Perfectly Awful
Sometimes our best laid plans turn out…well, perfectly awful. But, what can we learn from the “perfectly awful”?
Let’s say you know what your goal is (ending police violence, supporting young people aging out of foster care, making public art more accessible to all…whatever your case may be); now, choose a “Perfectly Awful” exercise to work on alone or (preferably) with your team:
Perfectly Awful Exercise #1:
Imagine a group that is trying to accomplish the same thing you are but in perfectly awful ways. What is their perfectly awful intervention into the problem?
Write about it, draw it, or pretend that you are a newscaster covering it.
If you’re working in small groups, have teams share with each other.
Perfectly Awful Exercise #2:
Imagine a group that is trying to do exactly the opposite of what you’re doing! (Increase hunger, reduce access to college, etc.) Design an intervention for them that is extremely successful— perfectly awful, indeed!
Write about it, draw it, or pretend that you are a newscaster covering it.
If you’re working in small groups, have teams share with each other.
Debrief Questions:
What did it feel like to design something perfectly awful?
Did aiming for bad instead of good free up anything for your group?
Think about the specifics that each group shared: what made something feel “perfectly awful”? What was the moment that made you cringe or laugh out loud? Sensing these things–and paying attention to our senese–can help us understand the element of our ideas that really work (or don’t).
Did you have any ideas along the way that you want to hang onto for your actual intervention design?
Did you encounter similarities between your design and “the awful” that might lead you to interrogate your own ideas?
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