leading by
Irene van der Does de Willebois
making better decisions in a complex world
“A fascinating subject. I believe with you that everyone is creative, if she or he allows her or himself to be. It is such a gift, if one can find purpose and creativity in oneself and thus lead one’s own life.” Jost Stollmann Chief executive officer tyro payments
“As Apple Inc soars to be the worlds largest company, and accounting firms such as Deloitte decide that “Design Thinking” will give them a competitive edge, there has never been more demand for leaders to come up with creative solutions to the myriad of challenges facing their world.” Mark Jones Partner Whittle Consulting
“Huge clarity and insight into creative processes, the blocking role of the ego, the need to release the ego in order to step into the unknown. It released an epiphany around my own processes for which I am immensely grateful!” Megan Kerr Publishing Oxford
leading by
Irene van der Does de Willebois
making better decisions in a complex world phase I Imagine
w e i v e r p e Enjoy th , k o o b s i of th . . . t a t i y u you can b www.irenevanderdoes.com
preface 4
ith w s t r a t s n ig s e d y b g Leadin e. t a e r c o t e ir s e d e h t finding
I am waiting for the right moment to shine...
5
I am only going to to shine when... I am old enough, I am experienced enough, I am rich enough, I am slim enough, I am on my own, I am together, I am ready, I do not feel ashamed, I look good, I feel good, every one else feels good, I feel safe, I am listened to, I am asked, I am invited, I have the spotlight on me ...I am perfect or...?
CopyrightŠ 2012, Im Learning Fast Pty Ltd First edition published March 2012 Published by Im Learning Fast Pty Ltd 28 Hargrave Street Paddington NSW 2021 Australia All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information or retrieval, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act), a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of the book, whichever is the greater, may be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the education institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Any views and opinions expressed herein are strictly the author’s own and do not represent those of Im learning Fast Pty Ltd. Im Learning Fast Pty Ltd will not be held legally responsible in contract, tort or otherwise for any statement made in this publication. A CIP catalogue of this book is available from the National Library of Australia. Irene van der Does de Willebois Leading by design: making better decisions in a complex world ISBN 978-0-646-57229-1 Printed by The Messenger Group Design & layout by Plan C - planc.nl Graphics by Edith Buenen - edithbuenen.nl Edited by Megan Kerr megan@megankerr.co.uk
irene@irenevanderdoes.com www.irenevanderdoes.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Having worked with the likes of Vodafone, AMP and Macquarie Bank, Dutch born Irene van der Does de Willebois has garnered a reputation as one of the leading keynote speakers and executive coaches in Australia. After establishing a successful European fashion label, Irene moved to Australia in 2004 and has since honed in on the mechanics of the creative process. By focusing on its application within the leadership context, she has derived a means by which leaders can be more effective when facing complex problems. Irene’s coaching and mentoring assists her clients to align business operations and strategies with a personal vision. She brings with her an international perspective after having worked in Amsterdam, Paris, Hong Kong and Thailand. As a designer and entrepreneur herself, she understands the tensions between analytical and creative, head and heart, the masculine and feminine. Irene’s latest venture, Leading by Design is an extension of her coaching and facilitation - a book which seeks to restore balance to executive teams, providing practical ideas on how businesses can adapt to the opportunities and complexities of the 21st century. Irene has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands to achieve leadership development through the Design Thinking model, an approach that will equip leaders with the tools and mindset to become more centred and look at the whole picture. Her own process of developing herself as a leader has seen her struggle and thrive with similar issues to many of her clients. She calls it managing your energy housekeeping to lift and maintain your energy regardless of what is happening around you.
