The question goes, “Do you think a guy that ran a furniture company is the right pick to steer Ford through the coming upheaval?”
As a younger designer, I said I could never work inside a company. Straight out of school, my wife and I opened our Brooklyn-based design studio, which we ran for 11 years, until a beloved friend and design ethicist said I needed to move to Grand Rapids to design for and learn from Jim Hackett. At that time, Jim was the CEO of Steelcase. So I did. Once inside his company, it didn’t take long to realize why a beloved friend and design ethicist wanted me to learn from this creative servant leader. Jim has since become a caring mentor and role model to me. He is a passionate advocate for design, so I’d like to offer my unauthorized design-based perspective on why “a guy that ran a furniture company is the right pick to steer Ford.”
It’s all about how Jim sees. Discussing the decision to name Jim as Ford’s new CEO, Bill Ford said something to the effect, “Jim sees the future and he knows how to talk about it.” Wizardry! I’ll chase a bit of magic from the world by confessing that Jim isn't a wizard who sees the future: He is a systems thinker who sees emergence within systems.
“The phenomenon of emergence takes place at critical points of instability.” These points of instability introduce novelty (disruptions) in the system. To system thinkers capable of seeing the meaningful patterns in complex systems, emergent phenomena are opportunities to innovate. And if that’s not good enough, these opportunities are networked in patterns that give instructions on how to responsibly and desirably design for these novel conditions. That pattern network provides insights into emerging needs, roles, burdens and behaviors—the guideposts and guardrails of great design. This is how Jim sees, so instead of being blindsided by and reacting to “external” disruptions, he recognizes opportunities for today’s innovation that will address tomorrow’s needs.
Linear, historically-derived thinkers simply don’t see the interconnected system as the grounds for insight-driven innovation, so they can’t see the opportunities. Many people who recognize the value of systems thinking still are overwhelmed by what they perceive as a chaotic mess of seemingly discrete data points and “things.” A systems perspective doesn’t focus on the things: It focus on the relationships between things, and that brings orderliness to the chaos and reveals meaning inherent in the mess. This is why Jim will humbly and honestly say, “I’m comfortable in complexity” and is able to embrace the largest overall system (life context).