VizThink and the City of Austin
My deep thought for the day: What is the trade-off between a constructed and guided group process and a less-structured and improvisational group process? Why, you are wondering, do I ask? Because we held our 7th Vizthink Austin session last night and I came out of it seriously disoriented. Honoria Starbuck and I specifically designed a facilitated process beforehand, but the outcome seemed wild and untamed (somewhat reasonable with a group of 40+ people). Without going into specifics – you would probably start to snore – it forced me to address the question of what kind of group processes have the most impact. I certainly see the value of meandering and sort of happening upon learning (you could call it ‘discovery’), but I also see the value of structured guidance to a specific outcome. Further complicating this question is the notion of individual learning styles. Some people LOVE playing in the sand. Going with the flow and saying, “Whee! I just found a seashell.” Others (including myself) are discomfited by what appears to be random acts of education. I feel a certain obligation as a facilitator to ensure a little of both but quite frankly, groups are so unpredictable and unique it makes it challenging to meet their needs. So, while the City of Austin – the VizThink community’s client – seemed delighted by the outcome, I and others found ourselves asking, “What just happened?” And the question wasn’t directed toward the outcome – which actually worked – rather, it was directed toward the experience: how did that work? What did the participants actually experience and is it possible to create a more uniform sense of productivity and satisfaction? (I bet you UX and IxD folks could talk my ear off on this one.) Anyway, it got my philosophical juices flowing. You can see the Flickr stream of the activity if you are so inclined.
Ooops, the plan was actually based on theory of adult learning and emergent design theory. Sorry I didn’t explain the theoretical underpinnings to address WTF questions. And the outcome was pretty solid for the city which is the point of the process. I’d love to hear from others about the experience.
Hey Honoria, I don’t have any doubts about your depth of knowledge OR experience. I was just questioning my own understanding and the experience the participants had. Let’s discuss by phone so I can get some education. I know the City was delighted.
It was interesting to see a different way to experiment with visual thinking. And with a large group, an element of “wild and untamed” is to be expected. I know the exercise was running tight on time at the end, but I would have been curious to hear plus/delta comments from the participants, and hear initial reactions from the city stakeholders. What was most surprising about what they saw? I’m sure the results will give the City some great food for thought.
Hey Sharon! I was going to solicit your input on the process since you’ve been through numerous visual thinking processes yourself. Yes – I have all of those same questions. Some people expressed confusion as to what they were supposed to do, but then you have to wonder whether those people are learners that like to “hold hands” most of the time. Many people forged ahead and used their own skills at sense-making so that part was interesting for me to witness. I’ve heard from the City and they were very happy with the content generated. So my real comments where about how we got from a to z, not whether we got to z because, for our client we certainly did.