ACTIVE // 24-12-2020

More than ever, loyalty and customer engagement are essential for organizations to create emotional connections with consumers. To be able to guarantee this, experience-orientation, giving meaning and active involvement are crucial starting points for any organization. I decided to use the ACTIVE model to test the platform, The Nest, and at the same time the process that preceded it. However, ACTIVE is not intended to indicate what is right or wrong; the intention is to initiate a dialogue. Therefore, this testing will be based on my findings and thoughts; to what extent do I think The Nest meets the different components of ACTIVE? In addition, I try to elaborate and substantiate certain thoughts through ACTIVE.

Last project I got as feedback to be more concrete and more focused on me as an Experience Designer. Therefore, this will also be the first part of my reflection with regard to ACTIVE. (Breda University of Applied Sciences, n.d.).

APPRECIATIVE

Within Imagineering, the qualities, strengths, and possibilities of an organization are seen as the starting point. When creating the possible concept, the engagement platform, I took Carlijn's strengths and qualities as a starting point. The Impact Expedition, "the recipe", cannot take place in the same way as last year. However, a recipe consists of different ingredients; the various ingredients together make a good recipe. The ingredients of the Impact Expedition can still be used, so I decided together with Carlijn to build on that. I looked at the potential, the golden nuggets of the Impact Expedition, and what can arise from these potentials. Appreciative is an attitude of seeing opportunities and building on them instead of focusing on possible problems and impossibilities.

Carlijn has many ideas and thoughts, so I believe it is important to clearly formulate and structure these ideas and thoughts. Because besides looking at the "now", I also looked to the future in an appreciative way. The goal is to create a generative image that inspires others and that creates new perspectives. That is why I tried to listen carefully to the needs of Carlijn during this process; how can she structure and clearly formulate her ideas and thoughts? What does she need to be able to create a generative image and to inspire others? I have given Carlijn handles to work towards a stronger brand identity and a valuable concept, and especially tried to look together at what IS possible, and not what is not possible.

During my project, I therefore decided to choose a different starting point, something that is important when working in an appreciative manner. We have not looked at what was not possible, not what is missing or what goes wrong, but we have looked at what gives energy. What does Carlijn have to offer (what works, gives energy, what are her talents) and where does she want to go (a positive goal, her ambitions and drive). The focus of Appreciative Inquiry is generative: you work towards a process that generates energy. The energy increased as the process progressed; after we reframed and defined the vision, mission, values, strategy, and target group, certain energy was generated. This energy stimulated Carlijn to think about different possibilities and how she could further shape her brand.

CO-CREATIVE

Imagineering is not an individual creative process, but an open and active process in which added value is created by involving various parties in the process. After all, people support what they make themselves. During my project, I therefore mainly focused on Carlijn and her needs. For me as an Experience Designer, I believe it is important to create something WITH the client and not FOR the client. I could have created a possible concept based on the information I had about Carlijn and the Impact Expedition, but the final project would have been less valuable in my opinion. That is why I tried to go through the different phases in a co-creative way. In the C-phase, I created sessions based on Carlijn's needs. I created sessions using my acquired knowledge of Experience Design and at the same time making sure that the sessions were valuable for Carlijn. In this way, we defined together her mission, vision, values ​​, and strategy and we discovered her target group. The results of these sessions functioned as the starting point for the E-phase. In this phase, I also combined my knowledge of Experience Design, my ideas, and my creativity, with Carlijn her ideas, her needs, and the outcomes of the different sessions. In the ideal world, the Experience Designer involves different stakeholders in all phases of the process. For me personally, looking at the project, Carlijn was the only stakeholder that was important to me. That is why I have strived to involve Carlijn in all phases of my project and actually work with her on her brand identity and a possible concept/engagement platform.

