Information managing as designing

informing inspiring innovating

presentation: rik maes EMIM, February 2011 photo: michiel hendryckx
 Information /
Business communication Technology

Strategy

Structure

Operations
 processes
structures data

systems
functions

relations
intentions
information
ideas
emotions
involvement
 Why IM instruments don’t come up
to the mark

1.  Reality is complex and messy

2.  Every model is less than reality
3.  The technical bias
4.  “Carbon copy” approaches
5.  The diarrhoea of projects
6.  Narcissism of the management involved Claudio Ciborra

7.  Exagerrated expectations

in balans?

inspiring
informing
Informing
structure
prescribing, standardizing
norms
binding, materializing
identity confirming
organizations, systems
univocal, unambiguous
controling the unexpected
excess: standstill
ideal: inspiring through ordering
Inspiring
meaning
interpreting, exploring
values
innovating, disruptive
identity questioning
ideas, brands
multivocal, ambiguous
welcoming the unexpected
excess: chaos
ideal: forming through ideas
A lot of people see
what is happening
and ask ‘why?’

Some people see

what could happen
and ask ‘why not?’
 Herbert A. Simon
The Sciences of the Artificial, 1996
“Engineering, medecine, business, architecture,
and painting are concerned not with the necessary
Intelligence
but with the contingent – not how things are Design
but how they might be – in short, with design”
Choice

“Our professional responsibility is not

to discover the laws of the universe,
but to act responsibly in the world by
transforming existing situations into
more preferred ones”

“We should leave more possibilities open to future generations than we ourselves inherited”
The dominant mindset of managing
decision making
•  Choice between alternatives
•  Assumptions:
–  generating alternatives is
easy
–  choosing between
alternatives is all-important
•  Problem: transforming decisions
into actions
•  Information systems:
–  management reporting systems
–  looking backwards
designing
•  Generate alternatives
•  Assumption:
–  the more complex the
world is, the more important
it becomes to generate valid
alternatives
•  “Designing = specifying an
outline for action” (Webster)
•  Information systems:
–  implementing a vision
–  proactive
 Visions on management

practical scientist

reflective practitioner business designer practical author

What now matters is the In the end, design is about shaping a context, rather
design and delivery of value. than taking it as it is. When it comes to design,
Really, what we're doing as
That needs design thinking. success arises not by emulating others, but by using
designers is, ultimately, and
That needs creative thinking. organizational assets and integrative thinking to
inevitably, designing the business
Judgment thinking alone is identify, build on, and leverage asymmetries, evolving
of the companies that we're
not going to be enough. Most unique models, products and experiences -- in short,
creative business solutions. working for. Whether you like it or
people, in business and not, the more innovative you try
elsewhere, have done very Roger Martin, The Design of Business, 2004
to be, the more you are going to
well on judgment thinking. affect the business and the
Such people are rarely aware business model.
of the need for 'design Tim Brown, speech at the
thinking'. They find it difficult This role of manager as designer is hardly
Rotman Business Design
to conceive that there is a mentioned in the literature, and barely
Conference, 2005
whole other aspect of thinking acknowledged in business
that is different from judgment practice. ...Managers practice "silent
thinking. It is not that such design"...the many decisions taken by non-
designers who enter directly into the design Companies that are successful exploit-
people are complacent. It is
process, no matter how unaware they or ing the full potential of design do so
simply that they do not know
others may be of their impact. because it's present in all of the deci-
that there is another aspect to
Angela Dumas and Henry Mintzberg, sions the company makes. These
thinking.
Managing the Form, Function, and Fit of companies aren't choosing to apply
Edward de Bono, Why So
Design, 1991 design to their respective business
Stupid? How the Human Race
strategies, but have chosen design as
has Never Really Learned to
the fundamental strategy itself. Design
Think, 2003
is the philosophical core of the compa-
ny. Everyone in the company becomes
involved in designing, whether that
We believe having designers in the mix is key to success in multidisciplinary
means creating financial plans or se-
collaboration and critical to uncovering unexplored areas of innovation.
lecting casing materials for an industrial
Designers provide a methodology that all parties can embrace and a design
product. Design isn't something that the
environment conducive to innovation. In our experience, design thinking is the
design department does. It's a way of
glue that holds these kinds of communities together and makes them
operating the company. It's an ongoing
successful.
set of choices about how the company
David Kelley, Dave Beach, George Kembel, Larry Leifer, Jim Patell, Bernie
is going to exist, to compete, to grow.
Roth, Bob Sutton, and Terry Winograd, founders of the Stanford University
John Zapolski, Design as a Core
Institute of Design, 2005
Strategy, 2005
Video: Timothy Brown urges designers to think big
What I learned from Friso Kramer

•  Models are not pre-representations of the end result, but

sources of inspiration: “tools for thinking and feeling”
•  Designing is an open mind activity: “If I would know in
advance how it will turn out, I wouldn’t even start”
•  A designer must clear his mind in order to approach a
problem innocently
•  Designing is leaving out the unnecessary
•  Whatever you design, it should never hinder
•  A designer must constantly train his empathy
•  The most difficult customer is the best one, provided she is
competent and inspired
•  A good designer goes beyond his customer’s belief in what
is necessary
 What I learned from Dana Ponec
1.  Your person
•  You have to take a personal stance (what do you
really want to achieve?)
•  You should believe in yourself, but not become
overconfident (you are not the most important person!)
•  You are a craftsman, hence choose deliberately from
whom you want to learn the craft

2.  Your method of working

•  Thinking according to models only never leads to a
viable solution; worrying and try-outs are quite normal
•  Accept uncertainty, there is no best solution
•  You design for more people than the customer only
•  Live with your customer and his situation-at-hand
•  Show possibilities, even if unachievable
•  Make it your customer’s design
•  Imagine you use your own end product
 desirable (people) feasible (technology)

viable (business)

“You cannot have brilliant ideas in the abstract”

Learning from analogous situations

Learning from extreme cases

 Use of model:
≠ representation of end product
≠ authorization by customer
= “learning about your ideas”

Storytelling (in feasibility phase)

“Result without story is worthless”

Engagement with a better world is

“part of your business strategy”

Encourage experimenting beyond the

assignment and working according to plan

Visualize, create a working space where you can live

together with your design
Video ‘Timothy Brown on creativity and play’
 bricolage
improvisation

tinkering
drift

caring
hospitality
 Our preliminary conclusions
1.  Start from real-life
experience, not from
abstract models
2.  Imagination doesn’t
accept limits
3.  Continuous dialogue
with all parties involved
4.  The importance of
passion, engagement
and creativity
 Networking

Questioning
Experimenting

Associating

Observing
 Observing Networking
Real world

Voelbaar Haalbaar
Ideal world

Associating Experimenting
Denkbaar Maakbaar
The Christmas’ tree approach

network-
ing

experimenting

associating

observing