Transformative Skills @ECIS23

2023 has been elected as the European Year of Skills, as announced by EU President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address. 2023 will therefore focus on promoting the relevance of creative competences for regenerating both our society and our planet. Furthermore, it will co-create a shared understanding regarding which new competences are necessary in navigating the complexities of trans-sectorial integration to foster the green transformation.  

This year's European Creative Industries Summit (#ECIS23) has been kicked off in Northern Sweden’s deep winter, on February 15th in Umeå, with the #ECIS23 Assembly, jointly organized by ECBN and RISE, Research Institute of Sweden.  

The #ECIS23 discussed and deepened the nature of these new transformative competences. Those are functional to the communities of practice and ecosystems working with green transformation. By exploring the places of friction between disciplines, sectors, mindsets, ways of working and organizing, the event articulated how playfulness, surprise, lightness, hope, endless imagination and care, get to improve lives, transform communities, generate jobs and societal thriving, and create spill-over effects into all sectors, ensuring that Europe becomes the powerhouse of sustainable transformation in the world. 

During this hybrid event, more than 100 guests and delegates in presence joined to discuss the nature, needs and opportunities for developing, learning, and teaching transformative skills. By continuing the collaborative work on the European Design Agenda, d.centre|EU delved into how design approaches can help in dealing with new trans-sectorial challenges of integration, offering methods to deal with friction, complexity, and uncertainty.  

The second part of the day the "Transformative Skills - Embracing Friction to Create the Unexpected" workshop was launched. Through design provocations and work sessions, it inspired and set foundations for a paradigm shift towards a sustainable societal transformation.
This interactive workshop on the European Design Agenda was lead by Senior Design Researcher at RISE, Ambra Trotto, set up as design provocations and work sessions to inspire and set foundations for a paradigm shift towards a sustainable societal transformation.

Moderator:  Ambra Trotto, director of design and research of d.centre|EU*Panel*:
Co-Hosts: Rosa van der Veen and Gabriele Ferri

The workshop "Transformative Skills - Embracing Friction to Create the Unexpected'' aimed to effectively uncover the skills and attitudes necessary to address future societal and planetary challenges. Participants from various sectors provided input on possible frictions in scenarios presented and discussed the competencies needed to manage and respond to the respective frictions. To further emphasize this concept, the metaphor of a mutant was employed to represent the competences, skills, and attitudes discussed. Using a deck of cards, you assembled the mutant's body, symbolically illustrating how the identified competences could interconnect and become a metaphor for addressing future frictions or the kind of colleague you would wish to have when dealing with such frictions. 

While assembling the mutants, participants brought to light several key themes about the transformative skills needed for embracing friction. A key takeaway was that many of the participants recognized elements of artistic practices in the mutants. This tells us that there are valuable insights that designers and creative professionals working in the field of societal transformation can learn from artists. As such, we are committed to further exploring these productive overlaps and incorporating them into collaborative practices.

Below, some additional significant findings that emerged from the workshop. These results are organised into four thematic clusters:

The mutant as connector. It has the ability to connect different ideas, people, and perspectives in unexpected and innovative ways. By bridging gaps and creating new networks, the mutant is able to see beyond existing structures and find new solutions.

The mutant as intuitive, open-hearted artist. It approaches design challenges with empathy, creativity, and imagination. By remaining open-minded and receptive to new ideas, the mutant is able to explore the unknown and create something unique.

The mutant as heterogeneous entity embodying different perspectives and points of view. It is able to embrace a wide variety of skills, attitudes, and perspectives to address future design challenges effectively. By not shying away from conflict (“lighthearted conflict”), the mutant is able to create a balance between these seemingly opposing perspectives.

The mutant as more-than-human entity that relates to other more-than-humans. It has the ability to bridge in-between spaces and create liminal zones that allow for the exploration of non-human entities such as networks and data. By trusting in itself and its capabilities, the mutant is able to remain open-minded and solution-oriented, creating new spaces and structures that help to address future frictions.

As we wrap this report up, we want to leave you with some open questions that emerged from our engagement with your mutants. We hope to continue this conversation and invite you to share your thoughts and insights.

How can we find the confidence to sit with friction and embrace the messiness of engaging with multiple perspectives without trying to dissolve the tension into a non-confrontational space? How can we hack our environments, which are often optimized for efficiency, to embrace messiness and multiplicity? And finally, how can we avoid the lure of quick techno-fix solutions and instead recognize our ability to grow, change, and evolve? We realize that these are complex questions requiring more exploration and consideration, and we are committed to keeping in touch with you in this ongoing process to share our results.