Design for Belonging

**b>A practical, illustrated guide to using the tools of design to create feelings of inclusion, collaboration, and respect in groups of any type or size--a classroom, a work team, an international organization--from Stanford University''s d.school./b>/b>b>“This is a beautiful book. Wise has applied the gift and imagination and lenses of the d.school to one of our most precious questions: how to create belonging.”--Priya Parker, author of the Art of Gathering and host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart/b>Belonging brings out the best in everyone. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, community organizer, or leader of any sort, your group is unlikely to thrive if the individuals don’t feel welcomed, included, and valued for who they are.The good news is that you can use design to create feelings of inclusion in your organization: rituals that bring people together, spaces that promote calm, roles that create a sense of responsibility, systems that make people feel respected, and more. You can’t force feelings, but in Design for Belonging, author and educator Susie Wise explains how to use simple levers of design to set the stage for belonging to emerge. For example, add moveable furniture to a meeting space to customize for your group size; switch up the role of group leader regularly to increase visibility for everyone; or create a special ritual for people joining or leaving your organization to welcome fresh per­spectives and honor work well done.Inspiration and stories from leaders and scholars are paired with frameworks, tools, and tips, providing an opportunity to try on different approaches. By the end of the book, you’ll be able to spot where a greater sense of belonging is needed and actively shape your world to cultivate it--whether it’s a party, a high-stakes meeting, or a new national organization.

“This is a beautiful book. [Susie] Wise has applied the gift and imagination and lenses of the d.school to one of our most precious questions: how to create belonging.”—Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering and host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart

Auteur
Susie Wise is a designer and teacher with experience in the education, tech, and social sectors. She coaches leaders in innovation practices, equity design, and storytelling for inclusion; is the founder and former director of the K12 Lab Network at the Stanford d.school; and is a co-creator of Liberatory Design.

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, was founded at Stanford University in 2005. Each year, nearly a thousand students from all disciplines attend classes, workshops, and programs to learn how the thinking behind design can enrich their own work and unlock their creative potential.

Texte du rabat

"An illustrated guide to using design to create feelings of inclusion in groups of all types and sizes, from Stanford University's world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka, the d.school"--

Échantillon de lecture
Hello! I’m so glad you’re here.

Belonging begins when we acknowledge each other as people. Typed words on a page may feel distant, but I wrote this book for you. And for us! Because when we work together, we can make the promise of belonging a reality. We can transform our homes, communities, and the world into stronger and more connected places. My hope is that you find a sense of belonging in these pages.

Since we are meeting for the first time, I will let you know that I am a cis-gendered, White woman, currently not living with a disability. I am positioned in our culture as a recipient of White privilege. I am doing this work as an anti-racist ally and equity designer, endeavoring to move the field of design forward using its tools to redesign unjust systems. I am hopeful that you will join me and use these tools to make change happen.

My work is varied, but all of it is rooted in belonging. My through line has always been to empower people to tackle issues—from school curriculum to communitybased social justice to corporate culture—by designing new ways to learn and interact. Through this work I have come to recognize, and to truly believe, that belonging is the thing that matters most. And it’s not just my personal experience that proves it; the science is clear. Studies from researchers like Brené Brown, Claude Steele, and the Mindset Scholars Network show that belonging is the key that unlocks the best in everyone. Kids who feel they belong learn better in school. Elders with a sense of belonging stay healthy and aware. Immigrants who belong thrive in their new communities. Having a sense of belonging leads to flourishing in every environment and group, big and small, from your home to the culture at large.

Belonging helps us to be fully human. It gives us permission to share our talents and express our life force. It enables cooperation, collaboration, and the ability to work across difference. It emboldens our creativity and our problemsolving abilities. When people feel like they belong, they are able to be their best and do their best. Design has the power to change things for the better, to address historic wrongs created through exclusionary design processes. If you want to create change, you’ve gotta make something. But you don’t have to call yourself a designer to benefit from the information in this book; you just have to use its tools to make things happen. Whether you are a parent, manager, teacher, community organizer, or leader of almost any sort, you can design a space that helps people feel they belong. And that’s what I explore in this book: the intersection of belonging and design. I like to express this intersection as “belonging + design” because it suggests that the process is additive, that we’re building something bigger. In this sense, belonging + design = new ways of bringing people together, or even new ways of being people together.

So how do you design for belonging? In the coming pages, I’ll explore three essential elements: the feeling of belonging, the moments during which belonging occurs, and the process of shaping your context so belonging can emerge.

Acknowledging that belonging is a feeling is a powerful way to start this work. While you can’t design a feeling— feelings are personal—you can learn to recognize how and when feelings arise and then design all sorts of things that positively influence those feelings: rituals that bring us together, spaces that keep us calm, roles that create a sense of responsibility, systems that make us feel respected, communications that create understanding, and more. You can also identify the key moments during which we experience the world and intentionally shape them into experiences of belonging. You use these moments to help set the stage for belonging to emerge.

To provoke your thinking and support your exploration, I will introduce a crew of thinkers and doers who represent diverse frameworks for belonging. I’ve dubbed this group the “host-heroes of belonging” in the spirit of writer and organizational thinker Margaret Wheatley, who encouraged leaders to see themselves not as heroes to save others, but rather as hosts who bring people together to begin conversations and launch critical actions. For me, these brilliant people are both notable hosts for an emerging conversation about the possibilities of belonging and also my personal heroes because of how their work has influenced me—sometimes up close and personal and sometimes purely as a consumer of their work. From movies and media they have created to the scholarship and interventions they have deployed, their work stimulat…