co-designing profound change
Co-design as an approach to all our work involves interacting and integrating participants, facilitators, mentors, contributors and other stakeholders of diverse expertise, knowledge, capacities and cultures into our offering of the ME=WE Experience. We as a team strive to practise the Head-Heart-Hand Model, which is embedded in the ME=WE Pathway to bring about profound change at the individual and community level. The benefits of co-design are manifested in the level of ownership shared by multiple players and their co-evolution along the pathway to achieving systems change and the ultimate goal of oneness of humanity.
HOW WE THINK
SYSTEMS THINKING. TRANSFORMATIVE DESIGN. VERTICAL EDUCATION
The INNOCO model was initially developed upon research that explored the question: ‘How can we co-design a transformative changemaker pathway for social innovation for youth?’ In response to this question we looked to human-centered models to understand the systemic and symbiotic relationships between self (ME) and society (WE).
Wise communities around the world have similar philosophical underpinnings. The South African philosophy of Ubuntu teaches that our humanity is reflected in the achievements and humanity of others, intrinsically connecting the ‘self’ with the ‘collective’. The Balinese philosophy of Tattwa-Masi follows the principal of ‘you are me and I am you.’ We adapted this philosophy and designed a pathway for social innovation using activities grounded in empathy, trust, creative confidence and communication.
The changemaker pathway starts by understanding the conceptual framework of ME=WE, recognizing the value of co-design, co-creating tools to facilitate in a program, and sharing personal (ME) and collective (WE) stories of growth. Through these processes we collectively experience growth points between action and reflection allowing us to enrich our knowledge and capacities, continuously leaping from ME to WE and WE to ME.
Here is LINK for the action research paper, Co-designing a Social Innovation Model for Changemaker.
Our ME=WE framework was realized in the use of the *Mobius Strip. In the field of physics it is a mathematical phenomena that demonstrates infinite and continuous movement with the ability to sprout growth if the strip is further divided. This was the starting point to recognize the relationship of ‘self ‘(ME) and ‘society’ (WE).
The framework focuses on ‘action and reflection’ contributing to social change that one can affect at an individual (micro), community (meso) and systemic (macro) levels.
The values of co-design guided all aspects of our work and was instrumental in deepening our understanding of social innovation. To ensure the practical application of this value, we consulted with people representing multiple perspectives from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. With the input of over 120 individuals over a span of four years, INNOCO’s manifesto to connect, collaborate and contribute to systemic change was fueled and continues to drive momentum.
Below are the key areas of how the value of co-design was integrated into INNOCO’s work:
CASE STUDY
Co-Designing A Pathway Through Food Revolution For Social Change
ME=WE Pathway and KULNA Community Garden
by Yunsun Chung-Shin, Rabab AlHaddad (A System Giga Map Presented at RSD9)
The ME=WE Pathway Giga Map presents action research titled Co-Designing Food Revolution for Social Change at Zayed University, UAE. It attempted to capture a visual narrative of the research process facilitated by ME=WE framework development.
It aims to strengthen the process of ‘individual capacity building’ leading to ‘collective capacities’ to contribute to positive social change in a path of service. The concept creation and development of the ME=WE framework (integrating Mobius Strip, Panarchy, Two Moral Purpose, Permaculture Principles, and Theory U) and the application (how it was applied to the action research) are the two main areas.
The map structured in 6 columns:
1) A proposed model
2) Supporting theories and practices
3) ME=WE pathway in a single at the top and multiple expansion process at the bottom
4) Individual Capacity Building in ME (EGO) Integration Process to WE (ECO)
5) Action Research Timeline visualizing unfolding activities and impact in three pillars of the project: Inclusivity, Zero-Waste, and Well-Being from Action-Reflection perspectives
6) Top – Prototyping Future with envisioning a social enterprise biz model, Middle – ME (EGO) Integration Process to WE (ECO), and Bottom – Groundwork to validate assumptions and further understanding of systems and stakeholders using Systemic Design Toolkit.
ME=WE Pathway: A changemaker pathway starts by identifying their passion, purpose, and commitment to follow through a service journey with actions and reflections. Individual’s capacities grow and develop as they experience flipping/connecting tipping points and working with community described in figure 8, which is a guiding light: 1) PREPARE (mindful check-in), 2) DISCOVER (listening to the system including self), 3) OBSERVE (holding space with an open mind-heart-will), 4) FLIP/CONNECT ( commitment with empathy and curiosity), 5) DEFINE (unified vision and collective leadership), 6) PRACTICE (building and testing prototypes), 7) EVOLVE (reflect, learn and move forward).
