![](\"https://preview--mindthesystem-08b7f.stackbit.dev/_static/app-assets/designthefuture.png\")
Agnes has a passion for the intellectual and humanitarian challenges that public service brings. She spent 17 years in the well-respected and rigorous Administrative Service of the government of Singapore. During this time, she gained much policy and service delivery experience, not to mention networks, through 6 extremely varied portfolios: defence diplomacy, labour policy, community organisation and social welfare, public service transformation, and land transport.
\nHer niche – and passion area – is in transforming organisations through design. Design became the clarion call for Agnes’ career when she witnessed the transformative power of design in creating citizen value and agile organizations, when she was leading the charge for developing innovation approaches for the government, at the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2011, she wrote an internal manifesto that articulated the Singapore public sector’s ambition to be citizen-centric, and firmly put design at the heart of public sector transformation. She set up the Singapore public service’s first in-house design team; it is estimated that today there are 30 such teams scattered around various government agencies in Singapore. In 2013, she was sent by the Singapore Government on a one-year attachment to a global design consultancy, IDEO (San Francisco) to live and breathe design. Back to Singapore in 2014, she helmed the transformation effort of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, where for the first time, an engineer-heavy organization saw a transportation system not as sets of infrastructure, but rather as delivering a loveable transport experience to citizens.
\nAgnes headed the DesignSingapore Council as its Executive Director from November 2016 to May 2018. The Council is the national government agency in Singapore for all things design, and its vision is for Singapore to be an innovation-driven economy and a loveable city by design. Agnes and her team charted national policies and programmes for growing the design ecosystem, advised business and government leaders on using design to transform their organisations, worked with academic institutions to strengthen design education, and helped design businesses grow.
\nFrom 1 May 2021, Agnes is the Founder and CEO of MindTheSystem, a consultancy and training outfit whose mission is to help government, non-profits and private sector build their internal capabilities and confidence to address complex systems challenges, through a combination of Futures foresight, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking and Cognitive Behavioural approach. She has distilled her 20 years of experience working in complex environments into a ,methodology and practical tools to help teams and leaders navigate complexity - but most importantly, to build the mindset and muscle memory required to address their own complex challenges.
\nAgnes graduated with a First Class B.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford, Lincoln College in 2000. She went on to do a M.A. in International Relations in the University of Chicago in 2001. She has an Advanced Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Coaching, by the Centre for Coaching in the UK, accredited and recognized by the British Psychological Society and International Society for Coaching Psychology.
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Examples of programme:\n\n* Understanding and navigating complexity: Leadership mindsets and behaviours\n\n* Design-driven innovation in the public sector\n\n* Leadership programme curation and curriculum development\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/training_icon.svg","image_has_padding":true},{"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"full-width","subtitle":"\"Coach me\"","title":"Coaching","content":"***\n\nTo support project teams in gaining self-mastery and confidence required to guide difficult change management, and provide psychological tools for intervention in change management.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/coaching_icon.svg","image_has_padding":true},{"image_align":"left","image_width":"fifty","actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"lorem-ipsum","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","subtitle":"\"Start conversations\"","title":"Facilitation","content":"***\n\nA quick intervention to point you in the right direction. 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People, in wanting fast answers, often default to the most obvious solution or tick-the-box mentality. This does not solve complex problems.\n\nIn complex problems there are different perspectives and conflicting goals and unseen causal relationships. Complex problem-solving hence require us to hold the space for discovery. The key tool of affecting systems change is not command and control, but rather influence.\n\nBut it is possible to make systematic progress, as long as we mind the system of decision-making.\n","actions":[],"image_alt":"lorem-ipsum","media_position":"top","media_width":"fifty","align":"left","type":"feature"}],"background_color":"none"},{"align":"center","grid_items":[{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_alt":"Image of future world","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"System 1: Future Operating Environment","content":"*Futures Thinking*\n\n***\n\n#### What would our reality look like in the future; what are we solving towards?\n\nWe help you break down the key drivers in your operating environment, and develop potential scenarios as a reality check.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/photo-1498084393753-b411b2d26b34.jpeg","image_width":"twenty-five"},{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_alt":"Item 2 icon","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"System 2: Stakeholders","content":"*Systems Thinking*\n\n***\n\n#### Who is or needs to be involved, and how?\n\nWe help you identify your key stakeholders, their relationships and interactions as a system, and their roles in the value chain. This helps us be systematic in setting up the governance process of problem-solving: who is in the core decision-making team, who should be co-opted as strategic contributors or partners, and at which stage of the process.