Design Confuses Both Designers And Non-Designers
The Land Of Confusion
We have entered the Land Of Confusion. The leading role of design in business, in thinking, in viewing the world is imminent. It’s happening. The right brain, holistic, iterative systems thinking and critical making is the only way to solve the complex problems of today. It’s the only way to restore humanity back in work, to unlock the amazing creative power of humans. Businesses struggle with this because this way of thinking and seeing the world is alien to them. Their strategy is to acquire design agencies. But the thing is, designers are equally confused. Systems thinking, applying artistic skills to business problems, transferring the mind-, skill-, and toolset to this new reality is not something that you learn in art school. Trust me, I’ve been there. The truth is that today, design confuses both designers and non-designers.
The steep mountain
The problem of how to use the power of design to solve business problems is not solved by inviting a designer to the table. For this to work, the designer needs to learn to apply his skillset in a whole new context of business processes and business cases. And the business person has to learn how designers think and work and how this can be of value to him or her. There needs to be some serious mind-shifting on both sides for this to work. It’s not just about learning, but, maybe even more difficult, about unlearning. It’s a steep mountain to climb.
No natives
There are no natives in this new Land Of Confusion that some call Design Thinking. The post-it sticking, lego building workshops are just scratching the surface, walking the valley. The Highlands is where the real benefits, the treasures lie.
The top of the mountain
Near the top of the mountain lies a place called DesOps. The people that live there aim to make business more efficient with design. They challenge the assumptions about how organizations work. They try to create healthy teams that thrive in the new reality of complexity, multidisciplinarity, and uncertainty. They want to unlock the human potential, the typically human capacity for creativity. They take action, they opt out of the way we do things and explore alternative routes. They are trailblazers. Their tools are the tools of designers. Their mindset is that of artists. Their skillset is that of rebels. They humanize work, they find beauty and inspiration in handcraft and they question things by making things. They learn, test and iterate their way forward through organizations armed with design. They are producers, connectors, and scientists researching new ways to organize, do and think about work.
The Land Of Opportunity
The Land Of Confusion is the Land Of Opportunity. In it, we will find how we can thrive in a world of AI, how we can dive under the surface of Big Data, how we can stay connected to reality in a VR world.
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