<aside> 🐢 This is a topic of ongoing research in theHS Web of Questions: → How can we test what's collected, learning what works when, for what and whom? How does everything stay under review? → How can we help people navigate their own lives and creations via maps of life meaning, helping them reinterpret their selves and contexts, all without standing next to them?

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What goes viral isn't what's most helpful to people. This is true in many domains: the business ideas that spread aren't necessarily the ones that make orgs into meaningful places to work; the self-help literature that spreads isn't necessarily what actually helps people live better; the political ideas which spread aren't necessarily the civic innovations we need; the educational ideas which spread aren't necessarily those that help students blossom; etc.

For this reason Human Systems is building a clearinghouse and test network for values-based designs/processes, with test sites within orgs, communities, democratic institutions, educational institutions, and social networks.

Method

<aside> 👉 See pages like Time Well Spent Metrics, Meaning Analysis, and Structured Interview to learn about our data collection methods.

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Living Books

<aside> 👉 See Older Books

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We will use our test network to gather and vet: (a) diffuse expertise in the design of various types of social systems, and (b) knowledge about the diversity of values and how to design for them.

We will focus first on four design domains:

  1. community practices — The Future Togetherness Handbook, a book of games and rituals for local communities, made by our designers and gathered and organized and illustrated by our scribes.
  2. organizational processes — some progress w. Facebook, other tech cos
  3. social network designs — work w. Facebook, Khan Academy, many others
  4. democratic institutions — no progress yet

There's also the Values & Designs Wiki, where we gather a dictionary of values, structural features, and hard to dos, to serve as a reference for redesigns and a map of human wisdom.

Sourcing

In each area we first gather students who are actively engaged in designs in that area. Then—as those students' redesigns are successful—we assemble and publish a book of open-source values-based designs.