A Design Thinking Attitude

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) philosopher 

My favourite definition of Design Thinking it's got to do with finding the insight among chaos.My favorite insight  about Design Thinking is Martin Heidegger's THROWNNESS concept.

Design Thinking requires a set of professional skills grounded in operating in unstable contexts. Design Thinking mindset it's got to do with being able to coop with wildly different people from yourself and dealing with situations that are radically new... It's got to do with feeling comfortable with unexpected, unstructured and unpredictable; Design Thinking is about finding meaning and understanding out of human attitudes and mindsets that an unstable situation brings up.

Design-Thinking-Thrownnes is got to do with developing a survival intelligence applied to a constant evolving enviroment, totally focus on "think in order to act" versus think to "think some more"

Design Thinking it's got to do with THROWNNESS (German: Geworfenheit): It is a concept introduced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the interactions of the subject with its surroundings in the everyday life, that causes it to act upon instincts, immediate reactions to other people's language and actions, "flow with the situation," and immediate interpretations.
Once one accepts that not to act is also an action, Heidegger notes that one is 'thrown' into situations without being able to reflect on them first, for to reflect on them (not act) is also something that can be interpreted as an action. One therefore must rely on instinctual interpretations, and go with the flow.

Design Thinking is got to do with assuming that you are THROWN into a situation where you haven't been invited in most of the cases: It's about being ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER and feeling comfortable with it.

Design Thinking is about staying calm and focus under pressure: It's about listening to your instincts among the chaos and saying YES and NO clearly to you and the rest of the world.

Design Thinking is about finding synchronicity and serendipity. It's part of that Thrownness Mindset that needs to be on constant "alert mood", because it knows that sooner or later that knowledge is going to be needed: It is another kind of survival instinct.

Design Thinkers is about empathy: They know that they need to gain their audience trust in every single situation, therefore they need to figure out how to connect with people and creating meaningful connections.

Design Thinking is got to do with honesty. Experienced Design Thinkers know very well how to do their jobs...and one of them is understanding people and their social and emotional relationships in order to manipulate...but totally focus on an honest goal (Maybe this could be a nice definition of empathy: Being able to truly understanding other people's insights and weakness, and being respectful and honest about the use of that knowledge)


Design Thinking attitude is got to do with all written above. It's also the impossible search of understanding the DNA of millions of people...and  secretly say to oneself "I told you!"

This is a great video by Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University) and their project "Managing as Designing"

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'.

Thinking About Empathy (1)

 

"I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river."
Chuang Tzu

I'm not participating much in my favorite Groups lately: Besides my regular work, I'm quite busy thinking about empathy. It might sound freaky, it's ok: I'm a nerd. I admit it. The thing is that I'm confused and need answers to my questions.

Suddenly, everyone talks about empathy. It feels almost as a new capability that never existed before...a brand new tool of understanding and innovate...


There are workshops that would teach you how to develop empathy, and conferences, books, and talks...and Empathy Tools that would use simulation devices to gain first-hand insights into particular problem related to customers that can can prompt an empathic understanding of users in a role playing situation...Are we learning a kind of functional Empathy? 
In other words: 

Are we learning to be empathic just to understand better our clients? Do we need to master empathy just to succeed in our professions? A product-oriented-empathy?

I don´t get it. Or maybe I do:

This obsession with mastering empathy is, at the end, another trick to engage customers back to the track? In other words, are we all faking empathy? 

I don't know. 


Empathy as the ability to understand what someone is feeling, is the essence of human kind: It is what differences us from animals. Being empathic is inherent to all of us. So let's say than being empathic is being human, isn't it?

Does it mean that we have been acting in our professions in a unhuman way till now? I mean: This "discovering" of empathy by  business and companies... is it just the evidence of our previous dehumanized procedures? Have we been living two lives: the dehumanized one at work, and the empathic one in our personal life? How can one be empathic a few a hours a day and then...choose not to? 

I don't think so. Empathy it's not only about understanding: It's about emotion.
The inner emotion of recognizing a common link, a common ground with another human being. Being one with others. Recognizing yourself in others. Real communication. What Einstein wanted to achieved, simply to "experience the universe as a single significant whole." This is possible through real empathy. 
 

How can you understand what anybody else feels if you don't understand your own self? Does it mean that empathy need to be mastered through personal experience and awareness?

