Design and the importance of 'role fluidity'

In the last newsletter, I wrote about designers as the masters of the in-between. As people who help clients, organisations and others navigate liminality. The territory of the in-between is unknown. It is ridden of uncertainty, meaning a lack of information, and ambiguity, which is uncertainty you cannot resolve with information. What are skills and capabilities that can help designers to navigate through the liminal? 

In this and upcoming newsletters I will discuss this question by highlighting some of the practices that have helped designers in my research. One of such practices is role fluidity. 

The skill of role fluidity

Role fluidity refers to the practice of adopting different roles and forms of involvement depending on the needs of audiences (organizational members, clients, project managers) in a specific situation. This practice can be compared to the way 1980s children’s cartoon character Barbapapa fluidly changes shape — from heterogeneous blob to house to bridge, one after the other — according to the needs of the situation he is confronted with. One of the designers in my research said:

We are exactly like Barbapapa — we can change into anything, take on all sorts of roles . . . [by] identifying what is going on, and what is needed. 

Practices associated with role fluidity

When performing role fluidity it is important for designers to:

• sense clients’ needs and questions. To identify what is needed in a situation, designers need to create a constant awareness of social interactions and atmosphere in design projects. It refers to having ‘a sort of an antenna’ or  ‘sensor’. Sensing needs and anticipating questions allows for recognizing opportunities for contribution.

• change roles during projects, instead of fixating their own roles. For example, ‘morphing’ from facilitator to strategist to artist and to trendspotter, depending on the needs in projects. In a way the designer is a polymorph with a broad skillset that can be adapted and applied to a variety of contexts.

• be open for trading personal involvement. When a designer cannot fulfill a role, it might be important to be willing to step out of the project and let others join in who can. In such regard, one design job can trigger fluidity rather than signaling a fixed structure or the execution of a rigid plan. 

The importance of sensing emotional and experiential cues in design projects

Role fluidity, thus, can take various shapes in design work. It highlights the importance of sensing emotional and experiential cues of people involved in design projects - especially of those who feel uncomfortable with the uncertainty and ambiguity related to it. Instead of looking ‘inward’ and nurturing own creative processes, outward attentiveness can help designers to better respond to the emotions, and needs of those involved in design projects (such as clients and organisational members).

Empathy, as we all know, is key to design. My research shows that for designers it might be important to take this a step further and not only understand how others feel, but also proactively sense it and respond to it. Taken together, this story about role fluidity shows that design is much more than developing new products and services. It is about managing and shaping interactions in the ‘in-between’ with attention, purpose and care.

References

Laurey, N.R, Huysman, M.H., Berends, J.J. (2017) Creativity as a service: how creative agents foster a liminal experience, Academy of Management Proceedings 2017 (1), 15620

Laurey, N.R., Soekijad, M., Berends, H. & Huysman, M.H., chapter 3 “Facilitating Liminality: Designers as Ceremony Masters”, in my dissertation thesis (http://my-thesis.info/PDF/Laurey/mobile/index.html)