systemic design principles & methods (royal college of art)
TRANSCRIPT
Peter Jones, PhDOCAD University, Toronto
Royal College of Art, April 29, 2015
Systemic DesignSystems as Theory for Complex
Design
PracticesRedesign redesignresearch.comDialogic Design designwithdialogue.com
PublicationsPapers / Blog designdialogues.comResearch sLab.ocad.caHealthcare designforcare.com
ProductsConsult SeriesScienceDirectCdling.com
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Peter Jones, Ph.DAssociate Professor, OCADUStrategic Foresight & Innovation
Managing partner, Redesign Network
Movements in Design ThinkingJune 2009
Core Argument – Systemsthinking had failed in its aimsto transform management.
After 30 years, today’s leadersdo not show systemic thinkingin domains that matter.
Promising movement toward“design thinking” should learnfrom Systems Thinking here.
Coda: Dr. Collopy now leadsCase Western’s new school ofDesign & Innovation atWeatherhead
Oct 15-17: Flourish & ProsperGlobal Forum for BAWB
Movements in Systems Thinking?Fall 2009
Core Argument –Systems thinking didnot fail, it never had achance. Could designbe better b/c method ?
Yes, today’s leadersaren’t systems thinkers
Management aspracticed is notsystemic or designoriented. We areteaching theory theycan’t use.
Coda: We now teachsystemic design & leadstudent research withsocial, visual methods
Peter Jones, PhDOCAD University, Toronto
Institute for 21st Century AgorasISSS 2014 July 31, 2014
Systemic Design Principlesfor
Complex Social Systems
7
Hugh Dubberly & Harold Nelsonargue that design processes areembodiments of systems thinking.
Banathy (& Gharajedaghi)advocate a designing
orientation to social systemsas designing.
Some context.
• Systems science has preferred theories for system description(explanation), prediction (control), & intervention (change).
• Contributions of modern design disciplines - industrial,information, service design – to systems are marginal, so far.
• “Design” is problem solving, or a process of system design.
• Social systems design as a template for design thinking incomplex socially-constructed domains.
• Which are (now) everything – social, services, networks.
Ill-defined, evolving, multi-factored situations.At least 10 properties, among them:
1. There is no definite formulation of a wicked problem.
2. Wicked problems have no stopping rules (you don’t know when you’re done).
3. Solutions are not True/False but Good/Bad (value judgments)
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem.
5. Every attempt to solve counts (one shot op)
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable set of potential solutions.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique.
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another [wicked]problem.
(Real) Wicked Problems
Rittel and Weber. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory ofplanning. Policy Sciences, 4, 155-169.
Christakis on Structured Dialogue:“Given the complexity of political,social, economic, & technological issuesof the Information age, & the stronglinkages among those issues, is itreasonable to expect that the approachfor engaging people in dialogue 2500years ago during the Golden Age of theAthenians would work today?”
“We proceed from the beliefthat problems have"solutions" --although wemay not necessarily discoverthese in the case of everyproblem we encounter.
This peculiarity of ourperception causes us to viewdifficulties as things thatare clearly defined &discrete in themselves.
It also leads us to believethat to solve a problem itis sufficient to observe &manipulate it in its ownterms by applying anexternal problem-solvingtechnique to it.
THE PREDICAMENT OF MANKIND: A Quest for Structured Responses to Growing World-wide Complexities and Uncertainties
Hasan Özbekhan
Compatible philosophies, different generations.
Generation: First Second Third Fourth
Philosophy Rational1960’s
Pragmatic1970’s
Phenomenological1980’s
Generative2000’s
Methods Movementfrom craft tostandardizedmethods
Instrumentality,Methodscustomized tocontext
Design research andstakeholdermethodsDesign cognition
Generative,empathic &transdisciplinary
Authors& trends
Simon, FullerDesignScience,Planning
Rittel, JonesWicked problems,Evolution
Schon, Don NormanUser-centered &Participatory DesignReflective action
Dubberly, SandersGenerative DesignService DesignSystemic design
Systemsinfluences
Sciences,ORCybernetics
Natural systemsSystem dynamicsSystemsengineering
System dynamicsSocial systemsSoft systems
ComplexitySocio-ecologicalDialogic
Participatory
Design thinking deals well with complexity.
