I was reading an article about design and it got me thinking about what design actually is and who are designers when it comes to enterprises.

We tend to have a stereotypical idea of this. At least, when I think about design, images of diagrams and blueprints pop up in my mind, or a physical product. And, when I think about a designer, I think about an especially creative person, possibly with a very specific personal style and a laid back or a little pompous attitude.

But when I started to think about it, I came to a conclusion that is actually very far from this.

The concept of design is about conscious decisions and deliberation. To consciously decide how things are supposed to for example work, behave, feel, or look like. And deliberately ensuring that they in fact do work, behave, feel, or look like that. Given that, designers can be basically anyone that makes decisions that affect the end result of something we are working to build, produce, or deliver, irrelevant of if they consider themselves designers or not.

Design is not rocket science, well actually a lot of design is required when building rockets or even theorising about rocket science. But my point is that design is not something only a privileged few can do. We all constantly design things both in our private lives; for example when we rearrange our living room, when we decide what is to be for dinner for the next family gathering, or when we plan our next vacation, and in our work life; for example when we define the KPI's, we set the OKR's, when we change how we execute a process, when we implement a system, or when we set policies. In fact everything we do is designed, and every time we do something that is not perfectly following a previous design, then we altering the current design or creating a new one.

We may choose to get help from a professional, for example if we really want something to be perfect, when we don't have the time to do it ourselves, or when we simply have so much money that we can't be bothered. But, it is first when there is a high level of complexity that we really need to get expert help. For example when the thing that is being designed has a lot of components that need to interoperate, when it needs to work or behave in a way that requires certain material or chemical properties, or a specific shape. Most of us would for example never try to design a car or an airplane, the soup we use for washing our dishes, or even our clothes.

So how we design and what we expect from the act of designing is interesting.

When it comes to material and tangible things we would never even think about starting to build something without at least a rudimentary design. And if it was something that is to be produced in more than a handful of examples or if it was really expensive to produce, we would probably design every last detail before we start building it, or at least as much as we could, given the information at hand. At a minimum we would identify all the primary parts and document some rudimentary principles and boundaries for each of them, involving specialists for each part ensuring that the particular part is not only optimal for its purpose, but also that it fits and works optimally with all the other parts. For example it doesn't matter how cool or functional a wing is by itself if it doesn't fit on the rest of the airplane or it is too small to keep it in the air.

But when it comes to immaterial or intangible things like, the functionality of enterprises, organizations, or some parts of those, we are perfectly content to only have a general idea before we start, and then often only about a couple of aspects. Consciously, or probably more often unconsciously, we ignore all other aspects or the larger whole, or the potential "unintended" effects of our decisions. Often these decisions are also hardly even documented. So unlike for tangible things, like cars or houses, where those building them are provided with well-structured plans and guidelines telling them how things are to work, what material to use and how it fits into the structure as a whole, when it comes to intangible things like organizational changes or employee work environment, those realizing them are lucky if they are provided with vaguely defined desires and aspirations documented in a Jira story, a list of requirements documented in Excel or PowerPoint, or simply a few lines uttered in a meeting or sent in an e-mail. Then they are simply expected to correctly interpret it and deliver. At best several aspects have been designed in detail, but it is rare that you see a complete and holistic design, or even a plan, that lists all the elements that need to be a part of it.

If you relate to this, and especially if you are frustrated by this, no matter if you are a decision maker (designer) or an implementer of those decisions/designs, there is a remedy that can help.

EDGY is a newly released Open Source tool designed to help people create better enterprises. It is not the whole toolbox, but it gives you the basics. In EDGY are defined the basic elements required for a holistic view of any design in an enterprise context. EDGY links these elements across disciplines helping the people in these disciplines to better communicate and understand how their part of the design relates to another. EDGY also gives you the basic elements enabling you to formulate your design in a diagram or a blueprint that can be shared, discussed and agreed upon. Ensuring that all understand the final product in the same way and the basic requirements needed from each part of the whole so that its final version fits and works with the others. At least as long as they are built based on the same blueprint.

I would love to hear from you. If you relate, or if you think I am totally off and completely alone with these contemplations :)

If you want more information about EDGY, then check out www.enterprise.design, or reach out to me via a private message.