Donnerstag, 24. Mai 2012

18th Century Systems for 21st Century Challenges

Currently I'm in Helsinki at the Cities for All conference and just listened to the keynote speech by Marco Steinberg, Strategic Design Director, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.
I slightly misquoted him in the header, he actually said "18th century institutions in the 21st century world" and meant our governmental structures. We organise our public structures in clusters that are no longer relevant, for instance why is there a Ministry for Transport and Telecommunication? (No different in Austria). This may have made sense in times when communication travelled more or less at the same speed as people, but no loner reflects the realities of our lives.

Compartmentalised thinking is no longer adequate to deal with the complexities of modern life. Only a 360° approach can create renewal and innovation for our societies, and we have to redefine how this can  can be initiated, managed and implemented.

The shift from designing for disability to design for all is by now fairly well established in the design communities. This and other talks at this conference so far have confirmed that the next shift has to take place in the self-definition of our roles as planners, designers and managers. People now begin to be involved in re-designing their environments in a positive way. To enable and facilitate this process of co-design is the great challenge for public bodies and creative teams.

My favourite slide from Marco's talk is one that epitomizes the cultural shift from NIMBY (not in my back yard) to YIMBY (yes in my back yard). From citizen action to prevent change towards action to co-create change.

More about Marco and his work at: Helsinki Design Lab, Sitra, and the project Brickstrater (Kickstarter).

The beauty: it's inclusive by definition, it has the power to cut though cultural habits and prejudices, and (yes, I know this sounds a bit like scripting a 1982 sales training manual) it turns problems to opportunities.

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