I’ve just been blogging on my own site about a paper by Kathia Castro Laszlo and Alexander Laszlo, The Conditions for Thriving Conversations (pdf). It’s a good read, and I wanted to highlight one section in particular for CPH passengers and crew. Here it is.
We draw the analogy between generations of designers and of conversations facilitators. In social systems design we differentiate among five generations of designers (Laszlo, 1992). The first generation designer is consider an expert and specialist in the design process. She studies the situation of the group and decides which is the best solution for them. The second generation designer is akin to the classical consultant who asks for information from the members of the group, and then analyses it and gives them a solution according to her perception of their needs. These two first generations design for others. In contrast, the last three generations of designers design with others. The third generation designer gets the group involved in the creation of alternative solutions, but at the end of the process, she nevertheless selects the best alternative for them. The fourth generation designer works to create an adequate group environment that facilitates the processes of generating alternatives and selecting solutions. The newest generation, the fifth generation, not only involves the group in the design process, but also helps the group to learn how to learn to facilitate. A group that does so can sustain the continued design process by themselves (Banathy, 1996.)
3 comments so far
Waaauuuu Jonnie. What a paper, what an outline.
Many of the ideas in the paper are definitely “rules” on how to facilitate, how to “grow” other people to deliver there best. If you allow me I’ll refer to this very post on the INDEX:views blog. right away…
Hi Johnny, I’ve really enjoyed reading this paper this morning. For me it is well timed as it neatly follows on and supports the experience of last week I outlined in response to Han’s post on “Sustainable Innovation Capability”.http://www.cph127.com/cph127/2005/09/sustainable_inn.html To me it extends the concept of “strategic conversation” I referred to beyond a direction setting and decision making tool into a realm where dialogue can be used effectively to impliment change in a broader context. The referrences to the designer’s role [and the different levels of that] was particularly enlightening. Thank you. I hope to be able to pass this material on to others that may be interested.
Wow, what a coincidence, this seems related to my recent post on the scale and scope of experience design, ie. when it gets into massively co-created systems: http://www.cph127.com/cph127/2005/09/scale_and_scope.html
I didn’t read the whole article yet, but that little chapter you highlighted is very interesting.