sLab Explorations

How might we pursue policy design for systemic social change? A presentation and open discussion

Nedad Rava has been conducting a study on policy design for more than a year, while building it upon his 15 years of professional engagement with policy and institutional innovation. This will be an opportunity to present the findings (combined with Q&A), followed by critique and open discussion on the use of design in policy.

Interest in policy design has been increasing, but it is still being addressed by designers and policy researchers in isolation from each other. The design community has not produced much research on policy design and any that was done was with an almost complete lack of references to policy studies. Akin to some business research, most of the concepts and methodologies regarding policy design in the design community come from design consultancies, which seek business promotion rather than solid research. The policy community, while producing much more research on this topic, is divided between those who don’t consider policy design a valid notion at all, and those who approach both design and policy in much narrower terms. Moreover, in policy studies we can rarely find references to design research (beyond the so-called “design thinking” hype). Such isolation might be surprising until we realize that policy and design share the same roots in complex social systems approaches and decision-making, amongst others.

Why this is important? Firstly, if policy design is to be pursued for systemic social change it needs to be properly conceptualized and operationalized. Secondly, policy design might be a great new opportunity for further development for design research and practice – while also addressing some of the counterproductive tendencies in policy (e.g. techno-economic rationality, "evidence"-based policy, "deliverology"). Thirdly, it is timely to bring back a more comprehensive understanding of design and of policy that has the potential to deal with predicaments of complexity, stakeholder involvement, and working across silos. Nevertheless, the understanding will not suffice without identifying practical ways to deal with the real-life challenges of designing in the policy space.

About the Presenter

Nenad (Ned) Rava has spent 20 years in strategic development, out of which 10 years as consultant, advisor, expert, team leader and trainer/coach for governments, UN/UNDP, the World Bank, the EU, and bilateral and philanthropic development organizations. He has provided support to more than 25 governments/public sector systems in areas primarily including institutional innovation, strategic foresight, result-based management, strategic policy design, complex system change, and learning and capacity development. Ned has produced 40+ publications, (including policy papers and change methodologies) and worked on more than 50 projects cutting across diverse policy domains (health, education, social policy, economic development, decentralization). He has studied management, development policy, and comparative politics, and got his PhD on democratization and governance. Ned is currently the Consultant on Integrated Policy Support to the SDGs for the UN DOCO of the United Nations Development Group (DRT Fund: 12 countries, 44 projects, 20 UN agencies).

How can we better understand paradigm shifts in order to lead strategic innovation and transformation?

In this workshop UK-based Tony Hodgson, co-developer of the influential Three Horizons foresight method, will provide invaluable, hands-on guidance for strategic long-term planning in social systems settings. The Three Horizons model offers deeper understanding of the significance of short, medium and long term futures, and how these connect to strategy. Three Horizons builds on the insight that businesses, technologies, political policies and civilizations exhibit life-cycles of initiation, growth, peak performance, and decline; waves of change in which each dominant form is eventually overtaken and displaced by another.

About the Presenter

Anthony Hodgson is founder of Decision Integrity Ltd (DIL), which facilitates better decisions through holistic thinking, systems mapping, integrative group processes and sustainable values. Tony is World Modelling Coordinator for the International Futures Forum, and is conducting PhD research in futures thinking and systems sciences at the Centre for Systems Studies at Hull University Business School. His body of work co-authored with Bill Sharpe and other collaborators is in use at Said Business School, University of Oxford, Manchester Business School, OCAD University and other institutions. More at http://www.decisionintegrity.co.uk

During Tony's visit in Toronto, sLab is also co-organizing:
IFF World Game Workshop
Wed July 23, 2014, 2–5:30 pm 
100 McCaul St., Lambert Lounge

The World Game is an interactive simulation learning experience developed by Tony for the Institute for the Future (IFF), creating problem-solving contexts for resilience in complex systems. The Game creates a collaborative context for dealing with complex sustainability issues.  The game is a training ground for professionals and students in the fields of systems and design thinking, adaptation/mitigation and resilience work, scenario planning, environmental studies, resource management, business and corporate social responsibility, as well as stakeholder facilitation. The game is based on a transdisciplinary world systems model that provides a representation of the global social-ecological system as an interconnected whole. It especially addresses issues of requisite diversity and potential synchronous failure of the global system through neglect of boundary spanning shared thinking. It challenges participants to develop a shared ‘connective wisdom’ in response. 

