{"id":807,"date":"2017-06-22T15:17:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T22:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2017-06-22T15:24:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T22:24:24","slug":"design-ethics-across-cultures-academic-practical-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/?p=807","title":{"rendered":"Design Ethics Across Cultures – Academic & Practical Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On March 20, we published an updated conversation on ethics of and obstacles to creation of experience across cultures and geography. This was picked up, examined and further explored by Margaret King Ph.D<\/b> and Jamie O\u2019Boyle Ph.D<\/b>. of The Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis<\/a> in Pennsylvania. The two of them delved far deeper into the dynamics observed and questions asked and have carried the conversation well onward.<\/p>\n

Shared, here, in it\u2019s entirety; an evolved conversation possibly opening enlightening doors on pathways toward a more powerful diversity and compelling solutions for our industries\u2026<\/p>\n

Some areas of concern for designers working in other cultures are proposed as \u201cConsciousness Conversations.\u201d\u00a0 These topics come from Kile Ozier\u2019s IMHO online posting of March 20, 2017, at https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/?p=777<\/a> \u00a0(\u201cSharing what I\u2019ve learned\u2026of creating experiences with deep emotional connections\u201d), on his blogsite. Coming off his most recent pre-Expo 2020 experience in Dubai, Kile declaimed on several aspects of concern for professional ethics for Experience designers working overseas.<\/p>\n

Exploring topics of expectations, mentoring, problem-framing, attitude, open communication, and installation maintenance should become standard for discussions about best practices and the ethics of cross-cultural project management, with designers as \u201cAmbassadors of Best Practices.\u201d\u00a0 We responded from our cultural analyst perspective below.<\/p>\n

Kile asks:<\/p>\n

Might we find ways to communicate these things, cross-culturally, to the benefit of future projects?<\/i><\/p>\n

Is it too late to impress these lessons on <\/i>EXPO 2020<\/i><\/b>?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Do we not have an obligation to support the ultimate success of all projects in order to continue to build and evolve the industry? Is it possible; would such advice be or have been heeded were it to have been given, supportively and early on, without coming across as paternal?<\/i><\/p>\n

What are the realistic possibilities?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2026.It has to do with self-awareness, responsibility for the business, the future of the business, the sharing and spreading by example of best practices\u2026and the obligations inherent in leadership.<\/i><\/p>\n

Cultural Studies & Analysis offered responses to clarify cultural differences.\u00a0 Often this is a matter of pointing to the contrasts between American values and developing world cultures, roughly dividing culture into East and West.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Maintenance and upkeep post-design:\u00a0 \u201cIt’s natural to evaluate the likelihood of good or poor maintenance at the pre-design stage, under \u2018How will this installation be used and abused?\u2019\u00a0 Our job is to do the absolute best work possible to prepare the receiving client to manage and maintain\u2026in the best way.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    CS&A:\u00a0 The maintenance concept can often be an outcome of culture, which is the outcome of environment. Many tropical and subtropical countries have evolved a fatalistic \u2013 and quite environmentally sensible – culture that says \u201cYou can\u2019t fight nature or God\u2019s will.\u00a0 Things will fall apart.\u00a0 The cost of keeping up outward appearances is steep in labor and materials.\u00a0 So it would be futile \u2013 if not outright blasphemous \u2013 to try to maintain when the environment always wins out eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Maintenance is a cultural issue, based on the environment, not a personal character quality (which also works for health care, for the same reason). It actually makes sense from a cost\/benefit analysis, so deterioration is viewed as natural and just another aesthetic stage. That\u2019s mostly confined to Africa and Asia.\u00a0 However, Louisiana began as a French colonial possession, and culture evolves very, very, slowly. You can see evidence of this in the tourist zones of New Orleans. If you were trying to theme New Orleans, you would have to build in a sort of genteel deterioration to make it look right. That\u2019s what they do with new construction in New Orleans. If you are building a Cajun restaurant, it can\u2019t be sharp and polished.\u00a0 No foul here.\u00a0 It’s the way groups think based on long experience within their own environments of extreme heat, humidity, and the sheer cost of upkeep.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Condescension:\u00a0 Across race, age, gender, ethnicity, education, and language:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      CS&A:\u00a0 Concepts of respect and honor vary widely across the globe. In the US, we promote the concept of \u201cconstructive criticism.\u201d That value doesn\u2019t exist in many countries, where any criticism, even \u201cconstructive,\u201d equates to a personal affront. Americans are not culturally conditioned to the extensive social negotiation of the Middle East and Asia–particularly whenever they have one eye fixed on the deadline.<\/p>\n

      Condescension in working teams between client and consultant: this is a tough one. As professionals, we are always selling our ideas, but people accept or reject them on the basis of their own reasons\u2014of which a newcomer may be totally unaware.\u00a0 So as a professional, you have to recognize that their local colleagues are not unintelligent or willful. They have reasons \u2013 and these may be reasons they are unwilling to share with an outsider out of mutual consideration. \u00a0 Some of the dominance and hierarchical behaviors that go on in projects are outcomes of stress; others are culturally driven.\u00a0 We are engaged on a project for a major music school to identify some of the cultural awareness points that need attention — and finding that intense competition and professional stress at a young age are the core issues, not cultural insensitivity or ignorance of other ways of life.<\/p>\n

