Why World Leaders Will Be Designers

Otto Neurath. (Vienna,1882 - Oxford,1945)

The answer is simple: There are no suitable words to explain the world...and new ways of understanding are needed... And all possible ways of understanding lead us to a holistic comprehensive view of humanity that involve visual communication and designers.

Facts are overwhelming but: Why is not happening yet?, What impediments do designers need to overcome to be taken seriously?

While reading Otto Neurath's "From Hieroglyphics to Isotype" (1943-45), I came to this quite simple yet visionary explanation:

"What are the origins of the critical and obstructive attitude shown by some people as soon as the question of pictures arises and especially if pictures are systematically used to covey information?

In the middle ages, from which our civilization has inherited so much, those who were literate were particularly word-minded while the lives of the illiterate masses are circumscribed by impressive buildings, sculptures and paintings. As literacy spread and became general and environment grew up in which there was a rather puritanical attitude towards pictures. British parliamentary papers very rarely contained pictorial material. Neither orator nor journalists, both men of words serving topical purposes, nor even writers of more permanent literature in prose or verse were in the habit of using illustrations, although these were sometimes added afterwards by other people. Perhaps it is this tendency which has led to lack of appreciation of informative pictures and to a feeling that any kind of verbal communication must, of necessity, be of higher order than communication by pictures.[...] I think that the day of "eye-consciousness" is rapidly approaching. Communication of knowledge through pictures will play an increasingly large part in the future."
In other words: 

This is a world ruled by exclusively word-minded leaders...turning into hollistic-minded by necessity.

Have to give in...



Otto Neurath was an Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. Before he was to flee his native country in 1934, Neurath was one of the leading figures of the Vienna Circle. During the 1920s, Neurath also became an ardent logical positivist and championed 'the scientific attitude'.

Design Thinking: Transforming Reality

los SAN. 44.00 ADC. Hallazgos de bastones de madera, punzones de hueso y ornamentos corporales. 

/ F. D'ERRICO / L. BACKWELL. El País

Human progress and Designers: Pioneers of Design Thinking.

One of the great paradoxes of paleontology is called the Great Leap, or sudden appearance in Europe around 40,000 years ago, advanced instruments typical of modern human creativity.

Design Thinking or "the process of a practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result" (Simon, 1969), is not a new resource as stated in various forums in Spain: It is a procedure that has existed since Humanity became a Global Community because some of its members-designers decided not to settled for what nature had given them and dared to "reform" and therefore, change the status quo, therefore, transform reality. How could I tear the skin of an animal .. .? How can I reach the fruit of the tree ...?

It all starts with a question: Why not ...?, What if I ...? How could we ...? what would happen if I...?

The artifacts belong to the San culture, one group of African Bushmen who, by all evidence, invented the modern culture of hunter-gatherers who quickly spread throughout the world.

Nothing has changed to these days (pattern nº1) : Designs that involve a real improvement in the lives of people spread at lightning speed and have the power to alter the known reality: Is the collective consciousness of survival that we all share that matches what is needed in each historical period? Why innovations don't usually match Leaders' mindset? (Pattern nº2).

In all human groups there is always someone who believes that reality can be improved, and a majority that prefer leaving everything just the way it is: and this is invariably a conflict situation (pattern nº3) which leads to these Designers to insist and insist on their idea or dream of improvement in many cases in a quite heroic way. It takes courage (pattern 4) to follow a inner impulse (instinct?) driven to change what is known and it takes courage too to accept these innovations because most of us are concerned about any kind of change: How am I going to react?, Where does it leads?, Will I have to change too? Staying just as we are gives us a false security based on the believe that the future is going to be just as the known past ...and that's not going to happen: Future cannot be decided, the future happens: Won't it be better create it, design it? At least we have to try.

There is always someone inventing new and better ways to get things done: Is it only the passion, an inner certainty impossible to avoid, is the urge to share the finding with the rest of the world?. The impetus of changing reality by inventing new ways of understanding has been punished throughout history as we all know: "How can you be so arrogant to think you can do something to change reality? How dare you question what most assume and approve? Do you think you are better than us?" (Pattern nº5). It's complicated to explain what leads some members of a community to strive, and why they insist on their idea or dream of improvement... Is there perhaps a mandatory interior map?. Albert Einstein said he desired simply to "experience the universe as a single significant whole." Nothing more, nothing less: see the big picture and reconcile the personal with the universal. This drive to fit all the nuances of life in a big puzzle is a hallmark of creativity.


Are empaths designers? Absolutely. One certainty is that any of us is that  unique nor special: we all are persons that need other persons. The designer needs to develop a sense of global community and also needs to develop an insight.


We are all creative, but there are people who see the world as an opportunity to continue creating and designing. It is a devotion. Creating is a goal in itself. If you also have a specific purpose, creativity and their own process, Design Thinking, becomes the more accurate tool for any challenge. 


There is always someone who identifies opportunities of improvement in reality that not everybody can see...and asks questions, What if ...? and challenge themselves, and set personal goals and commit to what they have planned. Is an inner impulse. And them again, the designer will have to insist and insist and fight against skepticism and overcome the impediments of their surroundings, their time, even their own family ...

