Change Making Patterns ―A Pattern Language for Fostering Social Entrepreneurship―

○Eri Shimomukai

Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University s09524es@sfc.keio.ac.jp

Keywords：Pattern Language、Social Entrepreneurship、Entrepreneurship Education、Interview 1 Introduction

By conducting interviews with social entrepreneurs, we created a pattern language, which we named “Change Making Patterns.” The objective of these patterns is simply to identify and describe the patterns for social change, and provide them as “tips” written in the understandable language in order to encourage more individuals who take initiatives to making changes on social issues.

Nowadays, not only certain talented people such as “social entrepreneurs” extraordinary people that come up with great ideas and create new products and services that dramatically improve people lives, but also each individual should be have change making mindset in order to make a better world. The demand of this field has increased since the Japanese government has called for a need to create a “New Public Commons,” which is a society where various individual stakeholders including individuals voluntarily work together. If everyone has a place to go and role to play, people will value the pleasure of helping others, and this results in generating required markets and services. 2 The Need for a Pattern Language Nevertheless, it is difficult to share applicable guidelines and common knowledge of change making to a variety of people in different situations. Now, we would like to apply a pattern language which is a language for writing “tips” proposed by Christopher Alexander, an architect, to verbalize them. A pattern language is a method which Christopher Alexander, an architect, proposed in order to describe the tacit knowledge of local acts and create global order. A pattern language is composed by a number of elements called patterns. Each pattern is written in a set format which consists of a name, a context, a problem which occurs consecutively in a certain context, a force as a premise that causes the problem, a solution, and a action of the pattern. Even though social entrepreneurs have a lot of different types of tacit knowledge, they repeat in

the certain contexts, so we can find patterns. Above all, social entrepreneurs always grasp problems in society, exploit solutions, and take creative actions toward the better world, so the format of a pattern language perfectly suits verbalizing tips of change making which social entrepreneurs have been embodying. 3 Process of Making the Patterns

We firstly needed to understand change making mindset and observe their behaviors in certain contexts. Then, we have to mine their motivation and knowledge on change-makings which they have in common. Through conducting interviews with ten social entrepreneurs, we collected “seeds” of this pattern languages.

The production process of the patterns is explained below in Figure 1.

Figure 1：The Flowchart of the Production Process

3.1 Interviews Interviews, which we implemented, consist

of two parts: an oral history interview and a problem centered interview, a type of semi-structured interview proposed by Witzel. In the first part, interviewees can reflect on their experiences without any bias, so interviewers are able to understand their recognition structure on their actions toward social problems. In the second part, interviewers focus on a certain problem that an interviewer have faced, and a solution that he or she took. We also tried to connect those problems, solutions and actions during interviews in order to make pattern writing easier and more precise.

Additionally, interviewees speak with their vivid and living words on oral history interviews. This reflection on experiences with vivid expressions is meaningful to a pattern language. Christopher Alexander, the first proponent of a pattern language, emphasizes that a pattern language contributes for constructing the living and growing whole.

3.2 Pattern Writing

During the interviews, we wrote down important points especially 5W1H; What, Where, When, Why, and How on the post notes. The reason is that these points are highly possible to lead making patterns. In many cases, a solution toward social issues is firstly talked as a “tip” of social entrepreneurship, so the interviewers or pattern writers need to clarify the contexts and problems. Often, the intention of the actions and solutions are deeply related to the context and problems, so asking Why is tremendously effective.

After the interviews, we organized and converged the important points from interviews by using KJ methods. Some groups are usually formed according to a variety of situations and contexts. Then, we wrote up all the patterns and asked the interviewees to revise the patterns which are produced as a result of an interview so that they can check the wordings.

4 Patterns: Change Making Patterns

Change Making Patterns consists of 31 patterns. Those 31 patterns are categorized into two main levels and six phases. Each level and each phase have its own objective. Figure 2 shows the two main levels and six phases of the pattern language and the corresponding patterns in each phase.

Figure 2: The Structure of the Change Making Patterns

The first level is Self-Empowerment Level, and

the second level is Change Making Level. Throughout the process of making the patterns, we discovered that social entrepreneurs not only share tips for making changes or taking actions on social issues, but also commonly have self-empowerment patterns. Often, social entrepreneurs start with self-empowerment, yet they come move back and forth between two levels. In Self-Empowerment Level, there are two phases: Mindset and Mission- defining. Patterns in Mindset phase create powerful incentives within the readers to make critical changes on social issues. In Change Making Level, there are four phases: Preparation, Change Construction, Implementation, and Scale-out. Patterns in Preparation promote the reader to step forward into the field of their own issues. Patterns in Change Construction show how to think up the theory of change based on social mission and vision. Patterns in Implementation teach some specific strategy for shaping ideas into form. Finally, patterns in Scale-out phase provide tips for expanding projects.

