Context

The questions that had bothered me for a very long time: What can I do when I don’t understand politics and economics and I am not even interested? For a very long time I was under the illusion of it having nothing to do with me or it having any power to affect my day today life. “Politics is a dirty game.” I don’t even remember the time when this seed was planted in my conscious and I believed it. Why is politics a dirty game? Is it really a dirty game? Are all our leaders dirty? Are there no good people in the politics? Are there no people who stand by the ethics and abide by the law in the politics? If it is so, that means we go and vote for an appropriately dirty leader in our eyes and then give them the power to run the system. If this was the case, what are we if not fools?

One does’t need to be a politician to influence the policies aiding to better system. What one requires is the competence to convey the idea in the context of the culture. If I take numbers to the politicians, they won’t be interested, one has to understand the culture, the language, the frame of mind, the motivations, aspirations, limitations, being aware of it all and communicating in a way that lands well. Now the question of How? enters and while I was researching on the framework that might help, I came across the concept of Intercultural competence. The broader field of intercultural communication was founded by anthropologist Edward T. Hall in 1959. Then Dell Hymes (1972) and later Canale and Swain (1980) laid the groundwork by expanding linguistic “communicative competence” to include social and cultural appropriateness. Later Darla Deardorff (2006) formalized and defined the modern process-oriented model of intercultural competence (focusing on attitudes, knowledge, and skills). Which also directs us to be open to an idea of being a generalist in addition to being a specialist.

Intercultural term is used to denote the existing cultural diversity in the different communities, states, countries, continents.

Learn/Understand

What is Intercultural Competence?

I have framed it in my own understanding. Let’s start with the components of IC:

Self competence: Awareness of our relationship and conduct with self

Social competence: Awareness of our relationship and conduct with our environment

The primary interaction points of self competence and social competence are the five senses + Conscious(thinking) as a 6th sense. Then we have external mediums which are constructed/designed/engineered to facilitate the space for intercultural interactions like community spaces, a makerspace, technology, tools, materials, frameworks etc.

If we pay close attention, we will realise that self and social competence defines how fundamentally humanity and humans are shaped by culture, values, hobbies, behaviour and beliefs. Individual human beings, belonging to the same community, will still be in a way be different from the others(Intracultural). Human behaviour(action/reaction) is shaped by many contributing factors: genetics, experiences, environments, habits, decisions, psychological factors, physical factors(there is underlying nuance as well such as demographics, physical challenges); hence the response to any stimulus would always be unique in it’s nature for the individuals. Hence conflicting encounters are inevitable and unavoidable

Is there anyone you don’t have a conflict of interest/ideology/beliefs with, even a little bit?

or

Is there anyone you agree with, in its entirety without any ifs and buts?

No, right? If it’s a yes, one must either be a blind conformist or has already attained liberation.

But when we already know this, why there is so much intolerance to conflicting concepts or ideas.

The issue is not in the idea of being grounded, rigid, stubborn in your own realities; the real issue is, lacking the flexibility, openness, and curiosity when it comes to other realities different to your own.

We do not have to adapt to everything, but that doesn’t mean we have to disregard everything at the same time—Equality as a concept.

Personal story: My sibling and I, even though exposed to the same environment, are completely different in our approaches. He is more of a trial-and-error person, while I am more of a research, plan and implement sort of person.

If we are hiking up the mountain, for my brother, appropriate clothing, good shoes, and camping gear are more than enough while I used to get worked up about what all would be needed just in case. It used to lead to a typical sibling altercation. Me blaming him for being way too casual and him blaming me for not being chill like him.

I am more like Hermione from Harry Potter, who will have everything in her bag from a needle to an elephant. My brother finds it very annoying.

Over the period of years, as our understanding of self and each other grew, the resistance eventually started to decline. That does not mean he became like me, or vice versa. We are still the same inherently but more open to each other’s way of life without forcing our ways onto each other, just being flexible without abandoning ourselves. There is a beauty in the idea of co-existence even when the attitude, knowledge, skills differs.

Design

Inculcating Intercultural competence

I was working on a research project with our Japanese client. Before I started, the people who had worked with them previously told me that it is difficult to work with them. I never trust my ears until I myself have experienced something first hand. Working in intercultural settings can be tricky; everyone has their biases, perspectives and cultural norms or sanctions.

This is my current understanding which is subject to change as I evolve. Factors that influenced intercultural competence in this very experience:

1. How is trust established?

-Consistency in words and actions

1. Why people don’t immediately open up/trust?

-Survival instinct: We want to first understand the nature of what we are interacting with, and then try to map it to the closest box in our mental data centre; it falls into: e.g., safe or unsafe, trustworthy or untrustworthy, flexible or rigid, etc. This categorisation is again influenced by multiple factors and they exist as a grey area at times.

1. Why is there initial resistance?

-Testing our own understanding by creating different situations and scenarios to cross-check if the real experience matches the perceived understanding.

Understanding and being aware of the cultural context becomes the foundation of any successful project. It helps in resolving and reducing conflicts, contradictions and misunderstandings so that the focus is on the primary goal instead of taking things personally. (Ankur Warikoo has very beautifully put it in his book “Winning people without loosing yourself”: Its not ME vs YOU. Its US vs the PROBLEM. )

Do you trust Japanese brands? Given a choice, I will always pick up Japanese brand until and unless there is a tradeoff of a critical service for Example (Apple for Digital devices( worked with them as well ;))

Working with the Japanese has been by far the best experience in my professional career. It would be wrong to say that I was working on the project, I was actually living the project (Project felt to have a life). I have learnt the so much from that experience, not just subjectively but in perspective. The only regret I had leaving that job was loosing an opportunity to work with them on the projects in pipeline. What does living a project means? Celebrating the intercultural nuances. For the first time, these were not some capabilities documented and stacked away but were being seriously practiced.

1. Being Structured

2. Being disciplined

3. Being transparent

4. Being empathetic

5. Supportive

6. Proactive

The relationship initially was complex to navigate, and the resistance existed on both sides, but both sides were open to understanding and respecting each other’s ways of working.

It was a beautiful journey from getting a straight face from the client-side manager in response to the morning greetings to him offering to share his cookies as I walked into the office, that too accompanied with good morning with a smiling face.

From being tested to trusted

From being given indifferent treatment initially to client manager taking an effort to walk all the way to the lab(500 m from the office) to personally share his feedback and thoughts.

From the client being excited about the butter chicken, butter naan, mango lassi, and Biryani during their visit to India, to the day when the client got matcha chocolates for us while visiting India.

From doubting my competence to ensuring I had everything I needed, and always open to supporting promptly.

Self and Social awareness leading to deliberate contextual care.

I found Edward T. Hall’s work in intercultural communication very interesting and relevant. His analogy of iceberg explains the depth of the cultural context.

Action

Practicing Intercultural Competence

Self awareness: “I know me/myself.” Do you really in entirety?

Practice: Observation of the self

Social awareness: “I know them/that.” Do you really in entirety?

Practice: Observation of the daily interactions

Food for thought: Are these two aspects(self & social) interconnected or do they exist in isolation without influencing each other?

Lesson: Integrating the practice of Intercultural Competence across academic curriculum can help in cultivating empathy, mindful tolerance, patience, healthy relationships, collaborations, communication skills at personal as well professional front. Proposing to design and develop IC as a part of day to day life skill.

https://bccie.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cultural-iceberg.pdf

Updated equation, as the x variables can be different

A+(x1)+B+(x2)+C+(x3)= JOY of use

{A: Learning; B: Design; C: Action}, What are x1, x2, x3?

x3= Actions in alignment to the design decisions taken in interest of Humanity.

Variable x3: Alignment, How can we enable this alignment?

