masters in design for social innovation school of visual arts foundations of design for social...

Masters in Design for Social InnovationSchool of Visual Arts

Foundations of Design for Social Innovation

Course syllabus

Marc Rettig and Hannah du Plessis

August 2016

System

Group

Self

This syllabus was prepared for the Fall 2016 conduct of the Foundations of Design for Social Innovation course in the MFA in Design for Social Innovation Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. For more about the program, see dsi.sva.edu.

The authors of the syllabus and instructors for the course are Marc Rettig and Hannah du Plessis. In addition to their role at SVA, they are both principals of Fit Associates LLC in Pittsburgh. See www.fitassociates.comto learn more about how the approaches described in this course are applied in organizations and local systems.

This document is © 2016, Fit Associates LLC and School of Visual Arts.

Thank you,Marc & Hannah

[email protected], [email protected]

1 | Foundations of Design for Social Innovation | Course Syllabus | August 2016

You cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which it will begin to flourish.Sir Ken Robinson

The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it. It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your community is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift – your true self –is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.

Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft


The creative process in groups, communities, and systems

Two main goalsThroughout this course we will work repeatedly with a few major themes. The core goal of this course is twofold:

1. To instill in students an understanding of the creative process as a powerful tool for individuals and groups to create in uncertainty

2. To equip students as facilitators and catalysts for groups who seek to affect the community or system of which they are a part.

Self Group System

SHAPES SHAPES

SHAPES SHAPES

We shape our systems, and they shape usTo see our selves, our world and our work only in terms of individuals is drastically misleading. We are each participants in larger communities. We have been influenced and shaped by them all our lives, and in turn we influence and shape those communities through our participation.

The fundamental creative processOpen, connected attention and iteration with intent—though this takes many forms in practice, at the roots of any approach one can find this fundamental tool for creating in uncertainty and complexity.

Two key models We will repeatedly return to two fundamental ideas which lie at the foundations of any work that aims to shift social patterns of relationship and behavior.


Point of viewThe Fundamentals course is built on the following insights and principles, which provide a foundation for the course lectures, readings, and projects.

5. Tend conditions for wholeness to emerge Because of all this, “design for social innovation” means we’re learning to help communities create intentionally for themselves. That will happen one step at a time as they have open, purposeful conversations, and as they probe and experiment their way forward. In this way, we can nurture the conditions needed for lasting positive shifts in the living system to emerge.

6. The tools are experience, dialog, & the creative processWe can't directly change people's identity, beliefs, and relationships the way we can work directly with physical or digital materials. But we can affect those things indirectly by taking a design approach to the conversations and experiences people have. Often times these conversations might be hard to have, there might be conflict, oppression, trauma present.

7. New ways of seeing, working, and beingAnyone who does this kind of work will need new ways of seeing human and social complexity, new ways of working because this is more like gardening than manufacturing. And they’ll need new ways of being because you can’t be successful at this work by being the “expert,” the “decider,” or the “creative one.” This work requires our whole being.

8. You can’t do this without cultivating your SelfIn order to work with other people’s relationships and the depth of their inner life, we need to know how to work with our own inner life and how to cultivate great relationships ourselves. As we learn within ourselves how to shift beliefs, dismantle oppression, respond creatively (and so on) we can help others do the same.

1. Design = creating with intention through iteration If you want to create something good, but you can’t immediately see what it should be or what it should be like, you can walk towards that something good with alternating steps of “understand” and “try.” That’s called design.

2. “Social” is profoundly invisibleThe “social” in “social innovation” means that we are working with profound things we can’t see: the relationships between people and the depth of their inner life.

3. Communities are living systemsA group of people — a family, school, community, organization, and so on — is a thing with a life of its own. The dynamics of its conversations and relationships may change in response to what's going on around it. And its essential structures and patterns tend to stay the same even though individual people come and go. This is called a “living system.” Living systems are too complex for any one person to comprehend or command.

4. No control: partner with life’s emergence You can’t just tell a family to change. You can’t control an organizational culture. You can’t bring peace or compassion to a situation by deciding to do it, planning it all out, then following that plan. But we can learn to help better configurations of the system to emerge from its own insides. We can support ourselves to become more present, engaged, brave; we can cultivate compassion, creativity and action inside our communities.


