Think Unique with Ortal Green

August 15, 2022

In my conversations with book coach Kylie Zeal, our last week's guest, it came up how she thought I had a lot in common with one of her connections - and she introduced me to Ortal Green! Ortal is the CEO and founder of Glittering Minds, a movement that aims to empower teachers and parents in creating tomorrow's innovators and great thinkers. She recently published her second book "Thinking Unique: Raising a Successful Innovative Child".

Ortal is a design thinker and creativity expert. She started her career in the tech industry in Israel where she helps advance technology for the future. When she became a mother, she was curious as to what her children were learning at school. Through volunteering at the school, she found out that there is a clear gap between what was taught in the education system today in terms of skills that children need to learn to succeed in the future with its uncertainties and unknowns. The rapid pace of technological advancement means that the jobs that we have now are evolving and new types of jobs are popping up every day. Because of this, she decided to close this gap by teaching children design thinking as a way to develop 21st-century skills such as creative thinking, innovative mindset, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

She helps home educators and teachers with project-based learning so that children can be better learners and more empowered. Through design thinking, she uses a combination of mindset approaches, tools, and methodologies to solve problems in an innovative way. Her problem-solving approach is human-centric, meaning she works WITH the people who face the problem and does not solve it for them.

Ortal shared the idea and process behind design thinking and how at a young age, we can give our children a better chance of being successful in the future. In this interview, she answered some questions like:

What is design thinking and what does it consist of?
How can parents and educators start their journey of helping the children develop these skills? How can parents better provide an environment where children can learn those skills?
What is the difference between design thinking and other frameworks for learning?
What is success for her as an educator and advocate of design thinking?

My interview with Ortal Green opened up all sorts of new possibilities. The overlap of design thinking and project-based learning and achieving success in life is something worth sharing. So if you want to be a better parent, a better guide for your child, one of the best ways to do that is to learn how to become a creative-based educator. Check out Ortal Green's Glittering Minds program and website where you can access the free resources that they share.

Visit Ortal Green's books and Glittering Minds Program:

Visit Glittering Minds

Read Ortal Green's book "Thinking Unique: Raising a Successful Innovative Child"

Ortal Green and I are teaming up for something exciting!

We decided to create the first ever Project-Based Summit for Homeschoolers!

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Podcast highlights:

[02:29] On the state of the education system: There is a gap between what was happening in the education system today in terms of what skills children are learning in school versus what skills they need to succeed in the future with all the uncertainties and unknowns. With the rapid pace of advancement in technology, the types of jobs we do are changing. Every day, new job paths are popping up, and the jobs that still remain are done completely different because we work alongside computers, with machine-learning AI that develops so quickly.

[04:07] On Design Thinking: It is a combination of mindset approaches, tools, and methodology to solve problems in an innovative way. It is very human-centric. We solve the problems with the people who face the problem. We're not solving it FOR them. We're working in collaboration on solving a problem and finding an innovative solution that suits the people who will use that solution.

[04:53] Think Unique: Raising a Successful Innovative Child book: It takes parents on the journey of understanding design thinking, what is innovative thinking and creative thinking, and then shows them step by step how they can do that at home, how they can create an environment for their child where they can develop all these skills and understand what the process or framework they need to follow when they encounter a problem and want to find an innovative solution for this problem.

[05:51] On what should parents focus on in starting teaching design thinking: The whole journey is important. You can't teach what you don't know. As parents, if we want to teach our children a particular skill, we first need to gain an understanding of that skill ourselves and develop the skill within us in order to be able to teach our child that skill and role model that way of thinking.

[07:13] On parents and home educators: Parents who home educate spend more time and effort in supporting and helping their children develop important life skills. Therefore, they will probably invest more time and thought and planning into that. Home educator parents are more open to looking for new ways and thinking differently. Just by taking their children out of the system, they already think differently and have questioned and criticised and thought deeply about how to go about their child's education.

[09:39] Let your child try different things, and know that it's okay if they fail. Do not look for the perfect outcome. What's important is the journey the child is taking. It's important for them to learn that failure is part of the process.