‘Design management is about the management of design.’ (K Best 2004)

‘Design management is about the successful management of the people, projects, processes and procedures behind the design of our every day products, services, environments and experiences. Equally, design management is about the management of the relationships between different disciplines (such as design, management, marketing and finance) and different roles (such as clients, designers, project teams and stakeholders).’ (K Best 2010)

2015 is a time of great change, and design management may well need a considered redefinition so as to be in tune with the times in which we live. One of the shifts happening in several countries is the drift away from ‘old’ management (the organization, coordination, command and control of activities and people) and towards ‘new’ management (self-organizing systems and reliance on agility, communication, collaboration and co-creation). What would a self-organizing, design-led entity look and feel like, and how could you manage design to maximize value creation?

People are naturally creative, if they are allowed to be, and within self-organizing systems, we are all creators, designers and makers of value. If design is about putting people’s lives at the center of experiences and decision-making processes, then the opportunity for design (to conceive, invent, plan and build) management (to organize and co-ordinate) is to conceive and organize in new ways so as to empower more people to become creators, designers and makers of value. Whether we act as individuals, employees, citizens, or members of humanity, or operate within a ‘system’ called an organization, a locality or a global community called planet earth, we could say that:

Design + Management = Conceiving + Organizing in new ways.

Will it be easy to envision and implement how this might work? It will be spontaneous and messy for sure. It may also be quite a lot of fun. Rebuilding, restructuring and reorganizing means getting your hands dirty. What will make it easier is to have a clear vision and sense of purpose (for example improving lives) and a destination (for example the wellbeing of all). Then, design management tools and processes could very well catalyze new and courageous concepts, behaviors, visions and innovations… through the actual building and doing, not the thinking and envisioning. For example, how can we best facilitate and harness the innate talents and capabilities of anyone and everyone involved in a dynamic and creative process of change… in the moment?

Perhaps this is the territory of design leadership, not design management? The Design Management 2.0 blog brokers the connection into design leadership:

Physicist Stephen Hawking states “Leadership is daring to step into the unknown” and as designers we have an opportunity to be daring in our visions for the future. Business leaders are increasingly looking to designers to invent the future, but the challenge for designers is to respond to this opportunity in ways that are humane, visionary and wise. That’s what Design Leadership is all about.

If all the visionary progress is in design leadership (where we are going), that may well leave design management (how we get there) out in the cold, and out of touch with the notion of self-organizing systems and, critically, managing toward the right (humane, visionary, wise) goals.

Perhaps the spontaneous evolution of design management…happens in the doing (insight) and in the moment (intent), and the not so spontaneous evolution of design leadership is in the envisioning (foresight) and the reflecting (hindsight). With the world we are moving into (systemic imbalances, shattering of traditional structures, the desire for new forms of reality),  getting your hands dirty and doing things with intent in the moment might just be the more interesting place to be. This aligns somewhat with Management 3.0‘s actionable leadership and how seemingly small steps can set in motion rather big changes, with  John Hockenberry’s TED Talk about the idea that We Are All Designers, and Ezio Manzini’s book, Design When Everybody Designs (design for social innovation).

If design leadership is about setting the strategic vision, then maybe design management is about making it up as we go along.

 “It’s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean, how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.” 

J.D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye