Show, Don’t Tell:
Design for Transformation
Our Show Don't Tell approach combines systematic exploration with openness to emergence and discovery.
We leverage the power of experiences to explore possible futures through five key activities that flow into each other naturally. At the heart of the process lies continuous re-orientation and reflection - ensuring we remain attuned to evolving insights and opportunities.
Built on the Transforming Practices Framework founded by Caroline Hummels, Ambra Trotto, Pierre Lévy and Jeroen Peeters, with contributions by many others. Learn more about the research foundations of this way of working below.
At Future of Now, we believe that transforming our world requires more than just understanding change - we need to experience it. That's why we work with the mantra Show, Don't Tell where experiences are a key driver in all of our activities.
When we encounter new possibilities through our whole selves - both mind and body - we can develop our own relationship to transformation. Likewise, when we understand problems through our whole selves - we can develop ideas that go beyond the way we’ve always done it.
This personal connection is crucial because real change isn't just about organizations adopting new strategies. It's about people finding their own way of being in a changing world.
Design plays a vital role here. Through prototypes, spaces, and interactions, we can create experiences that let you physically engage with potential futures. When you can touch, feel, and interact with possibilities, you discover aspects that reports and discussions alone could never reveal. You form your own understanding, filtered through your unique perspective, past experiences, and aspirations. This personal engagement is essential for mission-driven organizations because it helps everyone involved find their own meaningful connection to transformation.
Why Experiences Matter
Our Show Don't Tell approach implements the Transforming Practices Framework - a powerful approach to design-driven societal transformation founded by Prof. Caroline Hummels, Dr. Ambra Trotto, Prof. Pierre Lévy and Dr. Jeroen Peeters, with contributions from many others.
Transforming Practices recognizes that real change requires more than just new solutions - it requires new ways of working, thinking, and being. As Caroline Hummels describes in her essay "Economy as a Transforming Practice" (in: Thrive - Fundamentals for a New Economy) this approach helps organizations to embrace complexity and develop practices that enable sustainable futures.
Transforming Practices is built on five core principles:
- Complexity - respecting and understanding systems in their entirety rather than reducing them, giving space to many different perspectives
- Co-response-ability - taking responsibility together, grounded in equality, honesty, choice, and sustainability
- Aesthetics - understanding beauty and meaning as emerging through experience and in tune with our intentions and purposes
- Situatedness - recognizing how we are fully connected with the environment we act in, addressing global challenges through local action
- Co-development - creating safe spaces for people to engage without judgment and affording collaboration
The TP Framework provides a robust foundation for using design to catalyze systemic change. You can learn more about this approach in digital version of the book “Designing for Transforming Practices: Maps and Journeys” (Trotto et al., 2021). Get it here.
