As interest grows in design as an efficacious form of open
inquiry integrated with an effective approach to action—i.e. inquiry for action or thinking for doing—it is important to
keep in mind that design is not a method or recipe for prescriptive reaction
but an intentional stance one takes towards life. It is also important to keep
in mind that good design is not just another approach to problem solving.
Design is a process for determining desired directions to take and strategies
for following through with actions that result in the realization of desired
outcomes or states of affairs in organizations and other social systems. Design
in organizations—governmental and business—is played out in three different
ways in the guise of organizational
design competence (see Figure below).
Organizational Design Competency
As a leadership stance, design competence is the capacity to
create or recreate whole organizations or major systems within organizations.
As a management approach, design competence is the requisite ability to create
tools, procedures, processes, structures, and other instrumentalities that
support the operations of successful organizations. As an interface between the
organization and its constituency, design competence is the form of expertise
that creates products, experiences or services for clients, stakeholders and
society as a whole.
Design competence is the ability to make desired changes in
the right directions, for the right reasons using the right processes. It is
driven by what is desired to be brought into the world rather than what is
feared about the world as it exists.
