On Living, Leading, (Re)designing, and Coaching

The Mood of Design

In my last post, I offered up this great question from William McDonough "How do we love all children of all species for all time?"  In responding to Ken Homer's comment to that post, I had an "Aha!" experience about the mood of design.

What's so important about the mood that designing is performed in?  Well, a lot. The mood that we are in predisposes us to take certain actions within our current situation. Take the simple example of being in the mood of gratitude versus the mood of resentment when we start a conversation with our boss. In the first our listening is open and we can learn new things about our boss, what they need, and how our relationship with them can grow. But from the mood of resentment, our listening is closed. We don't want to hear about our boss's struggles. In the mood of resentment, we aren't open to growing the relationship.

In a similar way, the mood in which we design affects not only how we approach the designing but what we design.

 

I realized that what I love about McDonough's question is the mood that it evokes for designing.  My sense is that most designing starts with the question "How can we make a profit for ourselves?"  The mood that this evokes is one of profit-making.  And the actions it predisposes us to are cost reduction, finding efficiencies, and effectiveness.  Of course, these aren't bad goals for our designs. However, they are only part of the picture.  We can design something - a product or service - which is cheap, efficient, and effective but which poisons us.  Take for example the recent news about lead paint in toys from China.

McDonough's question evokes the mood of love.  This is a pretty radical move away from capitalisms overarching mood of profit-making.

What is the mood that you are in as you work and live?

Take care,

-Steve

How do we love all children of all species for all time?

This question comes from architect and author William McDonough.

13 Phrases About Life

This is from Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I just stumbled across it on the net while looking at yoga postures for tennis players.

1. I love you not for who you are, but for who I am when I am with you.
2. Noone deserves your tears and those that do won’t make you cry.
3. A real friend is the one that’s going to hold your hand, while feeling your heart.
4. Simply because someone doesn’t love you the way you want to be loved, doesn’t mean that they don’t love you wholeheartedly.
5. The worst way to miss someone is to be with them and understand that they’ll never be yours
6. Never stop smiling even when you’re sad. Someone may fall in love with your smile.
7. It’s possible that in this world you are just a person, but for someone you’re the whole world.
8. Don’t waste your time on those that don’t try to spend it with you.
9. It’s possible that God wants us to meet the wrong people before we meet that One person so that when that happens we are grateful.
10. Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
11. There will always be people that will hurt you. You have to keep on trusting people, just be a bit more careful.
12. Become better and understand who you are before you meet a new person and hope that they will understand you.
13. Don’t make such an effort, the best things in life happen unexpectedly.

Enjoy!

-Steve