Although we have not yet involved any future users of the engagement platform, the concept created does serve as an invitation to dialogue. The PDF document in the previous blog can serve (with any necessary adjustments) as inspiration and material to share with stakeholders. In this way, stakeholders get to know the concept, they can be involved in the creation and process, they can provide input, and together with Carlijn, they can build The Nest. I have not been in contact with stakeholders during the creation of this possible concept. Lotte, a facility student who is doing her graduation project for Carlijn, is trying to find out what the stakeholders would like to see. I have mainly focused on Carlijn her needs at this (starting) point of the process, but Carlijn finds it is very important to involve stakeholders in this process. That is why I am convinced that in the further creation of the concepts of both Lotte and me, Carlijn will do this together with stakeholders. If people are involved, they are more committed and will support the end result. The future product can therefore be considered co-creative.

Most offline services Carlijn will offer on the platform will be shaped on the basis of the needs of the participants. Especially with the individual services, Carlijn and the participant will together discuss expectations, personal goals, and other related matters. Carlijn will design the session based on the needs of this participant. Most of the online services are not fixed yet. The platform must be a place where people want to come, where they feel safe, can get in touch with others, and where everyone is welcome. Such a place can only be created in a co-creative way; Carlijn needs to know what the needs of the possible participants are. Carlijn wants to discover together with the stakeholders the values of the platform and to determine the content of the platform in a co-creative way. I designed a possible concept in the form of an engagement platform. To make the concept stronger, I believe stakeholders need to be involved to create value; people support what they create themselves.  

TRANSFORMATIVE

When I started this project, I wanted to bring about sustainable and valuable changes and focus on new insights and solutions. Not all changes have to be grand and compelling, but getting things moving is at the heart of the perspective. I therefore wanted to discover how I, as an Experience Designer, could contribute to a transformative approach. As mentioned earlier, during this process I have mainly focused on Carlijn her needs: what can I really help her with? In addition, Carlijn herself graduated in Imagineering, so it was a nice challenge to see what I could achieve and get moving.

During our first conversations, I tried to discover who Carlijn is, what she stands for, and what the Impact Expedition means to her. Soon there were a number of things that struck me. I noticed that Carlijn has many ideas and thoughts about the future of the Impact Expedition. She is very motivated and really wants to build something. However, all these ideas, thoughts, and motivations are all over the place. It is important as an organization to clearly show what you stand for, what you want to achieve, and what an organization has to offer. Because that clarity was not there yet, we first started working on that. After my first created session where we focused on Brand Identity, we defined Carlijn her mission, vision, values ​​, and strategy. I tried to let Carlijn structure her thoughts through various assignments. Although I did not necessarily expect to create a major impact on Carlijn by facilitating this session, I actually did. Carlijn was so grateful; by structuring her thoughts, ideas, and motivations, she had a better idea of ​​how to proceed. After this session, I realized that even small changes can help build towards something bigger. This also applied to the second session, where we focused on the target group. When I look at the beginning of the process, and where Carlijn stands now, I dare to say with certainty that both sessions and the knowledge and tools that I have used as an Experience Designer have contributed to the creation of a transformative change on a personal level (on Carlijn). I created something new, a new and clear way of expressing thoughts, ideas, and motivation. This new way of structuring and expressing where she stands for, helps her by making her ideas and thoughts visible.

When we look at the Impact Expedition and the services Carlijn wants to offer, the focus is on creating valuable and sustainable change in people's lives.  Carlijn wants to encourage individuals in their personal growth and empower them to create purpose-driven lives that are in line with who they truly are. Reconnect wants to witness the power of bringing people together with the purpose of growing, (un)learning, healing, and impact. The unconditional support, love, and friendship that will emerge, is out of this world. That is something I focussed on when creating the concept: creating sustainable and valuable changes, on a personal and collaborative level, by being involved with The Nest. However, this platform is not dedicated to only serve individuals & groups but is also dedicated to empowering communities worldwide. Although this is a future vision, we do not want to preach, not looking to fix what is broken. Instead, we learn from and with each other, we co-create bright futures globally. In this way, we create something new apart from the status quo and try to do things in a different and better way by connecting with ourselves and others. The platform can be a way to steer this process up and start with creating some kind of (small) transformative changes