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153
contents 8
“In the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind.� Louis Pasteur
1
Introduction
10
2
A new framework
16
3
The unknown
28
4
Aha! moments
40
Imagine… a walk on the light side
48
5
Natural creation
60
6
The whole self
70
Imagine… letting go
88
7
The past: a treasure hunt
92
Imagine… creating from within
104
8
The future: your purpose
112
9
The present: subtle changes
128
01 10
Intro
“We do not see things the way they are but as we are.” Jewish proverb
The world is changing rapidly and we need to make equally rapid decisions. Making decisions based on analysing past events is not enough any more: we want to create our future. Leading by design is a methodology for people who are fundamentally committed to change, such as future leaders and managers. Its approach is holistic and leads to new leadership capabilities; it encourages new ways of working and new ways of problem-solving that will enable people to create positive outcomes and higher productivity, in the unknown future. It is a wholly different way of thinking - a truly powerful force for people in an organisation seeking to enhance their competitive advantage
11
The unknown future In the twenty-first century, we can have everything we want at our fingertips, attainable at the click of our fingers. If you can imagine it, you can have it, create it, and organise it. Somewhere in the world, someone will be able to help you and bring it to you within 24 hours. In this 24/7 economy, we need to make decisions fast. This can be difficult, because we don’t want to make assumptions. We want to know we’re making the right decisions and do research, but in a fast economy that’s too slow. The old method also doesn’t serve the problems we need to solve anymore. The times are changing and the world has become more complex. The landscape is constantly shifting. If we can’t predict the shape of economies, markets, or the internet in five years, how do we plan for it? Analysis on its own is no longer enough to come up with solutions to complex problems. We need to use other means to deal with the unforeseen.
12
The first chaos theorists discovered that complex systems often seem to run through a cycle, even though the actual situations are rarely duplicated and repeated exactly. Plotting many systems in simple graphs revealed that often the system tries to achieve a particular kind of situation, an equilibrium of some sort. Quantum mechanic and chaos theory show us that seemingly unordered events follow subtle patterns. These systems often appear too chaotic for the naked (rational) eye to recognize a pattern, but the patterns are there. This is the world we’re living in, the world where we need to create our future.
Creating the future Complexity is a necessary breeding ground to find what you want to create, your new invention. Here we’re confronted with thinking differently. When we enter this domain, most of us think of it as a chaotic and disordered space. Because it’s unknown, we believe we don’t have access to it. Most of us have never learned to foresee the future. Some may think that since it’s unknown, we don’t need to bother - “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Stick to the old ways; they used to work. Those who think they can solve problems using only data, can get it wrong, as we’ve seen with the global financial crisis. The experts predicted, based on past events, that there would be less then a 1% chance of things going wrong. Their predictions were clearly incorrect. In retrospect, we can see how seemingly unrelated forces conspired to create the crisis. The chaos that followed as a result created an instant wake-up call. Economic theories based on numbers, were relied upon, and proved to be a disaster. We are all required to use a different approach to problem-solving. We need a different way of thinking. There are ways to deal with the unforeseen future and take mitigated risks that create more sensible results. The curious folk like to explore the unknown.
A new operating system We want to create our future, but often we fear change. We don’t know if we’re making the right decisions in taking ourselves towards the unknown. We’re so used to solving problems by analysing what happened in the past. That mindset thinks that seeing the future is a bit like fumbling around in the dark without any orientation, in the unknown, with no control. We don’t like having no control; we’re scared of it. Fear blocks us from moving forward. It’s understandable that we may have trouble dealing with the unknown future, since most of us have probably never learned anything else. The problem is that we’re using an operating system that’s somewhat out of date. The good news is that there’s a different operating system that you can learn and use. You can still use your analytical operating system - but you can add an extra tool. It’s closer to you than you might think. It’s within your reach. It’s called design thinking. And this is how we start leading by design.
Leading by design Leading by Design is a practice and a methodology based on design thinking. It builds a stronger platform for your decision-making process. It’s not about telling you what to think, but a way of thinking. To adapt quickly, we need an adaptable mind, one which thinks holistically. The leaders of the future are those that master the art of developing whole-systems thinking, who become visionary and trendsetting. Leaders who are able to lead by design will thrive in the change this world has to offer. Leading by design solves problems using a healthy balance of both the analytical and the intuitive mind, both masculine and feminine skills, the ability both to accomplish tasks and to develop relationships. Ultimately, by creating a whole-systems approach, leading by design creates more sustainable outcomes in your business. It makes the individual’s development key, which leads to a more sustainable workforce that can make better decisions. It allows thoughts to flow and develops original thinking by unlocking each individual’s latent potential, playing to their strengths.