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/photo-1511632765486-a01980e01a18.jpeg"},{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_alt":"Item 3 icon","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"System 3: Purpose","content":"*Design Thinking*\n\n***\n\n#### How do we agree on the new future, and take steps towards it?\n\nWe help you and your stakeholders develop a collective vision that can inspire action, and design a set of experiments to learn about possible interventions before you scale them.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/photo-1502101872923-d48509bff386.jpeg"},{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_alt":"Item 4 icon","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"System 4: The Self","content":"*Coaching*\n\n***\n\n#### How am I prepared to guide this problem solving and change?\n\nWith Coaching, we help you and your team develop self-mastery and behaviours that are required of practitioners who deal with complex problems. This includes being comfortable with ambiguity, embracing different perspectives, pivoting quickly, and assuring others to do the same.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","image":"/images/photo-1534185468818-f3eba1d779c0.jpeg"}],"enable_cards":true,"grid_cols":"two","background_color":"secondary","grid_gap_vert":"medium","subtitle":"Interventions on 4 Levels of Systems","title":"Our holistic approach","grid_gap_horiz":"medium","type":"grid_section"},{"form_position":"right","form_layout":"stacked","padding_top":"medium","align_vert":"top","form_width":"fifty","enable_card":true,"submit_label":"Submit","background_image_repeat":"no-repeat","has_border":false,"background_color":"none","form_fields":[{"input_type":"text","name":"Name","label":"Name","default_value":"What's your name?","options":[],"is_required":true,"type":"form_field"},{"input_type":"email","name":"Email","label":"Email","default_value":"Type your email address here...","options":[],"is_required":true,"type":"form_field"}],"background_image_size":"cover","form_id":"primer-pdf","background_image_opacity":0,"content":"## Learn more\n\nPlease fill out the form with your email address and we'll send you a primer PDF document on our 4 systems approach.\n","padding_bottom":"medium","type":"form_section","title_align":"center","background_image_position":"center center","content_align":"left"},{"align":"left","padding_top":"large","actions_position":"right","has_border":false,"background_color":"primary","title":"Let's talk","content":"Unlike other consultants, we love to understand your context first before offering any advice or service. This way we can be sure you get what you truly need, tailored to you.\n","padding_bottom":"large","type":"cta_section","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Get in touch now","url":"/contact","style":"primary","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right"}],"actions_width":"fourty"}],"seo":{"type":"stackbit_page_meta","title":"Why us | MindTheSystem","description":"Why work with us. Our value proposiition.","extra":[{"name":"og:type","value":"website","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:title","value":"Why us | MindTheSystem","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:description","value":"Why work with us. Our value proposiition.","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:image","value":"/_static/app-assets/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","keyName":"property","relativeUrl":true},{"name":"twitter:card","value":"summary_large_image"},{"name":"twitter:title","value":"Why us | MindTheSystem"},{"name":"twitter:description","value":"Why work with us. Our value proposiition."},{"name":"twitter:image","value":"/_static/app-assets/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","relativeUrl":true}]},"template":"advanced"},"html":""},{"url":"/blog/what-service-designers-should-know-about-complexity/","relativePath":"blog/what-service-designers-should-know-about-complexity.md","relativeDir":"blog","base":"what-service-designers-should-know-about-complexity.md","name":"what-service-designers-should-know-about-complexity","frontmatter":{"title":"What service designers should know about complexity","subtitle":"How to implement service design in complex systems","date":"2021-07-06","categories":["src/data/categories/category-2gawohilp.yaml"],"tags":["src/data/tags/design-thinking.yaml","src/data/tags/complexity.yaml"],"excerpt":"How to implement service design in complex systems","thumb_image_alt":"Photo by hreavv on Unsplash","image_alt":"Photo by hreavv on Unsplash","image_position":"right","seo":{"type":"stackbit_page_meta","title":"What service designers should know about complexity","description":"How to implement service design in complex systems","extra":[{"name":"og:type","value":"article","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:title","value":"What service designers should know about complexity","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:description","value":"How to implement service design in complex systems","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:image","value":"/_static/app-assets/blogpost2img.png","keyName":"property","relativeUrl":true},{"name":"twitter:card","value":"summary_large_image"},{"name":"twitter:title","value":"What service designers should know about complexity"},{"name":"twitter:description","value":"How to implement service design in complex systems"},{"name":"twitter:image","value":"/_static/app-assets/blogpost2img.png","relativeUrl":true}]},"template":"post","author":"src/data/team/agnes-kwek.yaml","thumb_image":"/images/blogpost2img.png","image":"/images/blogpost2img.png"},"html":"[A talk by MindTheSystem CEO Agnes Kwek. Originally posted on Medium by the Service Design Network New York Chapter]
\nIn today’s talk for the Service Design Network New York Chapter, Agnes Kwek presented to us the challenges of implementing service design in government and gave us a framework of practices to overcome those challenges.
\nChief among the tools she suggests we embrace when designing for complex problems are futures thinking, systems thinking, and psychological\nchange management. She also suggests a greater emphasis on designing the politics of the design brief, upfront stakeholder analysis and engagement to understand collective intelligence, and spending more time at the beginning of the design process on problem-framing and\nhypothesis formation. Additionally, for service design implementation to succeed, she spoke of a need for a leadership mindset shift where\npeople embrace a mentality of constant improvement and accept failure as part of the iterative nature of the design process.
