" . . . companies aren't limiting their concerns about design to their products and services; they are also addressing the designs of processes and even entire organizations. The very core of a business -- it's mission, goals, products, and services, as well as its organizational structure and the way it pursues opportunities -- are now open to consideration from a design perspective. Reenginneering, the byword of just yesterday (in 1990), is fundamentally about design--or rather redesign. Also corporations are turning for advice on business strategy to design firms like Larry Keely's Doblin Group in Chicago, and The Understanding Business in San Francisco for advise on how to improve access to complex information. A leader of an organization--or division, or team, or process--is its designer. In an age of creativity, after all, designing will become a larger part, even the whole, of what a leader does."
This is from the book Jamming: The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity by John Kao.
What inspires me about leaders as designers is the enduring nature of what they have created. It's familiar to us when we see Monet's Water Lilies, hear Beethoven's 9th Symphony, stand in front of the Space Needle, or ride across the San Francisco Bridge. It's something that we can sense without really experiencing it again. We just know that it will last. But, where can we find it at work?
It can be difficult. You have to look real hard, or even stand back a bit. With my work at The Company, I find it when I'm at the airport, when I see families, friends and loved ones reunited. Creators of transportation are leaders and designers. When I see people reunited, I find that moment, that reason why I am motivated to make a contribution within The Company and what it offers to the world.
I don't know how long that feeling will last. But, just to recognize the feeling is enough to know, for now. Even in nature, the beauty of a design can last a moment, and still last a lifetime.