Theoretical foundations• Basic literacy in the primacy of social relations in individual and

community life

• Orientation to ways that inner life and experience is shaped by early development and social forces, and the interchange between inner state and external behavior

• Understand the essential basics of social complexity

• Learn models of both individual and system-scale change

• Learn conversational models of community, creativity, and facilitation

Skills of creating in social complexity• Reconnect to your personal creativity, practice creating from

memory, image, and intention

• Develop the skill of active listening and honest communication, learn and teach listening & speaking techniques

• Understand the fundamental creative process, and how it can be applied at different social scales

• Learn the basics of facilitation, and practice planning and conducting a group workshop

• Learn the basics of working with barriers to change: trauma, imbalance of privilege, oppressive power

• Understand the basic principles, structure, and use of systemic, participatory, emergent approaches to system-scale social shifts

• Learn a mix of methods for working with group dynamics, drawn from design practice, dialog facilitation, theater-based methods, and the arts

Learning & experience goalsThe course is designed to give students the opportunity to learn and practice their way toward each of the following learning goals. We will adjust as the semester proceeds.

Personal and interpersonal fundamentals• Learn how beliefs and relational patterns are formed and how they

can be shifted

• Learn the characteristics of healthy relationships and how to foster them

• Practice open and honest communication, practice authenticity

• Understand conflict styles, recognize your own style, and learn helpful methods to resolve conflict

• Learn strategies to work with difficult emotional and mental states, within yourself and in a group setting

• Learn several methods to cultivate compassion towards yourself and others

• Learn how to care for the shadow side in yourself and in larger communities

• Practice being present and aware

• Practice deep listening, openness and stillness

• Practice creating in uncertainty, learn how to say “yes and” and work with the emerging reality


Six hours every two weeksClass meets every two weeks starting September 12, for a six-hour studio from noon to 6 P.M. Please finish eating your lunch before class begins. There will be an extended break in the middle of each session.

Typical sessions mix discussion and “lab” activitiesSessions will typically have the following components:

• discussion of readings and videos

• discussion of assignments

• activities, during which we apply the material from the readings

• presentation of new material, which may include student-led instruction

In between, readings and reflectionsDuring the weeks between sessions, students can expect to spend about six hours per week on assigned readings and short reflection papers. The Mondays between class sessions will serve as interim deadlines for assignments.

Journal & practiceStudents are invited to schedule a weekly date with themselves during which they can do their personal journal activities. We suggest setting aside one to two hours a week for this.

Course structure

Assignments lead to a final projectAssignments are designed to help students accumulate a record of their learning, in the form of notes, reflections, and “portfolio pages” —works of synthesis useful for reference in future semesters.

In the past, students have produced a publicly-available book that summarizes the key materials and insights from the course. The form of this year’s project will be determined during the semester.

While the format and content will certainly vary, the results of the 2013 and 2014 courses can be found here: issuu.com/fitassociates/docs/sva_fundamentals_of_dsi_2013

issuu.com/fitassociates/docs/sva-fundamentals-of-dsi-book-2014

This year we would like to explore what an individual “Learning Portfolio” might look like.

Sessions will mix lecture, discussion, and activities. Between sessions, students will apply the previous sessions’ lessons in practice, while readings and video assignments prepare them for the next session’s activities.


Schedule of topics

Session 1 12 SEPTEMBER

Session 2 26 SEPTEMBER

Session 310 OCTOBER

Session 4 24 OCTOBER

Session 57 NOVEMBER

Session 6 21 NOVEMBER

Session 7 5 DECEMBER

Fostering.creative,.communities,.

organizations,.and systems.

The great story, and our place in it allHow we see the world and our work; a survey of “The Great Turning,” and design’s role. Ways in which our beliefs influence what we see.

