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67 Random Thoughts on Design

Recall that last week I was the featured speaker, along with the visionary and inspiring Mayor of Seoul, at Korea Design Forum 2008. For that event, I created a list of "random" thoughts on design—that is, I excavated my brain to extract the main design ideas I've been shouting about off and on for the last 15 years. After the fact, on the long trip home, I began to mess with the list. The product (of the moment) is presented below:

**"Great things" are more valuable than not-so-great things. (The "duh" "epiphany.")
**"It" [Design] is everything-ubiquitous.
**Everybody's doin' it.
**If "everybody's doin' it," then how do we do it differently-sustainably?
**Everybody will do "it" differently. (But "design zealots" in Japan are about the same as design zealots in Italy.)
**"It" works only if it is "a way of life." (Apple. BMW. Cirque du Soleil. Starbucks.)
**Consider my term-of-choice: "Design-mindfulness." (Design-mindfulness is a universally shared attitude.)
**"It" does not work if it is a "program"!
**"It" is not about "cut and paste," not about sticky-noting a rock star designer—this may, in fact, be counterproductive.
**Designers must become a cherished "part of the family," not "those weird creatives."
**Designers as "dreamers with deadlines"—creative & loose ... with hardass deliverables.
**It's already faddish. (To say it is not to do it.)
**Don't try to "engineer it"—there is an essential "spontaneity" dimension. (Southwest Airlines.)
**"It" starts with the vendors and the vendors' vendors—and especially includes packaging and delivery folks. (And parking lot attendants. Think Disney and the gum-free Orlando airport.)
**In the long run, the "Mittelstand" will make the difference! (National-regional design prowess is powered and sustained by middle-sized companies headed by fanatics.)
**"Design hegemony" applies to the 3-person accounting shop.
**Acquiring design firms is (very) tricky; "they" don't readily fit into ordinary bureaucracies.
**There are no "exempts"—"it" applies as much, albeit in a different way, in purchasing as in product development.
**IT IS NOT ABOUT "MARKETING"! (Though marketing is a piece of it—like everything else.)
**The entire "supply chain" must be on board.
**As always, "MBWA" [Managing By Wandering Around] rules—embedding something new in a culture is a "walkabout" affair.
**"It" is about the way every individual conducts himself or herself. (E.g., the hotel housekeeper, restaurant busboy.)
**We [most of us] live in a "service economy." Design achievement, design dogmatism, applies as much to service "products" as to goods-lumpy objects.
**Design applies as much to a "PSF" [Professional Service Firm] as to a bank or car wash. (From dress code to calling card to flowers in reception to the look & feel of Client reports—to religiously capitalizing the "C" in Client whenever the word is printed to referring to you & the Client as "We.")
**Aesthetics and usability are equally important—with perhaps a slight edge to usability. ("'It won a prize' is the ultimate criticism."—Don Norman. The burning question: "Is the building livable?" Not, "Gosh, it's pretty-in-plan.")
**There is a "bet the farm" element at play—Dubai, Apple, China's Olympics.
**Great design does no less than "change the way we experience the world."
**Design is about "love" and "hate," not "like" and "dislike"—and hence the key to emotional bonding, internally as well as externally.
**When it comes to shaping behavior, there are few tools comparable to interior design and office arrangement—e.g., putting marketing and new product development next door to one another.
**There must be a far higher than normal dose of autonomy-accountability—love of the odd and oddball throughout the enterprise—in the end "it" is about perpetually renewing "value-added through creativity-freshness-spontaneity."
**Since we are dealing with artistic expression and open-endedness, a restless ethos of "trying a lot of stuff, fast" and then "trying again, fast" is of paramount importance.
**"It" must show up in the schools by age 5.
**"It" becomes the chief organizing principle for education.
**When it comes to aesthetics, you get most of "it" from the genes you were dealt. (You can "train in" appreciation, but not artistic flair.)
**As a result of the inescapable need to start the reconstruction process that will underlie a self-regenerating "soft economy" by reinventing-revolutionizing our schools, the transition to a "new [soft] economy" will likely be about 25 years.
