Addressing Complex Adaptive Problems with Design and Systems Thinking (Part 2)
Where Systems Thinking and Design Thinking Align
Following on from my last post, the field of design has been evolving and this has implications for both the role of designers and the skillset they require.
Over recent years, design has started to engage with more complex problems. In his famous 2009 Ted Talk, Tim Brown urges designers to think big. In this talk and in his book, Change by Design, he argues that design has the potential to address some of the most complex problems of our time such as improving healthcare and tackling climate change. These are complex adaptive systems. They are adaptive as well as complex, because they are not static, they are constantly changing, so what works in one part of the system at one point in time won’t necessarily work in a different part of the system at a different point in time. In this context a problem can never be considered solved, only improved.
Tim Brown Think Big Ted Talk TED
Don Norman another of the godfathers of design, takes a similar line in his talk, 21st century design. He argues that whilst collaborative design processes have the potential to help address some of these complex issues, design education rarely prepares designers for such challenges. He argues that designers need to take a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together stakeholders with a wide range of different perspectives. Both Don and Tim argue that the stakeholder groups engaged in attempting to find solutions to complex problems should include people impacted by the problems such as the users of services or people in communities that are being affected.
Don Norman 21st Centuary Design NN Group
To deal with complex adaptive problems (such as those mentioned earlier) Don Norman argues that designers need to apply systems thinking. Having studied and applied systems thinking in my PhD (where I was addressing the complex adaptive challenge of improving healthcare efficiency through advanced digital technologies) I have to agree. Don argues that to find effective solutions it is first necessary to spend sufficient time in the problem space to get to the root cause and ensure that the real problem (or problems) are addressed. This reduces the risk that solutions will make things worse. To help mitigate this risk, he argues, it is important to consider the context in which problems exist in and the indirect impacts that might occur. To do this he suggests, we need to get beyond linear thinking and consider relationships.
Pretty much everything that Tim Brown and Don Norman say about how to apply design to tackle complex adaptive systems had already been said by systems thinkers years earlier. I am struck, for example, between the similarities between what Gerald Midgely says in this talk on applying systems thinking to tackle wicked problems and arguments made by Don Norman and Tim Brown. Like Don and Tim, Gerald argues for the need to bring together different stakeholders and argues that people impacted by the problem (users) should be involved. It occurs to me that Gerald is in effect describing a design process to address problems in complex adaptive systems.
Whilst it would be possible to get caught up in micro debates about the differences between systems thinking and design thinking, such as why one might be better than the other, I prefer to take a pragmatic and practical approach by instead looking at what they have in common and where learning can be shared between the two communities. I argue that a designers including systems thinking in their approach and systems thinkers applying what is effectively a design process are doing the same thing.
My claim that systems thinkers are in effect designers should not be considered controversial or revolutionary, one of the most well respected early systems thinkers, Russel Ackoff considered himself a designer.
If you are from a systems thinking background you are likely to apply different methods to the process of understanding problems / finding solutions than someone trained in design. I am not, however, convinced that the specific methods used should by themselves be considered a clear differentiator. Any good practitioner (systems thinker or designer) should be able to consider the problem they are engaging with to find the right combination of methods to apply. As indicated in this video, the systems thinking community, much like the design community recognises that there is a skills gap that needs addressing. Systems thinkers and designers might both be able to expand their potential toolkit for addressing complex challenges by sharing techniques between the two communities.
I suggest that much could be gained from the sharing of knowledge and skills between systems thinkers and designers and acknowledge that such sharing is already starting to happen. Exciting developments include a special issue of the service design magazine touchpoint focussed on systems thinking for service design. Another development is the work of Cat Drew at The UK Design Council who has been involved in developing a systemic design framework that brings systems thinking elements into the design process.
These ideas are discussed in a design council report earlier this year titled systems shift design. Like Don Norman, its authors argue that, current design approaches are not appropriate when dealing with complex systems. Whilst acknowledging that designers have skills to help the world transform, including creativity to help imagine something different, design must change to allow designers to work in new ways. Incorporating established systems thinking techniques I suggest might be useful.
Similar arguments are being made in the systems thinking community. John Pourdehnad advocates the idea of a third generation of design where the stakeholders are the designers. In this space he argues that creative energy can be unleashed by bringing together the collective ideas of people with differing perspectives. Paralells between this position and the approach advocated by Tim Brown and Don Norman should be clear. In their 2011 paper Systems & Design Thinking: A Conceptual Framework for their Integration Pourdehnad et al state that:
“A designer applying Systems Thinking principles can help participants recognize the assumptions the organization and the individual participants hold. In this way a designer can provide them with the means to develop a new framework and shared world view”
I will be getting into more detail about how to address these skill development issues, in the meantime however my full blog post can be found here
The full post can be found on my blog — https://digitaltim.uk/2021/12/11/addressing-complex-adaptive-problems-with-design-and-systems-thinking/
Originally published at http://digitaltim.uk on December 11, 2021.
