What is purpose design?

Can we design purpose and sustainability and how?

How can a clear purpose lead companies towards a more sustainable future?

Janette Friis is an entrepreneur who is driven by the idea of helping all kinds of teams and organizations to a sustainable and meaningful future. Janette has a master’s degree from Aalto University and is interested in how creativity and design practices can help us solve the complex planetary problems we are facing.

The meaning behind purpose design, or in Finnish called “Merkitysmuotoilu” is that meaningful accompanies are resigned for the sustainable future. This can be done by transforming businesses into ones that have a positive impact to the nature and society. The nature is important to the businesses, so it is important to keep it in good shape.

The key points that Janette shared regarding purpose design are to discover and understand, to research and ideate, to solve and act. In the presentation, Janette explained that it is important to think and do sustainable choices for the company’s future.  The presentation showed two goals and point of views which were described as a corporate social responsibilities and corporal social opportunities.

This means that we, as workers, have two individual thinking styles regarding the company and the task, but it doesn’t remove the fact that we have responsibilities over our actions.

Even though we would use word such as “green”, “all-natural” and “plastic free” it doesn’t automatically mean that it is fully sustainable, unlike the name makes us understand. What is sustainability then? It means that we are sustaining all life in Earth, and making it long-lasting. We also need to think what is the mindset we want to have while doing the purpose design. In purpose design, Janette shared that having a planet/life centred mindset is important.

Can purpose design be part of the solution?

Yes – Definitely! Purpose design, Merkitysmuotoilu, can be a helpful tool when we are thinking about the future of businesses. The following questions allow us to think, what kind of things we would need for our company’s future:

• How does the growth look in the future?
• How does the business look like in the future?
• What does the customer service experience and expectations mean in the future?

Participatory methods mean that we are making all kinds of people make an effect on our decisions. Basically, this gives the people a time when they can be influential.

The method can be used in multiple ways. It can be used in a way to improve the company’s profit, and it is a great tool for the needed improvement too. The question still remains, what are the reasons why participatory methods should be included in work? By using the mentioned methods, we have an access to the new world and then we could have a room for the bold ideas. It also has another profit; when we use these methods, we give a voice to the people, who normally don’t have a chance to be heard.

Here  you can see the live video from the Waffle Wednesday event.
LinkedIn Janette Friis

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