2016, is SO last week!

2016 has come and gone.

Obviously 2016 will be remembered for a lot of things…good and bad. But we don’t have to go into that rabbit hole right now.

Instead, let’s focus on the learning that happened over here. The biggest of all, the launch of the Designership!

For many years, I had been percolating on the idea of starting a learning opportunity for people who actually want to take design thinking and foresight into action in education. There are 5 brave souls who decided to join me on this journey. In 2016, we met for the first time and dug in to getting to know each other and lay a foundation for what would come next.

Admittedly, we jumped in head first and I think we got a little lost. Or at least I did. It was super exciting to follow the momentum that we had been creating offline when we finally met in person, but I felt like we missed out on some fundamental teachings.

In 2017, we are going to take a step back to do that learning.

If you want an inside glimpse as to what’s going on behind the scenes – check out Bryson’s awesome reflection of the opening weekend.

“With that being said, there is no clear direction for where this project will go. And I love that. I am revelling in the ambiguity of it all because the passion and the intelligence of the people working on the Designership leads me to believe that we will have no trouble at all producing something tangible and meaningful in the next year. What will that product be? I have no idea. But rest assured, it will begin to take shape quite soon. At this point, our tasks are ambiguous but our topics of focus are crystallizing quite elegantly.” – Bryson, @obiebryce

Resolution for 2017

  • Go back to basics
  • Reflect, reflect, reflect
  • Share the ups and downs of the practice

What to look forward to in 2017

  1. Launching Policy Fluxx. Last year, I prototyped a game as a final solution to my Masters Research. Policy Fluxx is an analog facilitation tool to promote and support stakeholders building rapport while co-designing future-oriented policy recommendations. In 2017, I am seeking partners and funding to actually launch Policy Fluxx and bring it out of the academic world it has been living in.
  2. More from the Department of Imaginary Affairs. We took a bit of a break in 2016 to do some brainstorming and foundation building. In 2017, you can expect to see some cool new projects emerging. We have been noodling on a story-telling game, a community builder mission-based mystery and a citizen-building exhibit.
  3. I started a research project. There isn’t a real name for it yet. But I sent out a tweet and got a windfall of responses. I have been talking to people about their takes on innovation, design-based thinking and education. Right now, I am just floating in the fog and enjoying the generosity of strangers. Next steps are to start defining the problem and keep investigating.

As I prepare for 2017 I am eager to go back to the basics. Start at the beginning. So to speak.