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Developing people’s adaptability makes them ultimately more flexible, able to switch between using experiences from the past, being in the present, and creating the future, faster and better than any competition. Organisations where people are encouraged to be flexible can deal with change quickly. Applied to leadership, design thinking encourages leaders to be flexible, have overview, and make better decisions. It expands your sight. It creates a flexible organisation that can renew itself faster than its competitors. The ultimate competitive advantage lies in developing this capability.
present 14
past
future
I’ve been a practitioner of the creative thinking process for 30 years and used the creative process for a long time without realising it was any different to other processes. Once I was asked what I do when, for example, designing my collections. I honestly didn’t know what to answer other than, “Oh, an idea comes to me and then I just make it.” This started my study into the creative process. I realised there was method in the creative madness and an order in my thinking. I found the distinct processes that creativity uses, to define what I felt were those obvious steps. That’s what you’ll discover here.
In this book, we will explore how to... • use a new framework for approaching problems and solutions, so you can create innovative new ideas and solutions • deal with the unknown aspect of new ideas and risk by creating probes and prototypes • develop a quantum leap in your thinking and take your leadership to the next level • amplify your organisation’s productivity, make better decisions, and change holistically by creating the right environment and the right energy • implement a leadership practice that uses a healthy balance between the analytical, rational mind and the emerging, intuitive, creative mind, and use your self-awareness as a fundamental commitment to dealing with change • go on a treasure hunt through the past to free yourself from outdated beliefs and habits • find what drives you and what you want to create from within in the future • communicate what you would like to create as a leader, and make it work within your team 15
By the end of the book, you will have learnt that no matter what the unknown future contains, there are ways to deal with it. Ultimately, it is a matter of choice and of mindset.
When you start the process into new leading by design, you become aware of your ability to choose. You have tools to access your authentic leadership or “thought leadership”. You create a rough prototype of the main overarching message of your purpose, the thing you are passionate about and want to create in your leadership role. In applying new leading by design as a leadership practice, the usual top-down models and processes are flipped into more evolutionary models and processes. You become aware of the highest future possibility coming from experiences of the past, you become excited about your unknown future, and you become the observer and the observed in the present. To see things the way they are, we need to first experience ourselves the way we are. Where is your purpose? It’s right in the middle, in the stuff that sticks out for you and that you’re naturally attracted to. Now your challenge will be to manifest this purpose in your current job. Good luck!
Observation: What does ‘thinking differently’ mean to you? Could it involve a shift from a rational mindset to a more intuitive standpoint, or vice versa? Could it involve the inclusion of someone else’s perspective in the decision-making process? How do we tap into that new and altered perspective, allowing for a wider scope?
The fundamental formula of leading by design is derived from having a flexible mind, from having not a constricted focus, but one that is expanded, and from having the awareness that there is often more than one way to tackle a problem.
02 16
A new framework
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
David Snowden’s Cynefin framework divides situations into simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic. Once we know what kind of situation we’re facing, we can respond appropriately. Complex situations are unknown situations with known solutions: we find the solution before we know the situation. To create the future, we need to embrace the complex domain. This is the mindset of entrepreneurs and creatives, people who are “ahead of their time” and deal with the unforeseen future. The new is by definition unknown. This means two things: first, that it’s in the realm of the complex and chaotic; and second, that you can’t rely on existing evidence, so you need to follow your “gut feel” - your intuition. The analytic mind wants evidence, so on its own, it clings to the old. The creative mind looks at what it wants to create, to make something new. When we use both, we can prepare for the unknown future and the changes it brings.
17
Case study: A new framework Challenge
Design Tec, an organisation privately owned by Ian and Liz, has managed to create a niche in the market with their interior designs over the last 20 years. They have grown their revenue but their organisational structure needs development. To maintain their level of growth in the future, they want to create a middle-management layer to expand the business and to succeed Ian and Liz. The business is currently controlled and run by two leaders with polarised views on how to move forward. In one of the first sessions, I introduce the Cynefin framework, which explains the different perspectives from which we make our decisions.
