The course is designed to galvanize new visions for positive organizational change that result from a strategic design approach and a commitment to societal impact. The course provides a scientifically-based, positive change framework grounded in theories of human and organization behavior. Specifically drawing on the latest research from positive organizational scholarship as well as powerful case studies of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) from the field, this course builds on knowledge imparted in the required Project Facilitation Course of the Program. The course focuses on “change management” from an asset-based, strengths-based leadership perspective; it provides an overview of the tools, theories, and stories of appreciative inquiry and demonstrates how these tools can be used immediately in any project leadership role strategic designers may be engaged in. Finally, the “lab” project-based dimension of the course invites students to explore and apply the AI method in an organizational setting with a project they will be expected to carry out for an organization that will be preselected by the faculty member before the start of the course.

This graduate seminar course presents an exploration of ongoing research into the origins of human behavior and of ways that behavior can be influenced through the design of artifacts, environments, and choices. How can designers increase their effectiveness and impact through an understanding of human motivation and the formation of habits? What moral or legal limits should govern the use of behavioral research by designers seeking to influence others? The course will enable students to situate their studio work in a robust conceptual framework and to balance efficacy and ethics in their development of products and services.

What if caring for people were the central design principle of our social, economic and political relations and structures? Evolving social norms, demographic changes, political polarization and instability, othering, and public health and environmental disasters have shifted how we care for each other in diverse contexts - families, communities, organizations and across cultures. In this hybrid seminar and studio, we will critically examine the many facets of the global care crisis, harnessing design to imagine and realize new futures and practices to address care disparities and to bridge societal divides. Students will select a care focus (loneliness/isolation, intergenerational connection, caregiving, disability, bias of different forms, censorship, group and interpersonal conflict, cyberbullying, etc.) and work individually or in small groups on a semester-long care intervention using methods and ideas drawn from strategic design, social practice art and alternative economies. Such interventions may include services, experiences, campaigns, processes, economic models, or products. We will draw upon interdisciplinary readings and case studies from both scholars and practitioners (designers, artists, activists, civic leaders, social scientists, and policymakers) working in the space of care around the world.

Business models have been blamed for the fall of democracy, the mental health of teens, and the rise of surveillance capitalism. In this course students explore mental frames we use to describe how organizations create value, and why entrepreneurial ventures continue to perpetuate cycles of inequity through status quo startup methods and financing mechanisms. Students will learn how to center the core value of an organization to provide unmet needs of a community. Additional explorations will widen the description of entrepreneurial organization to include cooperative structures, collectives, community benefit organizations and other non profits, collaboratives, and public benefit companies. Through discussion, analysis, community-engaged research and financial modeling, students move towards designing a business model and fundraising plan that creates and shares value towards more equitable outcomes.

With the increasing rate of change in technology, science, and society, speculative and futures-oriented design approaches are critical to engaging with the world’s most complex problems, current and future. This studio will investigate the ways in which design can be used as a practice of critique, speculation, and hypothetical proposition. Students will learn and develop techniques and methods for identifying opportunities in existing complex systems and discovering ways to propose vivid, thought provoking alternatives. The course will explore speculative and futures-oriented methods and precedents. Students will also apply these methodologies working in small groups.