Michael Shamiyeh is founder and head professor of the Design Organization Media Research Lab (DOM) and CEO of Shamiyeh Associates, an operative unit for creating desired futures. He studied strategic management and architectural design (at Harvard and St. Gallen) and has published in many international journals, books, and popular media.The work of Michael and his team has won numerous awards including the World Intellectual Property Organization 2010 Gold Medal for Best Invention and the Austrian Ministry of Science 2009 Innovation Prize. Learn more on Michael at http://www.domresearchlab.com/profile/michael-shamiyeh

For advocates, these practices go beyond merely informing the work of top decision-makers and experts, and hold great promise to engage citizens in deliberation and debate—but how, and to what extent? How do different foresight, visualization, and digital practices compare to other kinds of engagement? What are the implications for professional training, and critically, how can we maximize democratic potential?

• RSVP by registering at https://foresight-viz-gov.eventbrite.ca
• Download PDF Lindquist visualization discussion paper
• Download PDF Berze foresight discussion papers

About the presenters

Evert Lindquist (PhD Berkeley) is Professor and Director at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Administration and Editor of the journal, Canadian Public Administration. He has published widely on topics in public sector reform, governance and decision-making, research utilization, policy capability, think tanks, consultation, horizontal management, and policy-related visualization. Professor Lindquist has a broad understanding of public governance trends and an interest in foresight and scenario-building. He is PI for the SSHRC-funded project, “Digital Governance: Transforming Government Practice for the Digital Era” with OCAD University, Institute on Governance, Dalhousie University, and On Second Thought Advisory.

Ottilia Berze is a PhD Candidate in Public Administration at UVic. Her dissertation seeks to assess the effectiveness of foresight techniques, especially scenarios, in addressing complex problems. Her other research interests include: refining tools and approaches for managing global complex problems, facilitating effective leadership and change, improving quality of life and increasing human performance. With a degree in Sociology/Anthropology and an MBA from Dalhousie University, Ottilia became responsible for advising small and medium-sized businesses seeking to commercialize innovative environmental technologies, and served in various leadership roles over seven years in the health sector in policy, program and service.

Greg Van Alstyne (@gregvan) is a designer, teacher, researcher, futurist,  co-founder and Director of Research for sLab at OCAD U. With more than twenty-five years practice in strategic communications, experience design, creative research and development. Greg’s previous roles include founding the Department of New Media at MoMA, and inaugural Director of the Institute without Boundaries (IwB).

Why and how are narrative worlds expanding across different media and platforms? What are the emerging features of transmedia consumption and production? What do these new forms of storytelling, product and service design and branding tell us about future convergence of culture and technology? Cross-media, multiple platforms, hybrid media, intertextual commodity, transmedial worlds, transmedial interactions, intermedia, multimodality, media convergence… the dictionary is open and we must learn how to read it. Meanwhile, the stories are blasting and expanding through different screens, surfaces and spaces. After presenting the main issues around these media experiences and analyzing an example of transmedia storytelling, participants will have the opportunity of expanding a fictional text and reflecting about the process.

About the speaker:
Dr. Carlos Alberto Scolari (b. Argentina, 1963) holds advanced degrees in Applied Linguistics and Communication Languages, and Social Communication/Journalism. He is Professor of Communication at University of Vic (Catalonia), Director of the Digital Interactions Research Group (GRID), Co-ordinator of the Master of Interactive Digital Communication program and of the Red Iberoamericana de Comunicación Digital (ALFA Programme UE-Latin America). In the 1990s Carlos collaborated with Ars Media (Torino, Italy) as interaction designer, developing interactive products in educational, commercial and institutional communication field. From 2000 to 2002 he ran the ID3: Interface, Information and Interaction Design program, organized by Istituto Europeo di Design and Ars Media (Italy), and supported by the MEDIA Programme (UE). Carlos has organized seminars and workshops on the semiotics of digital interaction, narrative and interaction design at European and Latin American universities and institutions. Learn more about Dr. Scolari athttp://www.hipermediaciones.com

Let's discuss how research methods, analysis, and product definition should adapt to inform product design and innovation in this new era.

