Designer of Change: Liz Ogbu

Liz has made her mark as a designer, urbanist, and spatial justice activist, deeply experienced on engaging and transforming unjust urban environments. Her multidisciplinary design and innovation practice, Studio O, operates at the intersection of racial and spatial justice and uses design to catalyze sustained social impact.

Liz, you’ve done an amazing job of designing your life and not falling victim to other pressures. What made that possible?

Thanks. In some ways the pandemic was actually helpful because it clarified for me that I want to continue working on models for how to do this work. The best way for me to do that is to remain as nimble as possible–to move with it, as the thinking goes. For example, I’m determined to write a book. I had to shift things to make that possible. Not being tied to a bigger studio allowed me some flexibility to be able to say, “Okay, we’ll only take X number of projects.”

Being willing to make mistakes is important too. Not everything I try works. But it’s important that I try it and get to a place where I understand what is in the toolkit, right? If I’m not willing to take risks, I actually can’t make change,

What does changemaking mean to you?

It’s not accepting the status quo as the complete answer. My job is never to come in and say, “I’m going to do it the way it has always been done.” I often come in with the premise that the way it has been done has not been good for everybody, and part of my mission is to make sure that everybody is done right by whatever we accomplish. So basically, that means that I’m often in a position of having to make change, and of having to adapt the system to achieve that goal.

Those who come to me are attracted by the way in which I talk about the world and talk about the opportunity. That resonates with them. The ones that end up being the best clients, however, are the ones who come because they recognize that the way in which they have done work in the past, or the way in which they’ve been told they’re supposed to do it does not feel right. They want to do it a different way, and they are looking for support.

So how do you screen potential clients to learn if they have a readiness and a willingness to explore things that they’re not thinking of?

That’s hard to say because it’s so context specific, but I learn what they have already done, and what they’re envisioning as possible. I probe around their appetite for risk. What do they want to explore around possibility? I ask if I propose something that is slightly out of left field, are they willing to take that advice or at least consider it? I’ve come to a place where I don’t want to create things that fall apart the minute that I leave. So I also ask questions to check out the level and kind of staffing resources or capacity building resources they have to be able to transform their internal systems to hold whatever it is that we have created.

How involved do you get in creating the internal systems so that the outcome is achieved?

Quite a bit. I ask a lot of questions about who’s going to shepherd this? Who’s going to hold this? Once that’s been identified, I make sure those people are the closest to me in the partnership. If I’m doing interviews, they are coming along with me, or I can debrief them right after the interviews. I want to train them to be able to do a similar type of process.

I always say I serve two clients — the people who pay me and the people who have to live with what I’ve created. So part of my process is to bring that second client into the decision making apparatus. It’s important for them to be a believer in the work as well.

What challenges does that create and how do you meet them?

I can ask all the probing questions in the beginning, but sometimes it’s just hard to know whether or not this thing will work until we actually start working together. So I will often only agree to a six to nine month contract initially. All the indications seem to be there that this could be successful, but we don’t actually know. We need to know whether or not they can actually roll with the things I suggest and be supportive of it. We need to know that there is actual chemistry and the right fit within the team. So there’s often a phase 1 where we can test out if this is going to work. If the answer is yes, then we can hopefully go forward.

I always try to understand what the motivations are for the client. What do they need to succeed? I try to get that map as early as possible. Also, I try to learn who is out there? What is important to them? How have they experienced change or this process before? And then, what would it take for us, whether it’s myself or some member of the broader team, to be in conversation with them? To understand how we need to engage them moving forward, so that at the very least, they don’t become an enemy. They may not become an ally, or an accomplice, but at the very least, we want to keep them from becoming an enemy.

Another thing is when I’m engaging with folks, they are very clear I will tell it like it is. I’m not going to sugarcoat things. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not going to speak up or make commitments that I know are not ready to be made. You will always get the truth from me. So even on projects where things might fall apart because other members aren’t upholding what they committed to do, rarely is that seen as a reflection of me. Sometimes that allows me to pick up the pieces and move things forward after some period of time.

What would you hope someone following you into this type of design might want to keep in mind?

There’s a combination of stuff I have found important. Partly, it’s just putting myself into situations where I get to learn how people think and tick — opening up to understanding human nature and thinking about how to create systems that respond to that. Another thing that’s been useful is just doing self work, right? My ability to handle a traumatic situation is enhanced because I’ve had to learn about grief and grieving, and I think that’s really important. This work can be incredibly emotionally taxing, and to be able to do it well, I have to have the ability to not to bring my shit back into any situation. I do that by having a parallel process in which I am doing self work. As a change maker, it’s not just an external action, it’s an internal one too. You have to create the conditions for change within yourself as much as you do on the outside.

Wise words to end on. Thanks, Liz!

Find more interviews and insights like these in our latest book, Changemakers: How Leaders Can Design Change in an Insanely Complex World. Available now on Amazon or Rosenfeld Media.