One of the beautiful things about getting older is that you've seen a lot of shit happen and you did a lot stupid things too. But another nice thing is that you get a better sense of what really matters in the end.

Talk to any elderly person, and they'll usually tell you that what's important is having a calm life and spending meaningful time with friends and family.

In many cultures, elders have some serious decision-making power. You see this in indigenous groups and even in Christian communities, where the decision-makers are literally called elders. These are practices that have been here for thousands and hundreds of years. An they have something to teach us.

So maybe it's smart for our fast-moving services to bring in the elders of the organization or the people we serve. Why not, give them veto power to stop things they can see are just trends but not meaningful in the long run. (1)

Action question

Are there specific generations missing from your decision-making process? How could these generations help you make better decisions?

Footnotes

(1) The same could be said for kids or young people. Sometimes we hear that the folks making decisions aren't the ones who'll have to live with them—meaning the next generation.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.

• Written with AI help: This principle draft is based on an audio note I took while walking that was transcribed and cleaned using Audiopen. I then reviewed and improved the text by hand.