Tag: DoDifficultThings

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Designers as outsiders… and insiders

As designers we are outsiders. The norm is the middle lane. But we want to make things better. To change the direction of travel. To advocate for something different. 

Choosing to be a designer is choosing to step outside. To take a different perspective. To go against the grain in order to see what might be possible.

And all that takes work. So if design feels hard, it may be because of the extra work we are having to swim  in a different direction. But unless someone is prepared to take that risk, then we’ll all carry on heading the same way.

Here’s the tricky part: we are also insiders. 

That’s because we need to earn the right to work with the people we are designing with and for.

Being an insider means we are trusted and that we are in an empathetic relationship with the people we are seeking to influence.

Just as being an outsider takes work, so does the trust and empathy building process of being an insider. But if we can’t convince people to move with us, our ideas may be good for nothing. 

[This post was originally two separate posts on Eiffelover.com published on 1st and 2nd October 2024]

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You only learn when you do difficult things

This is my catchphrase for the start of workshops: ‘You only learn when you do difficult things.’

It is a reminder to expect things to be difficult when we try to do something new. We often learn something in order to make something we can’t do easier. And we should expect to put in some activation energy during this process to reach a place of greater ease.

But if left at that, this is quite a passive interpretation. 

A more active interpretation is to use your sense of what is difficult to orientate yourself to where the learning opportunities are. And this, I think, is the sense in which this catchphrase was meant when I originally heard it. The words come from my friend and mentor in Problem-Based Learning, Prof Søren Willert.

In problem-based learning, we are looking for problems as an opportunity for learning. In these instances, learning isn’t general, it is tightly bound to the specificity of the problem.

Seeking difficult things might actually serve as a good compass for where to focus our learning. A place where there is work to be done, where we can hopefully make a positive contribution and learn along the way. We mustn’t expect it to be easy.