How can you understand joy, if you have never felt it?

We need outsiders into our business and economic establishment.

In my opinion -let's say my theory- there are people that
dive deep into LIFE (the life that occurs outside an office), experiencing other worlds in first hand and learn awareness and meaningful insights completely out of our reach.


This people are almost impossible to find in a business and economy related world because, as we all know, we -professionals- are surrounded by other professionals like ourselves working, in similars environments since our graduation, with lives quite identical to ours, and so are our friends...
It takes a lot of effort and dedication to build a successful career... so most of successful professionals, CEOs and world leaders haven't had had the opportunity to know "other worlds" besides their similar own world.

Everyone talks -in our design and business context- about innovation and mastering empathy...I believe that we need to include outsiders to our business world: Empathic-outsiders to help us with their meaningful, real-life insights.

Maybe real innovation would be to permit the rest of the world in our little business world. 
And see what happens...

(Design thinking and design process, by the way)

Image courtesy of NOAA

Global Economy: Niches' Revolution

What are your thoughts on the state of the global economy and of Spain's specifically?, John F Moore asked me as a new member of A Better People.

As a designer, this is my human-centered opinion:

The world before the determination of Markets and Brands to conquer the planet, was a set of isolated niches within other niches: Those niches were very cozy, convenient, and provided security and a nice sense of belonging as well. Isolated and easy to evangelize and control.

What happened? Markets and Brands began its growth climbing rampant with their strategy and new philosophy --- More, bigger, faster, cheaper, now --- (Umair Haque, Director of Havas Media Lab).

How? First they focussed on their targets -us-, and invented very very effective tools to get in our brains and find out what we liked and why, what we needed, what were our aspirations, what we dreamed of, etc. .., and so they launched products and more products for us to consumed, many of which have been paradigms of human progress. Others do not.

This voracity, greed of the Markets and Brand's competition raised their need of invent new ways of reaching all potential not captured up to the point and the rest of the world: They invested in research and develop tools, skills and technology and... they were again very very effective: They invented and implemented new channels and communication platforms that have achieved what they set: The whole world knows their products ... but also know everything about everybody.

The conquest of the world by Brands and Economic policies has been arrogant, inbred, lacking in values ​​and empathy, and they have also underestimate the impact that their actions would have on the future. Well, the future is NOW and what happened is Social Revolution. 

And how people lived in their role as conquered till now?

Niches were very comfortable and customized most of the times. The desire to get out was not compelling: it did not seem to be much to see out there and in many cases was not allowed.

Until they (products) began to knock at our door and showed us what we dreamed, the beauty that was waiting for us out there. We heard of people who thought like us and we had the chance to take a look at other niches like ours and empathize ... and then started the questions: Why am I here?, What is going on?, why not ...? What if I ...?,Why should a conform with...?

My conclusions:

• During the Economic conquest, means were created for the purposes of a minority. Now means would work for the majority.
• Design has spread beauty and aesthetics around the world: Aspiration to Beauty is revolutionary. As Schiller said: "The beauty is considered then the result of the fusion of the rational and sensible, and this merger is the true reality."
• The global economic conquest has led to the creation of an objective shared by the global community: through objects, ideas and aesthetics associated with the products and brands, It has managed to create a new social culture woven into our personal aspirations. Everything is not about money anymore. As a consequence, we all are freer than before. 

I summarize the aspiration of the 21st century's people as a revolutionary desire to LIVE, as Aristotle said: "Life or Being (person), who runs through ethics, aesthetics and politics".

I'll re-quote the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, who wrote in 1921 a book entitled "The Invertebrate Spain" and that continues to fascinate me its visionary analysis of the reality of that time in Spain but that applies universally to  XXI century:

Ortega predicts a "new type of man [...] that would emerge after a therapeutic project based on the change in sensitivity (change in attitudes to life, including the exemplary respect, and above all, respect for science and intellectual discipline) ".

And for my country and the rest of the world: "Spain has to give herself a society. This is the great task of our time."

 "(...) Full of amazement and tenderness for the wonder that is the world." Ortega, O.C. T.I: 364

¿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.

What does a Designer do in 2012?

