If we are trying to make the world better, then we need a creative strategy. Design involves two modes of thought: divergent and convergent. The divergent part helps us figure out what might be possible. The convergent part turns that possibility into a plan for action.
A bad idea well executed is still a bad idea. We need creative thinking in the divergent mode to generate new possibilities, so we can choose the best available idea in the circumstances.
Some ideas do come about by accident, but leaving the groundbreaking thinking to chance is not a plan for success.
If we don’t have a creative strategy for solving a client’s design brief, then we might lose a client. But if the problem we are trying to solve is much bigger, like how do we bend the construction industry into being an ecological force for good, then we have much more to lose if we don’t have a creative strategy.
Yesterday’s riff on beer brewing gives us some clues about what that strategy might involve:
- We need to understand the existing system.
We need to connect to patterns of the past. Ways of doing things that have worked before. - We need to connect to patterns of the future. As the expression goes, the future is not evenly distributed. If we look, we can find examples of the future already in the present.
- We need to learn from patterns that work – for example, understanding how living systems thrive within their ecosystem limits.
Above all, we need to give structure to this creative work. Because if we don’t design our creative process, then we leave change to chance.