18
One of the leaders, Ian, who is seen as a father figure, solves problems through analysis, looking at past experiences for input, and has hand-picked all of his staff. The other leader, Liz, works more intuitively, has great foresight, and attunes to the needs of the environment, yet she’s perceived as chaotic because she doesn’t engage her team. Both parties run their own departments and communicate as little as possible with each other, so they lack a shared vision for the future. The staff are well looked-after and so are motivated by the organisation’s wellbeing. On their own, they operate well, but they lack the cohesion that guarantees future security.
Discovery
Coaching begins by opening up the hierarchy structure, offering the owners and the top five managers the opportunity to develop their own voice. The organisation’s managers and directors are invited to take their teams through a two-anda-half-day Leading by Design workshop. Looking at the organisation from all angles, each of the participants has the opportunity to share their story and vision. All the data from the course is collected and this creates great input to and develop a first draft of a shared set of values that they all agree with. Through collecting all the data as a collaborative team, the management receive an insight into the current dynamics of the organisation. In managing the communication problem between the members through the Cynefin framework, they realise the different perspectives from which they were all addressing the issues they face. This makes sense for them and allows them to share more freely without being judged for their differences.
pastt pas
+ +
futtuurree fu
present Result
The current owners gain a higher understanding of their expectations both in and outside the work environment. Inviting the managers to become mini-entrepreneurs creates engagement and an easier buy-in for the people involved, plus an opportunity for those who are resistant to choose whether to stay with the organisation or to leave. It creates an enormous amount of positive energy and a huge potential for adaptation in the coming years. They are currently trying out a variety of iterations of this vision and have started a process of systemising the organisation. This process has now been shifted out of the “complex” into the “complicated” domain - from coming up with novel solutions to establishing best practice, where expertise is hired in from outside to implement the new company structure. They have seen a celebrated shift out of a chaotic ad hoc environment into one that is now far more proactive. Thanks to the improvements in communication, the management team has allowed a wider array of perspectives to work in their favour. As a whole, according to the owners, the organisation has become “a far more collaborative, customer-oriented structure that delivers a higher quality product”.
, e iv t a r o b a l l o c e r o m “A far t a h t e r u t c u r t s d e t n ie customer-or ” t c u d o r p y it l a u q r delivers a highe
19
The Cynefin Framework
Complex
Complicated
cause effect
cause effect
Patterns
Experts
Sense - Analyse - Respond
Probe -Sense -Respond
Adapted from David Snowden 2012
Disorder
20
Chaos cause = effect
no Patterns Act - Sense - Respond
Simple cause = effect
Best practice
Sense - Categorise - Respond
The Cynefin framework “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
To make better decisions, it helps to think about what angle you want to look at the problem from, especially if you want to solve problems as a team. Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework identifies five different domains to describe problem situations and systems. He describes it as a sense-making methodology. It differs from earlier knowledgemanagement initiatives by emphasising an environment for people to come together and make joint sense of their situation. Cynefin is a Welsh word meaning “our place of belonging”, a place of great meaningfulness for a people. The Cynefin (kun-ev’in) project grew out of work at the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management, which later migrated to Cardiff University and the Cynefin Centre. This model gives a typology of contexts to show what sort of explanations and solutions may apply: • Simple: the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all. The approach is to Sense - Categorise - Respond and then we can apply best practice. • Complicated: the relationship between cause and effect needs analysis, some kind of investigation, or the application of expert knowledge. The approach is to Sense Analyse - Respond and then we can apply good practice. • Complex: the relationship between cause and effect can only be seen in retrospect. The approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond and then we can sense emergent practice. • Chaotic: there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level. The approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and then we can discover novel practice. The fifth domain is Disorder, the state of not knowing what type of causality exists. In that state, people will revert to their own comfort zone to make a decision.
