Liberating design from old frames of mind

🖼️ Designing beyond the mental shapes we didn't realize we've inherited and rethinking what holds everything together

Transformation design is shaped by what we believe is possible

In every design brief, strategy session, or grand mission to “drive change,” there’s an invisible architecture at play. A hidden scaffolding that defines not just what we think can be done, but what we think should be done. What matters. What’s real. What’s worth imagining.

The Romans had a phrase for it: forma mentis, which translates as ‘the shape of the mind’.

More than mindset, forma mentis is the deep form our thinking takes. It’s the mental and emotional terrain we navigate, mostly unconsciously. It includes how we process ambiguity, how we define value, how we orient to time, and how we respond to contradiction. It is worldview and worldview-in-action.

And if we are to design for true transformation (not just surface-level shifts or aesthetic improvements) then forma mentis is where we must begin the metamorphosis. Because if not, it will mirror back to us from every single corner: from simple formalities to how AI ‘reasons’.

©Michael Dziedzic

We design from the shape of mind we inhabit

Transformation is not just about what’s changing around us. You’ve read it and heard it from me before: transformation is about how we choose to meet that change. And what we’re capable of seeing, sensing, or making depends on the shape of mind we bring to the moment.

If our forma mentis is rigid, clinging to binaries, addicted to certainty, allergic to slowness, then no matter how innovative our solutions, they will snap back into old patterns. A fixed mental form cannot hold new possibilities.

The work of transformation design, then, includes a subtler kind of craftsmanship:
Reshaping the ways we think, feel, and imagine.

In transformation, fluidity is a strength

Systems thinkers have long taught us that we can’t change a system by pushing at its parts. You have to change the paradigm, the underlying rules and assumptions that generate behavior in the first place. The design principles at the fundament of the system.

Forma mentis is that paradigm, made personal. It governs:

• How we define what counts as progress

• Whether we value emergence or control

• If we see the world as mechanical or relational

• How we respond to disruption, uncertainty, grief, or hope

When we shift forma mentis, we don’t just unlock new solutions. We unlock new selves, capable of engaging differently with the world.

Practices for reshaping the mind

How do we do this? Through intentional design that surfaces the unconscious, invites curiosity, and allows new forms to emerge.

As transformation designers we can craft this shift by:

• Making the invisible visible
  Use metaphor, systems maps, or speculative prompts to reveal the hidden architecture of belief.

• Creating fertile friction
  Invite contradiction and paradox into your (mental) space. Let dissonance act as a teacher, not a threat to what you are trying to achieve.

• Designing for reflection-in-action
  Slow down the doing, so that reflection can rise. Use journaling, dialogue, or physical prototyping to externalize thoughts and reconfigure them.

• Working with play and ritual
  Play interrupts the default. Ritual deepens intention. Both allow for new mental grooves to take shape. Use this to your benefit!

The goal is to loosen the old forms, to compost mental habits that no longer serve, and to co-create the conditions where something more adaptive, more alive, can emerge.

Collective forma mentis: culture as cognitive soil

We often think of forma mentis as individual. But it also functions collectively: as shared worldview, as societal culture, as mainstream narrative, as family rituals, as conformity.

Designing at this level requires care and boldness. It’s cultural, relational and systemic work. And like all living systems, it doesn’t respond well to force. It responds to invitation, repetition, resonance, and trust.

When we work at the level of forma mentis, we begin to transform what we believe is possible. Not just what we know, but also what we notice. Not just how we think, but how we feel, imagine, and relate.

And that: quietly, steadily, consistently and transformatively… changes everything.

---

If you enjoyed this article, please leave a ‘♡’ and/or share it with others.

---

Buy me a coffee ☕

If you’d like to support my work please consider making a donation. I really appreciate it and it helps fuel my commitment and passion to write, speak and podcast. Thanks! 🙏

---

You may also like…