From Diagnosis to Collective Action
Τι είναι
A participatory methodology for turning an equity audit into real, student-led change. Most diagnoses end with a report that names problems but changes little. This method — Mondragon University's "Living Evidence Cycle" — deliberately connects diagnosis and action, so every prototype grows out of evidence the community itself gathered.
Its guiding idea is simple: evidence should not remain as knowledge; evidence should become collective action.
Πότε να τη χρησιμοποιήσετε
- You have carried out an equity audit or diagnosis and don’t want it to stop at a report.
- You want solutions grounded in evidence, not in assumptions or open-ended brainstorming.
- You want students to own the change, with staff facilitating rather than directing.
Πώς να την εφαρμόσετε
The Living Evidence Cycle — four connected phases that carry evidence all the way to owned prototypes.
- Research
Seeing
Students become researchers, surfacing the structural inequalities that usually stay invisible: who speaks, who cares for the group, whose body feels represented, which spaces feel safe.
Παράγετε- A shared understanding of the institution
- Reframe
Naming
Turn each observation into a collective design challenge — "How might we…?" — so solutions answer evidence, not assumptions.
Παράγετε- Design challenges from real evidence
- Generate
Collective birthgiving
Generate ideas individually first (to flatten hierarchy), then let ideas rotate and grow as others improve them — moving from "my idea" to "our idea".
Παράγετε- Ideas enriched by the whole group
- Prototype
Horizontal prototyping
Prioritise ideas by impact, feasibility and ownership; a volunteer "Commitment Tandem" carries each chosen prototype forward.
Παράγετε- Prototypes, each owned by a tandem
The bridge from an audit to prototypes. Run it after a diagnosis; it feeds naturally into your living lab and action plans.
- Living Labs Guidelines — the lab this cycle runs inside
- Social Innovation Hackathon — a faster way to prototype a single challenge
- Action & Sustainability Plans — to sustain the prototypes a tandem owns
Living Evidence Canvas
Use this canvas to carry evidence from your audit all the way to owned prototypes. Print it at A3, or fill it in together.
Evidence from your audit
The key findings from your diagnosis — what did the evidence show?
Seeing
Who speaks, who cares for the group, who feels represented, which spaces feel safe?
Naming
Reframe each finding as a design challenge — "How might we…?"
Individual ideas
Ideas generated alone first, before group dynamics.
Collective enrichment
How ideas were improved as they rotated around the group.
Prioritise
Chosen by impact, feasibility, ownership and sustainability.
Prototypes
The solutions that will be built and tested.
Commitment Tandems
The small volunteer team that owns each prototype.
Facilitator’s role
How staff support as facilitators, not experts — asking, not directing.
Πώς να συντονίσετε μια συνεδρία
A guide to running the Living Evidence Cycle — turning audit findings into student-owned prototypes across a few sessions.
1 Προετοιμασία
- Start from a completed equity audit or diagnosis, and gather its key findings.
- Invite the students who did the diagnosis, plus staff willing to facilitate (about 5–15).
- Plan for several sessions — the cycle unfolds over days, not one workshop.
- Agree that staff join as facilitators — asking questions, not directing decisions.
2 Διεξαγωγή
- 20 minSeeing — revisit the evidence together; make sure everyone shares the picture.
- 25 minNaming — reframe each finding as a "How might we…?" design challenge.
- 20 minIndividual ideas — everyone generates ideas alone first, to flatten hierarchy.
- 30 minCollective enrichment — rotate ideas so others improve them, add risks and perspectives.
- 20 minPrioritise — choose prototypes by impact, feasibility, ownership and sustainability.
- 15 minTandems — form a volunteer Commitment Tandem to own each prototype.
3 Παρακολούθηση
- Give each tandem what it needs: a way to meet, gather information, test, involve stakeholders and document progress.
- Keep every prototype traceable to the evidence it answers.
- Check in with the tandems regularly and share progress.
- Fold the prototypes that work into your action and sustainability plans.
4 Διαδικτυακά
- Keep the evidence and the "How might we…?" challenges on a shared board.
- Generate ideas individually in silence first, then enrich them together on the same board.
- Use breakout rooms for the tandems and quick polls to prioritise.
- Prefer privacy-respecting tools, and keep the board as the tandems’ shared workspace.
Παράδειγμα υλοποίησης από το έργο Labs4Change
At Mondragon University, first- and second-year LEINN students ran an Equity Mapping process through an intersectional, feminist lens — looking at participation, leadership, care, accessibility, power and the use of space. Instead of ending with recommendations, they turned each challenge into a design opportunity using the "Living Evidence Cycle" (Seeing → Naming → Collective Birthgiving → Horizontal Prototyping). Eight solutions emerged and five became prototypes — an Inclusive Space, a Roles Wheel, Feminist Indicators, an Inclusive Dictionary, a Catalogue of Women Entrepreneurs and a Menstrual Rights Kit — each adopted by a volunteer "Commitment Tandem" that carried it forward. Educators joined as facilitators rather than experts, flattening the usual power dynamic between staff and students.
Success is when every prototype can be traced back to evidence from the audit, and students implement solutions with — not just for — the university, taking on real institutional responsibility.
Εξερευνήσατε τους πόρους του Labs4Change; Μοιραστείτε τα σχόλιά σας
Οι πρώτες σας εντυπώσεις θα μας βοηθήσουν να βελτιώσουμε την πλατφόρμα, το Toolkit και άλλα αποτελέσματα του έργου, και να τα κάνουμε πιο χρήσιμα και προσβάσιμα για μελλοντικούς χρήστες.
Πόροι και αναφορές
- Reference CHESS Action Manual — Change Hubs for Ecosystemic Social Solutions (2025) On evidence-based, collective social innovation.