[MUSIC] Mugendi, it's been very interesting to me over the last several years to see design thinking penetrating into the social innovation space. And, as you said, design thinking came out of a very professional designer oriented context. Yes. But now there are many people who never thought of themselves as designers, who've played many different roles in life. Who are starting to try to apply these principles. So it's a bit of a different game for them, when they may never even thought of themselves as a creative person. So what would be the one piece of advice you would give to someone who's not only new to design thinking. But might even be new to social innovation, and is just moved by desire to do something good in their community? I think the most important point I'd like to emphasise Warren, is empathy. As long as we remain empathic to people, we'll see challenges or observe instances where design thinking could help. So as long as one remains open to that the other skills just follow. Another thing that's been interesting from design thinking is this emphasis on failing early and often. On getting right out there, trying things out, prototyping, coming back and back. And this is very much a designer's mentality. Yes it is. And in some ways I think it's a great boon to the social innovation landscape. But we're also dealing with communities, with human beings, with lives. And there are some kinds of risks to that that maybe aren't there for designing a new cell phone. True. I can design a phone, it doesn't work the way I want it to, I design another and another. Here if I go in to do a social innovation project there might be real consequences. Lowering the quality of people’s lives, or creating expectations and then breaking trust when those expectations aren’t met. So how do you deal with that as someone trying to apply design thinking in in a very complex real human social context. Well my experience is that one has to be authentic. You must be also driven by a code of ethics that means that you don't want to cause any harm. You also need to be able to manage expectations. Because with community members the minute you step in, there's an expectation that you're going to bring something with you. And most of the instances where we've dealt with communities we've had to tell them up front, this is what we're here for. We are also trying, we're learning, this is experimental. We will test it with you, you are part of the co-design process. And that they're equal members. So the idea of you being the expert and them being at a lower level, has to be immediately debunked. Otherwise you don't get the kind of buy in that you need. But you must manage expectations, you must be authentic. And you must have a level of ethics that means that you don't take advantage of even the most vulnerable of the community members. So it sounds like we have to spend quite a bit of time up front building this transparent, co-creative relationship. That doesn't happen the first time we walk in the door. And speaking of that, some people would argue that the idea of an outside person coming in to do design for a community is problematic right upfront. And that what we actually want to see is more social innovation coming from within communities. Or I design from my community, and so RLabs is a great example. Nobody came from the outside to do RLabs, it was all people that were already in the community. At the same time it was great to have a creative experienced person come in to help us. Whether we're in an organization or community or any other kind of setting. So how do you make sense of that tension? Well this is actually the the most challenging bit of design profession. Because as designers you're trained to be a problem solver. And many times like you say correctly when you step into a different context, you deal with community members that you're not familiar with. We are seen as the other, you are from the outside. So our challenge initially is to identify within the community context champions and allies. Who become the people who introduce you to the community. And you need to take as short a time as possible to connect with the community members. And it helps when there is trust that is built through a relationship that exists. So that's a first step. And then, also to diffuse the model so that everyone in that setting knows that they actually can be, not a designer, but they're creative. And you need to unlock that creativity. That creative confidence, if you may, that even you can actually solve problems. And that design thinking gives you those skills even as a layperson. We look at human-centered design as the core of design thinking. And again, I think this has been a really wonderful evolution. We walk about empathy, that that's the key to understanding design thinking. What about the human who's the designer? What about understanding ourselves and empathy for ourselves? How often do we have to turn that lens inward to be an effective designer or social innovator? I think you've hit onto something that is really a big, big challenge. We have to walk the talk. Many times we speak about empathy as if it's something that you learn but you don't necessarily have. You cannot be empathic just from an abstract and rational sense. There's a beautiful proverb that says, don't insult the crocodile until you've crossed the water. And it means that the designer has to be humble to realize he's entering a new context, the crocodile in the river. And that for him to succeed in anything he does, he must humble himself and actually learn. And be willing to be pushed beyond his own comfort zone so that he can grow as an individual. And you use words like humility, like delight. Yes. And surprise. Many of these words, aren't words we typically associate with social innovation. Social innovation often feels a little heavy, and we're looking at problems. And these are desperate and real problems, and we're trying to solve them. But I like the idea of not ignoring the problems but bringing in some of this energy that's around delight. And creating beautiful new things in the world. Can you tell us a little bit about your own journey as a designer. As someone who's been working in this space designing and teaching people for a long time. How does it feel? What's that experience been like for you? Yeah, it's interesting you'd ask that, because when we design for need, the energy that you tap into is one of survival. It's one moving from a point where you're struggling to a point where maybe you're surviving a little better. But when you tap into people's aspirations, even the most basic person who doesn't have a lot of material possessions around them still has aspirations. And when you tap into aspirations, that's when your really start to now engage with the person in what he could be beyond his present context. So the ability to surprise and to delight actually speaks to that aspiration and not so much the need, which is a basic survival thing. And if the design also has the intent of doing something beyond the ordinary. So that the community member is actually excited about the process because they can see ways of living that they have not even anticipated. Then I think we are onto something. But, if we just say, you need to move from point a to point b that's fine. But if you can actually make that person see that it's not just transport, but the destination that needs to be exciting. Then you have much better and a much richer experience in the co-design process. [MUSIC]