\n"},{"url":"/","relativePath":"index.md","relativeDir":"","base":"index.md","name":"index","frontmatter":{"title":"Home","sections":[{"media_position":"right","align":"left","padding_top":"medium","media_width":"fourty","has_border":false,"background_color":"none","subtitle":"Clarity for Complex Challenges","title":"MindTheSystem","content":"MindTheSystem equips governments, non-profits and private sector organisations with practices, tools and training to tackle complex problems. We have 20 years of public sector experience with the Singapore government, in futures thinking, systems thinking, design thinking and innovation.\n","padding_bottom":"large","type":"hero_section","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Learn more","url":"/why-us","style":"primary","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right"}]},{"content":"At Pixar, \\[Ed] Catmull probed both systems and processes, after both wins and stumbles. How should the feedback process, for example, be adjusted so a director is given the most valuable possible input, in a form most likely to be well received?...Catmull saw his job as minding the system rather than managing the projects.\n\n*- Safi Bahcall, Loonshots (2019)*\n","actions":[],"actions_position":"bottom","actions_width":"fourty","align":"left","padding_top":"large","padding_bottom":"medium","has_border":false,"background_color":"primary","background_image_opacity":0,"background_image_size":"contain","background_image_position":"center top","background_image_repeat":"no-repeat","type":"cta_section","background_image":"/images/quote-background.png"},{"type":"features_section","title":"Why work with us","subtitle":"Our Value Proposition","features":[{"media_position":"right","image_alt":"Checklist by Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project","media_width":"fourty","subtitle":"We believe in equipping you with a sustained approach to complex problem-solving, which is a system for quality of decisions.","title":"A system for quality decisions","content":"“How did we arrive at that decision? Should a different mix of people be involved, or involved in a different way? Should we change how we analyse opportunities before making similar decisions in the future? How do the incentives we have in place affect our decision-making? Should they be changed?”\n","type":"feature","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Learn More","url":"/why-us","style":"primary","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right"}],"image":"/images/system.png"},{"type":"feature","title":"Growth alongside consulting","content":"Tackling complex challenges is an on-going, infinite game. There is no “end-state” at community-building, education, social services or economic development; only constant improvements and pivots. Consultants who pop in and out might improve certain project outcomes, but your people, who grapple with the challenge on a daily basis, will determine how effective you are going to be. So even as we consult on your project, we focus not just on the solution but also on training your people’s mindset, instinct and behaviours in the process.\n","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Learn More","url":"/why-us","style":"primary","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right"}],"image":"/images/growth.png","image_alt":"growth by Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project","media_position":"left","media_width":"fourty","subtitle":"We believe in developing your teams to solve complex problems. "},{"title":"Our 4 systems approach","subtitle":"Affecting systems change is not about command and control, but rather influence. It is possible to make systematic progress, as long as we mind the system of decision-making.","content":"Through years of practical experience, we have broken down the approach to complex problems into 4 systems:\n\n▶︎️ **System 1:** Future Operating Environment. What would our reality look like in the future; what are we solving towards?\n\n▶︎️ **System 2:** Stakeholders. Who is or needs to be involved, and how?\n\n▶︎️ **System 3:** Purpose. How do we agree on the new future, and take steps towards it?\n\n▶︎️ **System 4:** The Self. How am I prepared to guide this problem solving and change?\n","actions":[{"label":"Learn More","url":"/why-us","style":"primary","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right","new_window":false,"no_follow":false,"type":"action"}],"image_alt":"Puzzle by Gregor Cresnar from the Noun Project","media_position":"right","media_width":"fourty","align":"left","type":"feature","image":"/images/4systems.png"}],"feature_padding_vert":"large","align":"center","background_color":"none","has_border":true},{"title":"Who we worked with","subtitle":"Our Clients & Partners","actions":[],"grid_items":[{"title_align":"center","content_align":"center","actions":[],"actions_align":"center","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"HCLI","image_position":"top","image_width":"sixty","image_align":"center","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item","image":"/images/human-capital-leadership-institute.png"},{"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","actions":[],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"CSC","image_position":"top","image_width":"sixty","image_align":"center","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item","image":"/images/csci.png"},{"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","actions":[],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"DSG","image_position":"top","image_width":"sixty","image_align":"center","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item","image":"/images/dsg.png"},{"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","actions":[],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_position":"top","image_width":"sixty","image_align":"center","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item","image":"/images/nac.png","image_alt":"NAC logo"},{"title_align":"left","content_align":"left","actions":[],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"SUTD logo","image_position":"top","image_width":"sixty","image_align":"center","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item","image":"/images/sutd.png"}],"grid_cols":"three","grid_gap_vert":"medium","grid_gap_horiz":"medium","enable_cards":false,"align":"center","padding_top":"medium","padding_bottom":"none","has_border":true,"background_color":"none","background_image_opacity":0,"background_image_size":"cover","background_image_position":"center center","background_image_repeat":"no-repeat","type":"grid_section"},{"align":"center","grid_items":[{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"Consultancy","content":"I am part of your team that tackles the problem, delivers the strategy, while also building your team’s capabilities.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Learn More","url":"/services","style":"link","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"center"}],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left"},{"image_align":"left","actions_align":"left","image_has_padding":true,"image_position":"top","title":"Training","content":"Team training on the tools and frameworks that we use at MindTheSystem, using peer-to-peer coaching on real-life problems.\n","type":"grid_item","actions":[{"type":"action","label":"Learn More","url":"/services","style":"link","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"center"}],"title_align":"left","content_align":"left"},{"title":"Coaching","title_align":"left","content":"Self-mastery to implement difficult change management, using cognitive behavioural approaches.\n","content_align":"left","actions":[{"url":"/services","style":"link","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right","new_window":false,"no_follow":false,"type":"action"}],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"lorem-ipsum","image_position":"top","image_width":"fifty","image_align":"left","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item"},{"title":"Facilitation","title_align":"left","content":"Workshop design and curation, facilitate powerful conversations, theme weaving, panel moderation.\n","content_align":"left","actions":[{"url":"/services","style":"link","has_icon":true,"icon":"arrow-right","icon_position":"right","new_window":false,"no_follow":false,"type":"action"}],"actions_align":"left","actions_width":"auto","image_alt":"lorem-ipsum","image_position":"top","image_width":"fifty","image_align":"left","image_has_padding":false,"type":"grid_item"}],"enable_cards":true,"grid_cols":"four","background_color":"none","grid_gap_vert":"small","subtitle":"Our Services","title":"What we do","grid_gap_horiz":"medium","type":"grid_section"},{"actions_width":"fourty","align":"left","padding_top":"large","actions_position":"right","background_color":"primary","title":"Let's talk","content":"Unlike other consultants, we love to understand your context first before offering any advice or service. 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I had the immense privilege of serving the Singapore design industry over the past 4 plus years, first as the Executive Director of the DesignSingapore Council, then as the Design Ambassador to Europe and North America, based in Paris – possibly the only such role in the world.
