如何，可持续的多样性和包容性整合都需要艰苦的对话，这可能与针对特定地区的干预措施和深度文化变革相对应。我们与来自大型中西部研究型大学的两个本科工程项目的利益相关者进行了一系列设计会议，旨在为多样性和包容性问题创建原型解决方案。会议结束后，我们与19个利益相关者进行了访谈，以了解他们对设计过程的理解，以促进艰难的对话和进行有意义的变更。我们的研究发现，组织文化会影响参与者对变革可能性及其在变革中的作用的认识。最后，我们提出有关采用设计实践和按设计进行交流的建议，以创建结构和交互式方法，以促进对话以实现包容性组织变革。