**The cataclysmic shift described above—autonomy, creativity, the arts front and center—demands a "Jefferson" (powerful artist-visionary-politician) as national-regional-urban leader.
**Beware of engineers! (Said with affection—I am one.) They (we!) are reductionists—design is about wholes.
**Beware of MBAs (Said with no affection, even though I am one.) Analysis is imperative—but also reductionist. In "real life," emotion rules—but not at the B-schools!
**The education bit is less about aesthetics and more about encouraging individualism—to take a risk on design, you must have a burning desire (to the point of willingness to suffer) to do things differently. (Schools—ours, yours, everyone's—are brilliant at suppressing creativity and "excessive" shows of passion.)
**Capturing "best practice" only goes so far.
**"Six Sigma" can be a deadly enemy. (Tighten down too hard—bye bye creativity-spontaneity.)
**In "design world": Gender differences are ... enormous.
**Women buy most stuff, hence women must design most stuff. (And be very amply represented in management ranks—for reasons of profit, not social justice.)
**Think: "Success through design."
Think: "Women!!"
**If you are interested in selling to Europe and the U.S. and Japan (etc.), then you must explicitly (!!!) focus on the over-50 market. (For example, think "7/13"—Americans buy 13 cars in a lifetime on average, 7 when they are 50 or older.)
**If you are serious, the Chief Design Officer [and/or Chief Experience Officer or, per Kevin Roberts, Chief Lovemark Officer] must sit at the same level as the CFO. So, too, the Chief People Officer!
**"It" must be on every (literally) agenda; in project reviews of every type "it" must hold its own with, say, the budget discussion. (Every = every.)
**You'll never be able to explain "it" to the analysts in so many words—hence it will always be to some extent an act of faith.
**Steve Jobs is god. Alas, Steve Jobs is too abnormal to learn from. (Apple is a great example of design primacy, but SJ is "10-sigma man.")
**Design competitions at all levels of society-business must be very big deals.
**Community—small as well as large—investment in the arts (festivals, museums, etc.) is imperative.
**Buy art. (All businesses of all sizes.)
**In the public sector, "it" starts at the airport for foreign visitors especially—an experience that includes signage, traffic management, cop courtesy, air quality, etc.
**You can do a lot for 2 cents! (Think Singapore—details to follow.)
**And don't ignore the subway map. (Think London.)
**Or the public toilets. (Think Paris.)
**Be merciless about urban trash—spend yourself poor if necessary on the removal thereof. The political leadership must be directly involved.
**Good design transforms healthcare facilities (especially hospitals)—and abets healing.
**Good design in eldercare facilities extends life and enhances quality of life—critical as the elder population soars.
**Small things are often (usually?) more important than big things.
**"Design Is Free" is closer to the mark than you would think.
**Process design excellence is a matchless tool—emphasizing aesthetics (!) as much as practicality.
**Throwing money at problems is almost always a dumb thing to do—Design Excellence included.
**Training in "service excellence" is often a better "design investment" than capital spending.
**This ain't limited to global enterprises.
**The overall quality and effectiveness of SMEs contributes more to the GDP and tenor-character of a nation-region than that of big ("famous") firms.
**Gandhi and Mandela and Churchill and JFK and Reagan and Thatcher and Sarkozy and Franklin and Washington set the tone to an incredible degree—their "personal style" was their "brand." ("It" starts with personal style of the tip-top leadership team. Sorry to be politically insensitive, but who would give a hoot about Tibet if it weren't for the look and style of the Dalai Lama?) Boss at any level: You're either on the "it" boat—or not.

Over to you ...

Tom Peters posted this on 05/28/08.

Comments

Thought #68: There is no such thing as design. There is only re-design and it's a constant.

Posted by Mark JF at May 28, 2008 9:00 AM

Thought #69:

Truly great design
is like a haiku poem
pure, clear and perfect

Posted by Mark JF at May 28, 2008 9:02 AM

OMG Mark--love love love the haiku analogy!

