ADR Processes for Creating Strategic Networks for Social Issues: Dementia Projects

Editor's Notes

• #2: Today I would like to talk about our dementia project. It is a practical case study for crating strategic networks for social issues.
• #3: Dementia is a social phenomenon that has an enormous impact on our society. The estimated ratio of elderly people with dementia in Japan is 15%—a number that exceeds 4.6 million and is projected to grow to 7 million by 2030. On a worldwide scale, the number of people with dementia is expected to increase to 115.4 million by 2050.   Dementia is a social issue, and it is a kind of grand challenge for us.
• #4: However, it is nearly impossible for a single organization or sector to find a clear solution to such a complex and wide-ranging social issue.   Essentially, we need to gather people from various sectors who can participate as future stakeholders and then start looking for sound solutions. In this context, dementia issues work as a boundary object combining people and new stakeholders.   Then, through collaboration, these stakeholders will work together to clearly identify the questions and issues that need to be addressed.   What is clearly needed is some suitable process for social issue such as dementia.
• #5: This slide shows the conceptual scheme of Innovation architecture. Innovation architecture is a technology road-mapping tool that visualizes how different types of knowledge and functional elements are interrelated.   However, it is not easy to define the necessary elements for a new region or approach in IA.
• #6: For example, these are words of person with early-onset dementia, Mr. Sato.   He said “Even though I have dementia, I have introduced ways to be creative in my lifestyle without giving in to despair and continue living with hope.”   Although we can set his demand as trends of Innovation architecture, it is not easy to define the necessary elements for his demand for a new region or approach in IA.   It is even more difficult with social issues, since they require contributions from multiple sectors.
• #7: To identify new elements in each category in Innovation architecture, ladder actions are often applied. Ladder actions have two layers: a layer of concept and a layer of practice, as shown here. However, it is not easy to operate the ladder actions simply for innovation processes because not all the elements are clear—specifically, the stakeholders and their knowledge, resources, available functionalities, and roles have not yet been clarified. Recursive actions are thus required in the early stages of ladder actions to make the elements in Innovation architecture clearer.
• #8: This slide shows a series of ADR processes we propose. ADR means action-development-relationship. The point of ADR process is that two different independent relations create new ADR process.   To understand the relevant social issues deeply, and to define the necessary elements for IA, the series of ADR processes is a suitable approach to ambiguous social issues such as dementia.   This is an entirely different approach from the so-called stage gate methodology. This approach requires a heuristic and abductive process achieved by participants from multiple sectors, and it is very difficult to design a priori.   The series of ADR processes takes the form of recursive actions in the early stages of the ladder actions, making the elements in Innovation architecture clearer.
• #9: Futures, a project jointly developed with the British Council, is an example of ADR.   We brought together members in the business sector, the public sector, social enterprises, community groups, and academia in the UK and Japan. Attendees conducted field research and engaged in dialogue under the common theme of an aging society.   Futures worked as an incubator of new relationships.
• #10: Run Tomorrow, which is a long-distance relay involving people living with dementia, is other example of ADR. In 2015, 8,000 people attended and run a total distance of 3,000 km from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan. It brings together people from various sectors of local communities across Japan. It creates new relationship, too.
• #11: The Fujinomiya Project was an effort to create a trans-generational experience by using old photos of Fujinomiya City. The Fujinomiya Project was born by utilizing the efforts of the UK project ‘Historypin’ and Run Tomorrow with the British Council.
• #12: This figure shows the corporate diagram for related projects consisting of the series of ADR processes in our dementia project.   Each project has a mutual relationship and the members also partially overlap, because we create a new action from independent ADR relations. This resource sharing accelerated the activities and helped increase leverage.   In the ambiguous field of social affairs, this approach is very effective.
• #13: The ADR series also creates a chasm internal network. This slide shows the conceptual scheme of the chasm internal network applying the chasm diagram.   The social issues surrounding dementia bring together organizations and other players across sectors. Social issues create centripetal force and function as boundary objects.   The chasm internal network fuctions as a virtual recursive infrastructure for the next ADR processes.
• #14: Words for a Journey, a pattern language living well with dementia, is also used the chasm internal network developed the series of ADR processes.   This is a collaborative work between Keio university and the Dementia Friendly Japan Initiative.    The challenges of this book is to spread and share the positive and practical wisdom of the people who live with dementia, such as Mr. Sato.   The patterns were constructed after extensive interviews with people with dementia, their families, and others in their support network. With this endeavour, we combined our experience, knowledge, and the relationships we had developed in previous projects.   The patterns created by this project function as a new boundary object combining people and new stakeholders, and creating new actions.
• #15: Through the ADR process, we expanded the opportunities and possibilities by securing resources from outside; that is what happened in our dementia cases. The recursive series of ADR processes created a new set of abductions, and made the components of IA clearer.   The series of ADRs is equivalent to multi-thread ladder actions. This is very important from the viewpoint of setting new elements to IA. The intrinsic value of the series of ADRs lies not in creating new business in this context; rather, its value is that it makes the IA elements clearer for ambiguous social issues such as dementia.
• #16: We created a short film on the run tomorrow. This film was made by a young film director with a web designer, a composer, a CG designer and a singer. They are all very young and their daily lives are very far from the dementia issue. But we met through the ADR processes.
• #17: The series of ADR processes affords participants from multiple sectors with mutual learning opportunities in these situations. This is a cultivating procedure to make elements progressively clearer. Effective new resources and functionalities in each sector are discovered through connections between members. Through the series of ADR processes, we discover and create Innovation architecture components for ambiguous social issues such as dementia.
• #18: Thank you.