Design and/or Inspiration… Chicken or the Egg… Does One Come Before the Other?

The designers of today are inspired to take responsibility to help our global problems. Will our designers inspire us to change as a culture and create new systems and protections? Will business honour and follow the lead of our designers? Is great design the essence of motivation and change?

Years ago, I read about Bruce Mau while researching ideas for a Joie de Vivre presentation. I was impressed back then with his establishment of a design house and I continue to be awe-struck by this famous Canadian designer. During his Great Leadership Reset Forum presentation, he reflects on a solution for today’s world crisis saying, “It’s about our ability to think of the world in new ways.” He believes we need to optimistically view the world and proceed to fix the inequities and problems. Mau says, “Pessimism is easy, but optimism is hard. Design is optimism in action.” Furthermore, he states, that “We destroy what we don’t design.” In other words, we need to plan with the health and sustainability of the bigger planet picture.

Mau states that “Design is taking responsibility for nature, culture, and business.” He laughs at his critics, correcting them that it is not about control it is about service and responsibility to improve the old-world designs that created our present-day problems when we as a society were functioning at a lower consciousness. Design is more than graphics, artistic appeal, and basic function. As Mau states design extends beyond the opaque.

“The bigger the problem, the greater the design opportunity, Mau courageously proclaims. We need to optimistically see in new ways accounting for the well-being of all life on earth. Every problem should be embraced as a new opportunity to design. For Mau, the word design could be interchanged with create. We are creating something new, which has hopeful, promising potential, change, growth, and optimistic overtones. Old world thinking might say solve. Solving a problem, although optimistic, ultimately is often perceived as putting something back to the status quo, fixing it, leaving the situation linear and static.

When I resonate about Bruce Mau’s presentation, I think about Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind. This book was incredibly influential and resourceful for me when I read it in 2006. It affirmed my creative thinking. Following his resource suggestions, I ended up listening to Story by Robert McKee, which helped me with my writing and amateur film creation. This book supports Bruce Mau’s thesis that it is the designers, (right brain thinkers) that are going to reimage (design) our new world for tomorrow.

As parents, grandparents, and teachers, it is critical that we recognize the importance of developing right-brain thinking. We need to encourage our children and students to think outside of the box. Moreover, we need to place value on right-brain subjects that so often have been dismissed or undervalued like the arts. Our children are our future. They didn’t create the global mess we are in, but they will see us through to the light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to stop controlling, listen and follow their lead.