About the Speaker:
Delia Grenville is Lead Human Factors Engineer in Intel Corporation's Digital Home User Experience Group, responsible for usage and experience definition for consumer electronics products including Widget Channel. She pioneered a number of new programs including a User Experience Assessment program for consumer electronic projects and is a member of several cross-organization teams where her role is to foster innovation in consumer experience. Delia was a Senior Research Scientist at Oracle for five years in the Usability and User Interface Design Group working on small device interfaces and geospatial visualization. With over fifteen years of industry experience in the areas of user experience, technology integration, supply chain management and organization design and performance assessment, Delia holds PhD and Masters degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech where she specialized in Human Factors Engineering and Management Systems Engineering, and her undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering from Queens University at Kingston, Ontario. Delia has been a program chair and reviewer for the Human Factors Engineering Society.

How can service and information designers work with practice professionals and patients/advocates to make a positive difference in healthcare?

Peter Jones presents his book Design for Care: Innovating Healthcare Experience in the first Toronto launch of this new Rosenfeld Media book. Dr. Jones is an associate professor at OCAD University, teaching in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI) program, and is principal of the Redesign Network. He will speak on Design Research for Human-Centred Healthcare, introducing the emerging opportunities for integrating design-led research to improve patient experience and clinical performance.

Joining Peter are Josina Vink and George Shewchuk to share their work related to contributions in the book’s cases. Josina is a recent graduate of the SFI program, with healthcare design experience from Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation and her recent employment at CAMH. George, a current SFI graduate student, shares approaches to visual mapping for interpreting complex healthcare issues.

“Peter Jones courageously builds bridges between design methods and medical informatics. Those who follow him across the existing chasm will strengthen the care in healthcare, thereby improving the lives of patients and caregivers.”
—Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland

“Design for Care is an outstanding addition to current best practice in the field.”
—Sam Basta, MD, MMM, FACP, CPE, Founder of Healthcare Innovation byDesign

About the Presenter:

Peter Jones is an associate professor, a senior fellow of the Strategic Innovation Lab, and teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation MDes program.

Peter founded and leads Redesign, an innovation research network based in Toronto. Redesign conducts ethnographic and design research for the co-creation of innovations for firms with complex information challenges. Peter has designed leading information resources in scientific, legal, and medical practice, and conducts research to understand future possibilities and guide innovation.

Rosenfeld Media provides the expertise user experience practitioners need to succeed--fantastic and fantastically practical UX books, virtual seminars, workshops, training courses, and consulting.

Bryan Boyer is building the Helsinki Design Lab (HDL) initiative to address these questions in Finland and beyond, by fostering strategic design. HDL, nested within Finland’s innovation centre, Sitra, is founded on the belief that a deeper understanding of craft will advance our ability to succeed in meeting these redesign needs.

Recently HDL has been spending time with six leading practitioners, focusing on one project each, and getting to know their work in detail. The teams span social science, public administration, technology, design, and community organizing, but all represent instructive examples of stewardship. In these projects and others like them, HDL sees a movement towards using projects to prototype policy, where strategy and delivery are reciprocal and iterative. They are pragmatic and hopeful. They are often without precedent but still proceeding carefully forward. New practices, new themes, and even new vocabularies are emerging as this community grows.

Registration is free at http://slab2012nov.eventbrite.ca/

About the presenter:

Bryan Boyer is Strategic Design Lead at Sitra. His responsibilities include the HDL Studio Model, the HDL Global event and HDL website. Previously Bryan has worked as an independent architect, software programmer, and technology entrepreneur.  He received his BFA with Honors from the Rhode Island School of Design, and his M.Arch from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is co-author of the HDL book, Recipes for Systemic Change. More information is available at http://helsinkidesignlab.org/ and Bryan Boyer's Blog, http://www.helsinkidesignlab.org/people/Bryan_Boyer.

