Designing for Stronger Local Leadership: My Design Principles
At this point in the project, I have realised that I am not simply designing a tool. I am trying to design a postdigital leadership-learning ecology — a way of supporting self-leadership, follow-up, and reflection within the realities of everyday nonprofit work, and one that can still be useful through a transition toward building a new nonprofit initiative. I like this framing because it moves the project beyond the idea that leadership development happens in a separate “digital” space. Instead, it allows me to focus on how support can emerge through the interplay of digital tools, material artefacts, and relational practices in everyday life.
This understanding forms the foundation for my design principles. If I am designing a postdigital leadership-learning ecology rather than a single tool, then the design needs to respond to the wider realities of leadership practice: the local context, the surrounding support system, the possibility of transition, and the need for reflection. The following design principles are my first attempt to translate these insights into concrete directions for the design.
Design principle 1: Design for the local context
This design should grow out of the Nigerian leadership context it is meant for, rather than importing assumptions from Danish or Western organizational culture. It needs to fit local realities, work rhythms, and everyday practices, so that the support feels relevant, realistic, and usable in practice.
Design principle 2: Design to strengthen the whole ecology of support
The design should not only support the individual leader, but also strengthen the wider ecology around him: the tools, routines, relationships, and structures that shape daily leadership work. This means designing for better coordination, clearer follow-up, and a more connected support system rather than focusing on the individual alone.
Design principle 3: Design for transferability
Because the leader is moving through a transition, the design should be useful not only in the current organization but also in a future nonprofit initiative. It should therefore be flexible, portable, and simple enough to travel across contexts without losing its value.
Design principle 4: Design to include coaching and reflection
The design should make space for reflection and coaching as part of everyday leadership practice, not as something separate from it. By supporting pauses for reflection, learning, and follow-up, the design can help strengthen self-awareness, accountability, and more sustainable leadership development.
Skriv et svar
Du skal være logget ind for at skrive en kommentar.