What Planning Can Learn From Design Thinking

The Process of Belief

John V Willshire
@willsh

Friday, 23 September 2011

I was asked to talk about...


“What can planning learn
from design thinking?

”

But hey, let’s start with...


Seminal US
punk rock
bands


“ The process of
belief is an elixir
when you're weak ”
"Materialist" by Bad Religion


Process is a port in a
storm of uncertainty

http://oxleyart.com

[ any port in a storm ]


A story about process...


A story from Dan Ariely...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ3ZM_EAuN4


“ We can often force the
world into some
framework without it
being very useful
”
Dan Ariely


process
Why am I talking about

when the question was...


I knew practically
nothing about
Design Thinking


So I asked
an expert


And came up with
this guy...


Bruce
Nussbaum


Bruce
Nussbaum

Former assistant managing
editor for Business Week

Professor of Innovation
and Design at Parsons The
New School of Design


Pretty qualiﬁed.


I wonder what he’s
got to say on
Design Thinking..?


Oh.


Why?


“Design
consultancies that
promoted Design
Thinking were, in
effect, hoping that a
process trick would
produce signiﬁcant
cultural and
organizational
change.”


“Companies were
comfortable and
welcoming to
Design Thinking
because it was
packaged as a
process.”


process


We
don’t
need
another
process


Why?

At least two reasons...


1. Process tends to
average things out


Some music
science...


Compression


normal

compressed


Compression
makes quiet
things loud


But it also dulls
the crescendos


Process is like
compression


Process makes
bad work good


But...


Process makes
great work good


An example...


Effectiveness
Success
Rate
ESR = % campaigns
which reported ‘very
large’ improvements
in one of six
measures


ESR
pre-testing

no pre-testing

All campaigns
Source: IPA databank

ESR
pre-testing 49%

no pre-testing 59%

All campaigns
Source: IPA databank

Process suggests
“do testing”


But ads that
aren’t tested in
IPA Databank are
more likely to be
successful


2. Process tends to
bind us, not free us


We’re becoming
trapped in the
inevitability loop
of process


“We’ll use the OMFG
process to solve this”

agency problem client


“Brilliant. I’ll pay you to
use OMFG to solve this”



[ hmmm, the OMFG process
doesn’t help after all ]



“How’s that awesome OMFG
process coming along?”



[ errr ]



“brilliantly”



“can I see it?”



[ fuck ]



Advertising has a
process problem


A process is
something to sell
in lieu of real work


The course is set
before the destination
is known


And inevitably,
we look for...


“ If you’ve got enough
naivety and you’ve got
conviction then the answer
is perfect for you
”
"The Answer" by Bad Religion


Added to this,
everyone has a ‘port’


pr

client
media problem

ad


pr
Use OMFG!

client
media problem

ad


We need ROFL!
pr
Use OMFG!

client
media problem

ad


We need ROFL!
pr
Use OMFG!

client
media problem

OFFS will
give the ad
answer

We need ROFL!
pr
Use OMFG!

client
media problem

We always
OFFS will follow LMAO
give the ad
answer

Too many captains
will sink the ship
Danish Proverb


But process does
well for a reason


Clients like
buying a thing


Agencies like
selling a thing


Things that are
made in factories


Process is ﬁne with limited
potential outputs

Our factory is broken


Why did it work in
the ﬁrst place?


Let’s go back to
the source...


The division
of labour
works for
three reasons


Dexterity


Dexterity

Do simple, repeat tasks
that you get better at


Time

Time

You save time in passing
simple tasks, in bulk,
between specialists


Technology

Technology

Technology is used to
improve the process as it
stands (not reinvent it
completely)


The division of
labour isn’t
working for us


Smith
didn’t say
it would


“The nature of agriculture
does not admit of so many
subdivisions of labour, nor of
so complete a separation of
one business from another.”


pr
no complete
media client
separation
ad


“The ploughman, the
harrower, the sower of the
seed and the reaper of the
corn are often the same...
...it is impossible that one
man should be constantly
employed in any one of them.”


pr

media client
work is
seasonal
ad


“Country workmen are
almost everywhere obliged to
pay themselves to all the
different branches of
industry that have so much
afﬁnity to one another as to
be employed about the same
sort of materials”


we are all
pr
employed
media client
‘about the
ad
same
materials’


The sell is industrial

The work is agricultural


“ What we do need is
a change of ideas
”
"Change of Ideas" by Bad Religion


The
Smith


Technology provider


Transport hub


Village generalist


Fire keeper


Solve any problem
using the raw materials
of the age


What’s interesting is
the way he worked


Customer focussed


What Planning Can Learn From Design Thinking

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