The Scandinavian rule that every designer should follow
I have been living -and working as a designer- in Scandinavian countries (Denmark and then Sweden) for the last three years. Scandinavian culture is unique and distinctive on many levels. But if there is one thing that I consider to be the key to decode and understand the weirdness of Scandinavian culture, from the traumatic high tax system to the ultra-minimal design approach, It would be the Janteloven or The Law of Jante (pronounced: Yante).
Jante law was first introduced in the novel A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (En flyktning krysser sitt spor, 1933) for the Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose. The novel takes place in the fictional Danish village of Jante. The law was the author’s sarcastic way of describing a prominent attitude of Scandinavians.
The law consists of 10 points. But they are basically revolving around one idea:
Be humble. Don’t think or act like you are special or better than anyone else (even if you actually are).
In Scandinavian society, No one will appreciate bragging about your skills, achievements or how much you earn. That’s why if you earn a lot, don’t think you are special. You will have to share half (or even more) of your money as taxes so we can all be equal.
This egalitarian code of conduct is engrained in Scandinavian societies insomuch that it sometimes comes in forms that we, non-Scandinavians, might find odd and incomprehensible. For example: If you have a habit of staying in work after working hours, this can be perceived -at least from your manager’s point of view- as a sign of dedication and commitment. Not in the north though. In Scandinavia, this behaviour will most probably NOT going be appreciated, it can even be frowned upon. Sometimes -as happened to a Czech colleague of mine- it might end up with a warning e-mail from your manager asking you to stop doing it. Why would a manager do this? Well, one of the reasons is that this behaviour makes you “look” better than your colleagues, and this is “anti-Jante”.
We can grab a coffee -and couple of delicious Scandinavian cinnamon buns- and argue if this attitude is the secret of Scandinavian countries’ success, or if it is what is standing between them and being more successful. But, apart from the extreme examples of applying Jante law, I guess we can agree that the right amount of humbleness can actually fix a good amount of the issues of the human race.
… But what does this have to do with designers?
Well, apparently, designers are having a reputation of having some good amount of ego. And, let’s face it, many of us have a tendency to have -or at least perceived to have- arrogant and pretentious attitudes.
Throughout my 12 years career as a designer, I have seen many cases of great designers with a snobbish attitude. I have heard it from people working with them ( clients, managers, and colleagues) complaining about this. and most importantly, I have witnessed how this attitude harmed their careers and professional reputation.
If you didn’t observe this yourself, you can take Google Auto-completion word for it:
If we take away all the money-related questions from the most popular questions about designers, we are only left with people’s puzzlement over why we are so arrogant and pretentious.
What is the reason for this trait? maybe it’s the nature of our job as creative people? or maybe it’s only a reaction of how others misunderstand, underestimate and intervene in our job?
The “yes! buts” of a cocky designer
“yes! but we are creative people. one common trait of the creative people is to have high self-confidence, hence the “big ego”..”
True, we are not alone. artists in different creative fields (painters, filmmakers, novelists …etc) are renowned for their “big ego”. sometimes being complete jerks as well.
The bad news is: designers are not artists, therefore we can’t be jerks and expect everyone to be ok with it.
The difference is that artists’ work is to render *their own* personal perspectives, emotions and beliefs. and then they *choose* to expose their art to the audience. Ideally, the audience opinion or interpretation of the artwork shouldn’t actually matter. and even when it comes to co-workers, ideally the artist hires them to use their skills to implement his/her vision of the artwork under his/her guidance. On the other hand, we are designers. which means:
We design artifacts for people. with people.
To some extent, any good designer understands the “For people” part. Empathy is vital (and actually the first) part of the design thinking process. User research is a respected discipline in most of the design teams. … etc.
The problem lies in the “With people” part. many designers forget that we -usually- are not the only stakeholders of what we are designing. we are usually a part of a team. and if we cannot communicate well with them because of an attitude problem, we will most probably fail to achieve what we are aiming for altogether.
“yes! but we are saving the project by designing good user experience. we need to steer it, without us the whole thing is certainly a failure ..”
Well, if you are working in a team, then this applies to everyone more or less. without coding, there will be no software. without project owner/client, there will be no budget … and the list goes on. Moreover, we (and I’m looking at us, UXers) are the “new kids in the block”. I know that it’s hard to embrace the fact that the software industry existed before the term User Experience was born, but it did! and chances are that the clients, project managers, architects, and other members of the project team you are working with, have worked on -and delivered- a good number of projects in the past without the involvement of UXers at all. because the title didn’t exist back then.
I know that we are bringing a great value to the industry. and I genuinely believe that UX is a cornerstone of the success of any digital solution. but that still doesn’t give us the right to think we are superior to everyone else.
“yes! but they misunderstand/intervene in/underestimate our work and they think themselves as the know-it-all..”
I agree, it happens a lot. If there is a member of the team/a client/a manager who happened to be a jerk. introducing yourself as another jerk in the room will only add fuel to the fire. what we need here is to have ,and to show, self-confidence, high social and emotional intelligence, effective communication, and yes, sometimes the right amount of firmness -not arrogance. the difference can be subtle but the outcomes are definitely not.
So what should we do?
There are loads of courses, books, articles and other sources that will give a good advice on how to be a good team player. for example:
- listen actively.
- admit it when you are wrong.
- pause for few seconds before replying to a critical feedback.
- start with giving the positive feedback before the critical ones.
- …etc.
Those are great pieces of advice. but none of them will work unless you are *genuinely* respecting other people and their opinions. As you know, our behaviours are only the tip of the iceberg of the underlying values and beliefs.
Jante Law itself is not focusing on the behaviour. here are some examples of the 10 rules of Jante Law :
Rule#1: You’re not to think you are anything special.
Rule#3: You’re not to think you are smarter than we are
Rule#6: You’re not to think you are more important than we are.
As you see, the rules are about thinking, not acting arrogantly. In fact, 9 out of the 10 points are about “thinking” and “imagining” you are better than others. and that’s where we need to start. we need to reflect on our core beliefs and values and check why we might feel superior to others and work on changing this mindset if it exists. otherwise, snobbish behaviours will keep showing up on the surface.
To sum it up, we need to remind ourselves why we should be genuinely humble.
Maybe a good reminder is to reflect on how ugly it sounds being arrogant:
Thanks for reading! you can contact me on ahmad.alley@live.com or on Linkedin or Behance if you have any feedback or questions.
