Designing systems as desirable side effects Rsd8
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1) CMHC identified designing a Canada Housing Benefit as requiring an innovative human-centered approach and convened multiple stakeholders through a Solutions Lab. 2) While a housing benefit aims to subsidize unaffordable housing, convening stakeholders around short and long-term goals can have desirable systemic outcomes like collaboration. 3) By addressing immediate problems and long-term visions simultaneously, moments of urgency can be leveraged to seed systemic change, build shared understanding over time, and strengthen relationships between organizations.
Designing systems as desirable side effects Rsd8
- 1. Designing Systems Outcomes as Desirable Side Effects : Reflections from the CMHC Solutions Labs Adrienne Pacini, MDes, Principal, Strategic Design, SHS Consulting Cheryl Hsu, MDes, Design Researcher and Strategist Presented by .. .. .. .. @adriennepacini @cherylshoe
- 2. 2 Our context : CMHC identified the design of a Canada Housing Benefit as a complex problem requiring an innovative human-centred approach through a “Solutions Lab”. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is a crown corporation in Canada mandated to provide mortgage liquidity, assist in affordable housing development, and provide research and advice to the housing sector.
- 3. 3 This presentation : 1. The context of our process. 2. What made this project a systemic design problem? 3. From shifting the burden to desirable side effects. 4. Designing towards transition.
- 4. 4 The researchers : • MDes, Strategic Foresight and Innovation • Housing research, policy, and strategic design Adrienne Pacini • MDes, Strategic Foresight and Innovation • Strategic design, systems change, health and food systems research Cheryl Hsu
- 5. 5 The team : Adrienne Pacini Cheryl Hsu Christine Pacini CMHC Representatives Provincial + Territorial Representatives
- 6. 6 Our travels : Whitehorse Prince Albert St. John’s Halifax Regina Saskatoon : SHS Consulting, 2019
- 7. 7 Our conversations : 4 6 11 50+ ~200 provinces + territories cities co-design workshops hours of engagement workshop participants : SHS Consulting, 2019
- 8. 8 What made this project unique? : SHS Consulting, 2019 This work is part of Canada’s first ever National Housing Strategy. This is one of the first times federal government (CMHC) is intentionally infusing a co- design approach with Provincial and Territorial governments, in addition to providing funding for housing programs. 8
- 9. By 2030, everyone in Canada will have a home they can afford and that meets their needs. “ Evan Siddal CEO, CMHC What made this project unique? C M H C ’ S “ B I G , H A I R Y , A U D A C I O U S G O A L ”
- 10. 10 Not only is housing affordability a complex problem… : SHS Consulting, 2019 What made this project unique? 10
- 11. 11 Not only is housing affordability a complex problem… “We had a solution that was searching for a problem to solve.” Canada Housing Benefit (“CHB”) : SHS Consulting, 2019 What made this project unique?
- 12. The benefit is functionally a demand-side intervention; a subsidy provided to households that are living in housing that is not affordable to them. What made this project unique? 12
- 13. The benefit is functionally a demand-side intervention; a subsidy provided to households that are living in housing that is not affordable to them. What made this project unique? CHB $ CHB $ In Canada, housing subsidies have traditionally been attached to units, instead of to the person or household in need. 13
- 14. What made this project unique? The benefit is functionally a demand-side intervention; a subsidy provided to households that are living in housing that is not affordable to them. However, the CHB was also only one tool in the toolkit…
- 15. System-Level Interaction-Level What made this project unique? : Adapted from Buchanan, R.’s ”Orders of Design”, 2001 Our challenge was to hold the “big vision” of the overall strategy and the objective of creating a demand-side intervention (the Canada Housing Benefit) at the same time. We were working across two orders of design. 15
- 16. 16 Learnings : From shifting the burden to desirable side effects.
- 17. 17 Through working with our Lab participants, we couldn’t help but connect the work to the shifting the burden systems archetype. Learnings :
- 18. 18 Through working with our Lab participants, we couldn’t help but connect the work to the shifting the burden systems archetype. Shifting the Burden
- 19. 19 However, we want to reframe the idea of undesirable side effects to desirable side-effects. How might we seed systemic outcomes from the process of convening around short-term and long-term outcomes? Shifting the Burden
- 20. 20 From Shifting the Burden... … to Desirable Side Effects 20
- 21. Short-term outcomes or “symptomatic solutions” are the solutions (e.g. a new product or service innovation) to concrete problems; in this case, the co-design of a housing benefit (a specific policy tool). 21 Shifting the Burden Form: “The Trojan Horse”; concrete, real, immediate gratification Process: Service Design; Design Thinking Output: service model, innovation or solution
- 22. Long-term outcomes or “fundamental solutions” often take the form of strategies with longer time horizons; in this case, stakeholder alignment around the problem frame and a vision of a desired future. 22 Shifting the Burden Form: “North-Star”; Abstract, Ambiguous, Intermediary, Agreement Process: Strategic Design, Foresight Output: Collective vision and strategy
- 23. 23 The systemic outcomes are the desirable side-effects from the process of convening around short- term and long-term outcomes. Shifting the Burden Form: “The Journey (not the destination)”, intangible, process-driven, transition- oriented Process: Systemic Design, Art of Hosting, Theory U Output: trust, resilience, reflexivity, collaboration
- 24. 24 Shifting the (Unaffordable Housing) Burden
- 25. 25 Shifting the (Unaffordable Housing) Burden 25
- 26. 26 In our work… Shifting the (Unaffordable Housing) Burden Harness the energy in the “urgency of now” around the unaffordability challenge facing Canadian households...
- 27. 27 Shifting the (Unaffordable Housing) Burden Channel it into a co-design environment where the simultaneous pursuit of the short-term outcomes and long-term outcomes can set up the conditions for systemic change. In our work… Harness the energy in the “urgency of now” around the unaffordability challenge facing Canadian households…
- 28. 28 Conclusions : Designing towards transition.
- 29. 29 Complex Problems Short-term outcomes shouldn’t be underestimated. They make up the Trojan Horse that can effectively galvanize action. “Band-Aid” solutions can be necessary to stop the bleeding in the interim. 29
- 30. 30 Short-term outcomes shouldn’t be underestimated. They make up the Trojan Horse that can effectively galvanize action. “Band-Aid” solutions can be necessary to stop the bleeding in the interim. Complex Problems Leverage those moments to seed the systemic outcomes.
- 31. 31 Even though you have vision, the collective long-term vision will change over time. What we need to work on is the continual capacity to hold a long- term vision in transition together. Complex Problems 31
- 32. 32 While you cannot see the systemic outcomes as tangibly as the short- term outcomes or the long-term vision, you impact the dark matter, or “the organizations, culture, and structural relationships that bind them together” (Hill, 2014). Complex Problems : Hill, D. 2014. Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary. Strelka Press. 32
- 33. 33 Complex Problems Treat every design engagement as an opportunity to meet the needs of multiple scales of impact. • Communicate the value of the process; • Evaluate more than just the short-term outcomes; and • Reflect on the process and what has changed.
- 34. 34
- 35. 35 And just maybe, your co-designers will embrace the complexity… “I thought I was coming here to figure out how we were going to give money to people. After these two days, I realized it’s much more complex than that.”
- 36. Thank you. Questions? Comments? Adrienne Pacini : apacini@shs-inc.ca : @adriennepacini Cheryl Hsu : chsu@shs-inc.ca : @cherylshoe Contact .. ..