The fundamental creative process, and a conversational view of social changeControl vs. creative approaches to change; reconnecting with personal creativity; the fundamental creative process; social systems are conversational

Practicing open attention: the starting point of creativeparticipationSuspending judgment and opening attention; learning the tools of active listening and story harvesting

The architecture of creative conversation Models of dialog; methods for reflection and reframing; making together conversationally

Facilitation craftAn introduction to dialog facilitation; the facilitator’s stance; building blocks of group attention, reflection, and making; learning by example

Working with barriers and difficultiesLearning the basics of distrust, trauma, and oppressive power, and exploring ways to engage with them

Working with systemicemergence, taking the long viewModels and approaches for engaging with systemic change; their common phases or movements

Developing personal.and.

interpersonal.capacity.

Awareness: seeing yourself and others

Self-compassion and self-care

Psychological safety in teams and groups: the conditions for group creativity

Work with strong emotions

Question beliefs Becoming still, really listening

Work with pastpain, present privilege and shame

Cultivate your own creativity

We may adjust the timing and emphasis of specific topics, in response to the natural unfolding of the class and our conversation.


GradingSome aspects of student progress in this course can be evaluated objectively, and wherever possible we will apply objective measures to student performance. But some of the measures are necessarily subjective: individual contribution to group work, openness and engagement, and progress from each student’s different starting point. What we’re really looking for is growth in understanding, point of view, and ability, as evidenced by discussion, project work, and assignments.

Student grades will be based on:

Attendance, citizenship, and participation in class 20%

Journal keeping 20%

Learning summaries for each session 30%

Final publication project 30%

Expectations and grading

Be a good citizen of the course• We expect you to show up, and show up on time. We’re only

meeting seven times, so missing a day is a big deal. Please communicate with us if you can’t make a class.

• We expect you to be kind to each other, and we’re going to hold you to that expectation.

• Commit to success – your own, and your classmates.

• Communicate – if you’re confused or lost, if you need help, if something isn’t working out, if our culture is clashing with your culture,… whatever it is, if you don’t tell us we have no way of knowing. Talk to us, and talk to your fellow students.

Engage with openness and honestyThis course will ask you to learn some unfamiliar approaches. Some of those approaches may contradict your previous training. Some of the ideas may seem abstract or impractical at first. And some of the assignments may require you to try things that make you feel uncomfortable.

So we’re looking for this… not this…

Be open to learning Already know it all

Dare to try Limited by timidity

Hard work Half-hearted effort

Honest engagement Polite observation

Pay attention, listen, Careless egotism, and explore the material do your own thing

This is your first semester in the program, and it’s the fundamentals class. We’re asking you to throw yourself into it with energy, an open mind, and an open heart.


Course materials

Recommended booksCommunity: the Structure of Belonging, Peter Block.

Daring Greatly, Brené Brown.

The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown.

Dialogic organizational development: the theory and practice of transformational change, Bushe and Marshak, eds

Frame innovation, Kees Dorst

Extraordinary Relationships, Roberta Gilbert.

Power and Love, Adam Kahane.

More Time to Think, Nancy Kline

The storm of creativity, Kyna Leski

Design when everybody designs: an introduction to design for social innovation, Ezio Manzini.

The design way, Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life, Marshall Rosenberg.

Theory U: Leading From the Future as it Emerges, C. Otto Scharmer.

The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook, Schwarz, Davidson, et al.

Changing conversations in organizations, Patricia Shaw

Experiencing spontaneity, risk and improvisation in organizational life: working live, Patricia Shaw

The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, David Whyte

Each session we will assign readings from books, web sites, magazines and journals, as well as videos of talks and presentations. A full index of these required readings as well as a list of additional suggested texts will accumulate on the class web site as the term progresses. No books are required to purchase, or to read entirely, but there are several that we recommend as useful additions to a student’s collection.

If you’d like to see a list of books from which the instructors are drawing material, and can’t wait for the whole list to grow in the course web site, see the collection of course-related books on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/18901077-fit-associates?shelf=sva-dsi-fundamentals-course


Your guides

Hannah du PlessisHannah’s work blends business, design, community and the arts. This blend developed through eight years experience in community leadership in South Africa, ten years of design leadership (including partnership in an architecture firm), and consulting experience in the U.S., Europe and Africa.

Hannah’s first career as interior architect spanned a decade and three continents, and includes 18 built projects. Her love for the creative process has taken her drawings into publications and art galleries and herself onto stage as presenter, actor, improviser and dancer.