Learning+(x1)+Design+(x2)+Action+(Alignment)= JOY of use; What are x1 and x2?

Humanity in perspective: I am trying to understand humanity from the lens of Intercultural competence and the write-up is in progress; will be out soon.

Summary

Why design doesn’t seem to be translating on ground?

Action is not missing, in fact it has accelerated in past few decades. Inaction or slow action is not at all bad, COVID period is the biggest example. We are neither ready nor willing to stop for a moment and look at the actions critically and reflect rationally. If nothing was being acted upon we would still be living in a resourceful world (vital natural resources), may be not in a perfect one, which big shots envision for us.

Actions aligned with the mindful and meaningful design decisions are missing. Following could be few of the reasons:

1. System Thinkers and Experience designers are not in the loop.

2. The designers/architects/developers/builders in action are not exposed to the right kind of skills and opportunities which would aid to the expansion of their world view.

3. Delegator - actor relationship: The friction between designers-developers; architects-builders; Change-makers-organisations; workers-employers. The gap in adherence, communication, collaboration, supervision, quality check, plan alignment check in’s, clearances and authorisations. (Transparency)

4. Approvals and manipulation of the designs based on individual interests and constrains can compromise the quality of action and the outcome.

Even if the original design/plan is robust, it floats along like a Chinese whisper.

Action/Implementation is the most painful and tricky part in any process because it requires right actors and the right kind of supervision.

Having worked in both the roles, initially a developer and then a designer, I used to silently smile when the developers refused to develop a little complex design in the name of development feasibility issue.

Supervision can still be experienced in digital and physical products to a very large extent where the experiences are to be capitalised but where there is no visible capital transactions (even though the tax payer money gets invested) for example developing websites or building infrastructures in public interest, we see this layer of supervision or intention missing.

* When I say supervision, it doesn’t mean toxic management.

Missing Pieces of the puzzle

There are three core drivers of any experience

1. Understanding (or learning)

2. Design

3. Action (or Implementation)

Understanding (or learning)

This encompasses the exposure, learning, understanding, comprehension, critical thinking, contemplation, experimentation(general or academic learning)

Channels:

A. Education system( Consuming+ Understanding+Thinking + Action which rarely has real-time implementation) (Factors are highly influenced by the culture, pedagogy, primary goal/purpose)

B. Research system (Consuming+Understanding+Thinking+Experimenting + action)

C. Human Condition (Learned from experiences, encounters and accidents as individual human evolve around conditions)

Outcome:

A designed existence of a Human being in personal, interpersonal and social spheres (An individual goes on to become part of a larger systems)

Design

This encompasses designing experiences post collection or all resources and processing or shaping it into meaningful solutions.

Channels:

A. Research and design service systems

B. People as designers

Outcome:

Inventions, Innovations, New research, Design plans, Frameworks, Policies, Systems, Infrastructure designs, Experiment design, Experience design, Physical products design , Digital product design.

Action (or Implementation)

Implementation of design solutions in real world.

Channels

A. Contractors and consultants

B. People acting upon the designs (Developers, labour, clearance teams, supervisor)

C. Governing or private authorities

D. Policy stakeholders

Outcome:

A system/service/product/campaign, build/enabled to exist to serve the purpose.

An Interesting thought

Compare the following (India context)

1. A government school vs private school

2. A government college vs private college

3. A government hospital vs private hospital

4. A government owned roads vs private roads

5. Public washrooms vs private powder rooms

6. Government accommodations vs private accommodations

Either side of the comparison is designed. Can we agree on this?

There is one factor that creates the whole difference in the implementation/execution and the ultimate experience: Ownership

Let’s take these scenarios, I build my home, I will make sure my architect visits time to time and I track and review the progress. Do we go and stand for the supervision of the public road construction even though it’s our (tax payer’s) money only and we will be accessing that road? No, but we do put our trust into the government for using our money while we also know that we have very little to no control in the design or implementation process. I don’t say “public____” here because we are only users of these infrastructures but they are owned and run by government. Isn’t it?

