Discovery
To begin the Discovery phase, the team engaged in a icebreaker activity, where they came to know each other, and areas of commonality. They discovered that the group was exceptionally diverse, but that they had a mutual interest in arts education. That subject became a focal point for further exploration.
Context Mapping
Context mapping is designed to help the team form a shared contextual understanding of the central question and bring out areas of expertise and passion to determine the team’s unique personal take on the central question.
During the Context Mapping activity, the team looked at trends affecting the performing arts. The team recognized that there are disparities between the experiences of differing socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Since art is hard to quantify, schools defund the arts when times get tough, and artists struggle to make a livable wage. While there are new ways to spread the arts technologically, and donors are tapped to support nonprofit arts organizations, performers need a support community in order to stay sustainable. Finally, access to arts spaces is limited, and even sometimes made inaccessible to socially diverse groups.
Below is Team 3’s Context Map: (click to zoom in)
Sense Making
During the Sense Making stage, the team captures insights from the Context Map and identifies patterns. During this 15 minute time, the facilitator captured and identified these patterns using the Context Map. Sometimes ideas move from a laughable idea (“Ha Ha”) to a discovery (“Ah Ha!”) to a resolution (“Ahh”).
