Design council x The Point People: Systemic Design

Systemic design talks
Part of a series of events around design for
systemic change & transitions
Hosted at Design Council, 2 December 2019

Event series aims
Further explore and articulate the particular role design can play
in transition and systems change work, revisiting and revising some of
the tools and practices we’ve created over the last decade.
Support more designers to adopt and evolve their practices, and
show designers the unique role they can play in addressing complex
social challenges.
And make the case to commissioners and funders to adopt
systemic, transitional and design-led approaches.

Spread current practice, widen
its use
Explore next practice, push
boundaries

Talk aims
Share diﬀerent practices of design and systems
Explain some language around what this means, so you can
take it back to your organisations
Be clear about the value of design within systems and what you
can do to act systemically

Agenda
6:00 - 6:05 Introduction & framing the session, by Cat
6:05 - 6:10 Ice breaker
6:10 - 6:35 Giving some structure and examples, by us all
6:35 - 7:05 3 talks, introduced by Cassie
Nick Stanhope, Shift
Ilishio Lovejoy, Fashion Revolution
Alastair Parvin, Open Systems Lab
7:05 - 7:25 Q&A, led by Cassie
7:25 - 7:30 Takeaway

Icebreaker
Think about a system you know. How has design been used?
Share with the couple of people around you
(5 mins)

What are we talking about?
Design for systems change?
Systemic design?
Transition design?
Design for system innovation?

What are we talking about?
Design for systems change?
Systemic design?
Transition design?
Design for system innovation?
It’s an emerging ﬁeld and lots of ways
of talking about it
We don’t have an absolute deﬁnition
but we think some coherence is
helpful
We are seeing how people are using
it, see what is working and illuminate
an emerging practice.

Design
“To design is to devise courses of action aimed at
changing existing situations into preferred ones”.
Herbert Simon

Social
systems
Technical
systems
Living
systems
Systems

Systems
“Systems are composed of multiple components of
different types, both tangible and intangible.
Systems exist in an environment, have boundaries,
exhibit behaviours, and are made up of both
interdependent and connected parts, causes and
effects.”
Lankelly Chase / New Philanthropy Capital

Designers are good at working in systems
Synthesis
Seeing how diﬀerent elements come
together (synthesis or taking a holistic
look at something)

Synthesis
look at something)
Reﬂexivity
Probing and sensing to see how
something changes in response to a
intervention, knowing it is dynamic

Synthesis
look at something)
Reﬂexivity
Analysis
Making things that improve the current
(analysis and optimisation)...

Synthesis
look at something)
Making
….and imagining and creating
something new
Reﬂexivity
Analysis
Making things that improve the current
(analysis and optimisation)...

Shifting to the new
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster-Fuller

Design Systems
theory
Design allows systems
practitioners to create
action and shift things
Systems theory is
applied by designers to
understand the whole
and where to act

Design Systems
theory
New practices where
design acts diﬀerently

Designing to
optimise or improve
Designing to
transform or transition
Current
system
New
system
ALTNOW group.org

Systemic design
“Such situations, problematiques, messes and
meta-messes, require our capacity to rethink received
notions, to reframe and redirect, to creatively inquire, to
engage peripheral skills and senses, to powerfully
communicate central ideas to others, to produce
campaigns for change.”
Peter Jones, Taking Stock & Flow of Systemic Design

Designing deeply
Understanding and designing the wider context in
which a person or idea sits, tackling the root cause
of an issue - which might be things that are said or
mindsets that are unsaid but frame the way we see
opportunities - and thinking through unintended
consequences.
Designing collaboratively
Designing a portfolio of initiatives at different places
or levels of the system or different levers of change,
and connecting to other working to the same goal,
working intentionally as an ecosystem rather than
alone.
Designing hopefully
Imagining entirely new systems, and creating a
vision that allows people to design things that move
us towards it.
Designing disruptively
Designing something (and it can be small) that
changes a behaviour or a relationship between
different elements of the system, that can have a
wider ripple effect.
Some component practices

