Systems x Purpose
If you scroll down your feed, I bet you’ll find that purpose and system appear more frequently than most other terms. They are both embedded in our business lingo for a reason.
‘Purpose’ contains the notion of transformation and recognizes that companies are in business to make an impact and that teams can drive an enterprise to a preferred future.
‘System’ talks to operationalization through interdependence between parts and context, crucial to transformation as well.
Finding a close relationship between these two terms in transformation is striking for a reason: I am constantly researching transformative companies both in my practice and teaching, and the companies that most agree are transforming behaviors and systems do so through streamlined, open, and adaptable systems. The opposite is true for companies that insist on thriving in the status quo.
Researching a connection between purpose and systems delivered some interesting insights:
- Purpose is key to systems and brings up the need for principles (rather than rules.) Principles, unlike rules, add flexibility and expand the use of the system’s parts.
- We’ve come a long way (designers often used system to denote series.) Digital technology opened the door to user inclusion and massification, which changed our game.
- Including the user is key to transformation today. User-driven systems (personalization schema and platforms) become pervasive and extend their impact.
Defining a system’s purpose is an unnegotiable first step if you are working to transform a sector or service. How much access are you willing to afford the user, and what is their role?
The converse of platform is method (a prescriptive series of steps with few feedback loops.) Tools are a slight evolution in that they allow the user some degree of control over the process. Methods and tools are low in our hierarchy because they fail to realize the potential to leap us forward. Instead, platform and co-creation rank higher because user participation requires openness and a built-in ability to cooperate with other systems and respond to uncertainty.
These archetypes apply to every kind of system, whether creating a new platform or user interface. Here are four solid examples that further make the case:
Platform
Co-creation
Method
Tool
More than anything, systems address scale in design. They used to be critical for addressing scale, more than anything, through replicating components across applications. Today systems are also crucial to impacting use and behaviors: transformation by design, through systems.
Research sources:
A Framework for Systemic Design, Alex J. Ryan
Thinking in Systems, Donella H. Meadows
