Designs for social structures

This week's readings and week #1's lecture helped to show how ideas for innovation can be instrumental for changing the lifestyles of many people (mostly targeting those with the greatest need from around the globe) in a very positive way. And we can see how design is the make or break of these innovations upon implementation. Whether we are talking about innovations in practice of needy communities (like carrying wood more efficiently) or introducing a product which can help people be more productive or contribute to their communities (like the glasses with adjustable lenses) they have to be designed at the right price, with the right level of recognition and of course they have to be a better idea than anything else. Which is part of this context we see our innovation in. Its that context which I'd like to discuss in some more depth and see if we can discover innovation in another part of that.

That is, innovation in  the social paradigm, social behaviors and social structures of our targeted groups. In the process of introducing a new idea or a new product into a community we ensure that it will see "uptake" or "buy-in" or however we want to phrase that people are using this new idea. But there are many barriers to that process which may not seem entirely simple for us. In many Western communities we have practices which may not be typical behavior in every part of the world- and I think that deserves special mention. One great example was said at this year's orientation meeting on Academic integrity; many Western cultures like to celebrate their failures. It is good for us to fail and move onto a better or new idea more quickly, learn from our mistakes and I too believe that is optimum- shamelessly. In a greater context for our social structure, we encourage businesses to fail so that new and innovative ideas can flourish. But that idea is not human nature, it is trained and ingrained to some ways of thinking which might not be shared by so many people around the world. In this same way, when an innovative idea from America comes out to help people in countries which have some different set of beliefs and understanding of the world it is very difficult to pick-up these different social structures. This puts a major risk in our implementation.

So if we have a very non-materialistic culture which does not put a major emphasis on the belongings, property or discovery of depreciated use on physical objects we might have a very hard time sharing our new low-cost anti-microbial ShamWow that also serves as a water filter (made-up idea as a for instance). If the material requires delicate cleaning after each use or special drying in order to preserve its integrity only certain cautious behavioral people will enjoy this. There are many exaggerated ideas about this as well and sometimes we can see that the greatest challenges circle around a central issue.

In the small country of Djibouti the people's major pass time is chewing of cot. The substance is plentiful and easily acquired and addictive. Programs to encourage children to learn sports and develop industrious lifestyles ends about age 16-18 when it is accepted that he or she gets cot. Ideas about efficiency in work and other practices can be adopted but when noon strikes the streets go empty to hide from the heat and work may not start again for entire day. The desire for long working hours to better themselves is not on the highest priority. Whether this is an abuse of substance isn't questioned, and there isn't much room for enforcement but some of these communities are designed around this. Identifying this problem is easy but how do help this community innovate and design a better life?

The policies and practices of other cultures have had great cases of overcoming this sort of issue but it simply is not the same in a small country like Djibouti. If the community was to change their lifestyle choices it would have to be a difficult process with community leadership to teach a social design. Somewhat in the same way cultural leaders have shaped the Western world. Everyone from Einstein to Ghandi, MLK Jr. to Thomas Edison - we learned from modeling our lives off of others. But that does not mean it will work everywhere and it doesn't work with everyone.

Organizations have had to face these challenges of social design for many years and we have records of massive variety on their implementation. The social design of the community in which we wish to contribute an innovation has been entirely shaped by previous designs. Twenty years ago, a CEO would never be caught talking to his daughter over the phone during a meeting but now in days the upper management is just as likely to be txting away during a meeting as anyone else. Our lives are constantly shaped by design for better or worse and we have to be mindful of the unique social designs of each community and how their lives will be changed by introduction of these new ideas.