\nI have learnt a great deal about the design industry. The sheer breadth of what is considered design and how it affects our lives is mind-boggling – everything from how we use everyday products like a hair dryer, how we access key services like healthcare and education, how we buy things online, how spaces make us feel, how we express ourselves through what we wear. Design is simply everywhere.
\nAs my next mission in life, I am going to return to the reason why I fell in love with design in the first place – because of its power to transform government and the public sector, and the impact that can have on citizens.
\nDesign’s Transformational Super Power
\nI first came across Design Thinking when I was tasked to develop public sector innovation and service approaches in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009. I spent my first few months into the new role understanding the approaches, which I will tongue-in-cheekily summarise as: (1) every officer should come up with at least one new idea a year; (2) pick up the phone in 3 rings and answer emails in 2 days.
\nTo help you understand the context, the Singapore public service had a longstanding reputation of efficiency. We were at the forefront of e-government services, and had undergone decades-long of process improvement methods such as Six Sigma and Kaizen. There was very little efficiency gains left to be squeezed out of the system. We also referenced heavily from private sector management frameworks and principles, for example, the prevailing language of public service delivery at that time was “delighting your customers”.
\nBut there was one problem: as government, we don’t choose our customers. The act of governing is about seeking the best compromise, you cannot make everyone happy. Certain frameworks and principles, in my view, were out of context or rather had to be heavily caveated in use.
\nSomething was missing, but I didn’t know what.
\nThe a-ha moment came when I was invited to tour a new service centre a Ministry had just opened, which they had designed with IDEO. While others on the same tour probably saw a very lovely space, I saw something completely different. I saw transformed civil servants.
\nThe civil servants who gave the tour were ex- colleagues whom I worked with in a previous posting. I could only describe ourselves, as a sum, as your “typical civil servants”. We wrote rules, sometimes deliberately opaque to prevent people from “gaming the system”, and implementing those rules often required convoluted processes. We were afraid of getting “feedback” from the public, because they invariably were complaints.
\nExcept now during this visit, these same ex-colleagues were saying things like: “we want to be transparent about our processes”, and “we want people to feel guided in meeting their goals”, and “we need to trust our customers if we want them to trust us”, or “we need to talk to the public to understand their experience from their eyes”.
\nSame people on the outside; completely different way of thinking on the inside. I asked myself: what happened to them?
\nDesign happened to them.
\nI learnt that they used the design thinking process to conceptualise the service centre, thinking from people’s needs first and space second. They learnt to listen to peoples’ stories, search for meaning behind those experiences, and came to view their customers as partners in achieving the same goals, not as adversaries. Most of all, they learnt to let go of fear, the same fear I see holding back so many well-intentioned attempts at change and innovation.
\nRight then and there, I saw that in order to transform public sector outcomes, we need to first transform our public officers. Design is not just about the outcomes, although they are important. Design is a mindset; a way of thinking and behaving around problems that puts people first.
\nI had found my answer. I was convinced that we needed to implement design-thinking in the public sector. My team tried many things: we commissioned a series of experiments using design thinking in 4 policy areas, to very limited or even no success (more on that later). We wrote a manifesto which was shared with public sector leadership about how to become a citizen-centred public sector. We visited MindLab in Denmark and NESTA in the UK, and in 2011 set up Singapore public sector’s first very own in-house design lab, and hired designers into the public service. Back then, very few people have heard of design thinking. We had to do a lot of education and awareness-raising.
\nIt felt fantastic, it felt revolutionary. We felt like a small, rag-tag group of people trying to change the world through design. But we fell short of the impact we’d thought we would achieve.
\nWhy?
\nThe 4 Horsemen of Design Death in Government
\nThe problem is that “improved user experience”, the Super-Power of design thinking, alone is insufficient for many of the wicked and complex problems that governments face.
\nIn business, if you can improve your customers’ experience over the competitor, identify and serve previously unmet needs, or refine existing offers for new markets with new behaviours, then the market will reward you. Improving user experience is a strong premise for innovation. This premise further rests on 3 grounds on which businesses function: one, as long as the new idea has commercial value, you go for it. Two, having proven your business case, you can assemble teams, make new hires, invest in technology and start development. Three, the moment the idea stops making money, you can discontinue it. In other words, design thinking depended on an unambiguous goal (profit), a tabula rasa for implementation, and a clear exit strategy.
\nBut governments deal in a very different space. After one decade of observing countless design projects in government, I have discerned a clear pattern why design thinking does not work the same way for governments as it does for business. I call this the 4 Horsemen of Design Death: Trade-offs, Disruption, Committees, and Grandfathering (not what you think it means).
\nFirst, on goals. Governments deal in the space of multiple and sometimes conflicting policy objectives. Would climate-friendly policies increase business costs and reduce competitiveness? Would stronger social safety networks reduce motivation to work? Is “levelling the playing field” the right approach towards improving social mobility? A business can hone into a target market and decide whose experience they want to improve. But for governments who must rightfully serve all, whose experience do you seek to improve, especially if it might mean that one group wins and another loses? The first Horseman of Design Death is Trade-offs, the key reason why our policy experiments using design thinking did not quite pan out. After all, policy is the art of navigating trade-offs.
\nThen let’s look at implementation. Governments operate with legacy systems in policies, technology, HR, finance and procurement. A new idea, or even worse, a disruptive idea does not carry the same connotation as in the business world. There is nothing cool about disruption in government. You are not disrupting the competition, you are only disrupting yourself, and as well as the key essential services that millions of people have come to depend on. You do not want to be known as the government who said, “We are disrupting schools tomorrow!”. Stability is prized above all else. Disruption is the second Horseman of Design Death.
