WHAT IS DESIGN CONNECTIONS REALLY?

This weekend, I met a young photographer. She asked what I was working on. I told her, “Design Connections, a health intervention against loneliness and isolation.” She looked at me inquisitively and asked,?"What do you mean?"

It was Friday night. I was tired and didn't feel like talking shop. I almost walked away, but something held me back. I wanted her to understand.

The surgeon general has noted that loneliness and isolation are worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It's worse than no exercise. Worse than obesity.

It affects everyone—young, middle-aged, and older people—especially older people.

Corporations too. American companies lose $154 billion per year to absenteeism due to loneliness and isolation.

This is more than just a big health problem. It's a major socioeconomic issue. It is a big, knotty societal problem that urgently needs a solution. And right now, there aren't many.

That's why we're doing Design Connections.

Our goal is not to design a solution for people. It's to design a solution with them.

Instead of telling people what to do, we create the conditions for them to solve loneliness and isolation themselves. We take them through our design process step-by-step. They deconstruct social connections, reimagine them, and reconstruct them in a safe environment. By thinking like designers, they collaborate with peers, figuring out how to create social connections and build a stronger, healthier community.

Why?

It's like the adage: Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.

We could tell people how to make social connections; instead, we help them develop solutions.?

In teaching people how to think like designers, we create conditions for personal transformation in two key ways:

Sense of Agency: When people solve their own problems, they become emotionally and intellectually invested in their ideas. This investment fosters optimism, excitement, and open-mindedness about the future, significantly increasing their chances of bringing those ideas to life. It is this sense of agency that is truly transformative.

Sense of Trust: When people collaborate and solve problems together, they share their struggles and help each other develop ideas. The sharing and collaboration create intimacy and empathy within which trust thrives.

It is this combination of self-agency (me) and trust towards others (we)that is at the foundation of Design Connections?. ?

Our follow-up sessions, practice exercises, meet-ups, newsletters, and online community groups provide ongoing support and opportunities, strengthening social resilience.

Resiliency is our ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from social challenges and build and nurture meaningful connections with others.?

Our long-term goal is to form resilient individuals, groups, teams, and communities that contribute to solving the loneliness and isolation epidemic from the inside out.

A more connected society is a healthier society.

That is Design Connections?.

My new friend said, "I understand it now."

I said, "Phew! Thank you for asking and not letting me go until it was clear."

Dr. Murthy, the US Surgeon General, put out a call to mend the fabric of our society. We see Design Connections? as one of its beautiful, new, vital threads.

We're ready to bring it to those who need it.

Thank you,

Ayse

Please connect with us to learn more about Design Connections?, give us referrals to communities in need of the program, or connect us to people who might help grow it.

For our design programs, please email Leah Caplan, VP, Design and Project Planning, Birsel + Seck, at?[email protected].

For coaching engagements, please email Jacquelyn Lane, President, 100 Coaches, at?[email protected].

For speaking engagements, please email Nancy Aaronson at?[email protected].