2014 EPDE Keynote by Remko van der Lugt

Design Midwifery
A call for engagement in educating for design
of product-service systems
KIVI Engineering Society
Dr ir Remko van der Lugt

Contents
1. Background
2. Product Service Systems
3. A new story needed
4. Consequences for design education

1. Background

ENGINEERING
People-centered

ENGINEERING
BUSINESS,
SOCIAL WORK
HEALTH CARE
People-centered Designerly approach

ENGINEERING BUSINESS,
SOCIAL PROFESSIONS
People-centered Designerly approach

3. Product Service Systems

Design..
Products
Interaction
Experience
Service
Systems

Actuele info over treinindeling
en bezettingsgraad
33 ..STBY...

People Product Service Systems

• Complex systems: Emergence
• People are (part of) the sytem
• Continuous change
CRISP Aggregation workshop (Dec. 2013)

Design Changes
FROM:
Complicated
Reductionism
Control
Outside
Project
TOWARDS:
Complex
Holism
Nurture
Within
Growth

4. A new story needed

Grin, Rotmans et al: Transition management

Scharmer, Senge, et al: Theory U

Being a Midwife
The wise leader does not intervene unnecessarily.
The leader’s presence is felt, but often the group runs itself.
Lesser leaders do a lot, say a lot, have followers, and form cults.
Even worse ones use fear to energize the group and force to overcome resistance.
Remember that you are facilitating another person’s process. It is not your process.
Do not intrude. Do not control. Do not force your own needs and insights into the
foreground.
If you do not trust a person’s process, that person will not trust you.
Imagine that you are a midwife; you are assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without
show or fuss.
Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening.
If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge.
When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: ”We did it ourselves!”
John Heider, The Tao of leadership
adapted from Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

5. Consequences for
design education

Consequences for design
education (1)
• Facilitation:
The designer as facilitator of a collaborative change
process.
• Systems thinking:
Combine designerly approaches with systems thinking.

Consequences for design
education (2)
• Outside-in:
Work with everyday people from day one.
• Engagement:
The designer is part of the system
• Continuous change:
Systemic change is an ongoing process.

Being a Midwife
The wise designer does not intervene unnecessarily.
The designer’s presence is felt, but often the group runs itself.
Lesser designers do a lot, say a lot, have followers, and form cults.
Even worse ones use fear to energize the group and force to overcome resistance.
Remember that you are facilitating another person’s process. It is not your process.
Do not intrude. Do not control. Do not force your own needs and insights into the
foreground.
If you do not trust a person’s process, that person will not trust you.
Imagine that you are a midwife; you are assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without
show or fuss.
Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening.
If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge.
When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: ”We did it ourselves!”
Adapted from John Heider, The Tao of leadership

2014 EPDE Keynote by Remko van der Lugt

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