\nImplementation also depends on other stakeholders willing to change how they do things. These could be other departments, other agencies, or non-governmental players or simply the public. The project team does not have direct control of the stakeholders, but can only seek to influence and persuade, usually through Committees – the third Horseman of Design Death. They suck up time and energy, are usually outside the core work of the secretariat, and sprout like mushrooms but are notoriously hard to close down. They may not be as scary as Trade-offs or Disruption, but just the mention of it will be enough to elicit a collective groan from civil servants.
\nFinally, let’s look at exit. Business can pull products, services or teams out of market. But a government can’t simply shut down an aid programme, an IT system, or an agency overnight because “it didn’t quite work out”. I have been involved in closing off government programmes before, and it actually takes longer than setting new ones up. Meet the final Horseman of Design death: Grandfathering. It means to transition a set of people under old rules and processes while implementing new systems for new rules. The greatest fear of civil servants in implementing a policy change is the nightmare of managing a spaghetti tangle of rules, processes and systems for different sets of people. You’d be surprised at how many seemingly minor exceptions have to be managed through manual processes. Grandfathering means that even as a civil servant is considering a new programme, he is already thinking about how he would have to carry the can even long after it fails.
\nHence the clarion call of Design, of the “improved user experience”, simply does not carry the same pull in government. And this is not because we don’t care about people’s experiences, but because there are other important things at stake. Valiant teams have tried design thinking but stumbled at implementation of ideas. One of the key refrains is: “The idea is great, but we just can’t implement it”. At other times, design doesn’t even get its foot through the front door. With all the risks associated with change and unclear benefits, the desire to improve user experience just doesn’t make the priority list. Only for very exceptional and visionary leaders, it does. It is not surprising that I often hear management’s response to design thinking being “we don’t have the bandwidth today, maybe later”, which invariably means never.
\nDesign Alone is Not Enough
\nI still believe in the transformational power of design. I strongly believe that it can create impactful outcomes for citizens, and that it can help the public service become more responsive and resilient. I’m not saying that the 4 Horsemen cannot be defeated, but that certain other conditions have to be in place.
\nFirst, there has to be a really clear, rational and justifiable case for why a government prioritises the needs or experiences of some users, especially if it involves a trade-off against another. The most compelling cases I’ve seen are those that say: improving the experience for this group now will help us hedge against these problematic but undeniable long-term trends. Demographic shifts, climate change, technology breakthrough, social attitudes are all examples of forces affecting the government’s operating environment, which are impossible to influence or reverse. Businesses call these market studies; in government we call it futures thinking – the research and study of long-term drivers and forces, critical uncertainties, and potential scenarios.
\nWhen I directed the Land Transport Authority’s transformation efforts, the CEO at that time explained that design was critical because Singapore was short on land and we cannot continue building roads for cars. Public transport simply could not compete against the sex appeal and status of cars and hence needed to be loveable, not just cheap and accessible. In another example, the Defence Science and Technology Agency invested heavily in design innovation capabilities in its engineers because Singapore’s declining citizen population meant that there will be fewer National Servicemen in the future, and hence any technology has to be intuitive to use. GovTech’s LifeSG was conceived to address Singapore’s declining population, aiming to support young adults’ coming-of-age and navigating parenthood. When design supports long-term thinking, it has the greatest change of defeating the Horseman of Trade-Off. It may even make Grandfathering bearable, and Disruption worth considering.
\nSecond, a designer in government must see his job not as designing one single beautiful solution, but for a set of solutions across different parts of the system. This inevitably involves compromises to the original design ideas. Perhaps while each individual solution might not be as sexy or revolutionary as desired, but they together form a coherent set of interventions to tip the system towards a new state. In other words, design thinking meets systems thinking. IDEO.Org’s Theory of Change model is very relevant for this.
\nA good designer in government is a systems designer. He or she must understand the critical stakeholders in the delivery system, which piece of the puzzle they each hold, their inherent motivations, and what will spur collective action. The job of designer in government is as much about the quality of conversations as quality of solutions. The key tools of a designer here are reflecting aspirations (why is this important to the collective us?), finding common ground amidst different perspectives, search for exceptions (people who are already managing the problem in new effective ways), and helping stakeholders navigate one another. This holds true whether we are talking about balancing trade-offs or coordinating implementation across agencies.
\nAs challenges get more complex, the alliance-building aspect of a designer will only get more important, and this is not just restricted to government. The recent Emerging Stronger Taskforces Alliances for Action are perfect examples of alliance-building conversations at industry or even cross-sectoral scale. The topics covered by the Alliances on the future of robotics, smart commerce, ed-tech, sustainability (to name a few) were the perfect foil for design, and indeed designers were involved in some of the innovation sprints. However, the designer is not only just designing a solution or service to grow new markets, but also a business case that represents a new form of organising relationships or supply chains. If designers lack the systems mindset, even the most exciting commercial ideas could not be implemented in this alliance context.
\nApproaching Complex Challenges with Design
\nThere are many instances where design thinking delivers an important impact to public sector outcomes. I find that design works best when it is applied to a contained moment of interaction between the government and the public. There are many great examples in Singapore of this: HDB Service Centre at Toa Payoh, MOM’s Employment Pass Service Centre, Khoo Teck Phuat hospital, and even the Family Courts have all used design thinking to create a supportive environment for users. The most important outcome from design is relational; we are not just making essential services more efficient, but also providing assurance and improving trust between government and citizens along the way. This trust credit is the source of strength of our social fabric, it allows us as a nation to rally together during tough times like Covid. This alone makes design extremely important for governments.
\nBut in order for design to have a true impact on wicked complex problems that governments have to solve - climate change, helping small businesses stay competitive, improving social services, preserving arts and heritage, transforming industries, re-invigorating communities - then design has to be used in lockstep with Futures Thinking and Systems Thinking.