IMAGINATIVE

Thinking, speaking, and acting with imagination mobilizes creativity and thinking out of the box. The conscious use of creativity and imagination makes it possible to come up with new, unexpected solutions to problems. In the first part of my project, I organized two creative sessions for Carlijn. These sessions were intended to consciously stimulate imagination and creativity so that Carlijn was eventually able to structure her thoughts, ideas, and motivations. With the ultimate goal to find out the vision, mission, strategy, values ​​, and target group of her brand. Perhaps the best-known creative technique and the technique that we have also used in many ways, is brainstorming. The basis of brainstorming is generating ideas based on the principle of suspending judgment. That is why all the sessions started with diverging: it did not matter what Carlijn wrote down; there was no right or wrong. Eventually, we worked towards a converging approach, where we concretized all the collected input. Carlijn could also have come up with a vision, mission, strategy, values​​, and her target group herself, without these sessions. Why I decided to create and facilitate these sessions, is because Carlijn had so many different streams of thoughts that it was valuable for her to see which streams of thoughts are the right ones. By creatively filtering the existing streams of thought and generating new streams of thought, I tried to stimulate the imagination and come with new, unexpected input that you might not have thought of before. The sessions turned out as I had hoped: Carlijn was able to concretize her thoughts in a creative way and was able to create a vision, mission, strategy, values​​, and target group for her brand.

I facilitated the creative session of the theme day about the C-phase. Although the content was already partially fixed, I have added some extra elements. I decided to hand-out magazines participants could use for inspiration. While creating the concept, they could use the magazines to shape their final pitch by means of a mood board. A Mood board is a type of collage that may consist of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board creator. Mood boards can be used to develop your design concepts and to communicate in a creative and visual way what your concept is about. Images speak to the imagination, and that is exactly the reason I decided to hand-out some magazines. In this way, the participants were able to gain inspiration while clearly illustrating what their concept was about. You could clearly see that some of the groups made use of it. For example, the concept 'The Nest' had pasted nests and birds on their mood board, which in my opinion made the concept even stronger. Images appeal to the imagination when it matches your story and concept.

If we look at what Carlijn offers, wants to offer and the concept/platform that I have created, you can say that there are many interfaces with (being) imaginative. The Impact Expedition, for example, is already an example of creative thinking that initiates change. The Impact Expedition guides participants in a creative thinking process; The participants visited an extraordinary place (Nepal) and use creative sessions as a tool to eventually come up with new creative ideas (inspirations) that initiate change. Carlijn has graduated in Imagineering, and that is clearly reflected in what she offers and what she wants to offer. She uses her Imagineering knowledge to bring about changes, partly in a creative way, on a personal, collaborative, and community level. The platform is therefore also focussed on these principals; all the different services on the platform will trigger the imagination in a certain way, for example by the place where the service takes place or the way in which the interaction between the different participants will be facilitated.

I used metaphorical thinking to shape the platform. Metaphorical thinking is based on similarity. Our mind tends to look for similarities. A road map is a model or metaphor of reality and useful for explaining things. Imaging within another conceptual frame can help. ‘The Nest’, a concept made up during the theme day, stands for home, your inner or authentic self. The ‘Spiritual Birds’ stand for your feelings, your characteristics. Some names of services are connected to either the Nest or the birds. Take for example ‘inside your nest’, which stands for personal development, and finding your authentic self. The ‘Four Seasons Retreat’ will focus on the different seasons, the seasons in which birds will act differently. Birds fly for example in winter to warmer countries, and in Spring they give birth. These season metaphors stand for: flying out, a new beginning, the start of something new. All these different metaphors are somehow connected, created on the basis of the different principles (values, vision, mission, etc.) and being imaginative.

