Every time the HEAT Method is carried out, it is possible to learn from the experience. Each major iteration is recorded here with the key learnings.
Iteration 1: “Living Lab”
Chosen themes from the Living Lab experiences in the author’s family are presented here, structured along the lines of the HEAT Method: Living Lab .
- Mobility and Travel
- Local, seasonal food
- Reducing waste and avoiding packaging
- Heat and power – energy consumption in the household.
In the Living Lab, various interventions impacting global warming have been experimented with in the last few years. These interventions have been successful in keeping the family motivated concerning global warming, despite the rather depressing lack of progress in society at large.
In the Living Lab, trying to keep engaged and doing our part, the family had intuitively always developed a positive future vision, taken action, even if the first steps were very small, and told others what they were doing. This is the kernel of the HEAT Method.
In other words, this was Iteration 1 of the HEAT Method, before it had a name.
The HEAT Method – Iteration 2: “Prototyping”
At some point, an article by Raz Godelnik 95 gave inspiration. It suggested the use of a design method to tackle apathy. The article led to research of adaptive challenges (Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges) and the spheres of transformation (The Three Spheres of Transformation), and led to the realisation that the search for a technical solution to a technical problem was insufficient, since global warming is an adaptive challenge! Also, far more emphasis on the emotional and psychological aspects was required.
The need for a positive future state based on hope came partly from the Living Lab reflections and partly from personal experience in change programmes (Making Change Happen – Actions, not just Words). The basic ideas from the article, extended and reframed, led to the HEAT Method (in short: Hope, Evaluate, Act, Tell, see §5).
Why is a design method an interesting approach for tackling this particular strategic design challenge? The American psychologist and sociologist Herbert Simon originally defined “design” as follows in a seminal book called “Sciences of the artificial” in 1970, which is now in its Third Edition 96, p. 111:
“Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.”
By this definition, the HEAT Method is a design method with the goal of “changing existing situations” (global warming crisis) “into preferred ones” (a future state where the worst side-effects of the climate crisis have been avoided). Initially, the method was deliberately scoped for use by individuals and households in Switzerland.
The intention was to empower the development of a personal positive future state vision, constructive “courses of action” and an accompanying narrative, focused on self-responsibility.
The choice of the acronym “HEAT” is of course deliberate!
The HEAT Method – Iteration 3: “Thesis”
Iteration 3 was the basis for the Thesis description. It was updated after prototyping. The key learnings are recorded in Appendix A of the Thesis.
The HEAT Method – Iteration 4: “First Group Workshop”
The opportunity of carrying out a HEAT Workshop at the ECO ART LAB (part of the NEA Summer School in Zurich in August 2020) was an ideal opportunity to try out the HEAT Method with groups. It was also the impulse finally to set up this website (there was not sufficient time to do this during the MAS itself).
The key learnings from this experience were as follows:
- Although I took the opportunity when presenting the background of the HEAT method to the participants to ask them to prepare for the workshop in advance, only very few actually did this: the preparation step should therefore be incorporated into the workshop proper
- There were technical issues with the website, caused by an ISP migration just hours before the workshop, that meant that the website could not be used fully on the day beforehand
- The workshop location had limited Internet and no presentation facilities, meaning that it was necessary to produce paper-based materials for use during the actual workshop
- The amount of time available was too short to allow the groups to spend enough time to reflect. When groups are involved, the HEAT Method really needs a half day
- In fact, it could even be interesting to extend the workshop with inputs from experts about the various topic areas, so that the groups could produce better future visions.
As a follow up after the ECO ART LAB workshop, this website has been extended to incorporate information and materials for the workshop moderator in addition to the material for workshop participants.