\nThe diagram below shows how design, represented in the green circle “Humans”, answers different questions in relation to Future and Systems. While we can pursue each domain as a separate line of enquiry, eventually we have to bring the answers together to gain clarity to the complex problem at hand.
\nIn addition, we should use the tools of design – deep human understanding, storytelling, ideation – to support Future and Systems. Good conversations are the channels through which we build collective intelligence and drive collective action. This is a fundamentally different dynamic from Committees: “I want to achieve this goal so please change what you are doing”. The dynamic is “what do we understand about this challenge? what are we trying to achieve together?”. This is essential for managing complexity.
\nIn short:-
\nThis is the key towards designing the future.
\n
Let me give an example. Having established that Singapore is short on land and cannot continue building more roads for cars (Future), the key to getting people on public transport was accessibility, reliability and the emotional connection (Future Experience). LTA adopted design thinking in the conceptualization of Punggol North MRT station, during which designers heard from commuters that they saw MRT stations not merely as transit points but as community spaces (Humans). Designers also identified that the 3 key community stakeholders in the Punggol Digital District– digital businesses, the student community from SIT and residents – would benefit from serendipitous interaction that can lead to talent-spotting and exchange of ideas (Emergent Behaviours). Punggol North station was thus the first MRT station deliberately designed to invite people to hang out in the station. Designing for hold instead of flow was a break with the existing templates, and required the support of land planning and security agencies, who bought into the vision of an MRT station as a community space (Collective Action).
\nA question I frequently get as a Design Ambassador is: “What is your favourite example of design in Singapore?”. My answer always surprises people.
\nTax collection.
\nTo me, IRAS is a perfect example of hitting the bulls-eye between Future, Systems and Humans. What initiated IRAS’ digital push for e-filing way back in the 1990s was actually a very central realization of Humans – that the vast majority of people actually wanted to pay taxes, they didn’t want to run a-foul of the tax authority. Hence IRAS set out to make it as humanly easy as possible to pay taxes, which involved key stakeholders like employers submitting income information back-end to IRAS so that tax-payers do not have to even declare their income statement (Systems). Why? Because as a small country, fiscal discipline will always be an important factor for our survival (Future).
\nWhen I describe to a room full of international audience that all I have to do is to click once to file my taxes (or even not, should I choose so!), I become the envy of the room.
\nIRAS may not have thought of what they were doing back in 1990s as design, but it is essentially a very human-centred mindset, coupled by a clear eye of the future and a formidable systems approach. When civil servants embark on complex challenges, be they called design thinking, digital transformation, or community engagement, they must make sure they are always addressing the whys and hows of Future, Systems and Humans.
\nEpilogue: From The Front Row
\nIn coming to an end of a 20-year career in the public service – a rich, rewarding, messy-at-times experience – I spent a lot of time soul-searching on what I wanted to do next. My ikigai.
\nI had enjoyed a front row seat to the evolution of design thinking in the Singapore government for over a decade. From the first a-ha moment of my ex-colleagues’ mindset transformation to setting up the government’s first in-house design team in 2011 that still exists today, I estimate today that there might be 30+ in-house design capabilities spread across the Singapore government. They call themselves different names like Customer Experience or Digital Transformation, but the design thinking mindset is core to their way of working. Some have even hired professional designers. Public service leaders are also much more exposed to and supportive of design thinking.
\nIn speaking with many of my public sector colleagues, I know they need support to overcome the 4 Horsemen. I highly suspect that they are going through the same emotional journey as I went through years ago: starting off fully inspired by the power of design, and then becoming deflated bit by bit along the way when the impact did not live up to the potential.
\nMy new purpose is to help others overcome the learning curve of how to use design to its fullest impact in government. Frameworks and tools are just the surface – my mission is to build a design muscle memory for approaching complex problems. Design is not something that you do; it is the way that you think and behave. I want to be the coach, the cheerleader, the spiritual support to those who choose to walk the design journey like I did.
\nI have stood on the shoulders of giants who came before me: Peter Ho, who taught me everything I know about complexity and futures foresight, and whom to this date remains the most intellectually curious person I’ve met; Lim Soo Hoon and Lionel Yeo who supported me in bringing design into government; Beh Swan Gin who tireless advocates for design and gave me the opportunity to make a difference; Tim Brown, Paul Bennett and Andrea Kershaw from IDEO who I am fortunate to count as my mentors in design. There are countless others who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, too many to name, and that includes all my teams in PSD, LTA and DesignSingapore Council, my colleagues in the public sector and my friends in the design industry.
\nNow I hope to pay it forward.
