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.
Yes! Goodness. I wish you a smooth divorce and a lovely journey in giving your voice more space to soar!
I completely agree that we have somehow subsumed so much of creative impulse under the judgemental banner of "value" -- like, sure, but can you art make OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY? Or... would other people PAY FOR IT?
My friend J in college was much fascinated with an earlier period in American (or was it European?) history in which it was a family pastime to sing choral pieces together, or around a piano, just for the fun of it -- as one would play, say, recreational tennis or badminton. I want to recreate such an attitude around the arts in my own life! Let's sing for fun! (My friends who are obsessed with karaoke know exactly what I am talking about.)
Thank you for the well wishes! Right my parents are on their way to visit. I have been practicing Christmas songs on the piano, with the intention of us singing together in the evenings over the holiday. I don't ever recall us singing together as a family, and I'm excited about it! Best wishes in getting a group together to sing!
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!
Oh my goodness, I'm sorry to hear that you had so much to unlearn after your schooling. Yes... hearing the Citibank story also makes me laugh, like "That's supposed to be special because...?" We don't all scrawl on napkins?! It's just that some of us have the positionality and gumption to marshal precious communal resources to make our doodles real!!!
<3 I love "fixing problems and not developing new products." Absolutely.
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.
Absolutely! "Running on air" is a fantastic way to put it. I sometimes felt the same way when I would walk through the d.school and overhear this or that presentation, buoyed almost entirely upon a sea of neologisms and vague abstractions.
It's amazing how a culture of "design mysticism" can make it seem taboo to ask questions, to pin things down, and to seek the foundation of things. If we make design seem magical, we never have to prove its foundations -- and we never have to reveal that sometimes, there aren't any!
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?
That's a great question, Mark! I think SOME of the answer is that it's been largely to the benefit of teachers of design thinking to both convey that everyone should DO it, but when you REALLY need it done... hire the experts ;) But that might be me being cynical.
Some other thoughts on what you've brought up here:
In many ways the outward cultural presentation of design thinking / innovation people is in opposition to classic orthodox corporate culture. If THEY wear suits, WE wear polka dot dresses and colorful acrylic-frame glasses. If THEY produce wordy reports, we produce sleek Keynotes with obscure GIFs from retro cartoons. I can sympathize with any organization seeing this sort of outward presentation and thinking, "Well, we can't have EVERYONE do THAT, can we?"
But, to your point, the truth is that these are just external symbols meant to evoke an INTERNAL difference, and that internal difference may not be so great as the external symbols promise. The parts of design thinking that are worth doing can absolutely be learned -- and when they are well understood, can benefit almost any organization, regardless of what people wear or how creative they think they are. I just personally think the heart of design thinking is not nearly as precious, exclusive, or mysterious as it's often made out to be -- it's just the practice of turning to the world directly in order to learn.
Yup, makes sense. It's too bad because it seems like Design Thinking should be a foundational skill. I'm on the board of a few companies trying to democratize access to data and data science literacy for all, which has a similar barrier, if you will -- in the tech space there seems to be a WE/THEY thinking, when we'd be better off with more US thinking and literacy around data. I'm going to be writing more about design thinking + technology in 2023 as a result and hoping to build a bridge. Great to be introduced to your thought leadership in this area.
Fantastic question Max! I agree -- and it's something we've wrestled with in the past, the question of what a "need" really is, who decides, and whether such an activity can ever be ethically uncomplicated when so much money can be made by TELLING people what they supposedly need -- or deliberately engineering social norms to require certain products!
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.
Yes! Goodness. I wish you a smooth divorce and a lovely journey in giving your voice more space to soar!
I completely agree that we have somehow subsumed so much of creative impulse under the judgemental banner of "value" -- like, sure, but can you art make OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY? Or... would other people PAY FOR IT?
My friend J in college was much fascinated with an earlier period in American (or was it European?) history in which it was a family pastime to sing choral pieces together, or around a piano, just for the fun of it -- as one would play, say, recreational tennis or badminton. I want to recreate such an attitude around the arts in my own life! Let's sing for fun! (My friends who are obsessed with karaoke know exactly what I am talking about.)
Thank you for the well wishes! Right my parents are on their way to visit. I have been practicing Christmas songs on the piano, with the intention of us singing together in the evenings over the holiday. I don't ever recall us singing together as a family, and I'm excited about it! Best wishes in getting a group together to sing!
“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!
Oh my goodness, I'm sorry to hear that you had so much to unlearn after your schooling. Yes... hearing the Citibank story also makes me laugh, like "That's supposed to be special because...?" We don't all scrawl on napkins?! It's just that some of us have the positionality and gumption to marshal precious communal resources to make our doodles real!!!
<3 I love "fixing problems and not developing new products." Absolutely.
May your creativity take you far!
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.
Absolutely! "Running on air" is a fantastic way to put it. I sometimes felt the same way when I would walk through the d.school and overhear this or that presentation, buoyed almost entirely upon a sea of neologisms and vague abstractions.
It's amazing how a culture of "design mysticism" can make it seem taboo to ask questions, to pin things down, and to seek the foundation of things. If we make design seem magical, we never have to prove its foundations -- and we never have to reveal that sometimes, there aren't any!
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?
That's a great question, Mark! I think SOME of the answer is that it's been largely to the benefit of teachers of design thinking to both convey that everyone should DO it, but when you REALLY need it done... hire the experts ;) But that might be me being cynical.
Some other thoughts on what you've brought up here:
In many ways the outward cultural presentation of design thinking / innovation people is in opposition to classic orthodox corporate culture. If THEY wear suits, WE wear polka dot dresses and colorful acrylic-frame glasses. If THEY produce wordy reports, we produce sleek Keynotes with obscure GIFs from retro cartoons. I can sympathize with any organization seeing this sort of outward presentation and thinking, "Well, we can't have EVERYONE do THAT, can we?"
But, to your point, the truth is that these are just external symbols meant to evoke an INTERNAL difference, and that internal difference may not be so great as the external symbols promise. The parts of design thinking that are worth doing can absolutely be learned -- and when they are well understood, can benefit almost any organization, regardless of what people wear or how creative they think they are. I just personally think the heart of design thinking is not nearly as precious, exclusive, or mysterious as it's often made out to be -- it's just the practice of turning to the world directly in order to learn.
Yup, makes sense. It's too bad because it seems like Design Thinking should be a foundational skill. I'm on the board of a few companies trying to democratize access to data and data science literacy for all, which has a similar barrier, if you will -- in the tech space there seems to be a WE/THEY thinking, when we'd be better off with more US thinking and literacy around data. I'm going to be writing more about design thinking + technology in 2023 as a result and hoping to build a bridge. Great to be introduced to your thought leadership in this area.
Fantastic question Max! I agree -- and it's something we've wrestled with in the past, the question of what a "need" really is, who decides, and whether such an activity can ever be ethically uncomplicated when so much money can be made by TELLING people what they supposedly need -- or deliberately engineering social norms to require certain products!