Posted by tom peters at May 28, 2008 9:22 AM

What I love most about this posting is not so much the content - which by the way is brilliant. What I love most is once more seeing Tom using the ‘list’ as a tool. I adore lists - I would love to be remembered as a founder member of the LLS (List Lover Society) In these days of high tech I think the simple ‘list’ is one of the most under-estimated and useful tools that all leaders and managers can use for the most effective implementation. I remember a piece of Tom Peters wisdom on this Blog a few months/years back about two actions every day we should all do. I may have got the words wrong but you get the direction – Tom please correct me if necessary:

Action Number 1 - Write a list
Action Number 2 - Work through the list

To me that is sheer beauty – maybe I need to get out more!

Long live lists!!!

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 28, 2008 10:28 AM

Trevor, I don't think your post is off-message as The Beauty Of The List (and I too, am a list lover) is surely all about Design?
The simplicity, elegance and the effectiveness of TP's communication is that it has been presented in his trademark list format. That format = good design.
Those same points communicated in a long paragraph? They would have been lost, or worse we would not have bothered to read them (no offence TP!).
A good list is about distilling key tasks, actions or qualities in an effective communication that works. And the beauty you desribe in loving lists is all about the principles of good design.

(my list here though, is totally gratuitous!!)

Posted by Ian Sanders at May 28, 2008 11:18 AM

A well written list
well followed through becomes a
record of success

(I'm on a bit of a haiku theme at the moment.)

Posted by Mark JF at May 28, 2008 1:19 PM

I went to my nephew's commencement from Mass Art last week, and, with Tom in mind, I jotted down this quote from Edgar Heap of Birds, who was gettting an honorary doctorate that day: "We are the front line for emotion on this Earth--the artists."

Posted by cathy mosca at May 28, 2008 2:35 PM

“Mittelstand? I remember Steve Ballmer giving us a "Mittelstand. Mittelstand. Mittelstand" in Munich. When was that? 2005?”

Posted by Harald Felgner at May 28, 2008 4:46 PM

If you want design to be a part of everything, then maybe it is a bad idea to have a Chief Design Officer.

For example, if you have a highly motivated team developing and marketing the next version of the Gerbilator product line, do you really want them looking to some corporate staff person (which is how they will most likely perceive the CDO) for the "design" content?

It's fine to have experts on call for particular aspects of the design...a visual-aesthetics person to help create the physical shape of the product, a software useability person for the interface design...but shouldn't the way it all hangs together be the responsibility of the product team?

Posted by david foster at May 28, 2008 5:40 PM

Tom .... As usual these are all great words but they do not 'cut it' when you actually have to design and build something... This is a oversimplified list of words about a serious subject.. I can tell you a story (my apology if you have heard it from me before) that shows what real design is all about ... I was sitting across the table from Aaron Cohen (the so called father of the Space Shuttle) we were in this office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston - I will always remember the huge American flag behind his right shoulder as it somehow freaked me out.. I was excited and nervous meeting the great man - I was on a mission but that is another story... I learned a great deal from Aaron that day - I have passed it on to everyone who will listen to me because he told me what is the essence of the problem of design for a spacecraft, computer, social program, international treaty, public policy settings, etc. Aaron told me that design is difficult when you have 7000 of the best engineers in the world under your direction and you have to design and build something no one has ever attempted before - a reusable spacecraft... he being a great guy and a inspirational leader then reflected on all the great people who worked with him over the journey ... but here is his practical wisdom - the secret to good design is implementation and the secret to implementation is good design... it is the interface between the two that screws us all up... if we go from design to implementation too early then we have to go back to design and that creates problems... if we stay too long with design then we have to build whatever it is we have designed or miss our deadlines and face up to all those problems... he had a piece of metal held in a plastic display - the whole thing was tiny - sitting on his desk.. he picked it up and said that is my prize possession because it is the first piece turned in a lathe for Enterprise (the prototype shuttle) the day that was turned I knew we were going to actually build something... yeah we wanted to build something pretty, something elegant, something that artists would get excited about BUT we had to build this ugly duckling because of two unrelated events... the big ugly tank comes because funding was not there at the time we needed it to solve our design problems concerning reusable fuel tanks, so we came up with this really ugly 'quick fix'... and no one would build a box like the shuttle to go fly anywhere in but all our graceful designs with curves and style go out the window the day a genius around here just decides to design and build a tile that simply dissipates heat... later I held that tile in my hand - it had been heated up to some incredible temp for me - yet remarkably I could hold it in my hand will no sense of heat coming from it.. Aaron explains the tile dictated the design... when you have tiles you need as much or as many flat surfaces as possible to stick them on... that is why the shuttle is a flying box not because Aaron is not as cool a designer as Steve Jobs... the problem with lists and theories is the real world gets in the way... the people who design things are amazing: the people who work with them to implement their designs are incredible... when they come together and produce an iPod,Eiffel Tower,free trade treaties, head start programs, fair trade processes, Facebook,Twitter, etc their magic is way beyond anything one can describe with overly simplistic lists.. Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at May 28, 2008 5:59 PM