Design must become more systemic –for complex concerns.
Complex domains have > stakeholders
Design 1.0 Craft design, Advertising
Design 2.0 Industrial, Products, Web
Design 3.0 Organizational & institutional
Design 4.0 Distributed social systemsMixed stakeholders
10 Shared Design Principles
Design Principle Design Methodologies
1. Idealization Iteration2. Appreciating Complexity Sensemaking3. Purpose finding Saliency - Meaning-making4. Boundary framing Provocation and strange-making5. Requisite variety Multiple perspectives6. Feedback coordination Modeling7. System ordering Structuring8. Generative emergence Future projection9. Continuous adaptation Multiple reasoning modes10. Self-organizing Co-creation
Guidance for complex systems design fromsystems, cybernetic & complexity principles.
Foundation for practitioners to enhanceengagement and evolve better practices.
Elicited from systems theories, but not new.
Lead to net new frameworks for design in:Patient-centred healthcare systemsSustainable business modelsOrganizational governance
“The primary aim the two systems of thought share today is enabling organized high-leverage action in increasingly complex and systemic problems as design situations.”
Design methods associated with principles
Principle Design Methods
1. Idealization Framing, Iteration, Backcasting2. Appreciating Complexity Sensemaking, System sketching3. Purpose finding Inquiry (5 Whys), Prototyping4. Boundary framing Critical probes, Strange-making5. Requisite variety Co-creation, Function analysis6. Feedback coordination Modeling, Interactive Testing7. System ordering Structuring, Pattern making8. Generative emergence Future creation,9. Continuous adaptation Multiple reasoning modes10. Self-organizing Co-creation, Facilitated design modes
We might also observe design of: Time (4), Space (3), Information (3)
Mapping Systems Principles to Design Models
• Discovery and orientation• Definition and concept formation• Optimization and planning• Evaluation and measurement
Model drawn in part fromEvenson and Dubberly, 2010
Four universal patterns across 50innovation processesvan Patter and Pastor (2013)
4. Boundary framing Provocation and strange-making
All people are health-seekersA health-seeking journey occurs over a lifetime, a continuity thatproceeds through youth, adulthood, & older age.
Rheinfrank, J. and Evenson, S.From Winograd, Terry. 1996. Bringing design to software. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Design Languagesfor Systems Methods
Rheinfrank, J. and Evenson, S.From Winograd, Terry. 1996. Bringing design to software.
“Though a handful design thinkers have made somesubstantial contributions to systems thinking in general,hardly anybody has developed a systems practice fromwithin design, specially informed by design thinkingand design practice. This is remarkable when wecompare us with other fields where proprietaryadaptations of systems perspectives are normal.”
Birger Sevaldson, Oslo School Of Architecture & DesignGiga-Mapping: Visualisation For Complexity & Systems Thinking In Design
Nordic Design Research Conference 2011
why has Systems Thinking ignored Design?Questions & Discussion
Emerging Educational Movements• OCAD University, Toronto
Master of Design in Strategic Foresight & InnovationUnderstanding Systems & Systemic Design
• Oslo School of Architecture & DesignMDes & PhD, Systems-Oriented Design
• Curriculum & faculty workshop exchanges• Cooperative research (e.g. Design Literacy)• Core methods training:
GIGAmapping, Dialogic Design
Systemic Design Course
• Systems theory & methods to design systemic interventions,process & services for social and business innovation.
• Understanding natural, sociotechnical & human systems forsystem change, long-range innovation, and foresight.
• Two sections:1) Understanding system thinking concepts & tools forexpressing models & mapping2) Social systems methods for socially-responsive design& innovations expressed as service or social systems
• Seminar format with lecture, dialogue, simulations, visualmodeling, team projects, case study & studio work.
Structured Dialogic Design SM
• Two week workshop as participants in SDDTriggering Question framed for strategic foresight:What are the most critical continuous challenges facing humanityover the next 20 years?
• Formulating & analyzing the global problematique.Employ Ozbekhan’s 49 CCPs from the Predicament
• Reflective approach to method education:Students reflect & evaluate during points in process
• Structuring of influence map to produce a new view of theproblematique.
SDD as experienced by participantsExpresses the 5 Churchman inquiring systemsShared inquiry with disciplined democratic process