Book Nook: You Need a Manifesto

 

We all need agency to feel the power and joy of acting in the face of challenge and opportunity. But we also need humility and restraint to ensure that we guard against hubris and harm. We need trusted and testable navigation tools to give us confidence in our creative power and cautiousness in carrying out our work. Instead of looking for answers, what we are all seeking are tools for navigating the increasingly complex, noisy, conflicted culture that we inhabit. A personal manifesto is one of those tools.

 

In You Need a Manifesto, Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, the d.school's director of community, first defines the challenges of information overload we all experience today. Then she shows how to craft a personal creed that will help you face daily tasks and roadblocks, and create more purpose in your work. 

 

Explanations and hands-on design-based exercises are based on vibrant quotes and excerpts from a curated collection of designers, artists, writers, scientists, and social activists. These quotes serve both as inspiration and material for the activities.

 

Each chapter of the book is also preceded by a graphic manifesto by artist and master letterpress printer Rick Griffith, who created his illustrations in response to the material in each chapter, to guide and inspire you to see what you can produce for yourself.

 

You can learn more in this interview.

Manifestos are usually associated with political movements. How do you define manifestos? 

The kind of manifesto I’m talking about is personal. A personal manifesto is not a recruitment tool for a movement but a recruitment tool for the Self. The aim of these manifestos is to better know yourself, and to help you work – and live – a little wiser every day. It’s a tool to help you remember what you believe so that when you are faced with choices and dilemmas in your life, you have something you can count on to help you navigate. 

Why does everyone need a manifesto? 

It’s loud out there. We are all being recruited to someone else’s cause or product everywhere we turn. Even if you agree with what’s being offered, it’s too easy and too dangerous to just follow the algorithm, the crowd, or wherever the wind is blowing without knowing why you’re doing it. A personal manifesto is a way to know what you really think, and to know why you do what you do. 

Whether you call yourself a designer or not, your work is adding to the world. Wouldn’t you like to put it there intentionally and with some conviction that it’s doing good? A personal manifesto helps you keep your values and beliefs in front of you as you do your work in the world. It helps you see if the actions you are taking are pushing you toward your goals and in line with your ethics. 

A personal manifesto can:

 Give you confidence to take risks you care about. 

 Help you be persistent about pursuing your goals. 

 Teach you to be coherent and consistent in the face of change. 

Provide a way to avoid situations that lead to regret.

What need were you seeing that prompted you to lead this workshop at the d.school? 

Rick Griffith, who made the manifestos that open each chapter of the book, maintains that every manifesto is an “instrument of now”; I agree. A personal manifesto is a compass for the present, not a roadmap to the future. I was working with a lot of graduate students and fellows, people who came to Stanford to study to make a deliberate change in their lives. They were excited about the things they were learning and the new prospects ahead, but they still found that period of transition between their “old career” and their “new plan” to be profoundly confusing and destabilizing. They needed ways to navigate toward the future without overdetermining their destinations, and the manifesto project came about as a response to that need. The intention of the project is to help people draw out and understand what they already believe and value so that it can motivate them to pursue goals that actually matter to them. 

Can you give an example of a manifesto that has impacted you and your work?

I am a huge fan of the work of Sister Corita Kent. Her “Art Department Rules” from the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles is a stalwart in my collection. Of the ten “rules” that she posted for her art students, one of my favorites is number 6: “Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.” That statement has helped me to put my work into perspective. If I get something “wrong” in my work, the most likely thing that will happen is that I will learn something. If I put my work out there with students and colleagues and let them know that I am open to learning, they’ll let me know if what I’ve made works for them. But if I never make it because I am worried that I’ll fail or get a bad reception, I’ll never learn, and never get the chance to know what I could do. 

What's an example of a "failure" you've learned from?

I came to this work partly because I experienced some really significant losses in my family in my late twenties. I didn’t have any choice but to fully reassess my trajectory in life. I had to reconnect with some of the fundamental ideals and behaviors I valued in order to set out some new goals for myself. Honestly, much of my life has been about failing forward. But I think, rather than failures specifically, it’s all moments of challenge and change and transition that present us with the need to know ourselves well. An experience of failure is just one of those. 

What are examples of personal manifestos that you've used in your life? How have they helped you?

