In Service of Social Capital

Design for serendipity.

Picture taken at Science World, Vancouver, Canada.

Preface by Marzia Aricò

I have known Clara for many years. Together we have tackled some of the most interesting transformation programs I have worked on in my career. Today, Clara is the Academic Director of IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid. She is also working on her PhD at the University of the Arts London, investigating the role of service design in contributing to an organisational shift from human capital to social capital strategies.

I’m a big advocate of seeing social structures as one of the design materials. That’s exactly what she is exploring with her PhD, as she shares in the piece:

“I believe we need to start seeing the social structures we're embedded in as the raw material for our designs. We need to understand these structures better to make our designs truly impactful.”

I pushed her to abandon the academic jargon for once and write an accessible piece for this blog. I think she did an outstanding job. I think you’ll find this piece really useful.

Before we start, please consider subscribing to this blog as a free or paid subscriber. If you opt for the paid subscription, you’ll get to join the Design Mackericks community and attend June’s webinar, which will be on Journey Frameworks. Harriet Wakelam, Executive Design Director at DBS Bank, will share her experience in applying the AVOC framework within their context. I cannot wait to listen to her story!

In Service of Social Capital

by Clara Llamas

In the past couple of decades, service design has moved beyond just crafting individual services to tackling the intricate web of organisations that deliver them. This shift has big implications for us as practitioners. We're diving deeper into the messy world of human interactions and social structures that shape service systems.

Nowadays, we're not just dealing with the tangible aspects of services; we're also wrestling with the intangible social dynamics behind them. But even though we're pretty good at visualising these intangibles, like stakeholder relationships and user journeys, we still struggle to connect them back to the concrete products or services organisations focus on.

In the business world, there's been a recent trend of bringing design expertise in-house, but it seems like this trend might be slowing down. Regardless of whether we're working in-house or for design firms, we're all striving to be agents of change within complex organisations. We're pushing for human-centred and collaborative approaches, while also keeping an eye on the bigger picture of organisational transformation.

I believe we need to start seeing the social structures we're embedded in as the raw material for our designs. We need to understand these structures better to make our designs truly impactful. That's where the concept of social capital comes in.

Social capital is all about the value of social networks and the goodwill between people. It's like the currency of relationships. By tapping into social capital, we can better understand the dynamics within organisations and communities, and use that understanding to inform our design decisions.

So, how do we do this? We can start by looking at the different levels where social capital exists, like individual relationships, informal groups, or formal organisations. Then, we can use tools like stakeholder mapping to identify where social capital is strongest and where it needs to be nurtured.

Understanding the different types of social capital, like bonding or bridging, can also give us valuable insights into how relationships function within a social setting. By leveraging social capital as a design material, we can create more meaningful and impactful service experiences for everyone involved.

Structural types and network types provide two different descriptions of the elements of social capital.

Structural Types

Refer to the underlying patterns of social organisation and interaction within a community or society.

Structural: Social structure
The structural dimension of social capital relates to the properties of the social system, and the various forms of social organisation that make up society. It facilitates collective action by making peoples’ behaviour more predictable and beneficial. This encourages collaboration.

• Network ties and configuration.

• Roles, rules, precedents, and procedures.

Cognitive: Shared understandings
The cognitive dimension of social capital includes shared norms, values, attitudes, and beliefs within a social setting, guiding appropriate behaviour, fostering collective action, and providing a framework of common understandings.

• Shared language, codes, and narratives.

• Shared values, attitudes, and beliefs.

• Shared goals, purpose, and vision.

Relational: Nature and quality of relations
The relational dimension of social capital concerns the personal relationships forged through interactions, involving the creation and leverage of assets, resource exchange, and key factors such as trust, norms, obligations, and identity. 

• Trust and trustworthiness.

• Norms and sanctions.

• Obligations and expectations.

• Identity and identification.

Network types

Refer to the different configurations of social relationships within a community or society.

Bonding

• Horizontal ties between individuals within a group.

• Associated with local communities where many know many within the same group.

• Strong norms, mores, and trust. 

• Members have access to similar networks. 

• Provides more solidarity but might be less useful in some situations.

Bridging

• Ties between individuals that cross social divides or groups. 

• Actors at ‘structural holes’ where each can tap into the social network resources of each other's social group.

• Operates through formal hierarchical structures. 

• May or may not involve many shared norms. 

• Likely associated with reciprocity and ‘thin trust’.

• May provide access to network resources outside of an individual's normal circles for benefit.

Linking

• Similar to bridging social capital. 

• ‘Norms of respect and networks of trusting relationships between people who are interacting across explicit, formal, or institutionalised power or authority gradients in society’.

In summary, by understanding social capital's structural and network perspectives, service designers can develop more effective tools and interventions to explore organisational and design issues. By focusing on different types of social capital and the relationships they describe, designers can gain new insights and ask different questions in their research. This could lead to a richer understanding of the social challenges of designing services.

Let's dive into some real-life examples to illustrate these concepts.

Examples

Case 01: Organisation Redesign
Imagine a design researcher working in a large bank, aiming to improve retail banking client experiences by fostering collaboration across departments. Applying social capital types, designers can analyse the relationships within and between departments. This helps them understand the social structures underlying the organisation's systems. Using a network perspective, they can uncover specific types of relationships, like bonding or bridging, which inform their design decisions.

Case 02: Capability-Building Project
A service design consultant is tasked with introducing a process improvement team in a large university. They want to ensure collaboration across schools for process optimisation. By examining social capital within the university, they can identify key actors, networks, and social structures. This insight guides them in designing interventions to support the new process improvement unit.

Case 03: Employee Onboarding
In an employee onboarding project, the focus is often solely on the individual experience. However, by considering social capital, designers can uncover valuable patterns and relationships among employees. This might include shared values, trust, or common goals. By using social capital as a lens, designers can create more effective onboarding experiences that foster connections and collaboration among employees.

These cases highlight how understanding social capital can enhance service design outcomes and lead to more impactful interventions. If you have any thoughts or experiences to share, please do! Your insights can contribute to ongoing research in this area.