Resources and Links Related to Design Intensive Meetings
Workshops are focused on learning. The coaching model of inter-action is focused on managing individual and group psychology and behavior. The Design Intensive Zone focuses on guiding participants through a complex process in order to help them create, solve or plan something together. Often the events are custom-designed. There is usually a lot of input, data, and background information folded into the design. Usually, most of the work will be done by participants in small groups, therefore, the personal presence and influence of the facilitator is reduced and in some cases eliminated.
Focus on a particular process model also distinguishes this zone from the others. Usually practitioners embrace one or several process models that describe how they believe people create things together. Most process models share certain commonalities. They usually start with a broad sweep of internal and external conditions and then narrow down to concrete challenges and specific plans.
What follows are links to resources and additional information about Design Intensive meetings.
Currently there are materials related to:
Theory
The Art of Complex Problem Solving: The methods and tools for complex problems are different than for technical problems.
Collaboration is a structured, recursive process where two or more people work together toward a common goal—typically an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Collaboration does not require leadership and can even bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism. In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is often used in the context of economics. It studies strategic interactions between agents. In strategic games, agents choose strategies which will maximize their return, given the strategies the other agents choose. The essential feature is that it provides a formal modelling approach to social situations in which decision makers interact with other agents. Game theory extends the simpler optimisation approach developed in neoclassical economics.
Wicked Problems: The concept of "wicked problems" was originally proposed by Horst Rittel (a pioneering theorist of design and planning, and late professor at the University of California, Berkeley) and M. Webber [1] in a seminal treatise for social planning. Rittel expounded on the nature of ill-defined design and planning problems which he termed "wicked" (ie. messy, circular, aggressive) to contrast against the relatively "tame" problems of mathematics, chess, or puzzle solving.
Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science. It studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specificially, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact. While systems concepts had long been used in sociology and the area is often associated with cybernetics, systems theory as a technical and general academic area of study predominantly refers to the science of systems that resulted from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST), among others, in initiating what became a project of systems research and practice. It was Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson who developed interdisciplinary perspectives in systems theory (such as positive and negative feedback in the social sciences).
The Deming System of Profound Knowledge: The following is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of The New Economics, second edition by W. Edwards Deming
The System of Profound Knowledge helps us to see how complex organisations work. When we understand this we can then figure out what we have to do to get long-term improvements in quality and efficiency. Ultimately, organisations led by people who are guided by the System of Profound Knowledge are likely to be much more efficient and successful than organisations which continue with the prevailing style of management.
Scenario planning or scenario thinking is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence.
Processes
Future Search: An interactive planning process used world-wide in diverse cultures to achieve shared goals and fast action. Future search leads to cooperative planning that lasts for years.
Moving Beyond Power Plays to Collaboration. This was written by my colleague Kenoli Oleari following a Future Search he co-facilitated with the Novato, CA school system. It provides important insights and guidance on initiating collaborative processes in situations where people are only familiar with competitive, adversarial or controlling modes of relating. This is a particularly useful piece for me, because it addresses the issue of adversarial activism and the struggle to use collaborative approaches where some of the players hold vastly more social power than others. -- Tom
The Search Conference. The search for effective strategic planning is over - by Steven Cabana - Whole System Associates, Fred Emery and Merrelyn Emery- Australian National University. It is now possible to create organizations in which individuals can fully utilize their mind, heart and spirit; where the values, expectations and highest ideals of individual members are embodied in the structure and mission of the organization.
The Search Conference technique (Williams, 1979) is useful for both problem solving or planning. Aimed towards the stakeholders of a system to help develop mutual perceptions of their existing circumstances, their desired future, and how to get there by drawing on their experiences and values and assembling their knowledge of the system and its environment.
MG Taylor DesignShop: "The only valid test of an idea, concept or theory is what it allows you to do." This is one of the DesignShop axioms that is read to the participants at the beginning of a DesignShop event. For the last twenty years, MG Taylor has tested the DesignShop concept hundreds of times with hundreds of organizations and thousands of people.
Technology of Participation: The ICA identifies five foundational values that underlie the Technology of Participation (ToP)® methods: Inclusive Participation. The methods invite and sustain the participation of all members of a group. Teamwork and Collaboration. ToP is based on the belief that teamwork and collaboration are essential to get a task done in the most effective, efficient and economical way while fostering a genuine sense of collegiality. Individual and Group Creativity. The methods elicit the best of each person’s rational and intuitive capacities by encouraging a dialogue between head and heart. Action and Ownership. The group processes position a group to fully own the decisions it makes and to take action. Reflection and Learning. Time is built into every process for depth reflection and sharing to confirm both the individual and group resolve and allow for transformation.
Appreciative Inquiry (.doc): AI is a way of thinking about the world around us.
Participative Design Workshops: Participative design (PD) is the basic building block for creating a self-managing organization. It is a method for moving from a bureaucratic model to one in which people restructure their own workplace. No design is imposed. It is unique because the responsibility for coordination and control of work moves away from supervisors to the people actually doing the work.
Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-cost Approach to Management by Masaaki Imai. The subtitle of Gemba Kaizen, the sequel to the enormously influential management handbook Kaizen, tells it all: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management. Masaaki Imai, the crusading proponent of kaizen and head of the Kaizen Institute in Japan, fills his follow-up work with exhausting detail — so exhausting, in fact, that only the most dedicated apostles of the theory will want to take up Gemba Kaizen.
Fast-Cycle Full-Participation Organization Redesign: FCFP Organization Redesign is a method for improving the effectiveness of an organization as measured by its primary output metrics, such as revenue, cost, quality, and cycle time. FCFP accomplishes output improvements by redesigning for higher performance the work systems that produce these outcomes.
Appreciative Inquiry: Welcome to the "AI Commons"--a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. This site is a resource for you and many of us--leaders of change, scholars, students, and business managers--and it is proudly hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.
World Cafe: Through both our research and the decade of practice that followed its emergence, we have come to view the World Café as a conversational process based on a set of integrated design principles that reveal a deeper living network pattern through which we co-evolve our collective future.
Conversation Cafe: Why Conversation Cafés? Because when you put strangers, caffeine and ideas in the same room, brilliant things can happen. For that very reason, the British Parliament banned coffeehouses in the 1700s as hotbeds of sedition. Might we brew up a similar social liveliness now? With democracy, critical thinking and "the ties that bind" all under siege, this may be the most radical cup of coffee you ever drink.
Scenario Planning: At this web page you will find references and texts about scenario planning. Some are good for orientation while others are much deeper and part in the effort on developing the method and exploring new areas of application.
ScenarioThinking.org: Welcome to ScenarioThinking.org, the world's No.1 open community on scenario thinking and scenario planning where you can publish scenarios, reflect on the planning processes and share online resources about scenario planning in a democratic and inclusive manner.
