About
"There is no area of contemporary life where design [...] is not a significant factor in shaping human experiences."
This quote from Richard Buchanan's Wicked Problems in Design Thinking describes more than my approach to organizational issues: it's the perspective that shapes my worldview. Design thinking asks us to understand environments, relationships and conditions for success; to dissolve the boundaries between strategy and design; to experiment, to explore and to discover unique solutions for complex problems.
Same questions.
Different materials.
The questions I ask when I'm designing a new workflow are no different than those I ask when blocking out a new painting: How do the parts relate to the whole? What gives something its function? What happens when one element changes? How is meaning communicated through the system?
In an organization these questions revolve around people, processes, information and technology. Changes to a workflow or a platform can profoundly affect decisions and responsibilities throughout an orgnization. In visual art, questions of composition, color, proportion and space require the same intentional approach.
When organic, artistic, mechanical or digital systems function correctly, they become semantic objects, transporting and transforming meaning through context, relationships and functions. To be a "systems thinker" is to examine these systems and challenge the assumptions that shape them.