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I just finished watching a TED Talks video by Tim Brown about the need for a fresh look at the idea of design. He believes (and I agree) that what needs to happen in this age is for innovative/creative people to become design thinkers. Design thinkers, Tim explains are those who, “solve problems and make world-changing innovation.” He went on to explain that this kind of thinking had three basic characteristics:
- Design thinking is human centered.
- Design thinking doesn’t think to build, but builds to think.
- Design thinking shifts from consumption to participation.
As I listened to him, my thoughts began to turn to my passion of helping Boomers and Gen-Xers reinvent retirement. I think that what is needed to accomplish this is for these two groups to engage in this “design thinking.” But if we are going to make the most of this kind of thinking, we have to begin with the question:
How can Boomers and Gen-Xers enjoy the benefits of retirement while at the same time remaining active, productive, and profitable members of our modern society?
We have to decide how our “retirement years” can be lived to the benefit of others while providing us with the time and personal fulfillment we need as well.
We need to be courageous enough to build our retirement businesses in order to think, rather than thinking in order to build. In other words, we need to see our business as a prototype of what it will become as we learn what will and won’t work in response to those we are seeking to serve (our clients/customers).
We need to shift our retirement thoughts from what we can consume or provide for consumption and build our retirement years by looking for ways to encourage active participation in life and innovative thought, by the greatest number of people.
This kind of design thinking will make our retirement years the best of our lives and will allow us to leave a legacy that will far outlive even our best efforts!
What do you think? How would you use design thinking to make your retirement years the best years of your life? What can we do to encourage this kind of thinking in others?
This is quite a hot topic with me. I’m currently starting a book on retirement and ways to look at it. I think your question as posed is unanswerable, because of the way it’s phrased. The “benefits of retirement.” You’re assuming we know how you’re thinking. I don’t know what you mean by that. I think I know, but I’m not sure. Also, to rephrase what I see you saying, “How do I retire yet stay as active as when I was working?” To me the answer to that is don’t retire. It’s already in place.
For retirement to be retirement, it has to differ from working or else it’s still just working. One needs to stay busy in a number of ways in retirement, but also to take a more holistic approach to life – attention to physical and mental shape and health especially – to have a meaningful retirement that also includes time with family and perhaps extensive travel. Applying “design” and “planning” is necessary in one sense, but overdoing it just puts you back in work mode. I retire July 1st and have been thinking these things through. I think your ideas are a good starting poin, but I do not think you are clear on how your retirement or the prescription you want for others will be any different from work. Truthfully, you seem to be searching for a more meaningful definition of work than of retirement. Good luck, and I’ll read as your thoughts progress.
Tom – thank you for your thoughts. I think that if we had a conversation, you would see that many of the thoughts you expressed as your retirement plan (time with family, attention to physical and mental shape, travel) are all part of my plan as well. My point is that most people do want to leave the daily activity of a job, but don’t want to stop working/being active altogether (some simply cannot for financial reasons). They do want more time for themselves, but they also want life to matter in different ways. One lady told me that she was going to volunteer more, but also wanted the new challenge of creating a “retirement business” (part-time, personally controlled, that could be run from wherever there was a computer connection) that gave her purpose and relevance even though she was leaving her “day job.” In other words, she wanted to be retired from her job, but not her productive life. She did not want to be “put out to pasture” simply because she stopped working a full time job. I look forward to our conversation on this matter.
Our retirement is going to be significantly different to our parents’, so we need to be active participants in the design of our retirement. I assume we don’t want retirement homes to be places we go to to die. So how do we design them to be places that enhance our life experience without it costing an arm and a leg. And if we are going to live 20 post-retirement years how do we do that in the healthiest way possible – they are after all, old-age years with the frailty and degeneration that that brings. Here is the link to Tim Brown’s talk. http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.html
Alan – I agree completely. We live in a time when retirement needs to be reinvented. We all want to reach a time and place in our lives where we control our efforts and our outcomes, but traditional retirement doesn’t work for most. This means we are going to have to design our retirement in a way that satisfies our need for being in control and keeps us active, productive, and valuable to society.