Excerpt
from:
Managing the Evolving Corporation
Chapter 7, The Design Process, page 103
Among the eight
practices of the recognition and response organization, two are fundamental
to the process of defining goals for the future, and achieving them: learning
and design.
As we saw in Chapter Five, learning is the process of developing
knowledge through the integration of theory, information, and experience.
Perhaps this is a key to the failure of the command and control organizational
model, for in command and control it is assumed that those in command
already know what is important. Because of their superior knowledge, their
role is to give direction, while the unique knowledge of all others is
discounted, as are their experiences. Thus, two of the outcomes of command
and control is the suppression of learning and the suppression of its
application.
In contrast, high performance organizations support learning in all of
its various forms, and individuals in these organizations learn, and they
learn voraciously.
Design is the process of systematically responding to needs by
'marking out' the future, defining how things ought to be different, predicting
and planning how to realize vision. It is a process of creating
and selecting, of determining the characteristics of a thing or of an
idea. Ultimately, it is a uniquely human undertaking: architects design
buildings; engineers design products; generals design military strategies;
entrepreneurs design companies and industries; teachers design curricula;
scientists design investigations and experiments; legislators design policy.
In one form or another, design is practiced by people of all backgrounds
and in all cultural contexts, and in a broad sense, design is the application
of learning to human life.
As such, it is fundamental to the economy which is based on technical
information, for design is the method by which information is translated
into useful products and services. Thus, design is simply a systematic
approach to learning, to discovering whatever it is that you must come
to comprehend to accomplish whatever it is that you are inspired to do.
In this context, the distinction between design and engineering is sometimes
confused. If you already know what the specific desired outcomes are and
how they can be achieved technically, then what you are doing is probably
engineering. Design, in contrast, is a venture into the unknown that is
rich with discovery; risk; uncertainty; and the possibility of failure.
It is trying new things, testing to find out what works and what doesn't
work, and why.
As described here, engineering is a subset of the broader process of design.
Thus, while design explores the possibility of something entirely new
done in a new way, engineering will provide the certainty that is based
on past knowledge that it will work properly. Both have important roles
in the creation of value for society.
The Design Process
Although each individual may approach design differently, there is
an archetypal process of design beneath these differences, a disciplined
series of steps that together constitutes a generalized model.
This proposition that design is a discipline suggests something far different
than the common stereotype of the wild-eyed creative (mad?) genius working
in a cluttered laboratory on a dark and stormy night.
Einstein with a tidy haircut just doesn't inspire the same awe. But with
his hair exploding in all directions, surrounded by the apparent chaos
of papers piled high, standing in his frumpish sweater beside rows of
unintelligible blackboard scribblings, this is the creative genius.
Design, interestingly, is both discipline and wild-eyed creativity. It
brings out this creative genius hidden in everyone, and at the same time
it is a process consisting of steps that can be managed with great clarity
and considerable precision:
1. Create the Problem
2. Create the Solution Context
3. Create Solutions
4. Define the Details
5. Implement
6. Use and Feedback.
(This model of the design process is adapted from a guidebook to creativity
and problem solving called The Universal Traveler, by design professors
Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall. Many of the refinements to Koberg and Bagnall's
model that are reflected here were developed by management consultant
Matt Taylor (unpublished). Koberg, Don & Bagnall, Jim, The Universal
Traveler: a Soft-Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem-solving, & the
Process of Reaching Goals. Los Altos, CA, Crisp Publications, Inc.
1991.)
As a discipline, design provides an approach to the complex problems with
which society and its organizations are facing more and more frequently.
Excerpts
from Managing the Evolving Corporation
