Design Thinking is not a skill reserved for innovation teams. It is a skill every organisation needs — and in February 2026, CIMB’s people got to experience why through an intensive Design Thinking Training session.
Most organisations have no shortage of smart people. What they often lack is a shared way of approaching problems — a common language that allows someone in strategy to have the same conversation as someone on the front line, without either of them talking past the other.
That is precisely what Human Equation’s Design Thinking Training in Malaysia set out to build. Over two days, in a programme delivered for CIMB Group under Asia School of Business, participants from across the organisation were introduced to a framework that begins not with solutions, but with questions — and not with answers, but with assumptions worth challenging.
“Sheila was a great and knowledgeable trainer. She shared a lot of valuable insights and gave structure to the many approaches towards innovation.”
— Nur Akma Athirah Tee binti Zaidel, CIMB Group, February 2026
Stepping Back Before Moving Forward
The two-day curriculum was built around a deceptively simple idea: that the reason most corporate initiatives fall short is not a lack of effort or resources, but a failure to truly understand the needs of the people they are meant to serve.
Participants were guided through the practice of stepping back — pausing before defaulting to familiar approaches, and instead examining the assumptions embedded in how a problem has been framed. What looks like a process problem is often a communication problem. What looks like a resource problem is often a prioritisation problem. Design thinking training gives people the tools to see the difference.
From there, the programme moved into stakeholder needs — not as an abstract exercise, but as a practical discipline. Whose perspective has not been heard? What friction exists that the people inside the system have stopped noticing? What would a solution actually need to do to work for the person using it, rather than the person who built it?
From Every Level, One Language
Design Thinking is a skill every organisation needs, from senior leaders who set direction, to the people on the ground who make things happen every day.
This is not about turning everyone into an innovator. It is about giving people at every level a shared way of thinking about problems — so that when a front-line team surfaces a user issue, and a senior leader needs to make a resource decision about it, they are working from the same frame of reference rather than different ones.
When that shared language exists, teams look at challenges from fresh angles. They experiment rather than staying stuck. They collaborate more openly, because they are no longer defending their own version of the problem — they are working together to understand it.
“Overall, it was a splendid 2-day session. The intensity is just quite right. Not too overwhelming — I could consume the learning and knowledge well enough.”
— Fareez Aiman bin Mohd Ilyas, CIMB Group, February 2026
Fareez’s observation about pacing matters more than it might initially appear. Design thinking training fails when it overwhelms participants with frameworks and leaves them unsure how to apply any of them. The programme’s deliberate pacing — intensive enough to challenge, structured enough to absorb — is what allows the tools to transfer from the training room into actual working practice.
Innovation Starts With a Better Question
The programme’s most enduring takeaway is also its simplest.
Innovation does not always require a restructure, a new technology, or a significant budget. Sometimes it requires nothing more than the willingness to stop and ask a question that no one has asked before — about who this is for, what they actually need, and whether the solution being built is the right one.
Design Thinking training, delivered well, teaches people to ask those questions habitually. Not as a formal process to be followed on a project plan, but as a way of approaching any challenge — large or small, strategic or operational.
That habit, built across an organisation rather than concentrated in a single team, is what changes how a company operates.
About the Programme
Human Equation’s design thinking training in Malaysia is available for organisations across all sectors. The two-day programme can be delivered in-house, in collaboration with academic partners, or as part of a broader leadership development curriculum. It is HRD Corp claimable for eligible Malaysian-registered organisations.
Ready to transform your workforce capabilities? Complete the inquiry form on this page, and our consultants will map out a customised training strategy for your organisation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a unified language in Design Thinking Training Malaysia prevent corporate stagnation?
When an organisation establishes a unified problem-solving language through our Design Thinking Training modules, it removes the friction caused by misaligned internal communication. Teams can rapidly move from identifying complex user friction points to executing collaborative prototypes without getting bogged down by bureaucratic inertia or unverified corporate assumptions.
What is the strategic value of partnering with the Asia School of Business for these programmes?
Human Equation’s collaborative deployments alongside the Asia School of Business combine cutting-edge global academic research with practical, field-tested behavioural frameworks. This ensures that large-scale corporate clients like CIMB receive high-ticket training interventions that translate directly into measurable organisational ROI.
Is Human Equation’s corporate innovation and Design Thinking Training HRD Corp claimable in Malaysia?
Yes. Human Equation is a certified, fully registered training provider. Our enterprise innovation masterclasses, specialised design thinking labs, and regional leadership development residencies are entirely HRD Corp claimable for eligible Malaysian corporate entities.
What does Human Equation’s two-day Design Thinking Training cover?
The programme guides participants through stepping back from existing assumptions, understanding stakeholder needs, reframing challenges as opportunities, experimenting with ideas, and collaborating across functions. It is practical and immediately applicable — not theoretical.
Why does Design Thinking Training matter for large organisations?
When teams across different functions and levels share the same problem-solving framework, they collaborate more openly, challenge each other more constructively, and build solutions that better reflect what users actually need. It gives the whole organisation a common language for approaching challenges — reducing friction and replacing assumption-based decisions with evidence-based ones.
