Design thinking and solving our problems.

The designer in me wants to create something better, something beautiful, something functional, something that adds value, something that informs, something that resonates. I'm stuck, I was naive in thinking I could shine a big light on what was happening in our country starting back in 2017, when I started my American Mosaic project. I have discovered a lot about who we are, about our places, and maybe a little about how we think about things. I asked questions, listened as people talked about their lives. But, I am no closer to answering what is going on in our country today. What I do know is that we just have not payed attention to some important things as we have been in a rush to reach the next big win for ourselves. As someone in Kansas told me, "the world is moving pretty fast, and it's hard to keep up".

It begins with empathy. 

We often come prepared with answers, not questions. Our answer, or solution, is usually to our idea or opinion of the problem, not really the need. If we don’t ask questions and listen, really listen, we don’t understand what might actually be needed.

This applies to so many things. I was recently on a trip to Italy and flew through Helsinki Finland. It was a long haul ten hour flight, time to think, and I chatted with a flight attendant and we talked about their culture and ours. She said the company told them it was not safe to leave the hotel when they laid over in Seattle. It was a new route for them and a flight attendant was recently robbed and stabbed with a hypodermic needle. Our homeless and street problems are out of control in a once beautiful city. It made me think of our larger problem in our country today. I thought about travel and how it can give us perspective about us as humans if we are curious enough to engage with people. How did the American tourist come to be called the Ugly American. Maybe because we were always the ones who think we have the answers. Actually many of us are afraid of things we don’t know, cultures and ideas we do not understand. It is then easy to not engage and seem superior. A perfect example on my trip. “Do you speak English”, or “I’m sorry I don’t speak Italian”. Why would you assume they would speak English. I was in West Virginia talking with coal miners and had a conversation with a couple who had traveled doing missionary work. “Eye opening, culture shock” was how it was described. I can imagine how different it might have been to them coming from the town of Gary, deep in Appalachia West Virginia. I would guess that it was a visit coming with an agenda and answers, that is what missionaries do, and less about questions and what the people might really want or need. We do this a lot. 

Today, we have a lot of things to solve a lot closer to home and we might start with listening, understanding and empathy. We are a country of 332 million people. That is a lot of different ideas and beliefs, and many of those people have never even traveled outside their state. In our connected world we seem less connected and more divided as a country than I can remember. We know why, the last few years have made clear what is happening and we don’t want to, or can’t, seem to fix it. It is in the hands of the leaders we have put in charge the last two, three, or four decades and decisions they are making for us. 

My background is as a designer, it is how I think. Four or five years ago the term “Design Thinking” was hot, everywhere it was popping up in the feeds. A lot of new things had design of some form attached to the process and a lot of new “designers” were assigned to tasks. Learning how to think as a designer was part of designing something. Design thinking is not new, it is very old, maybe ancient in some cultures. A 2008 Harvard Business Review article by Tim Brown, head of the design consultancy IDEO, made popular the idea of Design Thinking as an innovative problem solving process. Since then the design thinking process has been applied to a whole range of problems, developing goods, and services. 

“Coming up with an idea is easy. Coming up with the right one takes work. With design thinking, throwing out what you think you know and starting from scratch opens up all kinds of possibilities.” “Most people don’t make much of an effort to explore the problem space before exploring the solution space.” - MIT Management, Sloan School

As a designer and being curious by nature, I set out on my journey around the country beginning in 2017 to find out who we are, to discover a country that I thought I knew, but really did not. I was jolted into an awareness that something was not as I thought it was, something was wrong with my country. I was like a lot of people, not paying much attention, my world was good, as long as I didn’t look very far outside my bubble. Today seems like a lifetime ago from that world of 2015 and 2016, Facebook pretending not to be a media company, but really was, the political landscape and language that was amplified by all the social and legacy media, and the emergence of fringe groups into mainstream politics. The influence of foreign actors in our politics. Why were we so surprised? We were not thinking about anything other than our own personal lives, family, job, community, and what impacted that. All of us around the country, in the little places, in the middle, in the big urban places, just thinking about ourselves and our own personal needs. A lot of people felt left out, underwater financially, or afraid of being replaced, by a system they believed was failing them. Almost everyone I talked with felt they wanted some form of change. Our leaders were not listening to what a lot of people needed, wanted. Once again they were coming up with their own answers without asking the questions. A perfect time for someone to think, act, outside the box. Creating a politics of grievance that acknowledged a wide swath of unhappy people. It was either a brilliant strategy or dumb luck, but it produced a near cult like following today.

Design Thinking is considered a 5-stage process, Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. You can carry these out in parallel, repeat them and circle back to a previous stage at any point in the process. The core purpose is to allow a dynamic way to develop and launch innovative ideas. It is easy to see why this process goes far beyond the community of “Designers”, it is simply about asking questions, listening, having empathy, understanding something before attempting to solve something. Listening, understanding, and empathy are scarce in the polarized and divided environment our politicians and leaders have created today.

Design Thinking is a lot more than just about design, or maybe everything is about design.

I know many are paying attention now, and it is a good time to ask a lot of questions. When I read the various polls, I see a majority of the general population is in favor of a lot of positive things for our environment, society and country, yet political leaders, judiciary, and religious leaders are not. Who are they serving? Is anyone listening? Have conversations. Let leaders know with your voice and your vote. A lot of important things are at stake including our Democracy. 

Your comments and thoughts welcomed.