Designing with the community and empowering it: (Possible x2); what do you think?

I love Stars hollow town from Gilmore Girls series. If anything needs to be done in the town, the people of the town gather for a community meeting and everyone is heard and finally the decision is taken in everyone’s interest.

“All the answers are already out there but are we asking the right questions.”

*Disclaimer: Use of AI is NILL

Dear Oh dear,
AI, Why do I fear,
When you come near,
Eyes shed a tear,
With no one to cheer,
Future so unclear,
Wish to reverse the gear,
Impossible to bear,
Strange Reality continues to sear,
Searching for a fine ear,
Hoping for it to hear,
While I eat my pear,
Wondering what soul will I wear,
Before stepping into the next year.

But my heart , oh dear,
Asks you in hope and fear
Tell me , AI dear
What is coming, a bright or yet another dark year?
What am I going to witness there?
a cheer or tear,
a make or a break,
a beginning or the end,
homecoming or a send off,
love or war,
joy or sorrow,
fear or faith,
trees or concrete,
food or drought,
flood or flower valley,
wildfire or wildlife,
white snow or grey rocks,
earth or mars,
lively children or old withering souls,
riots or celebrations,
unity or division,
help or advantage,
belief or betrayal,
flowers or weapons,
breathing bodies or moving steel,
So Tell me , AI dear,
What soul should I wear and how do I prepare,
Before stepping into the next year.

-Apoorva Gandharve

P.S: Articles, Stories and essays take lot of time to come to life as it requires contemplation. Poetry occurs easily and quickly to me comparatively and I find it to be the best form of expression when it comes to me. Let’s keep our efforts alive to design a beautiful, joyful and more meanigful world.

Though, if done in collaboration, it comes out to be more and more precise, simpler and accurate as while working independently, one can miss out on various perspectives. This was done in silos but I am interested in collaboration and co-creation for designing a better world and I need a hand. Feel free to reach out at official.apoorvagandharve@gmail.com to share thoughts, feedbacks, interests or interesting perspectives.

Tip to study the loops: We all must have studied food cycle as part of formal education. This works in the similar fashion in terms of resource transaction. Focus on the 5 loops in yellow circular rings.

It’s funny that I was trying to pull out the food cycle digram I learnt during my primary education and I realised it has evolved into something that doesn’t make sense to me or match the real world, the human is missing. Am I looking at the right resources?

And honestly, every time it happens, it frustrates me.

This Sunday, he called me in a panic. He was trying to pay the premium for his health insurance, but the app kept displaying “Unexpected Error.” I was out at the time, so I asked him to relax and try again after some time. He was already stressed because there was only one day left to renew the policy.

Monday morning, he called again. The payment still wasn’t going through. He was confused, overwhelmed, restless and, on top of everything else, feeling guilty that he was repeatedly calling me for help. I had to keep telling him to relax throughout the conversation.

As I assisted him through the process on call, I thought about what the process actually looked like from his perspective:

Pay the premium → secure the policy →(Unexpected addition) KYC → upload Aadhaar → front side → back side → return to the landing page without feedback → KYC again→file must be under 3 MB (he doesn’t know how to compress files and images) → submit → payment → UPI/card (He wasn’t sure if UPI is same as GPay) → accept terms → pay → Google Pay → payment.

Every single step was another opportunity for something to go wrong. He kept blaming himself for being technologically challenged and the experience just made him feel as if he is not good enough. While the people behind the service are to be blamed.

For someone who is 60+, doesn’t hear clearly anymore, and whose cognitive processing isn’t as quick as it once was, this can quickly become overwhelming. Add the fact that I live 2,000 kilometres away, and the situation becomes even more difficult.

