Designing a Change Laboratory outline plan

Abstract

This technical report considers the process of designing an outline plan for a Change Laboratory research-intervention. It presents a table that can be used as the basis for producing such a plan and discusses the kind of design process that might occur, using the table, in the initial stages of the project. The technical report assumes that the research designer is a relative novice in using the Change Laboratory methodology and thus addresses some common issues and misconceptions that arise as research designers attempt to engage with the approach for the first time. Correspondingly, it assumes that the project is of a scale that can be carried out over a medium timespan (months, not years). The author bases much of the text on their experiences in supervising doctoral students undertaking Change Laboratory PhD projects: often studying part-time at a distance while working and situating their workplace as the research site.