Episode #6 Shifting Culture in Government

Featuring Mari Nakano, Social Designer + Researcher; Systems + Capacity Building Strategist

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Mari Nakano is  a systems designer, a social designer, an educator, a facilitator, and a maker.  Mari is currently exploring how design relates to and is embedded in planetary justice and serves as a Faculty & Graduate Thesis Advisor for the School of Visual Arts' MFA Design for Social Innovation. 

Mari defined design as a process, a mindset, and an aesthetic. Design is the way we curate a process, orchestrate a team, unlock creativity, and bring flexibility, openness, joy, and whimseyness even to some of the most mundane spaces.

1. Actively work to relinquish power by meeting people where they are at, thinking about how you can create greater access, partnering with core community organizations from concept to implementation, identifying ways for things to be owned by the community, and centering healing, recognizing, and unpacking the historical traumas of government on the community.

2. When navigating bureaucracy, set the tone and align before diving in, welcome neutral facilitators, identify champions to help steward the work, and map out how things can stay top of mind for all.

3. Becoming a relationship builder and a people knower is a non-negotiable.

4. Invite space for play that gets people comfortable with ideating and shifts them from talking to doing/showing.

5. Hire passionate people who deeply value holding relationships, can grow, and come from disciplinary backgrounds. As a leader, protect your team, include your team in decision-making, fight for people who deserve to be in the room although they may not check all boxes, and take care of those who come in.

My Key Takeaways.

Mari’s Design Tools Referenced.

Mari emphasizes the importance of designers rooting their work in social frameworks rooted in justice,

1. Community Organizing
2. Liberatory Design
3. Community-Centered Design
4. Community-Centered Participatory Processes
5. Co-Design (Look into KA McKercher)
6. Decolonizing Design (Look into Dori Tunstall)

More Resources!

Books: 

    • Decolonizing Design, Dori Tunstall

    • Beyond Sticky Notes, KA McKercher