Stretch your limits.
Colour outside the lines.
Break through barriers.
Boldness often is described as transcending boundaries. Design excellence means working with them.
Today’s Design Loft lesson looks at what boundaries mean for systems change, designing for excellence, and being bold.
Understanding Systems
A system is a bounded set of relationships, interactions, and structures. The boundary is partly what defines it.
We can have what’s called closed systems, with a tight boundary that contains what’s inside (e.g., the cooling system in your car), or open systems, with some degree of porosity. To illustrate, a hospital is (largely) an open system with patients coming and going, while a prison (assuming no one is paroled or further admitted) might be considered closed.
It comes down to how much the system interacts with things outside it. Part of the challenge is when everything is open and connected to *something*, where do we draw the boundaries?
Enter: Boundary Critique.
Boundary Critique
Boundary Critique is both a technique and an approach to defining and understanding systems. It helps us to clarify where we are, what we are looking to do, and what the things around us. It is a social, interactive means of exploring the values, goals, structures, actors, and relationships within a system and enabling us to overlay our purpose. What are we looking to do?
By way of illustration, if you’re looking to launch a health promotion campaign in a community, you will need to define what community means (e.g.,people, geography, time, and settings). This will help you clarify your focus and should be aligned with what your goals are. This is a form of determining your “inclusion” and “exclusion” criteria -- what’s in or out of your system and plans.
It can be useful as a focusing exercise as well as for strategic design and planning. Drawing boundaries help you frame your situation and focus resources appropriately.
Boundary Critique in Action
Boundary Critique is not a prescriptive technique, but more of a guide. Engaging in boundary critique involves multiple steps, which can be done in different order, and are largely defined by a core question.
Identify the system boundary
Core question:
What is included in the system of concern—and what is excluded?
Surface purpose and value assumptions
Core question:
What purpose does this system definition serve—and whose values does it reflect?
Identify stakeholders and roles
Core question:
Who is included as a legitimate stakeholder—and who is not?
Examination of power and control
Core question:
Who has the power to define the system, set priorities, and allocate resources?
Explore / question knowledge sources and expertise
Core question:
What kinds of knowledge are treated as legitimate—and what is excluded?
Consider consequences and implications
Core question:
What are the consequences of drawing the boundary this way?
Contrast what is with what ‘ought’
Core question:
What is our desired future for this system?
We end with the following question:
Reflect, negotiate, and revise boundaries
Core question:
How might boundaries be redrawn—and with what trade-offs?
Application
In practice, this process is social and participatory. It’s best done with those who have a stake in the system you’re seeking to influence. This approach, when applied, offers health system leaders a means to make substantial changes without diffusing resources and minimizing impact. It can be a power engagement strategy, planning tool, and innovation generation approach.
Designing with systems in mind requires we know the systems we’re seeking to influence. Boundary Critique provides us with a means to learn.
For paid subscribers, read on for more about how boundary critique and systems thinking have been applied to health contexts, especially COVID-19. If you’re interested in learning more about this and aren’t yet enrolled, consider upgrading your subscription.
Image credits: Yann Allegre on Unsplash Aleš Čerin on Unsplash, Héctor J. Rivas on Unsplash and Annie Spratt on Unsplash