Designing the elements, interactions and
narratives that shift:
Purpose
Reframe the challenge that the system is
addressing, its mission and so its method
Power
Create structures that change who has power over
decisions, rules, legitimacy, flows of resources or
information
Resources
Make new resources from inside and outside the
system part of meeting the challenge - people,
money, knowledge, technology
Relationships
Catalyse new, generative relationships between
existing and new actors in the wider ecosystem
(these become our design materials)
Design to shift:
PURPOSE
POWER
RESOURCES
RELATIONSHIPS
Current
system
New
system
Design for system transition
ALTNOW group.org

Designing on a new set of
system principles
● Designing deeply
● Designing disruptively
Targeted
Meeting needs
Centralised
Focus on ﬁnance
Individuals as the unit
Open to all
Building capabilities
Distributed
Focus on resources
Social networks
1942 Welfare State 2020 Welfare State
Inversing the pattern of interactions
System principles:
Participle.org

Designing transitional activities
● Designing collaboratively
Changing the dominant norms
Employment example Dominant
system
‘norms’
New
approach
NExTWORK, Rockwool Foundation

Changing the dominant norms
Employment example Dominant
system
‘norms’
New
approach
New identity & community of practice
= Devising activities based on new system logic
NExTWORK, Rockwool Foundation
Service blueprint + training= System immune
response
Transitional innovations (new measures,
ﬁnance etc)

Designing a new system story
● Designing hopefully
Helping a new system emerge
e.g. Creating a new safety net for workers
in the new landscape of work
Starting with a narrative for big change
Seeing what role you can play in a bigger system
RSA / ALT/Now / Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth

Stabilising the existing system, being responsive to
immediate need and building good will/legitimacy
Balance of focus on the potential and on the current
Designing on a new set of
system principles

Create conditions that bring a new system (and
relationships) into being
Designing a new narrative

Prototyping with intent
Making strong demonstrations
Considered portfolio composition
Designing a new system story
● Designing hopefully

How design already
works in systems
>Synthesis
>Reﬂexivity
>Analysis
>Making
Current practices of
design for systems
>Designing deeply
>Designing hopefully
>Designing disruptively
>Designing
collaboratively
What might need to
change in the future?
> Having clear and
more ambitious intent
and taking positions
> Committing to and
valuing creation
>Dynamic coherence
Evolving design practices

Designing deeply
Understanding and designing the wider context in
which a person or idea sits, tackling the root cause
of an issue - which might be things that are said or
mindsets that are unsaid but frame the way we see
opportunities - and thinking through unintended
consequences.
Designing collaboratively
Designing a portfolio of initiatives at different places
or levels of the system or different levers of change,
and connecting to other working to the same goal,
working intentionally as an ecosystem rather than
alone.
Designing hopefully
Imagining entirely new systems, and creating a
vision that allows people to design things that move
us towards it.
Designing disruptively
Designing something (and it can be small) that
changes a behaviour or a relationship between
different elements of the system, that can have a
wider ripple effect.
Nick
Stanhope
Finding your best role
Ilishio
Lovejoy
Changing mindsets and
behaviours
Alastair
Parvin
Following the white rabbit
down the hole
Our speakers

“We should be less interested in the design of bridges,
and more interested in how to get to the other side.”
– Cedric Price

“If I only had an hour to save the world, I’d spend 55 minutes
understanding the problem, and only 5 actually solving it”
– Unknown

Panel discussion
Cassie Robinson with
Alastair Parvin, Ilishio Lovejoy and Nick Stanhope

Endbreaker
Now what do you think is systemic design?
Retell one of the stories you’ve heard from tonight with a partner
And what one thing would you do differently at your work
(10 mins)

For more information
www.designcouncil.org.uk

Design council x The Point People: Systemic Design

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