Posted on Thu 10/01/09 in Designing Organisations
If an organisation is defined as:
a group of people that pursue a shared goal, which controls their own
performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.
The word itself is derived from the Greek word ὄργανον(organon) meaning tool.
…then I want to collect inspiring evidence of the ways in which we know as individuals how we belong to these organisations, societies, communities, and explore the sometimes blurry boundary between them. How for instance do we know we belong to the city we live in, that’s signified by the physical infrastructure, the road signage, but also the things people say, the side of the road we walk on etc. Similarly, we know we belong to the company we work for by how we recognise the social norms that we see everyday in the uniform. How do these vary from culture to culture? How much more ‘designed’ or accidentally informed are they in say Japan, when compared to Spain? Or between Microsoft and Riverford Organic farm in Devon? or Al Queda for that matter?
The brief is to collect the evidence, photographs, video, signage, posters, things people say, uniform, logos, system diagrams, art, anything that makes tangible and evident what was otherwise invisible and intangible.
The reason? To bring together people from different disciplines, designers and non-designers, researchers, and business minds to think about what is it about great design touchpoints for organisations, communities, cities, groups of people, and how does it enable them to behave within those groups?
If you’re interested, drop me an email nathan@ideo.com.
Commenting is closed for this article.