4.1 Format of the Change Making Patterns Every pattern is written in the same format: Pattern Name is the attractive and memorable words that can be used as vocabulary for thinking and communication. Introductory Sentences and Illustration help the reader to easily imagine the content of the pattern. Short story is an example of how to use the pattern. Context is the condition for applying the pattern. Problem describes a difficulty

that often occurs in the context. Forces are unavoidable laws that make the problem hard to solve. Solution describes the way to solve the problem, which is written in an abstract way. Actions offer concretive approaches to put the solution into practice. Consequence is a possible result or outcome that you can acquire after embodying the pattern. 4.2 Examples: Yes,and… We present the specific example of the patterns with the labels of the elements in the format.

Element Content

Pattern Name

Yes,and…

Introductory Sentence

Nothing is impossible.

Illustration

Short Story

To create a sophisticated brand from a developing country, Ms. Eriko Yamaguchi established a factory which produces high-quality bags made of the nation’s special product, jute fiber, and recruited locals as employees in Bangladesh. She accepted the hardships to educate the employees and believed that “they can do it”. For example, Ms. Eriko found out that the employees hardly had working manners such as handing in scissors in the right way so she taught them step by step.

Context You are facing a crucial social issue that most people believe to be impossible to solve.

Problem

You feel shocked to face opinions that deny possibilities, so you consider that you cannot make any change on the issue.

Force

• People think negatively when they face difficulties and don’t believe in possibilities. • People lose confidence when their opinions and ideas are denied.

Solution

Communicate with “Yes, and...” mindset, which you accept even difficult situations, and willingly add ideas instead of denying them.

Action

Believe in people and their capabilities. If they don’t know, teach them. If they don’t have one, create it. In daily communication, avoid saying no, and think constructively toward the problems on your project.

Consequence

The more you believe in people and their situations, the more chances you will acquire. In addition, you can motivate people who are involved in your project.

Figure 3: Pattern: Yes,and…

5 Application to the Educational Programs

Pedagogical development and research for social entrepreneurship education have received relatively little attention. There are few media that teach social entrepreneurship to people and encourage them to take actions. To address this, we expect that Change Making Patterns function as educational material to support people to understand methods for making changes on social issues.

We propose an educational program, which consist of four contents; dialogue workshops with the patterns, project design with the patterns, pattern implementations, and pattern writings. The ultimate objective of the program is to encourage the readers or potential social entrepreneurs to understand the patterns and utilize them for making changes on specific social issues. Figure 4 shows how the three contents are connected.

Figure 4: The Contents on the Educational Program with the Change Making Patterns

5.1 Workshop and Project Design The workshop consists of three different activities: improvisation activity, dialogue, action planning. Games based on improvisation encourage the participants to understand the meanings of the patterns with physical movements. In dialogues, participants talk about their experiences on every action or activity with the patterns, and exchange them with other participants. The objective of the workshop is to stimulate readers to acquire a new vocabularies for communicating on the social entrepreneurial topic, insightful ideas, and deeper understanding on the patterns. After mastering the patterns with improvisational games and dialogues, the readers plan how they implement the patterns that they have gained throughout the game on their own projects, including short term goals and consequences. Then, they move on constructing a project plan based on their awareness of social issues using the gaining patterns. 5.2 Pattern Implementation For a certain period, we encourage the readers to proceed with their own projects and implement the social entrepreneurship patterns. The readers have an opportunity to share how they have experienced the patterns and how they have been approaching to the issue. According to the experiential learning theory, knowledge is created through the transformation of experience, which means that knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience. Thus, readers are required to have opportunity to implement the pattern on concrete projects or field to embody patterns and transform the patterns into the social impacts. 5.3 Pattern Writing Finally, we are planning to have pattern writing workshops where the reader writes patterns using their experiences in the field. Writing patterns encourage them to reflect on their learning, and some patterns would be useful on their learning for potential social entrepreneurs. This process is essential for constructing social capitals that is defined as the existence of a certain set of informal values and norms shared among members of a group that permit cooperation among them. 6 Conclusion Change Making Patterns has significant roles to promote more individuals to take initiatives and leadership in order to make changes on ongoing

social issues. Therefore, we are required to create systems to lead the readers to take action with the patterns. Through conducting workshops with the patterns, we found out that devising plans encourages readers to take action with the patterns. Therefore, action planning with patterns leads the reader to go beyond the level of current significance; the reader will be able to plan their future actions with the patterns. We believe that this will result in the fact that more people take action in order to make the better world and decrease unsolved social issues. References Alexander, C. (1979) The Timeless Way of

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