Sophometrics — ideas 2010-2012

 

Web entry — May 15, 2012

“Design Crucible”

I am using the term design crucible to describe a framework around a dramatic moment when design professionals discover or create new meaning. For example, new meaning might be an assembly of synergistic building technologies that provides extraordinary energy performance. The design crucible also provides a means for communicating to a team that the design process is modeled as a moment of invention, followed by more traditional, detailed engineering.

An effective collaborative design event relies partly on process, partly on attitude, and partly on sufficient research to establish an effective understanding of project context. A collaborative design event is fragile and temporary – it belongs to one project. Even so, once a design professional participates in a successful collaborative design event, she is usually interested in a second collaborative experience.

A collaborative design process is, usually, a form of team activity where project goals, project constraints, invention of alternatives, selection from among alternatives, and cross-discipline integration are all “owned” by the entire team. Further, collaborative design is most effective when several conditions are established for every team member. For example, resources are adequate, the way success will be measured is clear, everyone has been invited to participate, and the process for gathering ideas and selecting from among them is reasonable.

On one hand, collaborative processes are not self-sustaining and depend on both the individuals involved and on the process defined to enable individuals to contribute. On the other hand, the act of inviting people to collaborate can be very simple. For example, for many smaller projects, the use of a design charrette has been effective in establishing a collaborative team attitude throughout the remainder of a project.

An effective collaborative design process relies on several conditions:

• Individuals need a direction to travel; a place to go toward – create a map of vision & goals.
• Every practical idea stems from reality, from information about specific problems – gather research.
• Every conversation we join carries with it a portion of technical content and a portion of negotiation to ask for what we want or to define who we are – respect conversation and power relationships.
• Individuals need a reason to act, especially a reason to act for the benefit of a larger group – create relevance.
• People must trust one another well enough to work together; they must earn that trust – practice dialog.
• There must be something new, specific to the project, created out of the effort invested – participate in sense making.

An effective collaborative design event may be called a design crucible when the elements of compressed schedule and heightened drama lead to a breakthrough. But, if the ideas discovered inside a design crucible are not further refined against traditional engineering standards, then the result is not likely to be worthwhile.

The design crucible is a tool to help improve collaborative design process.

In the context of the building industry, collaborative design has roots in energy-effective design, but these design processes can be applied to other problems. For example, a design crucible can be applied to Grand Challenges like protecting Biodiversity or slowing Global Climate Change.

The building industry is ready to move collaborative design forward – the design crucible is one means to add momentum.

 

Web entry — November 18, 2011

“Metrics — Why Measure?”

How do we measure the progress of a project or the value of business operations?

What indicators guide

effective sustained

team activity?

How do we transform counting and control into communication and vision?

When is it

progressive valuable

to bring diverse individuals together to create better solutions?

 

Web entry — March 29, 2010

“The Future — Asking Questions”

Which questions are the important questions?

Which questions are the hard questions?

Are these the same?

Beginning with a few questions in a blog is an invitation for me to offer answers. That is, to list the major issues I think are central to our future.