How We Work
Identifying solutions to the issues communities face can be challenging, but we are equipped for those types of challenges.The advantage of our approach is in knowing that we don't have all the answers - the community does. What we do have is a set of skills and techniques that can be used to facilitate community-driven solutions.
Our approach to complex community problems is grounded in complexity science, a set of concepts and tools used to understand complex systems. In attempting to understand complex systems, such as communities, the main challenge of complexity science is to not only see the parts of a system and their connections, but to also understand how these connections give rise to the whole. Using a set of complexity-informed skill sets and methods, we're able to partner with communities to create spaces in which new insights and solutions can emerge.
Below is a sample of the kinds of methods we employ – co-design, facilitation, and participatory cartography – as well as the interplay between those skill sets and the various design methods and methodologies that we integrate into our approach.
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Co-Design
The theory behind co-design is that the wisdom a community needs to shape itself is already embedded within that community. It is the work of the designer is to partner with the community in order to create a space for their wisdom to emerge. When we co-design, participants are not involved as research subjects or consultants, but rather as designers engaged in active, sustained collaboration. We partner with communities to create a space designed by them, and within that co-created space, guide communities in doing the work necessary to reshape themselves. During the co-design process, we often create storyboards that plan how we're going to spend our time together, so that every minute is intentional.
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Facilitation
Our facilitation methods are based on complexity, so our goal is to create spaces and allow ideas and solutions to emerge, as opposed to coming with a preconceived idea about how a meeting needs to end and then driving participants through a 67-slide PowerPoint until we get our desired result. Because we often co-design toward being productive when we get together, community members rarely feel the facilitator's presence during meetings. Once a space has been created, the role of the facilitator is to provide a light touch that holds the space in place for the community to do its work.
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Participatory Cartography
At Yostfish, we've created a unique cluster of conceptual tools that we call "participatory cartography." Participatory cartography involves bringing groups together and inviting them to participate in mapping out an experience that they're having as a community. This process can be done to various ends, depending on the outcome the community is trying to achieve.
The Interplay Between Co-Design, Facilitation, and Participatory Cartography
When reading our descriptions of co-design, facilitation, and participatory cartography, it's easy to fall into the traps of thinking 1) that these are isolated skill sets with no overlap, and 2) that these skill sets are "steps" in a predefined, linear process. Neither of these assumptions is accurate. The reality is that our approach to problem-solving involves a nonlinear process, in which each of the three skill sets, along with the specific methods they employ, intermingle with each other depending on the objectives and needs of the community.
Integrated Design Methods and Methodologies
When engaged in co-design, facilitation, or participatory cartography, we draw on a deep well of complexity-informed methods stemming from various design methodologies including adult learning theory, instructional design, Human-Centered Design, Liberating Structures, communities of practice, and some methods that we've developed on our own.