She has taught internationally in the field of design and innovation at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, at Cedim in Mexico and at the University of Pretoria. She holds a Masters in Design Methodology from IIT, a degree in interior design from the University of Pretoria and a diploma in fine arts.

Hannah’s belief in human potential, tempered by the raw reality of growing up in violent, segregated South Africa, fuels her desire to further the field of social innovation.

Marc RettigMarc Rettig’s work is defined by a question: “How can we advance the practice of creating resilient health in social systems?” He is pursuing answers to that question in three ways: consulting, teaching, and writing.

As a principal of Fit Associates, Marc helps change-leading people and organizations develop capacity to create in and with social complexity. Fit has done this work with large corporations, local food systems, through business futures explorations, and in the trenches of organizational politics and processes.

Teaching both in the MFA in Design for Social Innovation program at The School of Visual Arts in New York and the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design provides a proving ground for Marc’s work in progress – a practical synthesis of design, facilitation, management, and systems approaches.

After a first career in software systems, Marc spent over twenty years as a designer of projects, interactions, products, services, experiences, and transformations. He has worked with corporations across a broad range of sectors, including Philips, Nissan, Microsoft, Comcast, Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Seagate, SAP, and numerous startup companies.


Connection is why we're here. It's what gives purpose and meaning to

our lives. This is what it's all about. It doesn't matter whether you talk to

people who work in social justice and mental health and abuse and neglect, what we know is that connection, the ability to feel connected,

is – neurobiologically that's how we're wired – it's why we're here.

Brené Brown

[The] future is not just about firefighting and tinkering with the surface of structural change. It’s

not just about replacing one mindset that no longer serves us with another. It’s a future that requires us to

tap into a deeper level of our humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It is a

future that we can sense, feel, and actualize by shifting

the inner place from which we operate. It is a future that in those moments of disruption begins to

presence itself through us. This inner shift, from fighting the old to sensing and presencing an emerging future possibility, is at the core of all deep leadership work today. It’s a shift that requires us to

expand our thinking from the head to the heart. It is a shift from an ego-system awareness that cares about

the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that cares about the well-being of all, including

oneself.

Otto Scharmer

Such a man knows that whatever is wrong with the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day.Karl Jung

Until we are free to think for ourselves, our dreams are not free to unfold.

Nancy Kline


The ability to shift from reacting against the past to leaning into and presencing an emerging future is probably the single most important leadership capacity today. It is a capacity that is critical in situations of disruptive change, not only for institutions and

systems, but also for teams and individuals.

In the old days, we used to learn one profession and practice it throughout our

working lives. Today we face rapidly changing

environments that increasingly require us to reinvent ourselves. The more dramatic the

changes in our environment, the less we can

rely on past patterns, and the more we need to learn to pay attention and tune in to

emerging future opportunities.

Otto Scharmer

The alchemists maintained that we can create only in our own image. That is, everything takes form according to the consciousness that shaped

it. If our self-image is small and restricted, or cold and inert, then what we produce will most probably be stillborn, like its maker. It is essential, then,

to know what is vital and alive inside us and shape our lives in its image. With a leaden appreciation of ourselves, everything we make takes on

that dull weight. To create the golden moment, we must know where the

gold lies in ourselves, but we must not have narrow, tidy images of what makes up our “gold.” Without the fiery embrace of everything from which

we demand immunity, including depression and failure, the personality

continues to seek power over life rather than power through the experience of life. We throw the precious metal of our own experience

away, exchanging it for the fool’s gold of a superimposed image, an image

of what our experience should be rather than what it actually is, the final element in the act of creation.

David Whyte

Transparent communication involves… seeing the whole person, rather than the story of themselves which they identify with at that particular moment.Thomas Hübl


Always we hopeSomeone else has the answer.Some other place will be better,Some other time it will all turn out…

At the center of your beingYou have the answer,You know who you areAnd you know what you want.

There is no needTo run outsideFor better seeing.

Nor to peer from a window.

Rather abide at the center of your being;For the more you leave it, the less you learn.

Search your heartAnd seeThe way to do Is to be.

Lao Tzu

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here.

There’s only one rule I know of, babies: God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

Kurt Vonnegut

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