I can guide my parents over the phone. I can sometimes complete these processes for them remotely. But at times it’s not possible to offer assistance immediately. Their helplessness and restlessness inevitably become my anxiety too. I worry about my parents’ wellbeing every single day, and situations like this make the distance between us feel even greater.

What frustrates me even more is the behaviour of the insurance companies.

They kept calling my father repeatedly, reminding him to pay the premium and creating a sense of urgency. But when the customer actually encounters a technical problem, where is the assistance? Why isn’t someone asking, “Are you having trouble completing the payment? Can we help you?”

Customer service itself is increasingly becoming automated. IVRs have replaced human interaction across many services, and even when you finally reach a customer-care representative, empathy often seems to be missing. Perhaps it isn’t entirely their fault either. They are working under targets, pressure and rigid processes themselves.

But somewhere along the way, we have forgotten that the person on the other side of the system is actually a person. Companies may call it efficiency. Economists may call it optimisation. Businesses may call it digital transformation. But from the customer’s perspective, it can simply feel like being abandoned by the system.

We are constantly told that technology makes things easier. Sometimes it does. But for many elderly people, technology has simply moved the complexity from the service provider to the customer.

Earlier, you could walk into an office and speak to someone. Today, you are expected to download an app, remember a password, complete KYC, resize documents, upload them in the correct format, navigate multiple screens, understand payment gateways, authenticate transactions and troubleshoot technical errors, all for something as basic and essential as paying your health insurance premium.

My parents have worked in public interest throughout their lives, paid taxes and contributed to the system beyond their limits. Yet as they growing older, essential services are increasingly becoming difficult to access without technological assistance.

This also makes me think about healthcare and insurance at a larger level.

Every citizen should have access to some form of reliable, affordable healthcare protection, particularly in old age. And this is where the larger problem begins. Those designing policies, digital systems and public services may not experience the same friction as ordinary citizens. Senior officials and influential people often have assistants, dedicated channels and people who can solve problems for them. But most of us don’t.

We walk on the roads. We use public transport. We stand in hospital queues. We visit government offices. We navigate websites and apps ourselves. We wait for customer-care representatives. We try to understand systems that were rarely designed with us in mind. We don’t have personal assistants running around solving these problems for us.

So how would someone who never experiences that friction truly understand what it feels like?

The real problem is designing technology without understanding and involving the people who are expected to use it.

I prefer India Post over any other mail service. Standing in a queue, observing senior citizens diligently and precisely focused on filling forms while waiting at the counter, bending down a little when the turn comes to make sure the other side can hear you well through the small window outlet meant for exchange, it is such an experience in itself.

This year, towards the end of June, I was ready to post the long-pending mails to acquaintances and to the iconic “Ruskin Bond.” Yes! I am famous for being weird and silly :)

I stepped into the Post office of a bustling city with my parcels to be shipped. There were other customers, so it looked like I would be done. The counter for Speed Post had a “closed” sign, with no one to ask or inquire. While waiting, I scanned the room full of senior citizens, then the info boards on the walls to check if it was the wrong time of the day to come. After a while, I found the board where I least expected. It was on the wall of the entrance door, almost touching the ceiling. As a designer, one cannot help but criticise the information design. I squinted my eyes to read the information with a lot of effort, and it confirmed that I was standing there on the right day and time. As I turned around towards the counter again, a kind lady whom I had noticed behind a PC typing approached and informed me that the server was down today, and it would not be possible to send the emails that day.

These days, “AI” refuses to leave my brain alone. The thought popped and nudged me: “We are talking about this and that, all big things AI, and here I am standing in a post office not able to post mail.” There are two things here:

1. Technical glitches and system failures are in no one’s control, even if the AI systems are deployed.

2. Meaningful design has still not touched places on the ground, be it information, universal, accessibility, usability or HCD.

It intuitively brought me to do a quick heuristic evaluation scan of the space, and the relevance of heuristic principles (guidelines by Jakob Nielsen) is self-explanatory.