The framework in action To explain how the framework works, let’s look at the SARS epidemic in Singapore a few years ago. Some people in Singapore had a cold virus and went to see a doctor. The situation is simple: the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all. The approach is to Sense - Categorize - Respond and then apply best practice. A doctor senses and categorizes the symptoms the patients is experiencing and responds. The situation changed rapidly and became more complicated when people started to die from the cold virus. Expert doctors came together to analyse the situation and responded accordingly. In a complicated situation, the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other kind of investigation and the application of expert knowledge. The approach is to Sense - Analyse - Respond and then apply good practice. This is the domain that experts tend to inhabit - doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and so on. But the situation worsened. The doctors had never dealt with an issue like this and didn’t know the solution. The situation became unordered chaos when the doctors started to die of the same virus. Panic broke out and the country went into lock down. The government stepped in and shut down crowded schools, public transport, football stadiums, and all other places where large numbers of people come together. People started to act individually by inventing innovative solutions. Here, even more innovative ideas were born. In a chaotic situation, where there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel practice. In general a chaotic situation is a transitionary state. The situation needed many different seemingly unordered experiments. Different ideas were tried out and people used common sense to try to solve the problem. The famous mouth covers were one of the prototypes used in public domains to avoid getting or spreading germs and the government gave everyone free thermometers to measure their temperature at home before leaving the house. Everyone was invited to come up with clever ideas to stop the virus spreading. Heat sensors in airports stopped anyone with a temperature getting on a plane. In a complex situation, where the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, the approach is to Probe - Sense Respond and we can sense emergent trends and practice. After the event, all the new ideas that were prototyped and had positive outcomes were then moved into the complicated domain, where they were analysed. From there, a bestpractice manual was written for any future epidemic (the simple domain). Now airport gates worldwide have body sensors that measure the body temperature of each individual coming into or leaving a country. This shift into the complicated domain is essential for scaling up a solution and unique to human systems. This concept makes the Cynefin a key differentiator from other frameworks.
A new perspective Another example of looking at the world through a particular perspective is physics. By the 1920s, most physicists had realised that their familiar mechanics, developed over centuries by Newton and many others, could not fully describe the world of atoms. Physics had to be rebuilt to take this into account. From 1925, a bold new quantum theory emerged. Soon scientists were vigorously debating how to make sense of the new quantum mechanics, with various interpretations. Einstein took an active part in these discussions together with Heisenberg, Bohr, and other
21
creators of the theory. For example, one could never predict the precise moment when an atom would emit a quantum of light. Einstein couldn’t accept this lack of certainty. As a result, he spent the second half of his career trying, without success, to poke holes in the theory and to subsume it in a unified theory that would restore certainty and determinism to physics. Could he not solve the problem himself since he used the same thinking that created the problem?
What we want to create
22
To create the future, we need to embrace complexity. It’s important to remember that in the Cynefin framework, complexity doesn’t mean “very difficult” - in fact, it can be far simpler and more joyous than the other approaches. This is because we start with what we want to create. In this framework, “complexity” means a known solution to an unknown problem. That’s exactly the approach that leads to so many breakthroughs and works of genius - in the creative fields, in entrepreneurship, in scientific experiments and pure maths. We don’t know what it’s for yet, or what it will do, but we know we want to create it - and in the unforeseen future, it will solve an unknown problem. When we operate like this, we are more conscious of the need to use our “gut feel”, our intuition, our instinct, our deeper inner knowing, call it what you will, as opposed to only our analysis as the sole source of knowledge. Both can and should be trusted; both should be included to create a whole understanding of any situation. In conjunction, both create balance and should be equally developed and used in our day-to-day living.
Past, present, and future To embrace complexity, we need to embrace the interrelated relationships of our past, present, and future. Most of the time, we think easily into thinking from one or the other:
past
present
future
present
future
past
To find our purpose, what we want to create from within, we need to think intricately. That is where our purpose lies: at the intersection between past, present, and future.
present From there, we take a leap to add another layer into the unity that these create:
past
purpose
future
23 This is the complex domain, where we use our past, present, and future, unified by our purpose, to create new solutions to unknown problems:
present
past Complex
purpose
future
Complicated cause effect
Experts
Probe -sense -respond
sense - analyse - respond
Disorder
Chaos cause = effect
no Patterns act - sense - respond
Simple cause = effect
Best practice
sense - categorise - respond
Chapters 7, 8 and 9 will take us through the past (a treasure hunt), the future (the vision of our purpose), and the present (where we change our behaviours and find the power to choose). That is where we find and start to live our purpose, what we want to create, our known solution to an unknown problem.
