About
Inovent Press
Inovent Videos
Principle 1: A system is more than the sum of its parts. If you take the system apart these properties are lost, and every part of the system affects every other part. Nothing is outside the system.
Action: Internalize the concept of the system. Using this simple diagram by Bruce Mau, it's easy to see how you can understand matter as a long piece of string with two fixed points. Where you pull one bit, others have to give. You can map your projects, your resources and your impact this way.
Principle 2. Delayed feedback results in "design traps." The time-lag that obfuscates what really needs to change, combined with the bounded rationality that comes from operating from what you immediately know, can cause designers to make bad decisions.
Action: Stop designing for the symptom. A lot of design work focuses on making the problem easier to stomach, rather than tackling its problematic source. Something like Recycle Bank rewards people for recycling without encouraging them to buy less or buy local. The numbers don't lie: For every $100 spent locally, about $68 stays in the community, if you buy from a chain store, it's only $14.
Principle 3: There is no such thing as a side effect. We often draw artificial boundaries around our projects not just to focus on the matter at hand, but to relinquish responsibility for what lies outside the boundary.
Action: Experience your own by-products. How about this exercise: Carry around your trash for a week. Don't throw anything non-compostable away. That means water bottles, packaging, tissues, plastic utensils, the lot. It's a quick lesson in understanding the material "side effects" of all we consume.
Principle 4: Create the right measurements of success. Less bad isn't good.
Action: Start a social network with a social cause. We love to create networks, but how about creating a reason for networking? Carbon footprint calculators fall short because the resulting data is abstract but sites like StepGreen, Carbonrally and The Carbon Diet with real users sharing their stories and progress makes the impact, and the effort, more real.
Principle 5: Select the right lever for change.
Action: Become a mentor. Spend six weeks working with a high school student, and learn about yourself while helping someone else use design thinking to change their environment: their school. We're launching a new program with Design Ignites Change named By Design that will do exactly that, and we need you to participate.
Principle 6: Recognize the relationship between structure and behavior. The structure of a team, organization, community, industry completely determines its behavior.
Action: Investigate a system. Research the food system in all of its corrupt political glory. Understand that what you put it your mouth is a political act. Watch Food, Inc. or the Meatrix, and while you're at it find out why a salad costs more than a Big Mac, why the global food market starves the poor, or why your taco traveled from halfway around the world. Visualize and share the source of something you love, and add a little rigor to your investigation--you might just debunk some of the typical sustainability assumptions, and launch a new way of thinking.
Principle 7: Public attention often does not reflect changes in real conditions. Don't fall for the tranquilizing effect of the buzz swirling around sustainability--you have to do something, too!
Action: Contribute, distribute. Act now! Add your own suggestion in the comments section, and if you feel compelled, write about this topic on your own blog.
Read more from : http://www.fastcompany.com/1595167/designers-accord-seven-principles-for-interactive-action
Original blog author :
Valerie Casey is a globally recognized designer and innovator. She works with start-ups, governments, and companies all over the world on challenges ranging from creating new products and services, to transforming organizational processes and behaviors. Valerie is the founder of the Designers Accord, the global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact. Valerie's work has been highlighted in multiple publications, and she has been named a "Guru" of the year by Fortune, a "Hero of the Environment" by Time, and a "Master of Design" by Fast Company. Valerie lectures on design throughout the international community, and is an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She holds a master's degree in cultural theory and design from Yale University and a BA from Swarthmore College.
