Author: Mieke

In October of this year I was invited to talk at the Relating Systems Thinking & Design RSD13 symposium at Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The keynote can now be watched online here: https://systemsorienteddesign.net/rsd13-oslo-keynotes/

In the talk I shared a study on examples of services and programs that deal in a smart way with societal challenges. These challenges are often symptoms of fragmentation, individualisation and disconnect, and they require interventions that re-connect people to each other, to their purpose, and to learning and creativity. In the talk I showed how these interventions were all developed through a sophisticated design reasoning process which combines a deep understanding of human beings with systems concepts such as non-linearity and complexity. The keynote is a sneak preview of the book I am currently writing with the working title ‘Designing to (re-) connect’.

Creative professionals are increasingly involved in multi-stakeholder collaborations for social innovation, developing interventions to address complex societal challenges. Why do creative professionals and other stakeholders decide to participate in these collaborations, and to what extent are these expectations met? An obvious reason is to contribute to solving that challenge and to create value for society. But when working on complex challenges related to for example financial debts, healthy lifestyles or biodiversity, short term quick fixes are often not feasible and other types of value might be expected and experienced beyond societal impact. In this paper, Jotte de Koning and I present a study in which we investigated expectations and experiences of participants in creative collaborations towards social innovation, and found that in addition to value for society, people expected and/or experienced a wide variety of types of value – value dimensions -, including enhancing their professional network, learning, commercial value, and value for reputation and identity. Differences between expectations of value of participants could lead to various tensions in the collaborations, but we also found that some types of value, such as ‘network energy’, have the potential to contribute to future collaborations and to ‘continuous social innovation’. Conversations and reflection on expected and experienced value is essential for successful collaboration on complex societal challenges.

Co-author Jotte De Koning and I would like to thank all respondents of the ten participating social innovation projects for their contribution to the study, and we would like to especially thank Marie Van den Bergh and Eva Legemaate for their assistance. We thank Gerbrand Bas, Marjolein van Vucht and Federatie Creatieve Industrie for their support in conducting and coordinating the study. We received very valuable feedback from Jo van Engelen and the editors and reviewers of She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. The research was funded by CLICKNL.

#socialinnovation #complexity #design #creativeindustries

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405872624000765

My name is Dr. Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer and I am an independent researcher, speaker, author and teacher in transdisciplinarity and human-centred & systemic design practices for social innovation. I study these practices, apply them to societal challenges, and share this knowledge through my publications, education and talks. As owner of Meerkat Consultancy I provide training and advice about various social innovation methods and practices to public and private organisations. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to know more and/or would like to collaborate.

Last year, I was invited by Karyn Zuidinga and Rob Brodnick to talk to them on their Positive Turbulence podcast. In the episode, Karyn and Rob explain, “we delve into the intricate world of systemic design. Systemic design merges systems thinking with design theory to address complex challenges not by dissecting them into smaller parts but by enhancing their interactions. Mieke explains how this approach can transform organizational behaviors and lead to significant societal shifts. From rethinking university systems for better student well-being to using visual tools for collaborative problem-solving, we explore how systemic design fosters deeper understanding and innovation. Join us as we uncover the potential of thinking in systems, revealing how interconnected perspectives can lead to meaningful change.” Listen to the episode here: https://www.positiveturbulence.com/podcasts/interconnected-exploring-the-world-through-systemic-design/

I recently left my job at TU Delft. At my farewell, I explained my decision and how it is related to my view on careers through a story that I wrote for my colleagues. You can find it here on Medium: https://medium.com/@miekevanderbijl/from-here-to-there-the-non-linearity-of-careers-41e7d0a208da

It’s about time we explained what we mean with ‘systemic design’. Four years ago we founded a Systemic Design Lab at TU Delft where we explore how systems thinking might support designing for complex challenges. Since the opening of the lab we have had many conversations with colleagues, students and other designers about what systemic design is and why we need it. We’re also increasingly being told it is a fad and that we are overpromising what it can do. Fair enough, we have probably not been very clear about what it is and what we claim it can achieve. So what is it that systemic designers design, why do they design these things and how do they do it? Well, that depends on who you ask. In this blog post on Medium, I introduce a few different perspectives on the topic

How we can design for human relationships to positively enable systemic change? In a rapidly changing world, organisations, communities, and social networks need to be able to continuously adapt. From complex systems theory we learn that strong human relationships are at the core of such adaptive behaviour, and promote mutual learning, collective creativity and motivation. But what can we do to shape these relationships? In the study presented in this article I explored how design expertise can be used to design conditions – e.g. services, platforms and events – that enable positive human relationships. I also argue that an understanding of complex systems behaviour and  of the role of human relationships might help professionals with design expertise to more intentionally design for complex systemic change. The study is one of the reasons we are now developing a course ‘designing for complexity’ for our master students. I would also love to know if the ideas presented in the paper resonate with design practitioners.

http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/4121/974

Since the outbreak of the COVID19-pandemic we have been working on promoting student wellbeing in higher education. In this Medium blog post I share my perspective on the interconnection between learning, wellbeing and human connection.

https://medium.com/@miekevanderbijl/learning-is-joy-wellbeing-challenges-in-pandemic-higher-education-f74aaae67ec4