Abstract
Second-order effects refer to changes within a system that are the result of changes made somewhere else in the system (the first-order effects). Second-order effects can occur at different spatial, temporal, or organizational scales from the original interventions, and are difficult to control. Some organizational theorists suggest that careful management of feedback processes can facilitate controlled change from one organizational configuration to another. Recognizing that skill in managing feedback processes is a core competency of design suggests that design skills are potentially useful tools in achieving organizational change. This paper describes a case study in which a co-design methodology was used to control the second-order effects resulting from a classroom intervention to create organizational change. This approach is then theorized as the Instigator Systems approach.
Highlights
Creating change within an organization can be difficult
Faculty, campus planners and city engineers in a semester-long design exercise focused on green infrastructure (GI), we were able to open the decision-making process to new sources of information and change the way this subsystem functioned
Citing the work of Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Laureate and originator of the idea of dissipative structures, the organizational behaviourists MacIntosh and MacLean (MacIntosh & MacLean, 1999) offer a description that is worth quoting at length: Rather than viewing the world as essentially static, with equilibrium only occasionally disturbed, Prigogine regards the world as dynamic and characterized by systems in which normal Newtonian laws may apply, but only in a minority of situations
Summary
Creating change within an organization can be difficult. Even when an organization recognizes the need for change at all levels, introducing new processes, creating new relationships, and letting go of ingrained ways of thinking can pose a challenge. We were able to help achieve these organizational goals by creating new connections between campus planners and municipal water authorities as second-order effects resulting from our use of a co-design process integrated into a new design course called Sustainability: Theory and Practice.
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