January 21, 2021

Aligning

(Scattering)

“ The special status of designers in between users and producers gives them the opportunity to take the lead in a much needed change of mentality. Yet, they rarely do.” Hella Jongerius

Discursive designer Thomas Thwaites conducted a speculative experiment in postindustrial systems of systems by attempting to “make” a toaster from scratch. In the extended process of so doing, he had to engage direct encounters with numerous inter-connected global systems including industrial labor, complex material sourcing and supply chain, postindustrial fabrication processes and information architectures. He documented his process in a book entitled The Toaster Project, which in its way, holds up a mirror to the simultaneous co-evolution of culture, means of production, economy, and ideology. As he leaned into the question of the creative role of the individual human agent in complex adaptive systems (the only kind there are) he engaged important issues such as deskilling, consumerism, production ethics, and designer agency amidst hyper-specialization - a world where a seemingly infinite number of raw materials can be had by express delivery; a world where the source of that standing reserve and the labor and expertise it represents is opaque to us. In his close reading of the dissonances revealed when the craftsman ethos and mentality encounter the complex, distributed materials procurement and production supply chains of the contemporary “flat” world (Friedman), Thwaites’ Toaster Project invites us to reflect on the co-evolution of cognitive, cultural, political, economic and technological means and ends.

Is you are designing still constrained by the cognitive bias of “people like us” and “lifestyles like ours”? Conscious design platforms account for and honor contributions of the fullest range of stakeholder perspectives. This is a reflection of reality is a complex and diverse multiplicity. Alignment involves getting deeply inside the brief to understand, coordinate and negotiate diverse perspectives. Supply chain alignment and tuning for objectives such as reduction of material and energy intensity, responsible product impact, and fair trade, requires in-depth knowledge of stakeholder values as well as a dexterity of advocacy and facilitation that seeks the common ground that is always present - even if concealed. For professional designers this means studying systemic patterns to identify common causes, complementary objectives, and mutual benefits across world views, political, and ethnic identities.

Conscious systemic designing accounts for the ongoing maintenance of and respect for the relationships that constitute the system, and allows for ongoing dynamic supply chain tuning and maturation of mutual agreements between stakeholders based on real-time feedback. Conscious designing, always already systemic, configures and aligns in ways that are inclusive and purposefully directed toward life-affirming superordinate goals. Values alignment is the artful practice of eliciting and acknowledging the ego motivations and heart aspirations of stakeholders. Deep listening and dialogue create the space safe enough to reveal one’s inner motivations regardless of whether they might be labeled altruistic or self-serving. Once all these motives and desires are surfaced they can be consciously incorporated into designed responses that address the needs of the entire system — not just the politically correct or socially acceptable ones. By consciously avoiding skewing designing processes toward politically correct outcomes and inviting project stakeholders to surface hidden agendas and possibly unpopular views, conscious designers practice radical inclusivity. This ultimately makes for honest and sturdy design choice architectures that, being grounded in real world needs and authentic longings, are much more likely to be taken up and adopted.

Founding director of the Neuroleadership Institute, and author of Your Brain at Work, David Rock developed the SCARF model of collaboration and influence based on hundreds of neuroscience studies of brain responses to perceived dangers and rewards. SCARF is a pneumonic for the areas of ultimate concern shared by human beings - Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. Within a given context when a SCARF variable becomes prominent, likewise neurological tendencies toward attachment and approach are heightened. And conversely, as perceptions of SCARF variables diminish, aversion and avoidance responses increase. The SCARF model provides an elegant, scientifically validated heuristic that can aid in multi-stakeholder assessments and initiatives.

Top-down leveraging of interconnectedness through alignments is exemplified by cross brand alliances such as the red campaign, by one give one hybrid social enterprises such as Tom’s Shoes, and the One Laptop Per Child that seeks to disrupt disparities in access to quality education by means of cutting edge hardware coupled with locally situated software. William McDonough and biologist Michael Braungart first described what they call The New Industrial Revolution in Cradle to Cradle. In Cradle to Cradle and The Upcycle, McDonough and Braungart illustrate the power of collaborating with the market economy in a top-down supply chain influencing approach, working with the biggest GTCs. McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry takes a top-down approach, developing long-term relationships with Ford Motor Company and other trans-national corporations, and numerous regional-scale initiatives such as partnerships with the Chinese government. McDonough’s “Waste Equals Food”, and “Waste is Obsolete” slogans land powerfully with senior management and the lean manufacturing ethos. Coming from the standpoint that how we make things is antiquated, their message is game-changing for designers. Their leveraged approach, described in their book The Upcycle, amplifies the lessons of Cradle to Cradle methods to influence top-down changes to whole industry segments. It offers models for negotiating the contingencies of the present while envisioning new possibilities for more equitable distribution of the benefits of modernity. Conscious systemic design needs to leverage the both/ and of the bottom-up sharing economy, communitarian approaches, combined synergistically with top-down policy and economic instruments such as incentives and quotas, all aligned toward superordinate planetary objectives.

Because we humans comprise and enact systems, professional designers play a crucial strategic leadership role in prototyping caring and compassionate systems. Because professional designers are embedded at leadership leverage points throughout the market society, they constitute a powerful network of conscious designing agency. As designers we know that our design guidelines are only as strong as our understanding of the problem space, our own biases, and those of stakeholders. (Nelson). For example, optimization of supply chains for just and ethical relations requires design-driven stakeholder alignment. Being deeply contextual, design analyses, framings, and asset/ liability mappings identify stakeholder networks as well as identifying the perspectives of those whose voices are absent in the initial design brief. Socio-developmental frameworks that honor the contributions of all the world views are minimum requirements, as is good faith. Being necessarily systemic, today’s designing anticipates and encourages both top-down and bottom-up dynamics of stakeholder synergies. In “Beyond the New: A Search for Ideals in Design, Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg capture it thus “Designers who take themselves seriously strike an effective balance between their experimental, visionary projects and the compelling designs that are worth pursuing for manufacturers.”

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