What is the difference between a 2012 designer and an old fashion designer?

a) The context has changed.We all live in constant transformation.
b) The universal language is a visual language. Visual mental mapping is required to visualice the future and to understand almost anything.
c) This is the century of the people: this is a persons' world
d) We are pragmatic and creative. At the same time.

Why Design Thinking is capable of transforming without disruption?

a) Design Thinking is the process of reflective thinking by which the designer faces each challenge by creating, transforming and constant adapting to the context and focusing in problem solving.
b) Visual communication is the language of our profession. Metaphorical language: complete conexion between rational and intuitive understanding.
c) We understand the world we live in because we are in contact with people: Designers listen and question. We are partners.
d) Capable of building new understandings to innovate

Where does a designer lead to in 2012?

a) The institutions and companies are conservative and want to remain that way, but the reality is another. Designers assume the transformation required and facilitate evolving solutions.
b) No more business like relationships with people-target. Designer has been working for decades building relationships with people by creating and designing meaningful experiences. Connecting feelings.
c) Business Designers create sustainable and innovative institutions: create new systems and discard old structures.

2012: Working towards a Sustainable Design.

¿Qué hace un diseñador en 2012?

El diseño es una de las pocas áreas profesionales que se transforma a la vez que el entorno, sea cual sea. Y no solo eso: el DISEÑADOR facilita el cambio y proyecta el futuro porque es capaz de crearlo. Se habla todos los días y en diferentes medios de la importancia del diseño como motor de innovación y partner indispensable en empresas, gobiernos, países...pero ¿qué hace exactamente un diseñador en 2012? ¿En qué áreas profesionales?

(ver evolución de la definición de Design Thinking en 2013)

¿Qué diferencia al diseñador en 2012 del diseñador del siglo pasado? 

a) Lo primero que ha cambiado ha sido el contexto. EL mundo en el que vivimos no es el mismo que hace 20 años. Vivimos en constante transformación. Se requiere flexibilidad y capacidad para gestionar el cambio. 

b) EL lenguaje universal es iconográfico.

c) Este es el siglo de las personas. 

¿Por qué el diseñador es el motor del cambio?

a) Design Thinking es el proceso de pensamiento reflexivo mediante el cual el diseñador afronta cada reto desde la creación, transformación y adaptación constante al entorno.

b) La comunicación visual es el lenguaje de nuestra profesión. Lenguaje metafórico. 

c) Conocemos la sociedad en la que vivimos y el insight de las personas y las instituciones que la forman. Llevamos años aprendiendo de ellas.

¿Qué hace un diseñador en 2012 y hacia dónde ese dirige?

-En España, las instituciones y empresas son conservadoras y quieren seguir siéndolo, pero la realidad es otra.  El diseñador se hace cargo de la transformación y evolución que requiere la actual situación y trabaja para facilitar el cambio...cuando le dejan.

- Se acabó la relación comercial con el consumidor/target. El diseñador sabe que el consumidor ya es un partner, y trabaja desde hace tiempo en crear alianzas y vínculos desde el diseño de experiencias.

-El diseñador cuestiona diariamente el sistema establecido con el objetivo de innovar y mejorar sin ruptura. 

-El diseñador diseña sistemas empresariales e instituciones sostenibles e innovadoras. 

En España, ¿Te parece ciencia ficción? Hablamos en dos años.

Lecturas recomendadas:

Donald Schon (1983), The reflective practitioner. How Professional think in action

R.M. Hutchins (1970), The learning society

J. Dewey (1933). How we think

Age of Imaginative Rationality

I`ve already explained my ideas about creativity, designers and marketing and how new technologies have changed us. 

I won't insist but I will add, as McLuhan reminds us, "Control over change would seem to consist in moving not with it but ahead of it. Anticipation gives the power to deflect and control force".

The Imaginative Rationality or a set of knowledge that seeks to establish rational and imaginative principles that organize and guide the knowledge of reality and the meaning of human action, is IN MY OPINION the only way to understand the world we live in. And most important: the only way to predict what is COMING NEXT.

Competences needed: Methodical reflexion of reality that unites reason and imagination. Building up ideas that are partially based on rational/intuitive/aesthetic/human-centered thinking. Holistic understanding. And the most important: CONNECTING everything.

Understanding the world we live in and predicting what is COMING NEXT. This is what we need right now, isn't it? 

photo by Wikimedia Commons