      The short form: when working outside the US: never criticize, condemn, or complain. Not even \u201cconstructive criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Speaking Up with negative communications: \u201cIs there an approach where projects known to be at risk can be rescued before it\u2019s too late?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        CS&A:\u00a0 This one has strong cultural\u00a0underpinnings. In many strict hierarchies, including China and the Middle East, you don\u2019t ever, ever, give a superior bad news. Army Special Forces are specifically taught the \u201cno criticism, overt or implied\u201d rule when dealing with foreign nationals. \u00a0One polite fiction was to ask their advice, then say \u201cVery good\u2026and may I also suggest we \u2026 (do what actually needed to be done).\u201d This would generally be OK\u2019d, not because they were unaware of our ruse, but because they themselves probably invented that particular tactic of face-saving dialogue.<\/p>\n

        Now nobody seeks criticism, but in many cultures \u201ccritical thinking\u201d can\/will be interpreted as setting up an adversarial relationship. Arab business relationships, for example, are built on a history of personal exchange \u2013 they are trust relationships, but they are also fragile. The only true trust relationships in these settings are family (extended). No matter how good your relationship, as a colleague, you are not family. And criticism or trying to set realistic deadlines when someone higher up the ladder has already made their wishes known places you in the role of adversary \u2013 and trust-breaker.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Raised expectations at openings:\u00a0 \u201cToday\u2019s opening-day expectations are far more sophisticated, aware, and critical of failure than in the past.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The world is now full of lifelong theme park experts: they are the sophisticated guest list.\u00a0 They\u2019ve seen the best and rest, led by top-shelf design.\u00a0 This is one reason museums hold “soft openings,” to learn from their own mistakes as part of the process of fixing what doesn\u2019t work in real time.\u00a0 Perhaps that’s a way to frame the opening as experimental – making the audience part of it as evaluators.\u00a0Raised expectations are part of the equation for competing in the experience economy.\u00a0 Beginning with Disneyland, the designers made it better than it had to be \u2013 setting the A-plus standard for the industry ever since.\u00a0 Unless you can exceed expectations in novel ways (as innovation across park-design parameters), there\u2019s almost no sense in trying to be creative.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Role of mentors \/ rescuers:\u00a0 \u201cCan we effectively offer advice, mentorship, responsibly sharing cautionary tales to contemporaries in other parts of the world or industry?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            CS&A:\u00a0 This would be far more routine if the profession were more self-aware and didn’t view one another as rivals bound by trade-secret silence.\u00a0 We’d love to see this happen as what we should all be pursuing.<\/p>\n

            If you are working in another culture and you have a good working relationship with your local counterpart, think of that person as a guide, interpreter. Don\u2019t offer your opinion, ask him what he thinks of this or that idea. Placing yourself in the eager student position is flattering and you may start hearing things that would never occur to you otherwise.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. Problem solving for best design answers:\u00a0 \u201cAnd how do we create these answers? By applying our bodies of knowledge and experience to what we learn before we act in a new context; using our judgement with that experience to craft original approaches to the cross-cultural work.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              CS&A:\u00a0 Problem-solving – and problem FRAMING, especially – rather than just coming in with off-the-shelf answers, is the heart of the creative enterprise.\u00a0 This is what expert opinion is all about: the “lay of the land,” understanding the context of any project and its opportunities and limits — as we do for the cultural and human factors side in cultural analysis.\u00a0The Japanese might spend years preparing, thinking, and learning before they initiate action. Then they go straight for their goal.\u00a0 Americans tend to jump right in and correct as they go rather than spend their time making certain that the problem they are solving is, in fact, the problem they should be solving. We think we have a planning stage–but compared to other cultures, our background research and percolation is ridiculously brief.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. And finally, Social Media:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026will cut the [subpar] project down before the day is out,\u201d<\/i> if it\u2019s found wanting.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                CS&A:\u00a0 Think about Black Sunday, July 17, 1955, at Disneyland in California–as a social media event.\u00a0 Half a century later, such a disastrous opening would have set the proto-park off course for the next two years or killed it.\u00a0 Social media leaves almost no margin for parks and events to develop and grow within the audience experience feedback loop.\u00a0 Instant feedback presents yet another aspect of design to be considered and weighed in the pre-opening equation.<\/p>\n

                \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

                \u201cIMHO : Creating Compelling Experience\u201d remains a free download from the Apple bookstore and iTunes. Yep; Free. Read it. Here’s the Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                On March 20, we published an updated conversation on ethics of and obstacles to creation of experience across cultures and geography. This was picked up, examined and further explored by Margaret King Ph.D and Jamie O\u2019Boyle Ph.D. of The Center … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSuI-d1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imho.kileozier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}