# 420: Design Thinking Without The Jargon with Ashley Jablow

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspired-nonprofit-leadership-812838/420-design-thinking-without-the-jargon-with-ashley-jablow.md
Podcast: [Inspired Nonprofit Leadership](https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspired-nonprofit-leadership-812838)
Published: 2026-05-14T04:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://inspirednonprofitleadership.libsyn.com/episode-420-design-thinking-without-the-jargon-with-ashley-jablow
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/inspirednonprofitleadership/INL_420__Design_Thinking_Without_The_Jargon_with_Ashley_Jablow.mp3?dest-id=928919
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/inspired-nonprofit-leadership-812838/episodes/420-design-thinking-without-the-jargon-with-ashley-jablow
Duration seconds: 2216

## Resource

Reflections from host Sarah Olivieri ... The Problem Isn't Change. It's the Size of the Decision. Most nonprofit leaders I talk to are not actually afraid of change. They are stuck between two sizes of it. On one side, a monster decision. Restructure the program. Leave the role. Overhaul the funding model. A move so big it feels reckless to say out loud. On the other side, no change at all. Keep going. Ride it out another quarter. Wait for more information. Wait for the board. Wait for a better moment. What nobody offers is the middle option. The small, cheap, fast, reversible move whose only job is to teach you something. That option is almost always the right one, and it is almost always missing from the conversation. Where This Thinking Came From I've been turning this over for a while. I recently had a conversation about exactly this with Ashley Jablow, who works with leaders and teams in transition and has deep training in design thinking. It sharpened how I think about why change gets stuck inside nonprofits and what actually unsticks it. The short version: the problem isn't that leaders lack courage. The problem is that the only option on the table is too expensive to say yes to. Change Is Neutral. The Story You Wrap Around It Isn't. Change is constantly happening. Seasons turn. Budgets shift. Staff come and go. A funder's priorities drift. A board member rolls off. None of that is catastrophic on its own. What makes change feel charged is the story we attach to it. In the nonprofit sector, that story is usually some version of: change is dangerous, so we should avoid it. That story hardens into a posture. The posture becomes the culture. The culture becomes the reason your organization cannot move. In short: Change is constant and mostly neutral. What makes it…

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