VALUES-BASED

Values ​​are the foundation of what people think and do. They provide an authentic and stable basis for change, support, and commitment. Particularly in a context of change, a stable and shared set of values ​​generates meaning and ensures sustainable developments. These shared values ​​must be reflected in all touchpoints. It is important as an organization to have your values ​​clear; otherwise the (potential) target group will not know what you stand for and they will not know whether the organization matches their own values. During the first session, I therefore focused with Carlijn on her values, the values ​​she stands for as an organization. She was able to formulate her values ​​on the basis of the mission, vision and strategy created. She took these values ​​with her to the second session, the session in which we determined Carlijn's target group. The mentality groups that Carlijn chose also have their own values. The reason that I focused on both Carlijn's values ​​and the target group with associated values, is because it is important that the values ​​of the organization match the values ​​of the target group. The moment this is the case, a possible value-fit arises. Carlijn was able to clearly formulate her values ​​on the basis of the first session, and on the basis of the second session was able to create a persona with values ​​that fits this persona.

During the creation of the sessions, I took Carlijn her wishes and needs into account, and on the other hand, decided what is valuable to me during this process. I wanted to discover how I, as an Experience Designer can actually help someone with the development of her brand identity and/or concept. That is why I tried to use my gained knowledge as much as possible in the sessions and the rest of the process. In addition, I tried to design the sessions in such a way that I knew it would be valuable for Carlijn. I know that the process has been valuable for both Carlijn and me; Carlijn was able to develop a stronger brand identity and make a start on a new concept, and I helped her by bringing my knowledge as an Experience Designer into practice. That is why I see our process as a successful value-fit.

I used both the values ​​of Carlijn and the values ​​of the target group in creating the engagement platform The Nest and the various services that are offered. As you can see in the PDF document, blog E-PHASE PART ONE, I have named the "Core Elements" for each service. These core elements are a combination of the values ​​of Carlijn and the values ​​of the target group. In this way, the target group can see what the core elements are that are central to a particular service. A participant can determine for him or herself which services suit his or her interests. I have strived to ensure that the different services can create different value-fits, by combining the different values ​​as much as possible. The values ​​of Carlijn can possibly be seen in the blog C-PHASE PART TWO and the values ​​of the created persona of the target group in the blog C-PHASE PART THREE.

EXPERIENCE-FOCUSED

Reconnect in combination with the platform The Nest wants to create experiences. Each service offered will have its own experience. By creating experiences you arouse positive emotions and you can create something memorable. We want people to participate, that people want to be actively involved and that the services offered create a positive and lasting impression on them.

All services will be a true experience in their own way. The participant is completely immersed in a different environment, a different world. This is done, among other things, by stimulating the senses. The senses will play an important role in almost all services. Especially with the offline services, the focus is on using and experiencing your senses. Almost all offline services will take place in restful places, where only the participants of that specific service will be. Think of quiet places, places in nature for example. The silence that the participants will experience has everything to do with hearing: what do you hear in this silence? Does this silence calm you? Or does this silence make you restless? The natural sounds you will experience during most offline services are a huge part of the overall experience. In addition, feeling is also an important element when we look at the senses. Especially feeling in the sense of yourself and the feelings of others. What do you want and don't want to feel? Do you want physical contact (such as a hug) or not? It has a lot to do with finding your inner peace in combination with daring to feel. The last important sense that could play a role is seeing. What do you see around you? What triggers you? What do you think of when you see this environment? Hearing the sounds of the environment where the service takes place, feeling yourself or other participants, and experiencing the environment by looking, largely determines the experience of these specific offline services.

