Was Tolstoy a Designer?
The relevance of a 150 year old book on today's innovation game.
If you asked me mid last year what I was up to, I probably would’ve replied: “Still trying to finish Anna Karenina”. Let’s just say that the world’s greatest novel did not leave the impression on me that it left on the rest. But, in between the books high society gossip and rural politics, I did find a theme that kept me reading. It is Tolstoy’s showcase of Design Thinking... anno 1872.
To explain that part of the story, we have to move away from Anna herself and listen to the co-protagonist Konstantin Levin. ‘Levin’ is a young, passionate and somewhat awkward landowner who is fascinated by agriculture. He has enough land and capable farmers, but time and time again the output of the work is disappointing. That’s a problem worth solving.
After reading up on all the existing agricultural theories, none of which he seems to like, Levin decides to write a book to explain his own thoughts. It is this writing project that unravels into a larger experiment and exposes his true identity as ‘Design Thinker’.
Design Thinking
Everyone knows the term Design Thinking, coined in 2008 by IDEO’s Tim Brown. It discusses the role of ‘traditional design skills’ to approach larger scale systemic and societal problems. This is often presented in a five-step standardization of the process. Let’s leave out any other interpretations for now, and take this 5-step framework, get some passages of the book and dive into Levin’s visionary side.
Empathize — Define — Ideate — Prototype — Test
Phase 1: Empathize — understanding the people.
What sets Design apart from other domains is that it starts with human needs. Levin possesses a great interest in the day to day and human factors of his land. Unlike other landowners, he joins his laborers when they are working. In a famous scene, we find him mowing alongside his workers in the rain. It is here that he finds the peace and inspiration for his quest.
“Levin took the scythe himself, and began trying it. As they finished their rows, the mowers, hot and good-humored, came out into the road one after another, and, laughing a little, greeted the master.”
The scene goes on for two chapters (classic Tolstoy), with Levin mowing from morning till evening, not stopping for rain and sticking around for dinner.
“The peasants got ready for dinner. […] ‘Come, master, taste my soup,’ said the old man, kneeling down before the cup. It was so good that Levin gave up the idea of going home. He dined with the old man, and talked to him about his family affairs, taking the keenest interest in them, and told him about his own affairs and all the circumstances that could be of interest to the old man.”
Phase 2: Define — (re)framing the problem.
Levin understands his people better than any other landowner. But output of the work is still low. Suggestions to improve the process are followed up by his workers. But after the mowing of the lands, Levin, gets a better understanding of the shortcomings of the system.
“ He saw clearly now that the sort of farming he was carrying on was nothing but a cruel and stubborn struggle between him and the laborers, in which there was on one side — his side — a continual intense effort to change everything to a pattern he considered better; on the other side, the natural order of things.”
“We have gone this way —‘the ’European way’ — a long while, without asking ourselves about the qualities of our labor force. Let us try to look upon the labor force not as an abstract force, but as the Russian peasant with his instincts, and we shall arrange our system of culture in accordance with that!”
Here we see Levin putting the human factor in the equation. And not just roughly, but localized to his specific workers. He makes a leap that would not have been misplaced in the portfolio’s of today's larger consultancy firms.
Phase 3: Ideate — finding solutions.
Designers know that problems need some time to sink in before ideas come out. And when the ideas come, they hit you at idle moments. Levin is no exception. A few days later, after a dinner with friends from the city, we find our protagonist lying in bed:
“Left alone in the room assigned to him, lying on a spring mattress that yielded unexpectedly at every movement of his arm or his leg, Levin did not fall asleep for a long while.”
He lies awake thinking over the conversations he had that night.
“‘People say that improvements should be introduced by force. But imagine a way of interesting the laborers in the success of the work and reaching the golden mean of improvements they are willing to accept. The share for you would be larger, and the labor force will receive more too.’ [..] This idea threw Levin into a great excitement. He did not sleep half the night, thinking over in detail the putting of his idea into practice.”