Thanks for the 67!

I am a professor here in the Middle East, a broadcaster and a societal design enthusiast.

What this list has done is remind me that design is something that penetrates every cell of our being.

it is great to talk design BUT if you don't live it and remind yourself that design is evolving what are you doing?

Talking and talk is cheap without action...

Posted by james piecowye at May 29, 2008 3:34 AM

Richard - I know Tom's big enough to defend himself and heaven knows I'm usually the first to criticize people who just go "ra ra" at everything he says. But on this occasion - notwithstanding the great story - I think you've missed the point. People in Tom's position have to be the "lunatic fringe" of evangelical messiahs who bang on and on ad infinitum about something. The points you make are valid but isn't Tom's message that you've first got to get design onto the agenda? Sure you need to think about how to manage it but you can't manage what you haven't got in the first place. And in fairness to Tom, it wasn't presented as an action plan but a series of thoughts: think about it, take what works for you, ignore what doesn't and get on with it.

Posted by Mark JF at May 29, 2008 2:01 PM

MarkJF...Thanks for your comments... I hear what you are saying... I agree with you... Except I certainly do not see Tom Peters presenting us with the "lunatic fringe" of design - I guess that is the only point I make when I write what you seem to want to defend on Tom Peters behalf ( I suspect you speak for the majority who read these comments on this site - I would be surprised if this were not the case because Tom is a great showman and a businessman to boot)... The "lunatic fringe" in design I would expect to be a wild and wonderful place full of new ideas, images, themes, creativity, fun, excitement, joy, the unexpected, contradictions, challenge, mischief, freedom, expansion. etc... By his own admission Tom's list has been around a long time it is hardly the cutting edge of design... I guess we go to a rock concert to be entertained and perhaps we read Tom's lists for the same purpose? But why get people to think about design if you are not going to follow through on it and put it into action... Why go to an idea factory or a design specialist like IDEO if you are not going to actually build something, change something, innovate something, etc. Sure there are many places in the world (indeed more and more places regrettably) where design is not the first but the last thing that comes to mind - I am talking about government policy, manufacturing, services, retail, etc. The "systems led people" you meet in many workplaces do not think about bold or even simple design issues - as you might expect they think about compliance... I am probably really "pissing you off" by now Mark and I suspect that I am doing that to all Tom's friends who simply say here on this Chattering Cluster words like brilliant list etc etc... Well I do it because I believe that any really brilliant design or list about design is born out of creative or disruptive tension and differing points of view not out of "group think" and adoration... You may find this hard to believe Mark but I often earn my living by going into organizations large and small where there is a lack of design and I see it up close and personal the resistance to new ideas, change, fun, joy, creativity.... This list obviously does not do it for me - it is full of things we already know... I have a list of one item - yeah just one item but I know that it works because I have gone and applied this list to many workplaces over the past five years... For anyone out there who is really and truly on about great design I offer my alternate list of ONE ITEM... My approach is pure Simplicity... You can use it with front liners or CEO and executive management... Use 'stretch words' for one month - for example a stretch word for my friend Trevor Gay might be 'complexity'...keep track of the words your chattering clusters, clans and tribes use in your workplace and introduce a new word each day for a week... introduce a 'stretch word' a word that makes you think outside your ideological bent, mindset, framework, or paradigm... Note after a month just how many people are using these terms - note too how you can so much more easily now have conversations about design... Why? Because you have people once again thinking out loud and best of all thinking for themselves... Then leave a few deBono books lying around the place and it may just change your world.... Again thanks for your rebuke I do appreciate it Mark - honest and frank feedback is the best gift anyone can give me or any C21st business for that matter!... this comment is offered in the spirit of fellowship, Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at May 29, 2008 5:40 PM

