Three conscious questions you should ask yourself

Ask yourselves and your team some questions to activate your inner sight when creating and designing solutions. These questions are conversation starters and doubt provokers to challenge and reboot your mindset. Remember: the way you work mirrors the way you think.

1. Why are we doing this?

Challenging the aim of the project and the purpose of our work is key. This question might sound uncommon and daring, but only cause we are not used to challenge the true purpose of what we do. It's a generative question - no simple answers - that will uncover your and your team's values, so that you can align your work to your credo and leave a mark. As Viktor Papanek said:

“Your are responsible of what you put into the world. And you are responsible of the effects those things have upon the world.”

2. Is it going to have a positive impact on the health of the individual, communities and planet?

William McDonough says that nature does not have a design problem, but humans do cause most of the time (let me add) we do not have our inner sight activated to challenge how we do things. This question will help you to always keep in mind the bigger picture and carefully consider the consequences of your choices. Rephrasing both William McDonough and Sarah Ichioka & Michael Pawlynthe, authors of Flourish:

Our job is to design as planet, by embedding our work in the net of life that holds any intervention.

3. What's so common today that we fail to recognise how wrong it is?

This question comes from George Aye, Co-Founder and Director of Innovation at The Greater Good Studio, and I love it. It points out what we still fail to foresee, cause we are looking too closely at our job. It's like the water for the fish in David Foster Wallace's famous speech. What is water for the fish is the mindset for us. By questioning every habit, protocol, methodology and tool, you can redesign everything.

It is our responsibility to redesign design itself.

During a talk at a Design Council event Jon Alexander, Co-Author of the book New Citizenship, admitted “We need to redesign everything” and Tendai Cheste, strategy manager for BBC, replied “I think we need to redesign design itself”. To redesign design itself everyones' help will be needed. By moving the focus from the status (the job title) to the practice (the act of design and creation) we can - and should - unleash the designer in everyone, so that we can all contribute to shape a better future.

These three conscious questions are not for designers with capital D only, they are for any conscious human being who wants to create a significant impact where the majority of our time is spent.

At work.