Knowns and unknowns A known situation with a known decision: this is a Simple problem. We know what the situation is and what to do about it. A known situation with an unknown decision: this is a Complicated problem. We know what the situation is, but not what to do about it. We analyse, hypothesise, and test until we know enough that these become known-knowns. An unknown situation with a unknown decision: this is a Chaotic problem. We don’t know what the problem is or what to do about it. These are beyond our scope of imagination so we can only address them with individual timely actions. There is one important type of knowledge that is frequently overlooked, probably because it is hard to pin down: an unknown situation with a known decision. This is a Complex problem. We somehow know what to do, but we aren’t aware we know, or we have skills we don’t know about or can’t explain how we do them. We just know. In a sense, we know what to do even if we don’t understand the problem or don’t know why what we do works. Here we know intuitively, but we lack the rational evidence of what we know. Only by trying it out can we generate the evidence, make the situation known, and create the back-up for the the known decision.
24
t a h t w o n k t ’ n o d u o “It ain’t what y u o y t a h w s ’ t I . e l b u gets you into tro ” o s t ’ in a t s ju t a h t know for sure
Mark Twain
Creating the new Design thinking operates best in the complex domains, or the unknown-knowns. It’s a way of thinking used by outcome-creating people - people who use not only their analytical skills but also their intuition to create and act. They become aware through sensing in the present and creating the emergent future.
Entrepreneur thinking We see this way of thinking in entrepreneurs. Their ideas and innovations often come from a strong inner belief that’s ahead of their time. This belief comes from their inner source of knowing. That’s what drives entrepreneurs to create the emergent future. Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), explains the term “presence” as a word that doesn’t exist yet in dictionaries, a combination of “present” and “sensing”, pre-sense. It means “to act on an emergent awareness of a future possibility”. This is also the way the creative mind operates. It knows that little differences have huge influence and impact. It senses first, knowing it’s part of a system that it can influence, then it needs to back it up rationally. It knows it always has a choice and the power to act either negatively or positively. It knows it’s part of an emergent system. The creative mind acts independently and creates from within, based on an inner belief or conviction of an inner knowing.
Happy
25
The new is always unknown, by definition. We want the new for our businesses - the entrepreneurial leap, the creative spark, the big new thing - but it’s easy to end up chasing the old by mistake instead. Take publishing, for example. Fantasy used to be a ghettogenre, which most wouldn’t touch and twelve publishing houses rejected a mansucript about a boy wizard by JK Rowling. Then Bloomsbury accepted and published Harry Potter. As its success snowballed, suddenly every publisher was on the look-out for “the next Harry Potter”. But instead of looking for the next new idea, they looked for books like the last new idea. A repetition of the old idea. “Guaranteed commerical success”, surely, because the last new idea did so well, but none of the wizardesque books they commissioned had anything like Harry Potter’s success. They were basing their decisions on analysing the past, not creating the new. That’s not acting; that’s reacting. Each moment of the day, we have a choice either to act from within or to react to the pressure of our environment. Reacting means you feel pressured to be in total control, have no time for trying or surprise, since you need to be always right, to guarantee your success. If you act from within instead, you can’t guarantee your success, because the new is never guaranteed. But imagine how it feels to be free to act from within. Entrepreneurs and creatives know that; they know they take risks, and they know the rewards.
The analytic vs creative mind 26
Acting from within is a completely different way of learning to the more analytical school. Working with a creative mind requires us to be conscious of our intuition and to trust what we want to create. Then we will look for evidence, including analysis. The more time we invest in listening to our intuition, the clearer we become about who we are and about what we want to create. Understandably, though, the analytical side of our brain wants proof for the intangible. Our rational mind sees a lot of random activity in complexity, which seems unordered. Actually, allowing the creative mind to operate from within has a distinct process that we can follow if we trust its course and don’t interfere with its emergence. It’s different and more powerful. This is where we can try out our ideas, make them concrete, adjust and refine outcomes; here, all is created. We use sensing and probing; we pick up weak signals and emerging patterns. It’s wonderful to become familiar with and to learn to trust the creative mind - to get into the flow. Fundamentally, design thinking is about flipping our typically analytical mindsets to solve problems. Non-designing organisations often use linear thinking, where they understand the problem and alternatives, develop several ideas, and do a final external check with the customer. Design thinking flips these processes on their head. Problems are solved by looking at an opportunity of what we could create. It’s about finding a broader context, gathering information to inform the opportunity, brainstorming ideas, and co-creating fail-safe experiments or prototypes with the people involved. So how do we do that?