Richard, I don't disagree with much-most of what you said. Yet I have an abiding view of life: If it ain't been implemented it's still "new"! That is, I heartily applaud Korea's effort to put design front and center as a national economic strategy--and I don't really give a damn if it's cutting edge or not. The Mayor of Seoul is working diligently on cleaning up several block areas--one at a time. To be sure, there is nothing "cutting edge" about clean streets and tidy sidewalks and nice signage. But is arguably exactly the right prescription for Seoul at the moment. (Other "cooler" parts of the program include the likes of heavy investment in new museums.)

While it is more "fun" for me to talk about the IDEOs and Imaginations, Seoul's sparkling neighborhoods and new green spaces are a wonderful start on a "culture of design" per my lights.

Posted by tom peters at May 29, 2008 7:37 PM

I'm wih Mark JF on this one. And Richard. The issue is twofold. First, folks have to be motivated to act. A list, a word, the vehicle or method that enables them to see they have a problem or an opportunity,,,to get it on the agenda as Mark JF observes...doesn't matter. The biggest barrier to taking action is often in recognizing the need to do so in the first place.

The next element is an infrastructure that enables it to go from design to reality. Lists or words alone aren't gonna cut it. It's leadership commitment. It's resources. It's time, tools, training, and cash. It's selling the concept, making the case for the why it's important, what's in it for the folks who have to make it, deliver it, or service it. It's removing the "barriers" to getting it done be it procedural, resource, or people who talk the talk but don't walk it. It's accountability, gaining acceptance, getting folks engaged and here's the word again...culture. This is the execution or implementation piece and if you don't do this 1000%...you still have the same problem you started with. Give the folks who have to design it, deliver it, produce it, or service it nothing but a list or a word...that is one cluster that isn't just gonna chatter...it's gonna laugh, shake it's head...and start looking for a new place to work.

Cool, cutting edge, insert any adjective....great. All to often, particularly in government, service, or manufacturing industries referenced, the design issue however isn't with the deliverable that goes to the external consumer. It's changes that are needed in the design of the processes, policies, or systems that produce it. Not the coolest cutting edge stuff. Kinda boring actually and hard work because execution often requires people skills and passion to do it. Maybe that's why it never gets addressed or fixed perhaps.

Posted by Dave Wheeler at May 29, 2008 9:47 PM

What a beautiful response, TP, to Richard's comment. Thank you. Reading it I thought of all the neigborhoods in the 'hood and wondered if the officials and neighbors would just do the things that they can do, like implementing regular clean ups by simply picking up the trash on their streets, and, of course, not throwing any down, that would be a great start to re-building, a re-designing, of sorts. The communitys are already built.

Many times we want to go for the major stuff or simply the stuff that catches the eye when the simple stuff, not to say at all that other stuff does not need addressing, would at least lead to the best beginning. It's all about that beginning, that mindset of change that makes the difference. I must also admit, thinking about the erection of grandness amid squalor that such a site can be admirable and inspiring, like a wild flower patch among the naturally greening of some neigbhorhoods that have had burned out houses in its stead. Remaining dilapidated houses still stand among such greenery. How's that for the greening of neighborhoods?

