Ronan Healy, co-founder of service design studio, How Might We is next up to face the music. Ronan has the coolest job in the world in that he can boast about playful thinking and Lego building as being a big part of his job.
What is your name and what do you do?
My name is Ronan Healy, I am a service designer.
Why do you think creative skills are important at second level?
It’s important that students are learning these skills or maintaining them more than anything else. I think to maintain the momentum of what is a very innate skill within all of us it is important to take it from primary, maintain it in secondary and bring it into third level.
What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is providing direct feedback so again what I really appreciated about The B!G Idea is prior to the students getting this feedback they fully understood it’s not criticism. They apparently spent time on the difference between feedback and criticism. We were coached ourselves on that so we understood that the mindset was kind of calibrated that they will appreciate the feedback that we give. So as a Mentor we can specifically pinpoint areas that we think could be improved.
Can you take us through the process of The B!G Idea Mentoring?
Yes so I was notified via email, then very clearly there was three projects I mentored on and what I really liked was that the Judges had already or the other Mentors had provided feedback already and I could see that. So we could make sure that there was no replication of feedback. There was enough guidance for me to feel like I knew what I was doing but not so much that it was prescriptive which again I appreciated that aswell.
What was the most important part of Mentoring for you?
It’s been the reconnection back to the education system and to be involved in a programme that actually is deeply connected to industry. Just the sheer breadth of different mentors in different industries was really encouraging for me to be a part of. The B!G Idea was credible on many, many fronts.
What was your biggest take away from Mentoring?
The creativity that I saw coming through. It was again, maybe sometimes you underestimate what’s possible for the kids to do but pleasantly surprised every time I went to provide some feedback.
Would you recommend Mentoring to others?
Definitely I highly recommend it. Creative programmes like this are very rare and if industry can give back, I think it’s vitally important.
Interested in becoming a B!G 2022 Mentor?