The path extended version of the above in continuous cycles. Perpetuated growth allows one to ascend to the next cycle that of which WE grows larger due to ripple effect. First step is to connect with the community and be a part of it. Second, to collaborate with the community to initiate new ideas. Third, contribution happens on a bigger scale and type of engagement differs. Understanding these relationships has a direct connection to education, where that gap requires vertical literacy (Scharmer 2012).
“This must be considered when leading transformational change by shifting the awareness from ego to eco, and to a consciousness-based systems change. This needs to be cultivated across all levels: at the level of individuals (holding the space for self-awareness), groups (deep listening and dialogue), organizations (from centralized to ecosystems), and in the evolution of larger systems (by seeing the whole). All these dimensions are at play whenever you deal with transformational change in society” – by Otto Scharmer in Theory U.
Visualizing a changemaker pathway aims to support building capacities of leadership (Senge 2015) and can be seen on multiple levels. Capacity building is an interactive and experiential process fueled by meaningful services rendered with team(s) integrating design thinking, systems thinking, co-design towards transformative change. It is an iterative and non-linear process supported by various inspiring hands-on activities including a ME=WE workshop, Ecosystem Mapping, and/or modified LEGO Serious Play. The healthy pathway can be associated with growing capacities of eco- socio- spiritual capacities, connectedness, and resilience.
Any path will be unique and has its own explorative learning and growth. It’s notable that a common pattern can be found in “ME (EGO-based) INTEGRATION PROCESS TO WE (ECOsystem-based)” which can assist for a constructive path development with the four stages of ME ≠ WE, ME + WE, { ME WE }, and ME=WE. These visual icons inspired by the ME=WE framework elements are designed to describe each stage of capacity growth using infinity loop, perpetual growth, capacity expansion, cycles (one cycle ends for another to begin). Four circles represent design thinking, systems thinking, co-design, and transformative change, and arrows signify ‘growth’ stemming from the core value of ME=WE. The yellow circle indicates a boundary created by self-limiting attributes, and dissolves as growth is happening.
EDUCATION SECTOR STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEW SUMMARY
We are grateful for your insightful knowledge, experience and projection towards this research. This supports ongoing research and development of emerging education practice for enabling learners to be future ready and be the change they want to see in the world. In order to create a sustainable practice of changemaker education, INNOCO joined the MIT u.lab 2x (www.presencing.com) cohort in January 2021. We formed an extended team of 9 members from Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, UAE, USA and Canada. The program was an accelerator to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals initiatives in local settings. Our team focus was EDUCATION and the Stakeholder Interviews was to understand comprehensively the current situation of education from multiple perspectives on a global scale. Here is LINK for the summary.
KULNA (ACTION RESEARCH: FOOD REVOLUTION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE)
CO-DESIGNING Efforts for KUNA Social Enterprise Future Scenario: In order to propose new social enterprise solutions, reading the reality and listening to the system was a high priority. Through LEGO Serious Play, design thinking, and systemic design toolkit workshops and zoom discussions with potential collaborators, building a food forest and changemaker program took shape as a guiding light to envision ME=WE pathway for the future stories unfolding. The business proposal requesting an endorsement and partnership was submitted to ZU in July 2020 along with the main project timelines.
A committed team ventured to model social enterprise to help sustain KULNA efforts and lead social change in the food system. The goal is to generate sufficient profit and contribute to the security of the planet for people’s well-being by 1) building a Food Forest, a unique outdoor classroom environment within our native desert climate where the community can learn about sustainability and social change in the region through hands-on, experiential learning, 2) offering a Changemaker Program, a transdisciplinary community learning space so community members can become changemakers while prototyping their ideas around sustainability through mentorship and small grants, and 3) collaborating with academic, business, government and community partners to scale up this model in wider communities. To realize this plan, it required a transition from a cluster to a social enterprise for a wider community with support from ZU. The proposal submitted to ZU marked a {ME WE} pathway engaging the stakeholders and maximizing leverage points to work with the local and global system. This future scenario projects an unified vision of building a sustainable food system and embodies implementing the framework of ME=WE. Visualizing KULNA Social Enterprise structure, products, service, team, stakeholders and philosophy.
Social INNOVATION program (me=we V.1)
