DESIGN / DESIGNERS

  

LEADERSHIP / LEADERS

  
  Design is a fundamentally human activity – people have been designing tools and environments for millennia.   Leadership is a social phenomenon that has been observed since ancient times.  
  The study of design is an emerging discipline (Margolin, 1989; Buchanan & Margolin, 1995; Cross, 1999; Bayazit, 2004) that integrates the arts and sciences (Cross, 1982; Pugh, 1982).   “Leadership studies” is a broad, integrative field that currently draws theories, models, principles and perspectives from the arts, social sciences and humanities.  
  In its broadest sense, design is concerned with nothing less than the transformation of the (natural) world and the reordering of human social relationships (Dilnot, 1982).   Leaders intend and produce change at personal, organizational, social and cultural levels – and the changes they produce may also affect technology and material culture.  
  Designers serve clients.   Leaders serve followers.  
  Design is a “practice” (Schön, 1983; cf. Cross, 2001 and Doloughan, 2002) -- requiring intentional focus, learning, development, application, reflection, and conscious improvement over time.   Leaders may become intentional about reflecting on, growing, and owning their leadership practice. (Cf. Drucker, 1954 and Zahra, 2003). Self-leadership may be viewed as “designing oneself as a designer of change.”  
  Designers and their clients begin the design process aiming to bring to realization a design intention (Nelson, 2001).   Leaders and followers intend real changes (Rost, 1991). They pursue change with the purpose of realizing a shared vision.  
  Design has an emergent quality – the final product cannot be fully known at the outset of the design process. When conditions and constraints change, designers “re-design.”   Leaders and followers begin with a shared purpose and vision that becomes more and more explicit as it becomes operationalized and realized in a dynamic, changing context. (Cf. Heifetz, 1994)  
  Designers co-design with other designers.   Effective leaders collaborate with other leaders and followers; leadership is shared / connective / distributed (Pearce & Conger, 2002; Lipman-Blumen, 1996; Gronn, 2002).  
  Designers communicate with other designers through models, blueprints and other forms of signification. Their success depends on their ability to create and interpret meaning (Kazmierczak, 2003).   Leaders manage meaning (Bennis & Nanus, 1985), frame meaning intentionally (Fairhurst & Sarr, 1996), and lead with meaning (Pava, 2003).  
  Designers use and re-use design patterns (Alexander et al., 1977).   Leaders are guided by leadership principles, models and theories.  
  Design is concerned with the ‘fit’ and appropriateness of a product within the larger environment in which it will be used (Nelson & Stolterman, 2003).   Leadership is context-specific. The leader is the one who understands the ‘law of the situation’ (Follett 1940, 1973).  
  There are good designs and bad designs.   Leadership can be used for good or evil.  
         
 

References

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., et al. (1977). A pattern language. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bayazit, N. (2004). Investigating design: Forty years of design research. Design Issues, 20(1), 16-29.

Bennis, W., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row.

Buchanan, R., & Margolin, V., Eds. (1995). The idea of design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Cross, N. (1982). Designerly ways of knowing. Design Studies 3(4), 221-227.

Cross, N. (1999). Design research: A disciplined conversation. Design Issues, 15(2), 5ff. Retrieved July 12, 2004 from EBSCOhost database.

Cross, N. (2001). Designerly ways of knowing: Design discipline versus design. Design Issues, 17(3), 49ff. Retrieved July 12, 2004 from EBSCOhost database.

Dilnot, C. (1982). Design as a socially significant activity: An introduction. Design Studies 3(3), 139-146.

Doloughan, F. J. (2002). The language of reflective practice in art and design. Design Issues, 18(2), 57-64.

 

Drucker, P. F. (1954). The practice of management. New York: Harper & Row.

 

Fairhurst, G. T., & Sarr, R. A. (1996). The art of framing: Managing the language of leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Follett, M. P. (1940, 1973). Dynamic administration: The collected papers of Mary Parker Follett. H. C. Metcalf, & L. Urwick, (Eds.).  London: Pitman.

 

Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 13(4), 423.

 

Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kazmierczak, E. (2003). Design as meaning making: From making things to the design of meaning. Design Issues, 19(2), 45-59.

 

Lipman-Blumen, J. (1996). The connective edge: Leading in an interdependent world. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Margolin, V. (1989). Design discourse: History, theory, criticism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

 

Nelson, H. (2001, August). Leadership by design: The praxis of intention. Retrieved May 13, 2006 from http://www.advanceddesign.org/publications/art-3p-08-01-01.htm

 

Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2003). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

 

Pava, M. L. (2003). Leading with meaning: Using covenantal leadership to build a better organization. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

 

Pearce, C. L., & Conger, J. A. (2002). Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

 

Pugh, S. (1982). Design – the integrative-enveloping culture – not a third culture. Design Studies 3(2), 93-96.

 

Rost, J. (1991). Leadership for the twenty-first century. New York: Praeger.

 

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

 

Wolford-Ulrich, J. (2004, August). Seeing servant leadership through the lens of design. Unpublished paper presented at the 2004 Servant Leadership Research Roundtable, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA. Retrieved November 21, 2005 from http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2004/pdf/ulrich_seeing_servant.pdf

 

Zahra, S. A. (2003). The Practice of Management: Reflections on Peter F. Drucker’s landmark book. Academy of Management Executive 17(3), 16-23. Retrieved July 21, 2004 from EBSCOhost database.