Here’s a little statement that I use all the time: “I like quiet, even though I’m loud.” This one is a shorthand to remind me about my personality and my working style when I’m considering new opportunities or projects. I am an extroverted, exuberant person when I’m in a lively crowd or when I’m teaching. But I need to be alone to recharge my batteries. This little statement helps me recognize how to say no to opportunities that, while always tempting, will take too much away from the time for me to recharge. I don't do anyone any good when I’m exhausted and depleted. 

Was your manifesto different before the pandemic? Have your students' manifestos changed over that period? If yes, how so?

Yes, of course it was. Some pieces always remain the same, of course, but this is an exercise about slowing down and developing a shorthand for your long term goals. And for most folks, long-term goals have changed a lot in the last few years. I’ve seen more of a focus on health and wellness, and on sustainability and justice, than on achievement or success. 

Are there particular stages, challenges, or points in one's life that could be opportunities for creating a personal manifesto? Why? 

Any moment of challenge, change, or transition is an especially good time for this kind of introspection and articulation of your values and beliefs. But  I am definitely not an expert at this. If anything, my personal orientation is as an "expert learner.” We all have or will eventually face our own moments of transition, sometimes willing, sometimes not, and in those moments people often question whether they are doing the “right” thing. I’m not especially interested in knowing what’s right to do, but more in the deeper why of doing something at all. If you are sure of your why, you won’t be as concerned about whether the outcome of your choices is always right. Because you’ll know to make changes when things go wrong. 

Where do things like missions, purpose, values, and ideals fit into something like a manifesto?  

For me all of those words refer to some of the more important concepts in the book. All of them refer to parts of a personal system of moral navigation that a manifesto is just a shorthand for.  Missions and purpose are other ways of expressing goals, they are the destinations you’re striving for. Values and ideals are deeply held beliefs, they are the motivators propelling you to pursue your goals. But you also need ethics, which are your guardrails and brakes, keeping you from doing harm as you go after your goals. And it’s especially important to understand and confront your biases as well, so that you know where some of your most deeply held beliefs and values come from, and you can make intentional decisions about whether you want to hold on to them or change them. The book guides readers to examine their goals, values, ethics, and biases as a way to determine their personal manifesto. 

Why are manifestos a good idea for designers? What about people who use design thinking in their approach to work?

Design work is ambiguous and ambidextrous. It draws on multiple skill sets; some highly analytical, some more intuitive. It is easy to get lost in the abundance of possibilities without some guideposts. A manifesto can be an effective working tool, one that designers use to help them navigate their work, help them to remember when to change their perspective, to bring in a new method, or to move from one phase of their work to another. Especially for those who want to pursue an ethical design practice, or for those who do work in which design methodology is applied to the lives and livelihoods of people or to the health of our societies and our planet, a solid awareness of the moral platform on which you are standing is a requirement. A manifesto can serve that purpose as well. Manifestos anchor us in our values by providing both a practical and ethical compass to point us toward an honest destination. They are simultaneously statements of purpose and scripts for action.

How and why would working on one's manifesto serve them in business? 

I imagine that folks who work in business are pretty much just like me. They want to add something to the world. A manifesto is a practical tool that can help you organize your methods, your principles and your goals and help you approach your work in business with the mindsets that work best for you. Just like me, people in business want to do both well and good. It’s not easy to do that in the complex global economy and society we live in, where progress in one arena sometimes feels like it must result in an inevitable loss somewhere else. A manifesto can help you keep your sense of purpose and self-regard on track in environments where profit is also a fundamental motive. 

Charlotte Burgess Auburn is a designer, artist, and educator. With a background in production for fine arts and theater and experience at the MIT Media Laboratory, she has been the Director of Community at the Stanford d.school since 2005, where she also teaches classes on the role of self-awareness in creativity and design.  Born in Rome, Italy, to American and Dutch parents who are both teachers, Charlotte was raised in Massachusetts in a fully academic environment. She has a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Oberlin College and a Master’s Degree in Art History from Tufts University. She has made a long career of being a designer, stage manager, and producer in rooms full of lead actors and directors, always cultivating the skill of translating intentions into action. You’ll mostly find her where the rubber meets the road.  

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, was founded at Stanford University in 2005. Each year, students from all disciplines attend classes and programs to learn how the thinking behind design can enrich their own work and creativity.