In 1984, George Nelson sat down and reflected on his time at Herman Miller. The resulting essay is insightful, honest, and full of stories told with keen recollection. We decided to share the essay with FastCompany, which began publishing it as a series beginning this week. Check it out and let us know what you think.

The secret? Continual improvement. Using a process we call the Herman Miller Performance System, or HMPS, we compound small, incremental improvements into big change. Rearranging a bin of parts to be six inches closer may only save a half second, but when combined with hundreds of other refinements, the results add up. In fact, they add up to more than 260 seconds—or 4 minutes and 20 seconds—of time saved to make an Aeron chair.

Applying the same problem-solving knowhow to the production of our products as we do their design, Herman Miller remains at the cutting-edge. And while the competition is busy exporting manufacturing jobs, we can proudly say our products are made in the United States.

Checkout this video FastCompany made while visiting us a few weeks ago.

It’s one thing to talk about solving problems; it’s another to make it a tenet of good design. That’s what we strive to do, and Fast Company recently placed us on its list of Thirty Companies That Get It for creating, “furniture that inspires—and solves problems.”

Charles Eames once said, “The extent to which you have a design style is the extent to which you have not solved the problem.” George Nelson was a problem solver, as was Robert Propst and as are Ayse Birsel and Studio 7.5. In fact, solving problems with good design is a prerequisite for Herman Miller.

Consider Aeron, designed by Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick. Radical when it launched, its transparent style has inspired numerous copies. But foam and fabric wasn’t replaced with Pellicle because it looked good. Research showed that the suspension material allowed air to reach the body, preventing heat and moisture from building up—keeping the sitter comfortable much longer.

Solving a problem in an original way provided Aeron its distinctive look as well.

We’re all designers, busy designing our own lives. Powerful stuff but sounds a bit cliché, doesn’t it? Designing Is About the Decisions You Make Every Day, a recent article on Fastcompany.com, got me thinking, and before I knew it, the questions were popping up.

The problem is that design has become a fantastical buzzword invoked to change the world, heal your woes, and make your life easier. But if you were to ask people on the street the meaning of design, you would receive a new defintion with each person you stopped. And, too often, design is associated with aethistics. And even if you throw function into the mix, what difference does it make? Does advocating a designed life equate to filling your life with good-looking, functional widgets? Is that how design can make your life better?

The key is to divorce design from any assocation with consumption, which is exactly the direction Ayse Birsel takes in Design the Life You Love, a recent project challenging us to stop and “think about [our lives] for a moment.” Conceived as a recipe, Birsel proposes a simple and thought-provoking way of examining the complexity of your life and to ask what’s next. It’s so simple, in fact, you could do it over a cup of coffee.

Birsel recoginizes that design, at its essence, is decision-making—and good design means good decisions—whether that manifests itself as a cool product, choosing to riding your bike to work, or deciding to go back to school—you’re designing your life when you make a thoughtful decision about what is right for you and for your life. And that doesn’t sound like a cliché.

Of more than 250 companies, Herman Miller has been recognized not only as one of its Most Innovative Companies, but also as one of its “Innovation All-Stars”—a group of 59 global companies that “fought a dour economy with renewed creativity and bold initiatives.” We’re the only Michigan-based company to appear on the All-Star list and the only representative from the contract furniture industry.

Fast Company cited several of our award-winning products as examples of innovation: the Embody chair, the Setu chair, the Twist LED task light, and Teneo storage furniture system.

Designers are creative thinkers who often venture far outside the proverbial box. What a wonderful world it would be if more of us could think like they do.

According to a recent Fast Company article, everyone from businesses to individuals can benefit from what’s called “design thinking,” a methodology or approach that can be used to solve virtually any problem.

Author of the article, Mark Dziersk, teaches a course at Northwestern University called “Design and Design Thinking,” a topic in which he’s very well-versed. As VP of Design at Brandimage/Desgrippes & Laga, one of the world’s largest design and branding firms, Dziersk bases his class on what he’s learned over his 28-year career working with clients ranging from Dove to Motorola.

In another Fast Company article, he lists “10 things you need to know” about design thinking, including the following key points:

*Design thinking needs to start at the beginning of any process – challenging the problem to be solved in the first place. Too often, people don’t call in the designers until the middle or end of a project, when it’s time to improve a product’s aesthetics or create attractive packaging.

*Design thinking focuses on empathy and perception around what people need and do, as opposed to what they say they want. This can sometimes run counter to research findings, states Dziersk. Referring to this insight as the “ergonomics of understanding,” he uses Herman Miller’s Aeron chair to illustrate the point, saying that focus groups told designers the chair was sure to fail. But they courageously moved ahead. The Aeron chair went on to become an award-winning ground-breaker in office seating and is now in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.

*Designers look past the project they’re currently working on to the next step in the strategy because they realize no problem is solved in isolation. They’re like orchestra conductors who look at the whole, not just the individual parts and pieces.

*Designers are storytellers; they like to use real life experiences to explain the “why” behind their design; that’s what makes it so memorable and so powerful. As an example, Dziersk talks abut Dyson vacuum cleaner inventor James Dyson, who often recounts the story of how many prototypes it took to get the design right.

Dziersk’s theories on design thinking are catching on; there are countless books, blogs and conference panels on the subject. Something supporters should be cautioned about, says Dziersk (who personally holds over 100 patents) are the nay-sayers – that familiar group of people who respond to new ideas by saying, “We just don’t do things that way,” or, “It will cost too much money.” 

Certainly, all designers have had to deal with plenty of that kind of response in their careers. But they don’t let that stop them. They just find creative ways to overcome whatever barriers are thrown in front of them. And that may be the best lesson of all.

By Keasha Palmer