It is in the spirit of the aforementioned beginning that I applaud the mayor of Seoul for his efforts. But I also most certainly appreciate the new museum, undoubtedly cutting edge. Funny...years ago the City of Detroit opened up one of the largest, most beautiful museums to honor the accomplishments of African Americans. I was hired in the year it opened. It was marvelous just walking around that building. It's a marvelous design! Initally, there were many supporters, but as time went on the visitors tappered off.

Now, there are other issues for the tappering to be sure, as I witnessed it up front, as many other museums have had, including the DIA, the home of the extraordinary Deigo murals. But what struck me profoundly was the necessity of doing the small stuff, such as picking up the trash in your neigborhoods that would carry over to honoring those who have gone on before. (Honoring yourself is key.) It's always the small stuff out of which larger, cutting edge stuff, can be built for a more surer foundation.

Disclaimer: I repeat...I am not at all naively suggesting that there is one solution to such problems as dilapidated neighborhoods, nor am I suggesting that this human problem, of not doing the simple stuff, is endemic to a certain people. (Of course, we know that here with just our decisions of avoiding the small stuff in our businesses.) I am, however, passionately suggesting that there are always things that we each can do individually to jump start those larger more cutting edge things out of which the smaller things are the foundations for such great success. Build inwardly; the outward design will be beautifully implemented and more appreciated.

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 30, 2008 3:00 AM

"I am not at all naively suggesting that there is one solution to such problems as dilapidated neighborhoods ..."

Judith, I have seldom run across a comment with which I agree so wholeheartedly. My only quibble is that to some extent I do believe that there is "only one solution." For example, the not insubstantial successes of so-called "community policing" have stemmed from cops working like social workers with communities to upgrade the little human touches that create civil society. And if that ain't a "design case" I don't know what is.

Posted by tom peters at May 30, 2008 5:23 AM

TP...thank you so much for bringing up community policing. A very good friend of mine, Dr. Joseph Jett, has been the Chief of Police of a suburb of Detroit, Southfield, MI. Dr. Jett is a wonderful man born and raised in the deep south to sharecroppers.

Dr. Jett consults with the State Department regularly. His thesis was on community policing and I read the document from cover to cover. (Wonderful thesis!) His passion for the community and law and order makes Southfield both safe and a great community to live. Another city, one in which I live, do not have the same policies, nor do their policemen follow and respect its citizens, perhaps more if they suspect they do not live in the community. I have recently moved to the area and have to, with all due respect, set some policeman straight.

In fact, I had to get none less than three policemen straight just the other day, albeit in respectful determined tones. I think after a few select choice words on my part on a few occassions they will understand that my passion for doing the right thing is great. But my passion for excellence equals my passion for what's right. To my understanding doing things right and excellence are synonymous.

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 30, 2008 7:20 AM

How great is it that TP agrees "wholeheartedly" with my response?! I am also most assured (note the agreeable and acceptable "only quibble"), that the very minute he disagrees with my response I may hear of this too. This is also most agreeable and acceptable. Thank you, TP!

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Posted by Judith Ellis at May 30, 2008 7:25 AM

By the way, I agree. There is one solution to many situations. But my point about one solution, perhaps not explained well, is that people want to throw money at situations that need so many other components. For example, the cops can't spend valuable time showing a father how to save, nor can he/she necessarily tell a single mother about the importance of not having children out of wedlock. Yes, for all you single mothers out there, even hip affluent ones, such things are not the best solutions!

Posted by Judith Ellis at May 30, 2008 7:37 AM

"**Beware of engineers! (Said with affection—I am one.) They (we!) are reductionists—design is about wholes.
**Beware of MBAs (Said with no affection, even though I am one.) Analysis is imperative—but also reductionist."

---

these two points - infact they are one - are key.

understand that and implement accordingly and you are all set.

and then:

"**Since we are dealing with artistic expression and open-endedness, a restless ethos of "trying a lot of stuff, fast" and then "trying again, fast" is of paramount importance."

that 's all you really need to know.

Posted by jkh at May 30, 2008 11:07 AM

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