Why the Leaders of the Future Are Designers
In his new book Leaders Make the Future - Bob Johansen of the Institute for the Future builds a case for the new leadership skills needed for an uncertain world.
Here’s his list :
1. Maker Instinct: The ability to exploit your inner drive to build and grow things, as well as connect with others in the making.
2. Clarity: The ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot see. Leaders are very clear about what they are making, but very flexible about how it gets made.
3. Dilemma Flipping: The ability to turn dilemmas – which, unlike problems, cannot be solved – into advantages and opportunities.
4. Immersive Learning Ability: The ability to immerse yourself in unfamiliar environments; to learn from them in a first-person way.
5. Bio-Empathy: The ability to see things from nature’s point of view; to understand, respect, and learn from nature’s patterns.
6. Constructive Depolarizing: The ability to calm tense situations where differences dominate and communication has broken down – and bring people from divergent cultures toward constructive engagement.
7. Quiet Transparency: The ability to be open and authentic about what matters to you – without advertising yourself.
8. Rapid Prototyping: The ability to create quick early versions of innovations, with the expectation that later success will require early failures.
9. Smart Mob Organizing: The ability to create, engage with, and nurture purposeful business or social change networks through intelligent use of electronic and other media.
10. Commons Creating: The ability to seed, nurture, and grow shared assets that can benefit other players – and sometimes allow competition at a higher level.
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Is it just me, or are most of these skills part of the DNA of Designers (or Design Thinkers, as the new thinking suggests)?
Let’s run through the list :
The Maker Instinct and Rapid Prototyping are no-brainer skills of designers, what with their incessant need to go from concept sketches to getting their hands dirty and building stuff;
Clarity is a perspective that is inherently designer-centric – an abstractive mindset that sees what can be, and not just what is; Whereas Dilemma Flipping brings to mind the designers’ problem-solving nature – they just have a way of reducing complexity into very simple solutions.
On the collaborative front – designers are masters in Constructive Depolarizing; In fact, by their very nature they work across multi-disciplinary teams with extremely varying backgrounds and fields of expertise. From that standpoint, constructive engagement doesn’t get more real than that.
Taking it a step further, crowdsourcing designers enhance this collaboration by utilizing the power of social media in Smart Mob Organizing. Not only that, designers use an arsenal of technology tools – from videos to simulations to prototypes - to convince and influence their clients, bosses, peers, companies, friends, and the general public into their point-of-view.
Immersive Learning Ability then dovetails into designers’ practice of ethnography and computer simulations/prototypes; While bio-empathy draws from designers’ seeking inspiration in unconventional places. In fact, there are numerous designers who are using bio-mimicry as fuel for their work.
Commons creating is the open-source mindset of designers, of how their work contributes to a vocabulary and milieu that others can build upon for the future.
Looking at all these skills, I rest my case.
Want to lead in the future? Learn how to be a designer.
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Hey Mark,
Loved the article.
If I may digress, since you mentioned crowdsourcing, (all things considered) do you agree/disagree with the business model?
Hi Dwight,
In any industry there’s space for multiple business models — you can have a McDonald’s (mass production for maximum affordability) vis-a-vis Brothers Burger (customizable, slightly more expensive) vis-a-vis T.G.I.Friday’s (in the burgerworld, relatively on the high-end).
But here’s the beautiful thing – while they’re all into burgers, by virtue of the fact that they have different business models — and in this case starkly different target markets — they’re not necessarily competing for the same sales. Of course, it’s a different case when you compare them within similar business models – McDonald’s vs Jollibee, Brothers Burger vs Wham!, T.G.I.F. vs Chili’s – but when you talk about business models, the marketing opportunity expands.
In the same vein and as applied to designers, crowdsourcing I feel will also have its place vis-a-vis the need for niche and dedicated designers. Crowdsourcing will target those who are looking for quick and affordable designs while those who have higher-order needs will seek out more specialized designers.
it’s great that you immediately saw the paralellism of the two! i’m an interior designer and i appreciate that there are people who see us (or our skills) in that “serious” light. being closely associated to beauty and aesthetics (the superficial kind) sometimes has its disadvantages. people forget that designers are first and foremost educated to be problem solvers, not stylists. but i guess the design industry also has something to contribute to that public perception through the way they present themselves and their work.
your article reminds me of a discussion in one of my masters classes in interior design. my professor pointed out that, at least here in the philippines, the society and we professionals ourselves underestimate what designers (graphic artists, architects, interior designers, fashion designers) are capable of with regards to social change and community building.
oops, edit:
“but i guess the design industry also has something to contribute to that public perception through the way WE present ourselves and OUR work.”
haha, almost forgot that i’m part of that same circle.
hi Ardel!
Absolutely glad that my post connected with you
Most absolutely definitely, i myself believe in the power of design, being a partner in an industrial design firm as well.
You’re right – people sometimes mistake the profession narrowly as pure aesthetics when in fact it’s that but so much more. This is why I really believe that Designers and Design Thinkers must be elevated in the Philippines.
best,
Mark