Q &A
You begin your book by describing two concepts: belonging and othering. How do you define these terms?
Belonging is the fundamental need for human beings to be recognized for who we are. When we feel we belong, we feel valued. We feel seen. Belonging brings out the best in everyone, regardless of the environment. ‘Othering’ is the opposite: it involves actions that are intended to set people aside. For example, when we project our opinions on someone else, or make a person feel like they are not supposed to be there. The extreme version would be that the other shouldn’t even exist, but there are far more subtle versions.
Belonging and othering often come in the form of systemic and institutional structures that are purposely built, which is why I like to intersect these concepts with design. If you examine how belonging is constructed within an existing system, you can identify moments where you can create change. The fact is, we can consciously design how people work and live together.
Why is belonging so crucial in every aspect of life— whether we are at home, at work or out in the world?
As human beings we pick up subtle cues as to when, where and how we can really ‘show up’ as our true selves. This impacts our ability to learn, to work and to grow. It affects and contextualizes us in almost every scenario. We need to be able to show up as we really are, not just as stereotypes or projections of who we are. Those are two common, subtle moves of othering.
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, community organizer or leader of any sort, your group is unlikely to thrive if its members don’t feel welcomed, included and valued for who they are. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives should always include efforts to understand what it feels like for individuals and groups to be a part of your particular group.
Interview by Carolyn Drebin
You believe design is the route to creative problem solving in this arena. Please explain.
Communities of every scale or configuration can be designed to increase belonging and decrease othering. We are often in situations where we accept a context as it has always been. But we need reminding that the world — everything around us, everything we encounter in life — has been designed in a specific way, which means that it can all be re-designed.
A design leader with experience in the education, tech and social sectors describes the need to understand belongingQUESTIONS FOR Dr. Susie Wise, Instructor, Stanford School of Design and Author
Key Moments in Belonging
• Entering: Sets the stage
• Participating: Authentic participation
• Code Switching: Moving between aspects of our identity
• Contributing: The more you belong, the more you contribute; the more you contribute, the more you belong
• Flowing: The rhythm of a group and/or your place within it
• Dissenting: Understanding how to work through conflict
• Diverging and Exiting: The feelings that exist for those who leave and those who stay behind
In my work, I seek to have people embrace Design Thinking to help us understand the feeling of belonging. You can’t design for belonging in the same way you would design a physical environment, because it’s a feeling. The role of design in belonging is to support outcomes, not mere outputs. As leaders, we can create, investigate and design new approaches to the problems of belonging.
What does it mean to ‘excavate a context’?
Context excavation entails taking steps to understand what is going on there. It involves noticing and caring with respect to the multitude of layers each individual possesses: their various identities, their gender, their history, their race. Armed with this understanding, excavation means examining what in your environment is and is not working. It involves digging deep through the various layers to design and build greater belonging. This work can intersect with the work being done in organizations around diversity, equity and inclusion. As indicated, it isn’t about merely noticing problem areas, it also demands caring about fixing them. And this is not a ‘one and done’ situation. It’s about learning and knowing where the harm may lie, and figuring out how to make repairs on an ongoing basis.
What are ‘levers of design’ and how do they impact belonging?
The levers include physical spaces, roles, groupings and communications. My goal is for leaders to open up the toolbox of design to build more belonging in each lever. We are constantly getting cues from our environment and our situations about whether or not we belong. The levers can be designed to influence how people feel.
This all starts with leadership. You can’t do for others what you cannot do for yourself. Before you begin, paying attention to your own journey and your own contexts will help you understand where and when belonging can thrive — and where it often needs work. It’s important for leaders to be able to spot trouble areas and ‘lift people up’ beyond invisible structures. Research shows that when people want to quit or change jobs, 50 to 75 per cent of the reason is feeling a lack of belonging. It’s critical for leaders to focus on the crisis of belonging and to design creative ways to work on it. Belonging is an active construct: Your culture is being built every single day.
How can maps be used to understand belonging?
Maps are powerful tools for active thinking and I invite people to get started on this by using a map to lay out their own journeys. When and where did they feel a true sense of belonging? Or the opposite? This is a great place to start. Journey mapping is especially powerful for teams, because together, you can then look across each individual map to notice patterns.
Maps invite us to think differently than if we were just asked a specific question. We can return to them, add to them, notice differences and similarities. We can map feelings and history. Cognitively, mapping allows us to stretch our understanding. These levels of specificity can also help us see what we might design differently. They become part of ‘the excavation of understanding.’
Dissent is one of your levers for designing belonging. How can dissent make us feel like we belong? Wouldn’t it be the opposite?
Dissent is actually a form of engagement. It involves acknowledging that you are present and part of a community, and that you want to make changes within it. It can be a
It isn’t about merely noticing problem areas, it also demands caring about fixing them.ARTWORK BY ABBY VAN MUIJEN
Where Do You Belong?
Grab or download a map and pinpoint where in your city, town, school or community you feel and see belonging for yourself or others.
Then ask yourself: how do you know?
profound moment of critical feedback. In many spaces and cultures, particularly within work culture, we don’t do a very good job of making space for dissent. We rely on old mechanisms: performance reviews, specifically-timed reports, etc. Allowing ourselves to give and receive critical feedback organically may be awkward initially, but it allows us to show up and share what is really happening. It’s an effective way of seeking out and understanding opposing views. It’s about getting into the spirit of trying new things. It may get messy at times. But it works.
Why is this topic so important at this particular point in time?
At this moment in our history, we are primed to really think about what belonging means. We are coming out of a global pandemic. We’re in the midst of a racial reckoning. We are bombarded with images of violence and extreme examples of othering.
On the bright side, we are poised to make progress towards building greater belonging and reducing othering. There are many organizational efforts underway to build greater diversity and inclusion. There is a lot of work to be done, and there is no going back. But it will be worth the effort, because belonging unlocks the best in everyone.
Dr. Susie Wise teaches at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the ‘d.school’) at Stanford University and coaches with the Mira Fellowship. She is the author of Design for Belonging: How to Build Inclusion and Collaboration in Your Communities (Ten Speed Press, 2022). The Design for Belonging Toolkit can be downloaded at designforbelonging.com.