GOBRADIME
Another way to organize the Design Process
(Adapted by Kendy Radasky from Heather Flores’ book, Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community)
“GOBRADIME is a formula for the design, development, implementation, and perpetual maintenance of any project, small or large. Whether you use it exactly as is or sculpt it to fit your needs, this systematic process helps you cover all the bases and stay organized while putting your dreams into action. It works at any scale – for organizing a closet, installing a small garden, developing a whole site, or organizing a bioregional resource alliance.”
This is not a linear process… it’s a spiral, or a fractal, or both. Keep coming back around through the steps, and your design will become more and more refined. The steps are listed in linear order below but, in practice, designers almost always circulate through the steps in a non-linear manner
- Goals
- Observation/Objectives
- Boundaries
- Resources
- Analysis
- Design
- Implementation
- Maintenance/Monitoring/Marketing
- Evaluation/Enjoyment
Step 1: Goals
What do you need? What do you want to accomplish and why? What outcomes would you like from your work? Are these goals personal or collective? Write down a list of goals and prioritize them. Make sure your goals are measurable. Consider: diversity, accessibility, abundance…
Step 2: Observation/Objectives
Look around you. Notice patterns (natural, personal, social, etc.). Look back at your list of goals and compare it to your observations. Now look again for patterns that relate directly to your goals. Note things that will help you develop pointed objectives to meet your goals. Is anyone else already doing something similar – what can you learn from them? If you achieve your goals, notice who/what will benefit, and where some problems or challenges might be.
Step 3: Boundaries
Locate and establish boundaries – edges, beginnings/endings. Property lines, energy flows, personal limits, legal issues, economic limits… Try to forsee barriers. If designing a space, draw up a base map. If creating a social/community project, consider cultural and personal boundaries. Set clear, realistic boundaries and communicate them to yourself and any group you may be working with.
Step 4: Resources
Look for what you need, and learn to need what you have. Glance back at your observations, and note what resources you have on-site – biological resources, waste/surplus materials, shared resources, and possible sources for others. If you cannot locate all the resources you’ll need at the start, consider accumulating them over time, and phasing them into your project as needed
Step 5: Analysis
Pull everything together and start to synthesize (on both a theoretical and practical basis). Several options for analysis include: 1) read through everything and brainstorm a list of tasks and projects; 2) Zone and Sector analysis; 3) Input-Output analysis (look for overlaps between elements/projects. Ask questions like: A) What are the yields and how can they be improved?; B) Where are the imbalances and how can they be corrected?; C) What work can we avoid doing?; D) What are the best and worst places for everything?… You’ll likely end up refining/reformulating some of your goals at this point.
Step 6: Design
Create a multiple-phase design. Consider timelines, task assessments, and prioritization. Go through your base maps, map layers, and lists, and boil them down to discrete tasks that can be accomplished in succession over time. Document it all, so you can go back and see how you’re doing later.
Step 7: Implementation
This is the time to stop writing and planning, and start DOING. Post your maps and lists in a central location and refer to them often as you begin your work. Take a few notes as you go to assist in later evaluation. Pace yourself – don’t get consumed or burn-out! This step includes delegation – don’t take it all on yourself if you can get help. Consider ideas that come up during the work that might alter your plans/actions, and integrate those that feel right.
Step 8: Maintenance/Monitoring/Marketing
Find and record successes and problems with the design as you implement the project, so you can work them into the refined design the next time around. Keep notes for yourself – some people like to develop detailed forms to keep track of things, and others just jot things down here and there – whatever works for you or your group. The more data you have about your project’s successes and failures, the better you will be able to gain support for it (i.e. grant funding, media support, etc.).
Step 9: Evaluation/Enjoyment
After you have identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges, evaluate your progress. “Evaluation is key to a sustainable and realistically evolving plan, and it is of the utmost importance that we each set aside enough time to effectively and productively evaluate our work against our original goals and against the ethics and ideals we have chosen.” As you evaluate, you will naturally feed back into step one of the GOBRADIME process – you’ll discover new goals and ideas, resources and boundaries…