In 2017 I saw a lot of chatter about the term "design thinking." Jared Spool had been poo pooing the term almost any chance he'd get. A lot of people agreed with him, a lot of people challenged him. You might've heard some chatter around this too.
Well, a switch flipped for Mr. Spool last year because in January of 2017 he published this: Shh! Don't Tell Them There's No Magic In Design Thinking. It's a great short read and the stone soup story/analogy is one of my favorite things.
Christina Wodtke came out with a something similar, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Design Thinking. This piece takes a deep dive into what "design thinking" is, and how to apply it to the real world. If you haven't read it, I do recommend it. I'm reminded of my video days when the iPhone first came out and suddenly we all grumbled, "everyone is a filmmaker now." But, no. You still need craftspeople to do meaningful and artful work.
My takeaway from the "design thinking" conversation is this: maybe internally it's a term your team uses, maybe it's not. It doesn't matter, you're still following the processes and... thinking of "design thinking."
Either way, I believe it is a good term to use when talking to your clients (internal or external) about your work and educating them on what you're doing to make their thing better. If you work for an organization where you have a UX team of two or more people, it might be worth talking to each other about the words you use to educate your colleagues. If you already have a game plan, it's much easier to have a teaching moment whenever it arises.