To use the Human Systems Redesign Method, you must start with two things: (1) a social process you want to redesign, and (2) a suppressed value in the current design. For instance you could redesign...
- [Facebook News Feed] around the suppressed value of [open-minded political debate]
- [family dinners] around the suppressed value of [free expression of feelings and desires]
- [classroom workgroups] around the suppressed value of [learner self-direction]
Social Processes You Could Redesign
A social process is something a group of people do that can be described as a game: composed of roles, rules, and steps, where it goes roughly the same way every time.
Room-scale
Group practices party formats, bars, clubs, debate structures, group therapy or support practices, church meetings, improv scores
Family & shared living family dinner, chores, partnership expectations, parent-child time
Rituals daily practices, weddings, funerals, coming of age, new team members, trials
Org-scale
Organizational policies promotions reviews, project planning meetings, budget allocation, stand-ups, reporting structures
Workplaces team checkins, lunches, group physical activities
Schools grading, classroom exercises, teamwork structures, credentialing practices
Society-scale
Political institutions voting, unemployment centers, court procedures, legislative decision-making, licensing practices, prisons and rehabilitation centers, city volunteering, online governance
Social apps news feeds, matchmaking apps, online social spaces, chatrooms, onboarding flows, community reviews, work tracking, asynchronous sharing, scheduling, marketplaces
System to Redesign
Suppressed Values
See 🚧 Team Values Articulation 🦺 or What the Hell are Values?, Part 1.
Suppressed Value that You'll Focus On
Role Play for the Original System
Imagine that you wanted to make a bad game—a game that suppressed your value. Imagine that you wanted to make a game that suppressed the value in exactly the same way it is commonly suppressed in the system you want to redesign. Using the same structural features leading to the same norms, goals, or fears.
So this is a game that's a lot like the system you want to redesign, except that it can take place as a role-play, in a single room, by a room-sized number of people.
What would be instructions for such a game?
Structural Features which Lead to Evolution of Norms or Goals / Fears
👣 Hard Steps of the Value above
Structural Features which Influence the Hard Steps
Redesign!
Role Play a Modified System (a)
See how you can modify the role play, making the hard steps easier.
Role Play a Modified System (b)
See if you can change some of the structural features in role-play (a), to make the value better supported.
Port the Changes
How would you apply what you learned from the role-plays outside of a role-play? How could you modify the original system?