I used the Activity Realms of Finger as a checklist, to see to what extent The Nest fits these realms. In the middle of this model, there is Sociability. Sociability needs always be there when creating an experience. The experience needs to be ‘fun’, you need to enjoy the experience. Although most of the services that will be offered partly have a serious character, they will all be fun in a certain way. Take for example ‘Soul Mate’: You will meet new people in an informal and fun way through speed dating. The next realm is Movement. Movement doesn't mean you have to move all day, but it does mean you shouldn't sit all day. That will certainly not be the case with most of the services on The Nest, whichever you choose. With the online services, you may move less, but that does not mean that you will sit still all the time. Take the online ‘Yoga Session’ for example, you will certainly move a lot. Next to movement, there is Creativity. This does not mean that you have to paint, neither have to draw, but it does mean that you try new things, be inspired, or being triggered to solve a (difficult) problem. Although all services will definitely stimulate or trigger participants to be creative, there is one service that will mention in particularly: ‘Strengthen your Wings’. This service has a clear link with creativity: you have to use your creativity to solve (social) challenges. Education is the next realm. Education is arguably the most important realm for The Nest that will be reflected in every service. Each service is focused on either personal development or collaborative development. Participants will discover themselves and will learn from themselves, others, and Carlijn. Although Carlijn is not going to teach the participants as a school teacher, she tries to let the participants learn and discover new things by means of various services. Take for example ‘(Y)our Story’, a way to learn from your own process and that from others. The fifth realm is Adventure. Participants will discover themselves and a new way of life, whatever service you will choose. That's an adventure in itself. However, there are also a number of services that really focus on adventure. The Impact Expedition is an existing example of this; people go on an adventure to another country, which determined a big part of the experience. But you will also go on an adventure with the newly created services. Take the ‘Four Season Retreat' for example. You will go on an adventure, together with a group of people, to a place restful place in the Netherlands or abroad. The last realm, Rest, is actually one of the most important realms of Carlijn her services. Rest is an important element in almost all of her services. This rest will be created through for example Yoga, a tool that is used in more services offered (Van Dam, 2018).

It is difficult to determine to what extent The Nest optimally makes use of all realms; it is a concept, a platform, where various smaller concepts are offered. Not all services will therefore include all realms. One service will include more realms than the other. However, all realms are reflected in the different (smaller) concepts.

When I look at my project and the associated process, the first part was not necessarily focused on experiences. I tried to create the sessions as interactively as possible. That is why the sessions took place offline instead of online; in this way, the interaction was more valuable between Carlijn and me. I also believe that sessions like this create a better experience offline; we worked out all input and assignments on the whiteboard, I was able to respond to any questions from Carlijn and I helped her if she got stuck. That is why I think that the offline sessions did create a certain experience, although it was not the main goal. I mainly designed these sessions in a way that would be valuable for Carlijn and that she could use the input for the further creation of her brand and concept.

When I look at the second part of the project, the development of the concept The Nest, I have tried to use the touchpoint model optimally by incorporating Carlijn's mission, vision and values ​​, and the values ​​of the target group into the various services. Each service indicates which Core Elements are central to that service. I have also considered the pre, direct, and post-exposure phase. Possible participants can already participate in the platform before booking a service. In this way you will learn more about Carlijn, the services that are offered and you have the opportunity to get to know other platform members. The direct exposure are the different services that are offered. You can choose both the paid services and free services, you are free to choose whatever suits you. The platform is a place of encounter, where everyone is welcome and everyone can participate in the service they are interested in. Once you have participated in a (paid) service, you can still be a participant on the platform. Through this platform you stay in touch with the people who have done the same service as you, you can share experiences and thoughts with other participants and you have the opportunity to participate in other services. I have chosen to take all these three phases into account because it creates involvement, it evokes positive emotions and leaves a long-lasting impression.

ACTIVE CHECKER

I created two Imagineering Energy Fields: One about my project, so the process. One based on the concept, the engagement platform The Nest. I asked myself: To what extent is this element of ACTIVE reflected? I have used this check as a tool to take another critical look at what I have made. It gives an overview of the status quo at this moment, but at the same time, I or Carlijn could also use it as a starting point for new changes.

The first Imagineering Energy Field is the one about the project and the associated process.

