Public policy design
Dialogue with María García Holley
Architect and art historian, she is currently Director of Arts and Culture of the British Council for Latin America. Her work develops at the intersection of cultural and creative industries, urban affairs and public policy design.
Q: What is the role of design in shaping public policies?
Considering design as a methodological term in the construction of public policies is quite novel; it has gained importance over the past 20 years. However, if we think of design as a plan to follow, a route, or a navigation chart, we realize that it has always existed. Since the beginning of time, plans have been drawn up to achieve certain objectives, but typically these plans were quite hierarchical, designed at convenience, or imposed. Think of the design of a military strategy, for example; these were plans that responded to certain regimes and hierarchies and usually answered to a single leader (often a man) who "designed" that plan.
The way in which the concept of design has evolved to integrate it into public interests (public policy), is that it now opens up the possibility of sophisticating and strengthening plans with less hierarchical and more transversal knowledge. And this goes from integrating a diversity of views, removing cognitive biases, understanding lived experiences, to recognizing contexts. It's not that design comes in to save us, for me, it's not about anything other than doing things well; and doing things well means taking into account all these elements when projecting a roadmap. Design thinking is just that; it's being aware of these influencing elements and the importance of the ways in which things are studied and intervened, beyond the mere subordination to a plan. After that, we can incorporate market logics that further sophisticate the plan; for example, if we talk about public policy in a service design context, we must consider how much time people are willing to spend on a procedure, how this procedure affects people's lives, and if you are designing for women, you must ask: What time is the procedure open? Does it interfere with work? With caregiving tasks? Is the office located in an area accessible by public transportation? Is communication easy to access? Are the instructions clear? etc. Those and other more anthropological questions are what we now brand under the logic of design thinking, but it's nothing more than doing things well, considering all the factors that can influence.
I like to use the analogy of building a building because architects, who are also designers, use a systems thinking logic, and this is precisely what design brings to the table. To make a good building, we have to think about the systems that compose and surround it: its urban, historical, and social impact; its use, how the plumbing facilities will connect with the city's water system; commercial logics, if it sells, if it rents, if a neighborhood is gentrified or not; and the user experience when entering the building, passing through common areas, and getting to a room.
Everything is thought from an integral design logic, and public policies don't always manage to think about all these things. That's why design is so important for shaping public policies; because through specific methodologies, we can bring to the table all the components and factors of a public challenge.
Q: Why does co-creation and co-design matter?
For many reasons, I believe that co-creating and co-designing is about validating the different experiences that exist, and above all, not imposing. The lived experiences and historical, social, or heritage lessons that exist in a community cannot be overlooked when designing public policies because they will end up responding to a partial logic of the problem. When we bring more people into our design room to co-create, we will be able to see social dynamics that perhaps we had not seen, or we will identify our biases. Then, doing things well becomes more feasible. Because doing is easy, but doing well is very difficult, and that is for me the differentiating factor that design brings to the table. Nowadays this prefix "co" is very important because we have to be co-responsible for the world we live in, and we all have to be involved in solving our common problems.
From a government perspective, it is always pertinent to put on the table the value that ideas and people's experiences bring. And that's why it is very important to validate and appreciate co-design and co-creation exercises, and this goes from considering specific fees for the time invested, to making people participate from other logics. I think that as long as we don't professionalize ideas and don't give them the value they have, these processes and the transformation they can bring will not be taken seriously.
In the crowdsourcing process, sometimes tokenism is committed, and it becomes a completely instrumental thing. That's why it's important to sustain these processes and level the playing field because everyone's opinion is equally valuable. And in this sense, instructions, methodology, goals, and dynamics must be considered. In a trendy manner we call it co-creation, but in the end, it's a consulting system, and it's more than that; it's a knowledge system, of sharing, and systematizing existing knowledge. Therefore, I believe it is relevant to dignify the work and experiences that all people bring to the table.
Participant in the service design workshop for general directors of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico. Creative Policy Program of the British Council, 2019. Courtesy María García Holley.
Q: What public policies are in place to promote design logics?
If we think that promoting design per se as a sector, discipline, or thought is the final point of a chain of public policies, there are few examples. But I do see that little by little, the value of analyzing challenges from a design perspective is beginning to be understood. Design logics are being used in other sectors; for example, in the cultural field, there are conversations around the illicit auctions of heritage assets, and I think that's important because it highlights the importance of knowledge and of gaining it back.
In Mexico, there is the Jalisco Innovation and Design Promotion Council, and there are attempts to strengthen government social communication departments with designers and people from the creative industries. There is also "Original," a public action that seeks to promote not only ornamental design or fashion, but also seeks to recover knowledge, techniques, and other practices that integrate the country's cultural heritage.
And before, ProMéxico promoted creation from these design and innovation logics, and also object design, through export and import policies.
I think that design and its interaction with public policies have a much longer history in the United Kingdom. The Design Council is an important example because it has government funds and works in all design logics: both in service design and design thinking, but also in promoting design, organizing the design biennial and various design markets. And there's also the Policy Lab, which consists of a group of design consultants hired by the government. This model is interesting because it provides its services across other sectors and ministries of the government, and addresses issues from customs to health, all under a systems design logic. A lot of the work we do at the British Council is to create alliances and explore how we can learn from the best practices in the world.