What are the main methodological principles of the Change Laboratory

Principles of CHAT and DWR

In designing and implementing the methodology, the research team drew on the principles, concepts and tools of CHAT and DWR activity theory. Engestro¨m (2001) describes the five principles that underpin activity theory.

The activity system, seen in its relationships to networks of other systems, is the unit of analysis. The activity is collective, oriented towards an “object” and mediated (e.g. by rules or cultural norms).

Multivoicedness. An activity system is always a community of many points of view, traditions and interests, both individual and collective. This multivoicedness is amplified in networks of interacting systems.

An activity system is the result of historical evolution. What happens now can only be fully understood against its own history.

Contradictions are the basis of development. Contradictions are not problems or conflicts, but deeply embedded structural tensions between elements of the system.Problems or conflicts signify the presence of contradictions.

The possibility of expansive transformation or expansive learning is always there. Such journeys towards whole new sets of objects and purpose are shared and deliberate.

Expansive, or developmental, transformations in the activity system can be stimulated through the cycle of expansive learning.

The cycle of expansive learning
The cycle of expansive learning is based on a cultural-historical analysis of the system (Engestro¨m, 1987). Research on the apple industry corresponded with the stages of the cycle described below (adapted from Engestro¨m et al., 1996; and see also Engestrom et al., 1995, pp. 12-13):
(1) Questioning. Criticising aspects of accepted practice and existing knowledge.
(2) Analysing the situation. In discussion, by thinking or in practice. Two types of analysis are used:. historical: seeks to explain the situation by tracing its origin and evolution using similar techniques to those used in anthropology (e.g. ethnography); and actual-empirical: seeks to explain the current problematic situation by constructing a picture of its inner relationships.
(3) Modelling the newly-found explanatory relationship. Constructing an explicit, simplified model of the new idea that explains, and offers a solution to, the
situation.
(4) Examining the model. Operating, running and experimenting on the model in order to fully grasp its dynamics, potentials and limitations.
(5) Implementing the new model. Making the model concrete, by means of practical applications (e.g. pilots).
(6) Reflecting on the process and consolidating the practice. Evaluating the new model and the process, and consolidating the new practices into a new stable form of activity.

(From Hill et al. 2007)

Is the Change Laboratory a consultancy? If not, what is the difference?

In a recent discussion between academics in the XMCA discussion list (xmca Digest, Vol 64, Issue 14), there was a question to Professor Yrjo Engeström about the difference between Change Laboratory and consultancy. His answer was:

A brief response to Steve Gabosch:

Business management consulting is a rather big for-profit industry.  Some of its basic characteristics are: (a) consultants do it to make  profit, (b) they produce their analyses and recommendations for  management, not for the entire working community of a client  organization to share, (c) the analyses and recommendations are  proprietary and confidential, they are typically not published, (d)  the methods and procedures used by the consultants are not subject to  critical peer review.

Every project I undertake to study an organization, including projects  which use the Change Laboratory as their method, follows a set of  entirely different principles, namely: (a) it is not conducted to make  profit; when the target organization agrees to fund some part of a  project, it does so by entering into a research contract with my  university, and the money received (besides the overhead) is spent on  the salaries of members of my research group, typically doctoral  students and postdocs, (b) the knowledge we produce in a project is  made available to the entire working community of the organization,  usually with special emphasis on trade union representation in the
monitoring of the project, (c) the analyses and findings are  published, preferably in peer-reviewed journals and books but also in  more popular publications, (d) our methods and procedures are made  explicit, published, and subject to critical peer review.

Cheers,

Yrjö Engeström