Harnessing hidden knowledge for paradigm change

Can designers re-design the paradigm that threatens human survival? Probably not, if they only apply the specialist skills of their training. Design evolved to make factory-made products and services more amenable to paying customers. However, if we are to meet the environmental and economic challenges facing us, it needs to be more comprehensive, integrated, self-reflexive and transdisciplinary. Our ‘metadesign’ approach seeks new synergies by combining existing resources. However, many new synergies are ‘unthinkable’ from within the ‘language’ of the current paradigm. In addressing this challenge we used a number of methods to reveal hidden synergies, including non-verbal, pre-verbal and interpersonal forms of knowing. We used simple mathematics to map all of the relations among all of the participants in the team, in order to make the data more shareable.