Also, it stirs up curiosity: “Is the experience consistent and universal across the Indian post offices? If not, then how do such nuances impact the common man? ”

Journey map

Scenario: Posting mail via India Post.

P.S: I find the India Post office staff unbelievably human: kind, humble, patient, supportive, and with the empathy that is rare.

Mails were finally posted, secretly hoping to receive a reply from Ruskin Bond :)

Variable A: Learning design

A thought has been hovering in my mind for quite some time. This is in the context of urban planning in India.

Every year, designers, architects, urban planners, policy makers, sustainability experts, and strategists graduate in numbers from public & private universities. They go on to become part of the systems responsible for taking design decisions that impact the ecosystem (consciously/unconsciously, actively/passively).

There exist case studies in every subject around the globe sharing insights on the successful implementation of human-centred systems and their overall impact. These might have to be adapted to the contextual ecosystem, with certain considerations like feasibility, geography, culture, etc., but the point is, we do have examples and references to build upon.

Still, why is there a sense of “on-the-way” anxiety (while walking, driving, riding, crossing, accessing footpaths)?

I always try to get into the head of the designer who might have designed this environment. Even with the facilitation of design education, tools, frameworks and real-world examples, why does it not seem to be getting translated into real systems? What is this gap?

System Design is so undervalued and underrated. An M.Des student who graduated from a prestigious design school of IIT looked at me with astonishment and curiosity while I was doing a causal loop as part of a workshop activity. “What is this?” he asked, passing on his astonishment to me.

Variable B: Designing Solutions for the Real World

Solutions are primarily designed with the problem in context and the actors involved in mind. Problems and solutions are viewed in isolation, even though both are part of a larger ecosystem and, hence, the scale of impact.

In my view, the following could be a possible strategy:

For existing systems

System Evaluation->System Design (redesign/up-design):

There is a need to revisit and evaluate the impacts of the already implemented inefficient systems. Each component needs to be evaluated as a part of a larger ecosystem rather than in isolation.

For new systems:

System Design approach->Action:

While it’s critical to take actions aligned with the intentional design decisions, we have to be conscious of not repeating the same mistakes of delivering new problems along with design solutions.

Variable C: Acting upon design

After 68 years of the introduction of design as an idea, evolving ever since, to make life easy by implementing well-thought-out systems, I often catch myself asking this question: Why do basic interactions(physical and digital space) in day-to-day life still feel frustrating even though we do have a map designed to introduce joy instead?

The possible answer could be that solutions were primarily designed considering the problem as an independent entity, while any problem is part of a larger ecosystem.

Taking a scenario as an example: Living in a geography prone to storms. These storms result in loss of life and property, especially caused by uprooting of trees. There stands a beautiful tree older than me right in front of the house, but it poses a threat in storms.

Dad’s solution: Cut the tree.

Going by his logic, no tree=no damage, problem solved.

Why do systems feel like they were designed and developed using Dad’s logic?

Fortunately, a designer saved the tree because she did not just look at the problem-solution relationship but also evaluated the cause-and-effect relationship of the entire ecosystem around it by asking a simple question: “Would cutting a tree only prevent damage, or are there other impacts/hidden costs?”

There are indeed! The tree has endured years of storms, its beautiful canopy covering the front yard of the house keeps it cool in summers, and it protects the house against wind and rain. It provides oxygen, and the view of it just boosts your mental well-being.

The puzzle with the missing pieces

What is this gap that is preventing the translation of the human-centred design approach in the problem-to-solution journey?

Design Education-> Design Practice-> Design Action

Problem Equation: A ± (x) ± B ± (x) ± C= JOY (Justified objective yield) of use

Find x in the above equation.

Can the introduction of the “Humanity” aspect in these stages make any difference? If yes, what would it look like? How can it be implemented? What is the feasibility, and what would be the impact?

Humanity-centred Education-> Humanity-centred Design-> Humanity-centred action