“The Government has decided to create a University of the Air”

60 years ago on 6 February 1966, Jennie Lee tabled a White Paper to Cabinet titled University of the Air.

Critically, it did not say things like ‘We are Open to People, Place, and Methods’. It didn’t even use the name The Open University.

But what it did do – and in only 3 pages – was design the space of opportunity within which the OU would be designed.

And the document itself, and the interviews Jennie Lee gave, also reveal far more about the design process than only reading the content. In that paper are the scars of 3 years of negotiation, patience, and the slow creation of complex entity.

It also reveals the character and attitude of Jennie Lee when you consider her as a designer of the OU – not just a politician, project manager, or leader.

Here’s the talk on Jennie Lee as a designer given at the end of last year that explores the design ‘process’ Jennie Lee went through, and the characteristics and  competencies that required, as the lead design of The Open University.

I’ve written before about Jennie Lee and I freely admit that I am totally biased when it comes to what she achieved (and, especially, how she did this).

So I won’t repeat it here.

Instead, to mark the anniversary, here’s the summary of the design process and the qualities required if you consider Jennie Lee as the Lead Design of The Open University.

The Process

So, here’s my version of the real design process of the OU:

1. Start with a vague and unconvincing notion
2. Wade through the swamp of indifference
3. Face the Blank page of uncertainty
4. Endure and enjoy the mess of people
5. Give it away for others to finish

Now, that doesn’t look much like the double diamond or any other design process you might have come across. The reality of a lot of design is that it is a messy, difficult, and convoluted process that rarely matches neatly coloured diagrams.

Procedural diagrams rarely preserve nuance or complexity.

The Qualities Required

One of the ways to approach such complexities is to really apply human qualities

1. Design Shepherd
2. Enemy of indifference
3. Holder of uncertainty
4. Designer of people
5. Creator of incompleteness

Again, these are probably not the sorts of skills you usually see in a design job advert – even though they are exactly the sorts of skills that are most valued by employers (I speak from direct experience here…).

And maybe this is something that remains a response to the AI challenge in the creative industries – if designers are anything, they are enablers: of futures, people, ideas, visions, not just thinker or doers alone.