I went through a period in my life thinking I wasn't creative. I'm getting a divorce, and I realized my marriage wasn't working when I was singing in the shower, and my ex came it and told me to quiet down because my singing was like squawking. I felt the shower was my own personal space, where I could sound however I wanted. Then I realized my whole life should feel that way. When I started singing more, and he continued to complain, I held my convictions deeper.
Then, I read an account of a ceremony of the Quileute Tribe that would start with each member singing their song. Their song could have been given to them by their family, or a spirit, and was personal. That seemed really beautiful to me.
I started talking about singing with others, and was surprised by how many people would respond with "oh, I can't sing." And said they would be too afraid to sing around other people. I've been thinking about the collective consequence of that mindset. Seems like a handicap to be conditioned that a voice must sound a certain way to value a creative voice.
This is such a potent heart to this essay. I went to design school in a west coast hipster Mecca city and came out of it feeling so numbed and disastrous and confused about where creativity comes from and who holds it. It has taken years to untangle the elitism that I built up around myself as a “creative” in that context, and I’m still unlearning. I love love love the anecdote about your grandma and the tissue boxes because that’s exactly it. I remember a professor telling us all that the citibank logo was first scrawled on a wet napkin inside a cafe and we were all supposed to be in awe about the absurdity and delight of that, but the truth is that creativity and “innovation” are pouring out of people all over the world all day long, teaching their grandchildren Chinese, germinating avocado pits in cut open milk cartons, fixing problems and not developing new products. Thanks for another beautifully written essay!
I often think about this when perusing Dribbble, Behance and other platforms that showcase the immense talent of designers around the world. It still feels like the American design industry is running on air, trying to sustain its supposed preeminence as long as possible until the laws of supply and demand inevitably take effect. Racial and national prejudices play such a role in the dynamics of this labor market. Thank you for this excellent piece.
I'm digging through Design Thinking thinking as a newly minted fan of the d.school, from William Gordon in 1961 to Sarah Stein Greenberg and you in 2022. I love this essay. I'm so grateful to have found it. It shines one beam of light on the question I'm grappling with: "Since it's so awesome, why don't more people learn, appreciate, and apply design thinking--especially decision-makers (the group of people I work with and (sheepishly, having just read this!) represent)?"
That is, for context, I'm a former CEO and tech executive -- I suppose a reluctant member, if only by title, of the group rightly called out as part of perhaps bastardizing, misunderstanding, or misusing design thinking.
So back to the question: why isn't design thinking loved and applied by all? For example, William Gordon wrote this in ****1961****:
"The 20th century view is that creativity is bifurcated into, on the one hand, a mysterious personal element that cannot be understood and, other the other hand, a quality that may be tested for and taught to anyone. The combination of these views leads to "group-think," where someone responsible for action says, "I will select creative people, but since creativity is so mysterious and unpredictable, I may have missed on some, so I will put several together and hope for the best."
How is it that despite the amazing work at d.school, amazing books, IDEO, a constant flow of articles in HBR.... Why is it that design thinking seems everywhere, seems applicable to everything, yet is so rarely applied except by when you need to "hire someone creative?"
Or, perhaps more to the point, to point towards the positive: how can Design Thinking be democratized as a skill everyone should embrace, practice, and apply every day, like reading, writing, and arithmetic?
I went through a period in my life thinking I wasn't creative. I'm getting a divorce, and I realized my marriage wasn't working when I was singing in the shower, and my ex came it and told me to quiet down because my singing was like squawking. I felt the shower was my own personal space, where I could sound however I wanted. Then I realized my whole life should feel that way. When I started singing more, and he continued to complain, I held my convictions deeper.
Then, I read an account of a ceremony of the Quileute Tribe that would start with each member singing their song. Their song could have been given to them by their family, or a spirit, and was personal. That seemed really beautiful to me.
I started talking about singing with others, and was surprised by how many people would respond with "oh, I can't sing." And said they would be too afraid to sing around other people. I've been thinking about the collective consequence of that mindset. Seems like a handicap to be conditioned that a voice must sound a certain way to value a creative voice.
“creativity is too abundant to be lucrative”
This is such a potent heart to this essay. I went to design school in a west coast hipster Mecca city and came out of it feeling so numbed and disastrous and confused about where creativity comes from and who holds it. It has taken years to untangle the elitism that I built up around myself as a “creative” in that context, and I’m still unlearning. I love love love the anecdote about your grandma and the tissue boxes because that’s exactly it. I remember a professor telling us all that the citibank logo was first scrawled on a wet napkin inside a cafe and we were all supposed to be in awe about the absurdity and delight of that, but the truth is that creativity and “innovation” are pouring out of people all over the world all day long, teaching their grandchildren Chinese, germinating avocado pits in cut open milk cartons, fixing problems and not developing new products. Thanks for another beautifully written essay!
I often think about this when perusing Dribbble, Behance and other platforms that showcase the immense talent of designers around the world. It still feels like the American design industry is running on air, trying to sustain its supposed preeminence as long as possible until the laws of supply and demand inevitably take effect. Racial and national prejudices play such a role in the dynamics of this labor market. Thank you for this excellent piece.
I'm digging through Design Thinking thinking as a newly minted fan of the d.school, from William Gordon in 1961 to Sarah Stein Greenberg and you in 2022. I love this essay. I'm so grateful to have found it. It shines one beam of light on the question I'm grappling with: "Since it's so awesome, why don't more people learn, appreciate, and apply design thinking--especially decision-makers (the group of people I work with and (sheepishly, having just read this!) represent)?"
That is, for context, I'm a former CEO and tech executive -- I suppose a reluctant member, if only by title, of the group rightly called out as part of perhaps bastardizing, misunderstanding, or misusing design thinking.
So back to the question: why isn't design thinking loved and applied by all? For example, William Gordon wrote this in ****1961****:
"The 20th century view is that creativity is bifurcated into, on the one hand, a mysterious personal element that cannot be understood and, other the other hand, a quality that may be tested for and taught to anyone. The combination of these views leads to "group-think," where someone responsible for action says, "I will select creative people, but since creativity is so mysterious and unpredictable, I may have missed on some, so I will put several together and hope for the best."
How is it that despite the amazing work at d.school, amazing books, IDEO, a constant flow of articles in HBR.... Why is it that design thinking seems everywhere, seems applicable to everything, yet is so rarely applied except by when you need to "hire someone creative?"
Or, perhaps more to the point, to point towards the positive: how can Design Thinking be democratized as a skill everyone should embrace, practice, and apply every day, like reading, writing, and arithmetic?