Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

Organizing a Week109Tuesday:Seeing the Realityon the GroundWednesday:Beginning to SketchMonday afternoon rampsup with a series of lecturesintended to give the Studio asolid overview of the contextthat they are working in. Thisis conveyed through a seriesof three or four thirty-minutelectures, each followed by adiscussion period of aboutan hour. For example, theeducation Studio had speakerstalk about the socioeconomicdevelopment of Finland, Finnishbureaucracy, classroomeducation, teacher educationand policing and preventionrelated to at-risk youth, whichare all-important aspects whenthinking about addressing thedropout rates in Finland. Thebest speakers are ones who cantalk with the Studio rather thanat them, so be sure to spendthe time to properly vet yourspeakers.By the end of Monday theteam’s heads will be spinning,so it is important to give themtime to digest. We end Mondaywith a lightning quick summarizingdiscussion just to getsome ideas on the whiteboardand then head out for a teamdinner where discussion cancontinue in a less formal setting.With some sense of howthings are supposed to work—as conveyed by the top-downviewpoints of Monday—Tuesdayis about getting out of theStudio to see the first-handrealities in two or three visits.It will be tempting to cram theday with more, but rememberthat it’s better to have time forproper discussion at each visitthan it is to breeze through.To continue using the educationStudio as an example,this included visits to a primaryand secondary school offeringparticipants the opportunity totalk to administrators, teachersand students, as well as see thepremises and observe activeclassrooms. Later in the daythey visited a youth cultureNGO.Tuesday ends with a downloadsession back in the Studiowhere everyone shares theirinsights from the day and thegroup begins to assess emergingthemes and questions. This iswhere the Studio assistants startto become crucial: their role isto field questions that come upduring this session. More onthe role of the assistants in theSoft Infrastructure How-To*.Wednesday is when theStudio has the first real opportunityto begin synthesizingtheir experiences, findings andexpertise. The only thing weschedule for Wednesday is a latelunch with the hosts (us) to givethe team an opportunity to getfeedback on the way that theirhypotheses are developing.Before and after lunch the teamis likely to be spending lots oftime scribbling things on thewhiteboard, erasing them andlooking puzzled.Even though it is early inthe week, we encourage ourStudio teams to formulate aworking theory or proposition.This is not intended to be finalor comprehensive, but it shouldhelp the participants begin toorganize their thoughts whilereinforcing the need for ideasto be concise in preparation forFriday’s presentation. We haveoften found ourselves saying tothe Studio, “Imagine you had topresent in an hour, what wouldyou say?”*—See also:> P127