Sylvia is in Kabul to work with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in the Techserve Project providing leadership and management support for the extensive projects that MSH has there. She continues to post a daily blog as she has since picking it up from the able hands of Sita who started it as a post-crash [...]
So, if there is at least a demand for a new type of graphic designer from firms doing business differently, what needs to get done for graphic designers to put them into the middle of that new field? What type of mind needs to be added to the core competencies of graphic designers? And is it teachable?
The strategic response to this is going to require some reframing of the situation. While almost everything that we want to happen in Afghanistan is represented as hinging on military success, real economic and social service development is a critical part of the dynamic.
The publicly projected strategy in Afghanistan has continued to be one of a military response to the resurgence of the Taliban and re-invigoration of Al-Queda. This, despite a huge increase in development assistance to the country, has contributed to the perception that the increased effort was indeed nothing but another turn of the (military) screw, a continuation of the Bush approach to the war, albeit with higher levels of resources.
Designing a number of linked innovations across an entire organization requires a method of design that permits a business-wide set of design interactions. That method has to be some form of process that brings in more parts of an enterprise, is intensely collaborative, creates movement towards action and breaks down previous patterns of making decisions.
Finally after months of planning and approvals the systems is being installed
From the conversations we had this weekend, I think everyone I met has lived their life that way. What an affirming moment, after forty years, to understand that all that intense activity was not a flash in the pan, a spark that lit the air once, then vaporized.
The knowledge economy has morphed. What has taken its place is the “creative economy” characterized by product and service innovation that is the key to growth and staying ahead of the competition. And the key to that is “right brain” kind of thinking
Let’s start with the premise that the businesses that employ graphic designers are changing. And what they employ graphic designers for is also changing.
Axel and Sylvia will be moving to Afghanistan in September 2009. Sylvia will be leaving first, around the middle of September, and Axel will follow once he ties a few things up at home, probably towards the end of the month.
(the photo is courtesy of Katy Sears)
