Stages of Innovation

This graphic on the new economics foundation website caught my eye with its use of the Fibonacci spiral. My interest was further piqued by the text which seemed to refer to both a design process and whole systems intervention.

I imagined that the associated article would suggest some distribution of time and/or energy between design stages based on a Fibonacci sequence, but it doesn't refer to the graphic in the text or mention Fibonacci at all. A second look at the image reveals that what appears to be a distribution of stages between Fibonacci sized blocks moving from Prompts (5) [the factor initiating a desire for change] to Proposals (8) [Concept Design/Wild Design?], breaks down at the next block (13) which includes two stages: Prototypes and Sustaining [Maintenance/Tweaking] as does the final (21).

The stages in that final block are perhaps the most fertile as they offer another path for design which I have not seen presented in many permaculture designs. Rather than just looping back to refine and adjust a design to better meet the original needs, or cycling back around in a way that critically engages with those 'needs' and how they have been expressed (single & double loop learning). The fifth stage here Scaling encourages us to also build on our successes and thus increase our circle of influence, with the ambition that by doing so we might effect a sixth stage Systemic Change.

Not that the path actually tends towards such a direct route. As Jo Casebourne mentions in her article beneath the graphic "stages are not always sequential, feedback loops exist between stages and stages can also be thought of as overlapping spaces".

There's some rich stuff in this worthy of further thought and investigation - but what I find immediately useful to take away is 1) to build into my design thinking the question of scalability (how would this work differently at different scales) and 2) to think about how both my designs and my learning process contribute towards a collective metadesign of systemic change, how and where might they find places to positively intervene in systems I feel need to change - leverage as en extra yield?

"How do we change the structure of systems to produce more of what we want and less of that which is undesirable?"
 Donella Meadows, Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

SADIM

SADIM Design Cycle

I've been getting really excited about the potential of infographics for improving permaculture communication and generally smartening up course materials. Above is a little SmartArt graphic I made in Microsoft Word to illustrate the SADIM design framework/process/cycle. I wished I discovered how to do this a bit earlier, as it would have made my presentation on Design Frameworks look a lot neater!

The supremo of infographics appears to be Edward Tufte, author of a few great books on the subject. Via his website I came across this great video he executive produced: Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See which is an introduction to observation and design thinking coming from a graphic design perspective.

Frameworks for Design - Presentation

Below is the slideshow element of my presentation of Permaculture Design Frameworks as given at the 2012 Permaculture Association AGM. I gave more information in my accompanying talk which will appear later when I've written something up. The slides should give something of the flavour though, and hopefully be an aide memoire for those that attended (thanks for your contributions!). It's best viewed full screen to avoid losing text on the right hand margin.

Frameworks for Design: Past, Present & Futures from yourmindfire

Frameworks for Design: Past, Present & Futures

Mindmapping the SADIM design framework

I've proposed a workshop for the 2012 Permaculture Association (UK) AGM based around recent research I've been undertaking on the origins of the design frameworks used in permaculture. Aranya's recent book Permaculture Design - a Step-by-Step Guide, and Mark Fisher's website provide some excellent information about the frameworks and how they can be used - but there is little information available about where they came from and how they entered into permaculture use. I plan to begin to address this. Below is the workshop proposal I made.


Workshop Synopsis:

Where do the design frameworks we use and promote in permaculture come from? Permaculture is a magpie discipline taking useful material from many places and often forgetting where it took it from along the way – what can we collectively re-member?  What are the histories of SADIMET, OBRDIMET and others – and might knowing those histories inform our use of them now? The workshop will present my recent research on the origins and will encourage input from attendees to fill in the gaps - permaculture elders and old hands are especially welcomed!

Permaculture Design Processes

The Charles Eames Design Diagram

The Eames Design Diagram, aka 'Statement of the Eames Design Process' as displayed in the 1969 Exhibition Qu'est-ce Que Le Design? (What is Design?) at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. 

According to this diagram, the design process can only be successful when it identifies the overlapping needs of the designer, the client, and society "as a whole" and when it develops products that serve all three.

I've been thinking about this in terms of permaculture design, and ecological concerns (Carl Hastrich has thoughts in a parallel dimension in his piece Biomimicry and Design Definition). The first thing that stands out to me is that apparently innocent phrase "the concerns of society as a whole", how are we to understand this? It seems that there are two main ways we could interpret this. The first would be a political interpretation, following Otto Von Bismarck's description of politics as the "die Kunst des Möglichen" (the art of the possible). This interpretation recognises cultural limits around the type of design outputs that would be acceptable to wider society and accepts these as design parameters. The second interpretation would be an ethical accounting approach, one that might address society's concerns through techniques such as 'triple bottom line' criteria.

The second interpretation provides a meeting place for permaculture design, through the application of permaculture ethics as our accounting criteria. According to our permaculture thinking therefore, the concerns of society as a whole would be reflected by an area of activity in which care of the earth, care of people, and an equitable distribution of resources were recognised.

Permaculture Ethics: Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share

 Directly layering the permaculture ethics venn onto the Eames design diagram venn, is somewhat problematic, reflecting the true complication of the world. Finding a meeting point in which the intersections of both collections of sets overlap becomes more difficult.  There are surely instances for example that would fit within the interests and concerns of the designer, the interests of the client, and meet the criteria of earth care and people care, yet do not address the issue of fair share. 

In fact as we think about our situation as permaculture designers, this is obvious as we frequently find few opportunities to work with clients on projects which satisfy their expressed needs, realise permaculture and reflect our own interests and concerns (financial, intellectual, emotional etc.) in a way that allows us to work with conviction and enthusiasm. While we live in a 'destructoculture' world, design opportunities will tend to largely fall into business-as-usual frameworks that dictate the shape of acceptable outputs. This of course is the same factor discussed above as the political interpretation of "the concerns of society as a whole".

So we might divide "the concerns of society as a whole" into two sets: that which mainstream society deems as fitting its needs, and that which fits the ethical needs expressed within permaculture. This does not ease the difficulty of finding a meeting point in which the intersections of all sets overlap, but it does identify more clearly the nature of their misalignment. This is also a way in which we can identify projects in which we can be effective and those in which we cannot, and therefore concentrate our efforts in the former. A tool for recognising that sub-set of everything we are concerned about, that is amenable to our influence.

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey describes the problems, challenges, and opportunities we face as falling into two areas: our 'Circle of Concern' and our 'Circle of Influence'. In concentrating on our circle of influence, where our energy is used most effectively, we tend to find that we expand our edge, widening our influence over more of the area of our concern.

The edge of our circle of influence in this design context, will often also be the place where the set of activities which mainstream society deems as fitting its needs rubs up against the set of activities which fit the ethical needs expressed within permaculture. So as we concentrate our energies on our circle of influence, we will tend to find our most productive activities happening right on the edge of that circle. Here where the forest of permaculture thinking keeps dropping its seeds into the surrounding fields is the creative interface with "the concerns of society as a whole".



Resources:

What is Design?
Permaculture Principles
Stephen R. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People