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| marine_colab:lab_approach_essay [2017-03-29 10:19] – nik | marine_colab:lab_approach_essay [2017-03-29 10:28] – nik |
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| The first year of Marine CoLABoration progressed in two phases: a scoping phase and the transitional phase. The scoping phase was designed to encourage engagement, develop a collective vision and initiate some preliminary experiments. It was important to take time to foster commitment in the group. The participants appreciated that they “were not presented with an initial agenda, but were allowed to spend a lot of time to get to know each other.” By the end of the scoping phase the participants were ready to take on a more pro-active role in designing the lab sessions themselves. During the transitional phase the lab began to incubate larger experiments and to formulate longer term objectives and operational models. Throughout the year face-to-face collaboration during lab-sessions was complemented by continuous access to online discussion and documentation. The process and results were shared on a collaborative wiki, conceived as a growing collective memory. | The first year of Marine CoLABoration progressed in two phases: a scoping phase and the transitional phase. The scoping phase was designed to encourage engagement, develop a collective vision and initiate some preliminary experiments. It was important to take time to foster commitment in the group. The participants appreciated that they “were not presented with an initial agenda, but were allowed to spend a lot of time to get to know each other.” By the end of the scoping phase the participants were ready to take on a more pro-active role in designing the lab sessions themselves. During the transitional phase the lab began to incubate larger experiments and to formulate longer term objectives and operational models. Throughout the year face-to-face collaboration during lab-sessions was complemented by continuous access to online discussion and documentation. The process and results were shared on a collaborative wiki, conceived as a growing collective memory. |
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| Every lab meeting began with specific questions. How could the Marine CoLABoration change the world? What do you need from Marine CoLABoration and what could you contribute? How does the Marine CoLABoration relate to the wider context of current work and emerging themes in the marine sector? What experiments could you design to respond to systemic challenges in the marine environment? What would you like to achieve as the Marine CoLABoration team? How will you know that you have achieved it? How will you organise yourselves in order to achieve it? What do you know about the past and the present of Marine CoLABoration, what do you aspire for the future? How could Marine CoLABoration become a self-sustaining community of practice? What is Marine CoLABoration and where is it going? Such questions were explored through a range of different sessions, which incorporated multiple ways of learning. For example, some sessions took the format of moderated conversations, others focused on visualising and enacting the ideas, others encouraged contemplative writing. Disparate sessions were collated together in a "flow" which lead towards concrete outcomes (e.g. sketches, prototypes, decisions). The outcomes from each session were used as starting points for another, where they could be questioned, debunked or developed further. The lab sessions themselves were regularly evaluated by everyone involved and adapted where needed. For example, while in the early scoping phase it was beneficial for the process to be designed by FoAM so the participants could fully focus on their work, it gradually became important for the participants themselves to take the lead in designing the lab sessions. They became more involved in all aspects of the process, which lead to increasingly taking "ownership" of the lab. By the end of the first year the group had become a closely knit team, working together on several values-based experiments (from reduction of plastic waste to testing ways to increase public engagement with the ocean). | Every lab meeting began with specific questions. How could the Marine CoLABoration change the world? What do you need from Marine CoLABoration and what could you contribute? How does the Marine CoLABoration relate to the wider context of current work and emerging themes in the marine sector? What experiments could you design to respond to systemic challenges in the marine environment? What would you like to achieve as the Marine CoLABoration team? How will you know that you have achieved it? How will you organise yourselves in order to achieve it? What do you know about the past and the present of Marine CoLABoration, what do you aspire for the future? How could Marine CoLABoration become a self-sustaining community of practice? What is Marine CoLABoration and where is it going? Such questions were explored through a range of different sessions, which incorporated multiple ways of learning. For example, some sessions took the format of moderated conversations, others focused on visualising and enacting the ideas, others encouraged contemplative writing. Disparate sessions were collated together in a "flow" which lead towards concrete outcomes (e.g. sketches, prototypes, decisions). The outcomes from each session were used as starting points for another, where they could be questioned, debunked or developed further. The lab sessions themselves were regularly evaluated by everyone involved and adapted where needed. For example, while in the early scoping phase it was beneficial for the process to be designed by FoAM so the participants could fully focus on their work, it gradually became important for the participants themselves to take the lead in designing the lab sessions. They became more involved in all aspects of the process, which lead to increasingly taking "ownership" of the lab. By the end of the first year the group had become a closely knit team, working together on several values-based experiments (from reduction of plastic waste to testing ways to increase public engagement with the ocean). |
| One simple way to foster emergence in a lab is to begin the process by introducing participants to each other as creative humans. As one of the participants noted: “We were freed up from organisational responsibility and brought together also as individuals not feeling that we always had to represent our brands. Facilitation was very important”. It was our hypothesis that playful co-creation could bring people together quicker than an expert debate or power-point presentations. For example, the first encounters of Marine CoLABoration included comparing personal "worldchanging experiences", visualising skills and personalities present in the group, and collaboratively designing future scenarios for the lab. Gradually, discussions shifted focus from individual to collective engagement. The first hypotheses and experiments emerged from participant-lead "open space" sessions about challenges with valuing the ocean in their current work: “The open space allowed us to explore what we wanted to know and what we wanted to do, without being pushed for results”. There was enough time and space for the participants to learn from each other, to learn by doing. Some ideas continued to develop and grow, others petered out. Collaborative teams were formed as required and dissolved when they became unnecessary. Rather than strictly directing the process, the lab approach encouraged fluid movement of ideas, inspiration and people. It brought to light where the participants' aspirations and energies lie. It allowed people to step up when leadership was called for and to forgo propositions if they had no traction. Marine CoLABoration became a "space to experiment with different ways of thinking and learning from others". The direction of the lab emerged from the work done in the lab. | One simple way to foster emergence in a lab is to begin the process by introducing participants to each other as creative humans. As one of the participants noted: “We were freed up from organisational responsibility and brought together also as individuals not feeling that we always had to represent our brands. Facilitation was very important”. It was our hypothesis that playful co-creation could bring people together quicker than an expert debate or power-point presentations. For example, the first encounters of Marine CoLABoration included comparing personal "worldchanging experiences", visualising skills and personalities present in the group, and collaboratively designing future scenarios for the lab. Gradually, discussions shifted focus from individual to collective engagement. The first hypotheses and experiments emerged from participant-lead "open space" sessions about challenges with valuing the ocean in their current work: “The open space allowed us to explore what we wanted to know and what we wanted to do, without being pushed for results”. There was enough time and space for the participants to learn from each other, to learn by doing. Some ideas continued to develop and grow, others petered out. Collaborative teams were formed as required and dissolved when they became unnecessary. Rather than strictly directing the process, the lab approach encouraged fluid movement of ideas, inspiration and people. It brought to light where the participants' aspirations and energies lie. It allowed people to step up when leadership was called for and to forgo propositions if they had no traction. Marine CoLABoration became a "space to experiment with different ways of thinking and learning from others". The direction of the lab emerged from the work done in the lab. |
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maja