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Amet est placerat in egestas erat imperdiet sed euismod nisi. Facilisi morbi tempus iaculis urna."},{"type":"grid_item","title":"Porta nibh venenatis cras sed felis eget velit aliquet?","content":"Facilisis gravida neque convallis a cras semper auctor neque vitae. Dictum varius duis at consectetur lorem donec massa. Porta non pulvinar neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero."}],"grid_cols":"two","grid_gap_vert":"medium","grid_gap_horiz":"medium","enable_cards":true,"padding_top":"medium","padding_bottom":"medium","has_border":false,"background_color":"secondary"}],"seo":{"type":"stackbit_page_meta","title":"Pricing","description":"This is the pricing page","extra":[{"name":"og:type","value":"website","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:title","value":"Pricing","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:description","value":"This is the pricing page","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:image","value":"images/about-3.jpg","keyName":"property","relativeUrl":true},{"name":"twitter:card","value":"summary_large_image"},{"name":"twitter:title","value":"Pricing"},{"name":"twitter:description","value":"This is the pricing page"},{"name":"twitter:image","value":"images/about-3.jpg","relativeUrl":true}]},"template":"advanced"},"html":""},{"url":"/privacy-policy/","relativePath":"privacy-policy.md","relativeDir":"","base":"privacy-policy.md","name":"privacy-policy","frontmatter":{"title":"Privacy Policy","seo":{"type":"stackbit_page_meta","title":"Privacy Policy | MindTheSystem","description":"Privacy Policy for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd","extra":[{"name":"og:type","value":"website","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:title","value":"Privacy Policy | MindTheSystem","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:description","value":"Privacy Policy for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:image","value":"/images/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","keyName":"property","relativeUrl":true},{"name":"twitter:card","value":"summary_large_image"},{"name":"twitter:title","value":"Privacy Policy | MindTheSystem"},{"name":"twitter:description","value":"Privacy Policy for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd"},{"name":"twitter:image","value":"/images/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","relativeUrl":true}]},"template":"page"},"html":"At MindTheSystem, accessible from https://mindthesystem.com, one of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This Privacy Policy document contains types of information that is collected and recorded by MindTheSystem and how we use it.
\nIf you have additional questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us. Our Privacy Policy was created with the help of the Privacy Policy Generator.
\nMindTheSystem follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites. All hosting companies do this and a part of hosting services' analytics. The information collected by log files include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. These are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable. The purpose of the information is for analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users' movement on the website, and gathering demographic information.
\nLike any other website, MindTheSystem uses 'cookies'. These cookies are used to store information including visitors' preferences, and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users' experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors' browser type and/or other information.
\nFor more general information on cookies, please read \"What Are Cookies\" from Cookie Consent.
\nGoogle is one of a third-party vendor on our site. It also uses cookies, known as DART cookies, to serve ads to our site visitors based upon their visit to www.website.com and other sites on the internet. However, visitors may choose to decline the use of DART cookies by visiting the Google ad and content network Privacy Policy at the following URL – https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
\nSome of advertisers on our site may use cookies and web beacons. Our advertising partners are listed below. Each of our advertising partners has their own Privacy Policy for their policies on user data. For easier access, we hyperlinked to their Privacy Policies below.
\nYou may consult this list to find the Privacy Policy for each of the advertising partners of MindTheSystem.
\nThird-party ad servers or ad networks uses technologies like cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons that are used in their respective advertisements and links that appear on MindTheSystem, which are sent directly to users' browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. These technologies are used to measure the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and/or to personalize the advertising content that you see on websites that you visit.
\nNote that MindTheSystem has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.
\nMindTheSystem's Privacy Policy does not apply to other advertisers or websites. Thus, we are advising you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information. It may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options.
\nYou can choose to disable cookies through your individual browser options. To know more detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers, it can be found at the browsers' respective websites. What Are Cookies?
\nAnother part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.
\nMindTheSystem does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.
\nThis Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they shared and/or collect in MindTheSystem. This policy is not applicable to any information collected offline or via channels other than this website.
\nBy using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its Terms and Conditions.
"},{"url":"/terms-conditions/","relativePath":"terms-conditions.md","relativeDir":"","base":"terms-conditions.md","name":"terms-conditions","frontmatter":{"title":"Terms & Conditions","seo":{"type":"stackbit_page_meta","title":"Terms and Conditions | MindTheSystem","description":"Terms and conditions for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd","extra":[{"name":"og:type","value":"website","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:title","value":"Terms and Conditions | MindTheSystem","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:description","value":"Terms and conditions for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd","keyName":"property"},{"name":"og:image","value":"/images/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","keyName":"property","relativeUrl":true},{"name":"twitter:card","value":"summary_large_image"},{"name":"twitter:title","value":"Terms and Conditions | MindTheSystem"},{"name":"twitter:description","value":"Terms and conditions for MindTheSystem Pte Ltd"},{"name":"twitter:image","value":"/images/mindthesystem-logo.jpg","relativeUrl":true}]},"template":"page"},"html":"Welcome to MindTheSystem!
\nThese terms and conditions outline the rules and regulations for the use of MindTheSystem Pte Ltd's Website, located at https://mindthesystem.com.
\nBy accessing this website we assume you accept these terms and conditions. Do not continue to use MindTheSystem if you do not agree to take all of the terms and conditions stated on this page.
\nThe following terminology applies to these Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement and Disclaimer Notice and all Agreements: \"Client\", \"You\" and \"Your\" refers to you, the person log on this website and compliant to the Company’s terms and conditions. \"The Company\", \"Ourselves\", \"We\", \"Our\" and \"Us\", refers to our Company. \"Party\", \"Parties\", or \"Us\", refers to both the Client and ourselves. All terms refer to the offer, acceptance and consideration of payment necessary to undertake the process of our assistance to the Client in the most appropriate manner for the express purpose of meeting the Client’s needs in respect of provision of the Company’s stated services, in accordance with and subject to, prevailing law of Netherlands. Any use of the above terminology or other words in the singular, plural, capitalization and/or he/she or they, are taken as interchangeable and therefore as referring to same.
\nWe employ the use of cookies. By accessing MindTheSystem, you agreed to use cookies in agreement with the MindTheSystem Pte Ltd's Privacy Policy.
\nMost interactive websites use cookies to let us retrieve the user’s details for each visit. Cookies are used by our website to enable the functionality of certain areas to make it easier for people visiting our website. Some of our affiliate/advertising partners may also use cookies.
\nUnless otherwise stated, MindTheSystem Pte Ltd and/or its licensors own the intellectual property rights for all material on MindTheSystem. All intellectual property rights are reserved. You may access this from MindTheSystem for your own personal use subjected to restrictions set in these terms and conditions.