This event is organized in collaboration with SiG.

How can design facilitate better encounters and outcomes for those navigating healthcare systems?

Healthcare systems are institutional and slow to change, yet people are adaptive and respond to culture and technologies. By observing how people seek health betterment and navigate healthcare, designers are able to respond with innovations in service, system and environment. By prioritizing human experience, inclusive design and human-environment interaction, the design community is positioned to positively impact the health and wellness domain. Join us as designers and researchers from OCAD University and U of T share current research and concepts for care-centred service. We'll engage questions and struggle to reach beyond conventional “delivery of care,” exploring the meanings of the journey to health, the meaning of care at the end of life, and the meaning of care in design.

With the financial support of the Quebecor Fund.

About the Presenters:

Dr Peter Jones is associate professor at OCAD University and sLab fellow, and teaches in OCAD University's Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SF&I) graduate program. Peter founded Redesign, an innovation research firm that designs advanced tools for thinking, for advancing practice in healthcare and science. He is the author of the book Design for Care (forthcoming Fall 2012), that connects designers to care practices (designforcare.com). He facilitates the Toronto-based community of practice known as Design with Dialogue.

Oksana Kachur is a recent MDes graduate from OCAD U’s SF&I program, with research focused on the experiences of palliative patients in the residential hospice care environment. She is interested in design for higher quality of life for patients in Canada. Oksana has contributed to the Design for Care book project; scenario writing for the Public Health Agency of Canada, and research for sLab's innovation project with brain fitness startup, Cogniciti.

Dr Henry Moller is a physician with an academic research background in human factors and policy design. He is affiliated with the University of Toronto’s Knowledge Media Design Insitute (KMDI) and is Assistant Professor with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine with prior research projects funded by Canadian Institute of Health Research and the City of Toronto. A focus of interest has been humanenvironment interaction which he has applied to the study of neuroergonomic interfaces as well as built environments and public health.

Kate Sellen is currently conducting PhD research on digital innovation in medical settings. Her research interests include uncovering risks, adaptations and appropriations of new technology through testing and modelling; design strategies and methodologies, and the medico-legal challenges of research in medical settings. She has been involved in digital design since 1998, working with international clients including IBM, Cingular Wireless, Citibank, HSBC, Royal Navy (UK), and Food Stamps Program (USA).

When it comes to social innovation, who defines what’s a good outcome? For whom? What makes a good solution to a tough social problem? Is effective the same as good? How can we be explicit about the values underpinning solutions? What makes a good innovation team?

Are ‘us’ consultants, designers, innovators gaining more than end users? Are we creating a new professional class that perpetuates some of what we critique? How do we know? Sarah Schulman will guide a conversation to explore answers to some of these questions, all with a generous helping of stories and collected insights.

About the Presenter:

Sarah Schulman is a serial social entrepreneur the co-founder of InWithFor that was based out of TACSI for the last 3 or so years. There she led highly successfully lab initiatives: Family by Family (at-risk Families) and Weavers (Aging). Sarah is now temporarily based out of Kennisland in Amsterdam as a visiting scholar and recently organized and designed Lab2, a gathering of the top lab practitioners and thought leaders from around the world (this included folks from HDL, Nesta, etc....) that took place last week. She was recently in Singapore helping to set up a working lab there. She is now in deep reflection mode and has been blogging on her personal blog, NESTA and Kennisland. Sarah is working towards publishing her next book – tentatively called The Good, the Bad, and the Feedback. She is a graduate of Stanford University (BA Human Biology, MA Education) and Oxford University (DPhil Social Policy) and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group (SSBMG) At Strategic Innovation Lab (sLab), one group has chosen to explore sustainability from the perspective of business models. SSBMG focuses primarily on the middle and bottom of the pyramid of organizations including start-up, SMB and SME categories. The group includes industry practitioners, faculty and graduate students from OCAD University’s Strategic Foresight & Innovation program, as well as from York University.