Don’t we all get so excited by great ideas sometimes? He comes to a solution that sounds simple, but was unheard of at the time. Russian laborers, he says, don’t accept advice, authority or education. But if the system would give them a share of the profits, they would have an incentive to improve their work. At the end, everybody wins. Including the peasants. And that’s a revolution.
Phase 4: Prototype — building a representation.
His aim is to revolutionize the whole country, but he needs to start small, on his own land. “Just an idea cannot be fruitful.” Levin says, as he sets out to implement his vision on his land.
“[Levin] determined to divide the land up. The cattle-yard, the garden, hay fields, and arable land, divided into several parts, had to be made into separate lots. The simple-hearted cowherd Ivan, who Levin thought understood the matter better than the rest became a partner in the cattle-yard and collected together a group of workers to help him.”
Levin lets one lot to Ivan and two other lots to other peasants. The remainder of the land will be worked on the old system.
“Just an idea cannot be fruitful!”
— Konstantin Levin
Phase 5: Test — getting feedback.
With the invincible distrust of his peasants, he already survived the first test. With the three lots set up, Levin monitors the results. But initially, things are not working out:
“It is true that in the cattle-yard things went no better than before [..] But in spite of all this Levin thought the system worked, and that by keeping accounts strictly and insisting on his own way, he would prove to them in the future the advantages of the arrangement, and then the system would go of itself.
Now that’s a sign of some classic designer stubbornness! But Tolstoy doesn’t leave Levin as a pitiful man. He sticks to his vision and makes sure the results are noticed by the rest. A few chapters later, things start to turn his way and other peasants volunteer to join the partnership.
“‘See, I have only to go stubbornly on towards my aim, and I shall attain my end,’ thought Levin; ‘and it’s something to work and take trouble for. This is not a matter of myself individually; the question of the public welfare comes into it. Yes, it’s an aim worth working for.”
With that beautiful mission he concludes most of his test. Towards the end of the novel we learn that he did publish the book with his new theories, and that it gained both good and bad criticism. No innovation comes without resistance, I suppose.
Today's significance
The example is spread out roughly over a 100 page section in the 900 page book. It is an inspiring account of how empathy and motivation can bring about meaningful change. But what does it all mean now, about a 150 years later, for Russian Agriculture, for Tolstoy and, most interestingly, for Design Thinking?
About Tolstoy
Many details of Levin’s life are taken from that of his creator, Tolstoy. For example: both of them missed their shirts at their weddings. Levin’s views on the Russian reforms is basically Tolstoy telling the reader that he doesn’t like how things are going. By creating a little experiment in the life of Levin, he gets the chance to introduce his own ideas to the world. Apart from tapping into themes of the Russian Revolution before it was happening (so hipster), it seems that Tolstoy could have been a great (systemic) designer indeed.
About Russian agriculture
At the time of writing Anna Karenina, Russia had moved away from its aristocratic feudal system in which peasants were basically slaves. But this didn’t mean that they were directly better of. These societal changes, a set of new ideas and technologies and a system that was not good for everyday people would result about 30 years later in the Russian Revolution that would stretch far beyond just agriculture. The case at hand was just the tip of the iceberg.
About Design Thinking today
So what does this all mean for Design Thinking? Firstly it is of course not something that was invented in 2008. It just got better conceptualized and with that better capitalized in the last decade. It also shows that this is not a frame of mind that solely belonged to the designer. It just happens that we do it a lot. But novelists, land-owners and academics do it too. As do coders, cleaners, and CEO’s (so I’m told).
The five step framework is maybe simply a natural, rational flow of changing anything big in a sensible way and put revolutionary energy to constructive use. Someone then smuggled the word Design in there, and someone else drew up 5 hexagons to take over Google images.
But whatever the visions and processes are behind the mindset that we now call Design Thinking, one great question starts to bubble up: If Tolstoy’s Design Thinking show was a result of his discontent with the socio-cultural system at the time, and if that surge was a precursor to the later Russian Revolution.. is today’s global fascination with Design Thinking perhaps an omen for an even larger scale systemic revolution to come?
The quoted passages of Anna Karenina are taken from the Magarshack and the Garnett translations and edited for clarity and length.
