Sharing Circle
Everyone takes turns in the circle sharing a value of theirs they lived up to that day, and a value that they didn’t, along with brief stories about what happened.
Value I managed to live up to:
Value I didn't live up to:
🚩Flagpost: Redesign Method
🖥 Tracing Norms from Structural Features
Example: Structural features which generate norms
Here are three Social System, each with a Structural Feature and the Norm which emerges:
Social System: Criminal Records
Structural Feature: Durability - Permanent
Norm Generated: Self Censorship
Dinner Party at the Community Centre
Pretext - Unclear Depth - Acquaintances
Defaulting to a safe conversation, Small talk
Ted X Stage
Audience Size - Big Durability - Permanent
Polished work
Example: Political debate on Facebook
🌳 Personal Value that was suppressed (way you couldn't be/approach things/treat people):
Open-mindedness - approaching conversation as an ongoing exploration, seeking out viewpoints that challenge my own, and deeply reflecting on how my view is evolving.
💍🛃 Expectations that suppressed the value (following social norms or promoting ideologies):
1) I need to come off as smart and informed (and think of myself as such)
2) I need to have a sense of orientation and understand how the world works
3) Many ideologies; a tendency to defend or support others in your own "tribe"
📈 Goals and Fears that suppressed the value (strategies to get certain outcomes):
4) Running up points on the like button to like myself and be liked be others
5) Win this tiny thread so I can feel superior and leave this thread alone
⚙️Walkthrough Tour of Structural Features
Take five minutes to look through this list of structural features and to think through the four situations beneath. For each situation, take note of two (or more) structural features you notice.
What two structural features characterise a dinner with friends?
What two structural features characterise a team meeting?
What two structural features characterise a poetry reading?
😱 A Meaningless Time Interview
A Meaningless Time
💩 Meaningless Time (one that felt empty, pointless, shitty):
🌳 Personal Value that was suppressed (way you couldn't be/approach things/treat people):
...treat people with ...act ...approach things ...keep things
💍🛃 Expectations that suppressed the value (following social norms / promoting ideologies):
📈 Goals/Fears that suppressed the value (strategies to get certain outcomes):
⚙ Structural Features Dump
🔧 Salvage Interview
First Sweep
For each expectation and goal click the button + I found a norm / expectation.... Then copy and paste the expectation or goal from 'A Meaningless Time' into the first grey box. In the second box, list the structural features that fosters this norm.
Second Sweep
Go through each expectation or goal again. Choose a structural feature to change, which will support the value you are designing for. After identifying this structural feature, write how this might look like in the context of the meaningless time.
What norm / expectation / goal / ideological commitment do you notice here?
From what structural features does this non-value emerge?
How can you change these structural features to deescalate or flip this non-value?
🤔 Reflection questions
Think back to a recent situation when an expectation or goal crowded out a personal value of yours. Can you identify the structural features that were linked to this expectation or goal?
Think of one setting where it seems particularly possible to live by a value of yours. What are the structural features of that space that seem relevant to that?
At the end of this class, what questions remain open? What would you like to practice more?
🕵 Homework: Fieldtrip!
Pick one or two places this weekend to analyse, with the help of structural features.
Where did you go?
What structural features did you notice?
List the norms and goals you observe
Answer these questions! Generate a new template for each non-value you find by clicking on the + grey button beneath.
