Designing With and Within Public Organizations

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Building Bridges Between Public Sector Innovators and Designers

Design practices increasingly appeal to public organisations as a new and promising approach, but how can we make collaborations between these two different parties successful? The new book Designing With and Within Public Organizations examines this.

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Many contemporary societal issues have grown to be too complex to solve with traditional approaches. It is no wonder that design practices increasingly appeal to public organisations as a new and promising approach. The methods, techniques and mentality of designers is particularly promising to develop a new perspective for social issues. However, the way in which public organizations operate in practice is not always in sync with the ways of working of design thinking. Recognizing the enormous differences between the two, is essential for the success of the impact.

In the book Designing With and Within Public Organizations, author André Schaminée introduces the art of context building – creating and maintaining the right context within public organizations for a fair, thorough yet manageable design process. Based on numerous cases, the author explains the fundamental differences between how designers and public organisations think about change, cooperation and power, and how these differences can be bridged.

The first part of the book introduces, in clear chapters, change management, stakeholder management, coalition building and power from a design perspective. In the second part of the book, the author explains how the new insights need to be applied to create and maintain the right context for designs within public organizations.

Designing With and Within Public Organizations offers clear advice on how to ensure that a carefully executed design-thinking process actually leads to the desired change.

Reviews

‘Without a doubt one of the best books I’ve ever read on the topic.’ – Professor Thomas Fisher, Director of the Minnesota Design Center, USA.

‘Die Niederländer sind immer weiter vorn’. – Page Magazine, Germany.

‘With this book, Schaminée gives a voice and handle to a new generation of designers who passionately take up the task that today’s politicians leave behind: designing our society.’ – Professor Paul Hekkert, Industrial Design, TU Delft, The Netherlands.

‘The book is recommended as a vade mecum both for designers (…) and for public sector organizations.’ – Form Magazine, Germany.

‘Onmisbaar boek (…) om eindelijk het verschil tussen leefwereld en systeemwereld te overbruggen.’ – Primo The Netherlands.

‘I’m full of desire to recommend this book to anyone interested in creating the future. The reason is that this book is full of wisdom to tackle social issues that cannot be dealt with by conventional problem-solving methods’. – Note.com, Japan.

About the author

André Schaminée is a pioneer in the field of design. Working from Twynstra Gudde, one of the Netherlands’ leading consultancy firms, he has built a business in successfully bringing design strategies to public organisations. Schaminée was trained as an urban designer, founded two record companies and he is a guest lecturer at various art and design schools and universities. He also works as a trainer in the field of management.

Title: Designing with and within Public Organizations
Author: André Schaminée
Paperback
192 pages
25 x 18 cm
ISBN 978 90 6369 497 5
Now available through BIS Publishers and Amazon.com.