INTERDISCIPLINARITY, DESIGN THINKING, AND INNOVATION IN PUBLIC SPACES: A TEACHING EXPERIENCE IN FLORIANOPOLIS BOTANICAL GARDEN PARK

Innovation of public spaces requires dense management efforts. Interdisciplinary studies must be conducted to raise needs of stakeholders. Then, potentialities, problems, and opportunities are explored. These works require interdisciplinary knowledge to carry out a broad analysis of the social, technological, economic, environmental, political, and legal spheres to understand influencing factors in the management of such spaces. In this context, one important challenge faced by professors is to promote the development of strategic skills among students. This work has arisen from the specific need of designing an active learning method, to motivate business administration undergraduate students to think strategically while dealing with complex problems. To achieve the objectives of the course - Change Management and Business Consulting -, we have created a nine steps study guide based on design thinking. Our proposal is to reflect upon key learning outcomes provided by this teaching experience. We argue that future managers need to learn how to explore, and frame problems before solving them, since the highest risk they might encounter is to misdiagnose complex problems. The paper is structured into five sections. The introduction describes the research problem and the object of study. The second section presents theoretical references, which integrates authors and concepts from different management fields. The methodological section explains how design thinking was applied, by describing each step of the experience. It has followed a study guide developed for the exploration of Florianopolis Botanical Garden Park, combining fieldwork visits with in-class lectures and debates. Next, we present results and learning in three subtopics: conceptual aspects, related to the purpose of the studied space; infrastructural needs and management challenges. To conclude, we indicate possible ways of exploring this public space, and also recommend the development of future didactic experiences with similar scopes.