During the process, I looked at what is possible, not what is not possible. I have looked at the existing ingredients, Carlijn her strengths and potential and built on that. That is why I believe that both the project and the accompanying process score high on Appreciative. Co-creative can be seen as an element that still needs improvement. As I mentioned earlier, during this process I mainly focused on Carlijn. Based on the created persona, I designed the concept. However, I have not been in contact with potential stakeholders. Involving stakeholders is of great value for Carlijn, and she does and will involve stakeholders. When I look specifically at my project and the process, co-creativity scores low at the moment. However, if I only looked at the collaboration between me and Carlijn and the design of the project and process, co-creativity will score much higher. Transformative scores higher; I focused during this project on some kind of desired change, I tried to inspire Carlijn to act and think differently by mainly structuring her thoughts, and I designed my approach in such a way that it would hopefully lead to desired, sustainable and valuable changes. I believe I have achieved that. Imaginative scores the lowest, next to the element co-creative. This is because I believe I could have used more creative and imaginative tools. Although I did try to design the sessions in a creative way, it could have been more creative. The concept and the accompanying services that I have tried to create score higher in this respect. Still, I find imaginative the hardest element to rank when you look at my project and the process. I personally believe that I could have focussed more on imagination, especially during the sessions. Values-based, the element that scores the highest. During the entire process, I have taken the values ​​of both Carlijn and the target group as a guiding thread. The sessions are designed according to Carlijn's needs. Ultimately, by responding to her needs, we were able to find out both her values ​​and the values ​​of the target group. Based on those values, I created the concept. That is why I think I can say with certainty that my project and the process scores high on Values-Based. Experience-focused, the last element, scores quite high. When I look at the ACTIVE checker and the questions that are asked to determine whether my project is actually experience-focused, it scores high. During the sessions I actually inspired Carlijn; she has often told me how valuable the sessions have been to her. The session created a long-lasting impression. In addition, I believe that both Carlijn and the creation of the process evoke positive emotions. Maybe the sessions and platform I created ended up being more experience-focused than I previously thought.

The second Imagineering Energy Field is the one about the concept, the engaging platform The Nest.

As you can see, I ranked all the elements quite high. I believe that all elements are clearly visible in The Nest. Co-creative scores the ‘lowest’, but that is because stakeholders are not yet involved in the creation of the first concept. That is why it is now difficult to determine how much influence stakeholders will have on the final creation. However, my first version of the concept is an invitation to start the dialogue and to let stakeholders think about the form, content, and possibilities of the platform. That is also the reason that co-creation still scores high: I assume that stakeholders will ultimately be of great importance in the creation of the final concept. Transformative also does not (yet) score the highest. here too, it is still difficult to determine to what extent the platform and the associated services will create desired changes. However, transformative still scores high because it is one of the main goals of the various services that are offered to stimulate desired, sustainable and valuable changes and to inspire people to think and act differently. Imaginative, same story: scores not the highest at the moment. Nevertheless, I do believe that the first version of the concept is actually imaginative. The entire concept has been created around a metaphor: The Nest. all the different elements of the platform are linked to this metaphor in some way. The platform will speak to the imagination. In creating this concept, I consciously used creativity. In creating the concept, I used the defined values ​​of both Carlijn and the target group. The concept has mainly come about by combining the different values ​​and creating possible value-fits. That is why the values-based element is highly ranked; I clearly show which (shared) values ​​I have used and how the concept can create value for both the participants and Carlijn. In addition to values-based, the experience-focused element is also highly ranked. This has to do with the fact that I have thought about the pre, direct and post-exposure, I have tried to create an inspiring concept that appeals to the target group and incorporated various factors that could evoke positive emotions. The services that Carlijn will offer are focused on creating a long-lasting impression. The last element, appreciative, scores highest. This is because both the sessions and the concept are shaped in an appreciative way. I have continuously looked at what is possible, and not what is not possible. I combined the strengths and potentials of Carlijn and incorporated those strong ingredients that Carlijn already used. Both the sessions and the concept have been created in a way that inspired new perspectives for the future. Positive language has always been used in this.

References

Breda University of Applied Sciences. (n.d.). ACTIVE. Library Guides. Retrieved 24 December 2020, from https://buas.libguides.com/c.php?g=395754&p=4045145

Van Dam, A. (2018). Experience instruments. Retrieved 24 November 2020, from https://vimeo.com/296792833

Van Dam, A. (n.d.). ACTIVE PORTFOLIO. Retrieved 24 December 2020, from https://buas.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=32286686