Over the years, I have had numerous opportunities to reflect on growing up, and how I have changed. Then today, I read this post and started thinking about the bigger picture (no surprise for a “systems thinker” ay?)
Design has become a really big deal for me, and less about what anyone would normally think of as ‘being creative.’ A key premise for my blog, for instance, is design from a life approach perspective. I applied some “life design” over the last few years… shifting career focus from college education to corporate training. I did this through a process of analyzing economic niche’s and needs, as well as what would capitalize on what I enjoyed and did well. I transferred a great deal of strength into new areas. This is at the core of design-focused thinking.
Diving in deeper, my life turned out to be something much different than I would ever have imagined. I drew pictures, and also became a designer that was relatively happy, doing what I thought I was supposed to do. I led a life of design education, teaching in many colleges for almost 15 years – I never saw that coming!
It fostered a love for learning – my own learning – as well as helping others learn and achieve their own goals (through teaching, coaching and instructional design). I still love to make music and art, but I also design for learning. From a higher level, it follows similar processes across
the board.
the board.
It seems what HAS stuck with me is that higher-level creative, design-oriented thinking. Where education has run short over the years, has been how many universities completely separate their curriculum and programs. We did not see too much inter-disciplinary learning a few decades ago, but really – design thinking runs across everything: the ability to analyze a problem, and find unusual connections among related topics that will create a tangible and useful solution (form) that sticks – while taking the needs, parameters and problem into consideration (function).
And my definition of being ‘creative’ is just that – finding unique connections between seemingly unrelated things. Design comes into play when you ‘act’ upon those creative thoughts and bring a solution into existence based upon creative reflection.
It’s refreshing to read David’s post, and about how being creative – and using design skills – is turning out to be what can give all of us a better advantage in ‘challenging times’ as they say.
Perhaps we can ALL be a Don Draper, no? Or at least, maybe we can do it without all the Bourbon and mistresses.
J
J
In essence, we should all take the hand-off from Don, and be our own creative directors, because being creative is not necessarily about the form things take (i.e. drawing a picture), it’s about finding ‘sustaining solutions that stick’ – making all our lives better.
Whether it’s math, science, engineering, visual arts, music, psychology, sociology…
We can all benefit from design, and design thinking.
Things are really starting to happen, hitting us in torrents in an increasingly connected world, and fortunately, we’re starting to realize the value in design. Reports are finding that “design schools are not only a major source of new talent for the economy's rapidly growing creative sector, but are critical catalysts for entrepreneurship.”
David writes: “Design, broadly defined, is an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving that seeks to develop more effective products, environments, and organizations. At its heart, design is about understanding people and how they interact in the larger world.”
This quote ends on a key point: design from a systems perspective, meaning we design our environment – and everything in it, in a much bigger system. The system just keeps expanding, and more sustaining and successful solutions exist when they take the bigger picture into consideration.
NONE of these issues focus explicitly on art, graphic design, architecture, interior design or any of the “creative professions.” They exist across everything, and signify a way of thinking, not a specific way of doing.
Nigel Cross would be proud, as he has a great body of work encompassing what he calls “Designerly Ways of Knowing.” His work over the last 40 years has developed from the basic premise that designers (whether architects, engineers, product designers, etc.) have and use particular ‘designerly’ ways of knowing and thinking. This continues to expand beyond the professions listed above…
And seeing and discovering that human innovation may hinge on a design-thinking approach that crosses all boundaries to true inter-disciplinary kinship…
THAT’s exciting!
Thanks for reading!
m
A few side notes:
All this design-talk seems to only beg me to mention my first book is in the midst of final contractual agreements with Wiley Publishers. Myself and two authors are looking at having a book on visual storytelling, presentation design and managing effective change out by fall… YAY!
Also, I am very thankful for the decision I made in 2005: I chose to enter a master’s program at Antioch University Seattle. I received an M.A. in a program called “Whole Systems Design.” It challenged my thinking, and moved me towards looking at the more complex relationships between things – something I suspect I was already doing. I was in a program alongside all kinds of people. A few were artists, but that was more the exception – and it really didn’t matter, and it was more about cultivating a propensity to apply a way of thinking to whatever you area of focus was: in systems language that would be your “system in focus.”
Separation of fields of study (and anything else for that matter) could be the death of society, and it seems to be what’s presently poking us pretty uncomfortably. So you could say uniting disciplines is in my blood at this point and not a hard sell at all, considering my background and experiences.
