Monday, January 09, 2006

Design Wisdom

In November 2005, the Center for Balance by Design facilitated a panel at a BuildBoston workshop titled Gender Synergy and Teamwork. This program consolidated some interesting reflections on the design process. The panel was composed of Frances Bronet, the female Dean of Architecture at the University of Oregon, Bob Knecht, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering Design at Colorado School of Mines, and Sumru Erkut, Ph.D., a social scientist and Associate Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women. There was agreement among our panelists and program attendees of the following:

 Design follows power (contrary to the popular belief that form follows function)..
 An unexamined design repeats itself.
 The design process, and the systems, structures and artifacts designed, can equalize power.

The capacity to envision and create processes, systems, structures and artifacts that equalize power has profound implications for design education, design leadership and the future of teamwork. My hypothesis, based on my research and observations of gender-specific strengths, is that men and women have varying approaches, preferences and capacities to inspire, own, share and transfer power. When structures supporting an equitable power distribution (versus traditional power-advantage structures) are clarified and made visible to all, most people will support the more equitable structure.

This is a lot to think about. If we could equalize the power equation, everyone could be free express thoughts, feelings and wisdom.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home