A LESS ‘HUMAN CENTERED’ DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE?

I’ve been intrigued by quite a few things lately.?Amongst these are Design Thinking as discussed by KarenZiegler,?Ikigai as discussed by David E Marlow and the various facets of Leadership Excellence as discussed by Danny Langloss.?

Being the CEO and co-founder of Optevo, a human-centered tech company, I’m fascinated by how these concepts tie into what we are doing in Optevo. Given the great turmoil of the past few years, it’s become - I thought - obvious that our business environment needs to become more, rather than less, human-centered.

Recently I came across another concept called ‘Expansive Design’. Perhaps you've heard of it?

According to a couple of Danish authors, Jens Martin Skibsted and Christian Bason, this approach to developing the #FutureOfWork isn’t the ideal.?As I was reading through their premise, I couldn’t help wondering what you think about this?

I’ll give you some snippets that provide a very brief overview of their concept, then I’d like to throw this open to discussion to see where the critical mass lies: become more human-centered, or, become more?- in the author’s words ‘sustainable’.? I'd strongly encourage you to also read the interview here in order to get the full meaning and nuances of what they're proposing.

Now, I realize that both terms 'human-centered' and 'sustainable' are favorite buzzwords right now. We all want to be more sustainable, of course we do! But what does this actually mean? How is this goal in conflict with being human-centered?

The authors begin by outlining their analysis of what being human-centered means and then conclude?that by saying:?

“…human-centered design has been a counterweight to technology-led design, where tech, specifications, and what’s technologically possible are the driving forces. Our commercial world, both digitally and physically, has been shaped by human-centered design. For enterprises that “bake in” design skills and competencies at the C-suite level—meaning they build design teams, use these methodologies in a systematic way, measure how they do, improve things, and iterate—they outcompete their peers by 30 percent over time.

The question is, if we continue that way, where will we end? So, we need to, as Jens Martin said, start some more disruptive leaps of imagination. We need to expand the way we think about what solutions are needed. We need to go beyond this human-centeredness that’s maybe not sustainable.”

Skibsted and Bason say their book is for “the enlightened citizen: those who want to change things, those who want to innovate, those who are concerned with the state of the world, those who want to be change makers.”

They propose making 6 expansions on Design Thinking to take it 'beyond'?being human-centered to a more sustainable model that will be ‘future-proof’. According to them, it’s been our human-centered design thinking approach that has landed us in the mess we’re in today.?

Hmmm….

The expansions they propose are:

Time: to summarize, it seems that they’re advocating a longer-term view. For instance governments should be elected for much longer terms. But, they say, ‘you also need to look at the very near future’ at the same time.

Proximity: this is an interesting one. They feel that rights need to be expanded beyond the human species.?This section requires reading in the interview to get the details on just how they see this evolving.

Under this title, they also talk about narrowing the gap between ‘those who decide and those who vote’.?Both these are apparently about ‘getting closer to the problems’.?

Life: this one is even more interesting. They would like to expand our perceive perception about ‘what is life?’ and when we ascribe life (with its rights and responsibilities, I’m presuming) to something no one has previously thought of as having life.?“… We have completely different boundaries of life, and that obviously also implicates a lot of thought with how we can harvest that value to make money.”

Value: ‘what it is and how it is created.’?On this point, the authors seem to do an about turn, focusing on the social value, social impact and ‘money isn’t everything’ philosophy. They say it’s time to have a ‘circular economy’.?Once again, a point that bears reading in the interview.

Dimensions: Skibsted says this is the most abstract of their expansions. They note that we live in both a physical and virtual world, but in their opinion, the future is beyond physical, beyond digital, it is biochemical.?

Sectors: This 6th expansion is about government becoming more involved in innovation and in changing society. About philanthropic organizations becoming policymakers as a result of the “amount of funds they throw into a particular public problem or field.”

Skibsted and Bason go on to discuss ‘technological determinism’ ie the belief that where we currently are with technology was predetermined. They feel that humanity believes this to be the case. They then contrast that understanding with the concept of having the ability to create a different future though ‘Expansive Design’.?

The interview between McKinsey’s Adam Volk and Skibsted and Bason is interesting to say the least. What I'd like to know is what you think about their philosophy including the six expansions discussed in their Expansive Design concept???