10 things I’m thinking about…(that are foundations for change)

I usually co-write or co-create with colleagues Meld Studios by saying the following out aloud ‘I’m going to say words…’ and then we work things out from there. This time I’m writing with only my inner critic for company. So, I’m going to say words…(about the things required for change)

1. Time. My beloved colleague Jeremy often reminds me that people need time to absorb things. Design projects are compressed versions of reality where a temporary organisation is formed whose work it is to deliver something. Quite…or very quickly. Jeremy says things like ‘we’ve been working on this for 3mths and they’ve only had an hour to read it…let's give them some time’. We (designers) often create moments in time (showcases, walkthroughs) where we frequently bring in more than can be absorbed by anyone in attendance. Our artefacts (maps, reports) are like maps to a city that you need to explore before you get it. Perhaps designers need to more carefully design time so that what we do has the opportunity to unfold…and be understood.
2. Sharing and thinking. For all sorts of reasons I have a tense relationship with documentation in design. Whilst I love the elegance of a well framed artefact I sometimes feel like their completeness takes away from the opportunity to think. Let me lay out a proposition for you — design documents exist equally to help us understand something (something new or something old, told differently) and to help us think for ourselves. The models we use can hold content and provide spaces for emergent thinking. Consider each page as a frame with content and enough space to catalyse original thought — that means you need to leave some space for thinking.
3. Relationships. When I attended an evening information session at my eldest son's school there was a presentation where the punchline was ‘don’t push your child for marks at the expense of your relationship with them’ — In our design context we’ve got the what of design (outputs etc) and the how. One outcome of bringing together the what and the how is a relationship, one that will hopefully endure past whatever we delivered. If that's the case, maybe designers need to think more about how they understand and design relationships. I certainly do.
4. Facilitation. Now that's an interesting word. Many moons ago, someone wiser than me explained the difference between content and process facilitation. The former is where you supply content and then facilitate some kind of learning experience. More interesting (to me) is process facilitation where the facilitator invites the participants to supply the content and then learning emerges from the group. Long story short, designers don’t always need a lot of new and interesting content to add value, more so they can help others bring theirs to the table — in the moment.
5. Pauses. Pregnant pauses to be exact. Back when I was in training to become a therapist / training to work as a lifeline volunteer someone suggested that silence was an amazing gift to give. Designers usually have so much to say about so very many things…and we could probably do with giving more silence. If you give silence, you are gifting thinking time…and thinking time is quite a gift. It’s called a pregnant pause because it helps something to grow…
6. Loaded words. They all are, some more so than others. Even when I say ‘I’m going to say words…’ and it appears that they are a random, unconsciously mediated conga line of phrases they are anything but random. On every project I’ve ever been on (and in every company I’ve ever worked) there have been words with special meanings — words we freely use, words we are encouraged not to say — sometimes that word is transformation because someone else has dibs on that word…or maybe inclusion because that is or isn’t the word of the day. If you take the time to notice the words that you’re encouraged or discouraged in using you’ll be granted a key to the round window, the one that frames permissions — what we’re allowed or not allowed to talk about.
7. Moving on. Something I’ve found myself saying is that design produces enough confidence to move on — one of my lecturers once said that ‘objectivity is just finely tuned subjectivity’ and I have been parroting that ever since. Most organisations are fed on a diet of ‘the devil is in the detail’ and most seem unable to actually move forward. Design (like life) is about equal leaps of logic and faith and sometimes you just need to unclench and move on.
8. Co-producing. We co-produce problems and solutions and possibly don’t own up as much to the problems part of that statement. Designers are both epic providers of solutions that we co-produce with whoever we are working with and also at equal risk of co-producing problems. How come? We often don’t cost our externalities…or in other words think about what will become of what we design after we move onto the next thing…some of what we create might go on to deliver value, other things might either rot in a desk drawer or cause harm…should we be helicopter or attachment parents to our designs over time? or let them go like so many rowdy teenagers, making their own way in the world?
9. It’s all connected whether you like it or not. Sometimes…experience face plants (yep, experience faceplants is a phrase…feel free to reuse) are because the experience is poorly designed…or…because the experience is disconnected. I once took my eldest son to the local hospital because of a suspected broken elbow — the care he received was pretty good (amazing really) but the whole thing was undermined because the available parking (how long I could park for on the street) didn’t match the estimated wait time in the emergency department. The moral of the story is that designing something amazing in isolation might just be the start of an experience face-plant
10. Digital. A PDF isn’t digital…it just isn’t….I like saying that. One way to start thinking about digital is its possibility. If you can think it up, you can do it — it’s better ideas that at some point get realised through technology. Spotify isn’t a tech company, it’s a company that has harnessed ideas in service of their customers and employees. Digital is an exoskeleton for ideas…it delivers them at scale…it gives you new powers. Any successful digital journey I’ve had the pleasure of supporting has spent a long time in the idea phase. Digital is a way of doing things — it’s a how not a what.

The design I like to practise with my wonderful colleagues is about designing services, strategies, policies, connection, , conversation, relationships, cooperations, opportunities, possibilities, decisions, growth and most importantly change.?

If you want to talk just email me :)

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