The courage to leap The analytical, rational mind is not enough. Complex systems contain so many moving elements that it’s been said we need computers to calculate all the possibilities. Apparently, that’s why chaos theory couldn’t have emerged before the second half of the twentieth century. I believe, though, that in observing nature we can learn that nature has its own distinct order and is not a seemingly random process. The question is how to influence these processes.
Let’s say a thought or idea enters my mind and makes me want to create or change something. Now I have a goal to create something. Since what I want to create doesn’t exist yet, this creates a tension with my current reality. This is what mystics refer to as “the space between thoughts”. This is where many of us might stop and give up, since here we need courage and a leap of thinking. We need to do something that can only work if it comes from within us - if we’re passionate about it. At this stage, what we want to create is only “an idea without legs”, it only has a kind of energy - we have a taste for something new, a desire or a passion, an intention and a thought. We need courage and make a decision in the presence of our fear to deal with our fear of not knowing, our fear of failing, our fear of believing we’re making the right decision in following a hunch or a new thought. This takes practice. We only take the risk if we believe that somewhere within, our inner knowing voice, our intuition, is telling us it’s the right choice to make. Even though we can’t see it. Can you take that risk? Do you trust your intuition? This is an example of an unknowable known. The known aspect is my intuition telling 27 me what I want to do. The unknowable aspect is that we need proof before we make the decision. To make decisions and deal with the unknowable known, we create experiments where we can try out and prototype what we feel we know already. It becomes easier when you use your whole operating system. My creative mind comes up with the new thing; my rational mind can analyse my experiments. I can use my knowledge of the past to mediate the risk. In my present, I can look at how what I know relates and fits in my current reality. In my future, I explore what this intuitive feeling is going to look like. With all this, I create a experiment in the present using the elements I’ve gathered. In doing so, I can make it concrete; I iterate different possibilities, and so find out whether to create or not create a change. It becomes a choice, a possible decision. If I decide to go ahead, the movement creates a breeding ground for things to happen spontaneously. We observe, we sense, we probe, and we constantly adapt our findings, since cause and effect are seldom related and the path is unknown. In dealing with the future, we have many unknown factors. The unknown contains much untapped information that we can learn to access. So how can we access the unknown and its untapped information?
Observation: As a result of the pace at which the world around us seems to be moving, many of us find the need for security in endless formulas and pre-developed strategies. This process is successful in ‘orderly’ situations where cause and effect are directly related and problems are solved by analysis and response. However, with the constant shift of the world around us, other ‘unorderly’ situations present themselves in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect. It seems that analysis is often no longer enough, and it often reaches the point where experimentation is the key to problem-solving.
Design thinking provides for an updated operating system attuned to the needs of a fast-paced society. When we are leading by design we are aware of the complexity and dissimilarity of the many problems we face. It all starts with an awareness of the multi-dimensional nature of these problems, as exemplified in Snowden’s framework.
Leading by Design enables leaders to chart a course in a world mired in complexity & chaos
In “Leading by Design� Irene van der Does de Willebois demonstrates that we are all fundamentally creative. She shows that organisations in which people are encouraged to use a creative lens as a tool can thrive in a complex world. Their creativity enables adaptability and the flexibility to deal with change quickly.
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Leading by Design is a practice and a methodology based on design thinking. A Design thinker is someone that looks at problems from every angle to create a whole perspective. Design thinkers use both an ability to analyse and an ability to sense and be intuitive. They observe and empathise with their environment. They are constantly listening to pick up signals that could improve the environment they are a part of. Irene demonstrates how, as a result of the design process, leaders become more flexible, develop a natural overview and make better informed decisions. Design thinking expands their sight and stimulates their desire to design the life they want.