Navigating Tension Through Strategic Imagination
Navigating periods of change, regardless of a client’s current position or aspirations, is fundamentally an imaginative and strategic journey. Every project operates within a dynamic tension: between vision and feasibility, ambition and constraints, organizational strategy and audience expectations.
Consistently confronting the reality of where a vision aims to go versus what an organization can practically support and what audiences truly desire. Instead of viewing this tension as a problem to be solved, we could see it as a productive force. It is within this space that stronger ideas emerge, ideas shaped by thoughtful compromise, inclusive thinking, and deeply resonant creative outcomes.
We should ask ourselves:
How do you navigate this tension and still arrive at meaningful, impactful solutions?
The answer lies in deliberately applying a series of interpretive and strategic lenses that bring clarity, alignment, and direction to complex systems.
A Multi-Lens Framework for Clarity and Alignment
The Cultural Lens: Bridging Past and Present
The cultural lens seeks intersections where the present connects meaningfully with the past to generate new opportunities. Culture is never static; it is cumulative and contextual, shaped by memory, identity, and shared experience. By examining historical patterns, social rituals, and prior solutions, we gain insight into what persists, what evolves, and what is ready to be reimagined.
This lens involves:
Studying the contemporary cultural landscape
Understanding historical and societal context
Analyzing cultural and market analogs
Mapping trend trajectories and social signals
Conducting audience ethnography
Design anthropologists and cultural theorists such as Clifford Geertz emphasize that meaning emerges through the interpretation of lived experience, not surface-level observation (Geertz, 1973). Similarly, Raymond Williams’ concept of “structures of feeling” reminds us that culture often shifts before it is formally named (Williams, 1977).
The Philosophical Lens: Defining the What
The philosophical lens helps clarify and reinforce our beliefs, as well as our decisions about what to reject. It defines the ethical, ideological, and intellectual foundations of a solution. This lens provides a clear sense of “rightness” in our way of thinking, ensuring that decisions are both effective and principled.
This work includes:
Reviewing academic and industry publications
Studying historical and philosophical frameworks
Consulting expert panels and advisors
Engaging in peer critique and review
Herbert Simon’s work on the Sciences of the Artificial underscores that design is inherently value-driven, rooted in choices about preferred futures (Simon, 1969). Likewise, Nigel Cross positions design thinking as a distinct epistemology, one that balances logic, intuition, and moral judgment (Cross, 2006).
The Organizational Lens: Designing for Viability
The organizational lens ensures that solutions align with what is sustainable, viable, and strategically sound for the organization. Even the most compelling idea fails if it cannot operate within the realities of nature, governance, operations, economics, and leadership culture.
This lens involves:
Natural Systems Analysis and Effect Timelines
Decision mapping and governance analysis
Deep internal immersion across teams
Auditing data, analytics, and performance metrics
Engaging leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
Roger Martin’s concept of integrative thinking highlights the importance of holding opposing constraints simultaneously to create better strategic outcomes (Martin, 2009). Similarly, service design literature emphasizes that value is co-created across organizational touchpoints, not delivered in isolation (Stickdorn et al., 2018).
The Aspirational Lens: Creating the Intent and Direction
The aspirational lens brings clarity to all aspects. It defines intent and what the solution ultimately invites people to engage with. This lens communicates the future state: not as a distant vision statement, but as a practical and testable direction.
This phase includes:
Strategic planning and alignment sessions
Ideation and co-creation workshops
Prototyping and scenario modeling
User testing, feedback loops, and iteration
As Don Norman notes, meaningful innovation emerges when desirability, feasibility, and viability intersect (Norman & Verganti, 2014). The aspirational lens ensures that this intersection is intentional, human, and emotionally resonant.
Designing Futures People Want to Belong To
A compelling solution incorporates multiple perspectives instead of relying on a single viewpoint. It examines various lenses, cultural, philosophical, organizational, and aspirational, to create a cohesive understanding of meaning, beliefs, structures, and intentions. By combining these lenses, we can develop experiences, systems, and narratives that inspire people to envision improved and transformative possibilities.
The ultimate goal is to present a credible and engaging version of the world, one that resonates with individuals and motivates them to actively engage and participate in various settings.
References
Cross, N. (2006). Designerly Ways of Knowing. Springer.
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books.
Martin, R. (2009). The Design of Business. Harvard Business Press.
Norman, D., & Verganti, R. (2014). “Incremental and Radical Innovation.” Design Issues, MIT Press.
Simon, H. A. (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial. MIT Press.
Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). This Is Service Design Doing. O’Reilly Media.
Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and Literature. Oxford University Press.
Photo by Olegs Jonins on Unsplash