\nYou must not:
\nThis Agreement shall begin on the date hereof. Our Terms and Conditions were created with the help of the Terms And Conditions Generator and the Privacy Policy Generator.
\nParts of this website offer an opportunity for users to post and exchange opinions and information in certain areas of the website. MindTheSystem Pte Ltd does not filter, edit, publish or review Comments prior to their presence on the website. Comments do not reflect the views and opinions of MindTheSystem Pte Ltd,its agents and/or affiliates. Comments reflect the views and opinions of the person who post their views and opinions. To the extent permitted by applicable laws, MindTheSystem Pte Ltd shall not be liable for the Comments or for any liability, damages or expenses caused and/or suffered as a result of any use of and/or posting of and/or appearance of the Comments on this website.
\nMindTheSystem Pte Ltd reserves the right to monitor all Comments and to remove any Comments which can be considered inappropriate, offensive or causes breach of these Terms and Conditions.
\nYou warrant and represent that:
\nYou hereby grant MindTheSystem Pte Ltd a non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, edit and authorize others to use, reproduce and edit any of your Comments in any and all forms, formats or media.
\nThe following organizations may link to our Website without prior written approval:
\nThese organizations may link to our home page, to publications or to other Website information so long as the link: (a) is not in any way deceptive; (b) does not falsely imply sponsorship, endorsement or approval of the linking party and its products and/or services; and (c) fits within the context of the linking party’s site.
\nWe may consider and approve other link requests from the following types of organizations:
\nWe will approve link requests from these organizations if we decide that: (a) the link would not make us look unfavorably to ourselves or to our accredited businesses; (b) the organization does not have any negative records with us; (c) the benefit to us from the visibility of the hyperlink compensates the absence of MindTheSystem Pte Ltd; and (d) the link is in the context of general resource information.
\nThese organizations may link to our home page so long as the link: (a) is not in any way deceptive; (b) does not falsely imply sponsorship, endorsement or approval of the linking party and its products or services; and (c) fits within the context of the linking party’s site.
\nIf you are one of the organizations listed in paragraph 2 above and are interested in linking to our website, you must inform us by sending an e-mail to MindTheSystem Pte Ltd. Please include your name, your organization name, contact information as well as the URL of your site, a list of any URLs from which you intend to link to our Website, and a list of the URLs on our site to which you would like to link. Wait 2-3 weeks for a response.
\nApproved organizations may hyperlink to our Website as follows:
\nNo use of MindTheSystem Pte Ltd's logo or other artwork will be allowed for linking absent a trademark license agreement.
\nWithout prior approval and written permission, you may not create frames around our Webpages that alter in any way the visual presentation or appearance of our Website.
\nWe shall not be hold responsible for any content that appears on your Website. You agree to protect and defend us against all claims that is rising on your Website. No link(s) should appear on any Website that may be interpreted as libelous, obscene or criminal, or which infringes, otherwise violates, or advocates the infringement or other violation of, any third party rights.
\nPlease read Privacy Policy
\nWe reserve the right to request that you remove all links or any particular link to our Website. You approve to immediately remove all links to our Website upon request. We also reserve the right to amen these terms and conditions and it’s linking policy at any time. By continuously linking to our Website, you agree to be bound to and follow these linking terms and conditions.
\nIf you find any link on our Website that is offensive for any reason, you are free to contact and inform us any moment. We will consider requests to remove links but we are not obligated to or so or to respond to you directly.
\nWe do not ensure that the information on this website is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we promise to ensure that the website remains available or that the material on the website is kept up to date.
\nTo the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we exclude all representations, warranties and conditions relating to our website and the use of this website. Nothing in this disclaimer will:
\nThe limitations and prohibitions of liability set in this Section and elsewhere in this disclaimer: (a) are subject to the preceding paragraph; and (b) govern all liabilities arising under the disclaimer, including liabilities arising in contract, in tort and for breach of statutory duty.
\nAs long as the website and the information and services on the website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.
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In cursus turpis massa tincidunt. Tempor nec feugiat nisl pretium. Odio aenean sed adipiscing diam. Ut aliquam purus sit amet luctus venenatis lectus magna fringilla. Justo laoreet sit amet cursus sit amet dictum. Turpis tincidunt id aliquet risus feugiat in ante metus.
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\nVivamus tempus ornare urna, eget imperdiet quam venenatis ac. Donec fermentum massa id aliquet vulputate. Nam vestibulum ornare est, sed tincidunt mauris interdum a. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Pellentesque sit amet arcu sed risus vehicula fermentum sit amet a neque. Sed imperdiet lacinia magna sit amet dapibus. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aenean non purus a quam placerat luctus. Proin orci risus, lobortis ut dictum at, gravida at nulla.
\nBlocks of code are either fenced by lines with three back-ticks, or are indented with four spaces.
\nlet sequence = [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13];\nfor (let i = 0; i < sequence.length; i++) {\n console.log(sequence[i]);\n}\nEmphasis, aka italics, with asterisks or underscores.
\nStrong emphasis, aka bold, with asterisks or underscores.
\nCombined emphasis with asterisks and underscores.
\nStrikethrough uses two tildes. Scratch this.
Inline code with back-ticks around it.
This is marked or highlighted text.
\nThis is an example link.
\n| Header content | \nHeader content | \nHeader content | \nHeader content | \n
|---|---|---|---|
| Body content | \nBody content | \nBody content | \nBody content | \n
| Body content | \nBody content | \nBody content | \nBody content | \n
| Footer content | \nFooter content | \nFooter content | \nFooter content | \n