My opinion? Possibly there is an internal search of the beauty of the result, meaning that the result is the fruit of the personal growth of all written so far and the tangible "proof"  that the "big picture" designed in a designer's imagination has been captured and implemented in reality, coupled with the certainty of having improved the community they belong.
The other vital impulse I will add is also entirely personal: the fight against oneself that involves overcoming patterns nº 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... 90 ... and keep on believing in yourself, despite all of them: this is the most exciting personal achievement that one can obtain.


Surely there is someone around you trying to improve what he/she sees and what he/she lives. Listen. Chances are that it will benefit you in the future.

¿Qué es Design Thinking? CEOs e Innovación

Para sorpresa de muchos, un CEO está mas cerca de un diseñador de lo que imagina. Además de los profesionales del diseño, científicos, artistas, arquitectos, ingenieros...¿Quiénes son Design Thinkers en el siglo 21? Los CEOs y senior managers, porque el DT es un puente entre la visión y la realidad.


¿Qué hace un CEO? Un buen CEO sueña e imagina nuevos modelos de negocio: crea mercados en lugar de buscar en los existentes. Descubre patrones emergentes que identifica como nuevas estratégicas. Conecta personas, ideas y proyectos...diseña nuevas formas de hacer las cosas, reorganiza el entorno las veces que sea necesario, crea las estructuras y alianzas necesarias y se rodea del equipo humano -partners-  elegidos para ayudarle a MATERIALIZAR su visión y que le ayuden a definir y conceptualizar correctamente los problemas y retos, mediante un enfoque sistemático que incluye nuevas formas de leer los datos cualitativos; insight del consumidor y una comunicación eficiente de la visión obtenida. La co-creación con los clientes es imprescindible. Un CEO necesita Design Thinkers como él que sean el puente entre su visión y la realidad.

Es decir: un buen CEO tiene que tener la capacidad de captar y obtener, con la ayuda de su equipo, todos los elementos posibles y relevantes que tejen el entramado estratégico con el que alcanzar el objetivo/ VISIÓN. Y la experiencia es necesaria. 

El contexto actual es el siguiente:

• Vivimos en una learning society en constante evolución, llena de oportunidades para quien es capaz de verlas, donde hay que saber manejar las transformaciones y hay que saber integrarlas en nosotros mismos y en las instituciones. Un directivo tiene que estar "leyendo" y "descubriendo" el mercado cada día, reajustando sus planes de acuerdo a las oportunidades y reinventando nuevas formas de diseñar el negocio.
• El triunfo del humanismo frente a la prepotencia del mercado. El sistema está al servicio de las personas: ¿Qué querrá la gente, qué van a necesitar en el futuro? El triunfo del consumidor es un hecho: El producto o institución que no empatice ni entienda esto, está fuera. Advertencia al mercado: el consumidor, además, exige valores y honestidad y es capaz de detectar la rapacidad desmedida.
• El ecosistema de una empresa está formado por personas que ya no son súbditos de nadie. Los profesionales en las empresas están muy preparados, tienen opiniones propias y son conscientes del poder del grupo. Las personas en la empresa-el grupo- son un aliado NECESARIO para que los planes diseñados por la dirección en todas las áreas del negocio se cumplan. Foco en el cliente no en los juegos de poder internos
• Design Thinking es un proceso intelectual. Se requiere una comprensión compleja de las realidades existentes por lo que se necesario un mayor nivel intelectual en las clases dirigentes. Parafraseando al filósofo español Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955): España necesita un cambio de sensibilidad en todos los sectores de la sociedad, "modificación de actitudes vitales, entre ellas, respeto hacia la ejemplaridad, y sobre todo, respeto por la ciencia y la disciplina intelectual”. 

Dicho en lenguaje de business: el CEO tiene que "jugar" con dos main players antagónicos: el MERCADO y LAS PERSONAS. Público externo y público interno. Tiene que conectar y nutrirse de ambos.Tiene que ser capaz de comunicarse con ellos. CEOs tienen que ser diseñadores.


Today, perceptiveness is more important that analysis. Peter Drucker


¿Qué hace un buen CEO? Design Thinking


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EL VIDEO ADJUNTO:  Managing as Designing, project by Weatherhead School of Management.


Fred Collopy, Richard Boland, VanPatter GK en 2005 conversación. Puede descargar la conversación de forma gratuita en el Archivo NextD.
http://issuu.com/nextd/docs/conv22

How the art of DESIGN can inform the practice of MANAGEMENT!.

Managing is designing, just as it is analyzing, deciding and intelligence gathering.

The design disciplines can teach managers about solving complex, unstructured problems.

In addition to managers and social scientists, the group included architects, a choreographer, a musicologist, product and software designers, musicians, and painters.

This video explores five ideas that transfer from the world of designers to that of managers:

• The importance of maintaining multiple models of a design object

• The designer's 'thrownness' into a maelstrom of issues, constraints, and desires

• The role of collaboration in design projects

• The need to be comfortable with both liquid and crystal states

• The legacies of design that great managers create.