Unfolding reframing as an approach to address complex challenges. A case study on enabling longer working lives through intergenerational collaboration in the workplace.

Santos Melian, Sofia ; Sanz González, Laura ; Rinaudi, Antonella Valentina

4. term

Service Systems Design, Master

2023

2023-05-24

181 pages

The thesis focuses on uncovering the practice of reframing, which has been identified as a promising approach for solving complex challenges that are increasingly common nowadays. With this ambition, the thesis presents a case study through which reframing is exemplified and discussed. The case study consists in an open design process that addresses the challenge of an ageing population in Denmark and the subsequent change in the age dependency ratios and labour shortage. The process is structured with the help of a recursive design framework that the authors of the thesis co-created in 2022 and that is powered by reframing. Therefore, reframing is practised iteratively throughout the open design process and results in the narrowing down of the focus to intergenerational collaboration (IGC) in the workplace. IGC is discovered as an opportunity that poses value for three actors: senior and young employees, and companies, with the ultimate goal of extending the working lives of senior employees by making them feel more valued at the workplace. The resulting service proposal focuses on Tacit knowledge transfer through IGC and presents a flexible value configuration for corporations with clearly defined roles for the three actors. As the case study progresses, more examples of reframing emerge and are unfolded. The thesis reveals that reframing consists of a combination of group and individual, convergent and divergent activities that lead to a new problem definition. Although reframing has been described as a bridge between a problem and a solution space, we argue that it can also be a bridge between a problem and an evolved problem definition since, in the context of a complex challenge, the solution emerges later in the process. The thesis posits that reframing places a big responsibility on the designers’ shoulders to be loyal to the research insights acquired, and suggests some guidelines to optimise the reframing activity. Lastly, it arrives at an iteration of the recursive design framework based on the insights uncovered throughout the project.

Service design ; Reframing ; Open design process ; Demographic challenges ; Intergenerational collaboration

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