2.3 Lesson-3: From Focusing on the Product to Focusing on the Process

If we simply think about the product and how to enhance it so that we don’t harm the environment, then the result is merely a better version of what we have made.

Just concentrating on avoiding harming the environment seemed like too small a step since we—our corporate business group—have set our objective as supporting to the Life of the Processes (allowing, thus, an Economy for Life). Any changes in our organizations’ aims must be approached from the perspective of the Regenerate Life Paradigm. This calls for a shift in perspective from considering people and human activity (production, distribution, and consumption) as distinct from and “doing kind to” the environment to considering them to be a source of life. To accomplish it, we must be able to be seeing systems as alive and distinctive. Humanity and human actions must be taken into account in the dynamics that support the survival of the living organisms in which they’re immersed.

Second, by changing our perspective and concentrating on the live systems within a system, we stop looking for ways to better the end product. We focus instead on a procedure that results in a greater and better quality of life. By doing this, we move from a circle to a method that actually improves the system as a whole. What does the term “value” mean here? The topic at hand is considerably dissimilar from a value-added product. We perceive value as a contribution to life, a means of empowering the system to regenerate life itself, because we are not concentrating on the goods but rather on the systemic implications. Can you distinguish between this level of impact and the level of system maintenance or restoration? From our perspective, increasing value entails developing and utilizing transformative processes that provide clients with exclusive offers.

The value-adding processes are depicted in the following figure:

This image helps us to understand that transformational processes begin with sourcing (materials or ideas), go into various stages of transformation to manufacture goods, then incorporate these operations into the entire life cycle of all interested parties, and finally enter a phase in which new life states can emerge. This last phase offers the chance for full regeneration. A new sourcing step that includes the knowledge and expertise of the earlier stages can start after the regeneration stage. In order to restore life, the goal of transformational processes is to provide the entire system the ability to evolve. This forces us to view the process as a continuous loop rather than a static system, which is why spirals as a continuous loop makes more sense than a circle.

The process is depicted in the above figure as it would actually happen. The Integrating stage, however, is where product design should really begin. We can now imagine ourselves in the customer’s position and create a more complete picture of her and her environment. By doing so, we would be able to comprehend what a better quality of life entails for her and what we might build to assist her in bringing about that better life. Right there, we begin the design process; we design with and for life. To truly innovate from and for life, a mindset shift is required. When considering how we are integrating real value to contribute to our customers’ lives and the processes in which they are incorporated, we must identify the finest tangible component or product that can become a driver for their lives to be transformed (both customers and system). Otherwise, we risk deceiving ourselves and others into thinking we care when, in reality, we are only trying to justify the continued production, sale, leasing, or use of a product while minimizing its bad consequences on the environment.