By Leyla Acaroglu
The UnSchool of Disruptive Design turns 9 years old this week! What an immense pleasure it’s been to create and share this experimental knowledge lab with tens of thousands of people from around the world over the last 9 years.
As I tend to do every time this birthday creeps up (which is incidentally a few days before my own birthday!), I’m reflecting on the experience of building something from scratch — something that is about connection, collaboration and capacity-building — and since everything is better in 3s, allow me to share some of my reflections from building the UnSchool in 3 Acts, which incidentally are also 3 F’s*: Fellowships, Farming, and Future
*These 3 F’s are way different and better than the 3 F’s that limit change, which you may have thought of if you’ve been following my work for a while!
Act 1, Years 1-3: Fellowships
Born of the idea that there were other people out there who wanted to use creativity to change the world around them, I started to build community in whatever way I could. We started with a packed launch party at the old AIGA offices on 23rd Ave in New York City on the 5th September 2014, and it was my first taste of what experience curation could do. We presented a mish-mash of project ideas and got busy experimenting with the local purpose-driven creative community to test out ideas for the foundations of the UnSchool.
The first fellowship in NYC
Over the next 3 years, we ran many experimental in-person activities to connect, build and enhance the capacity of those who were seeking more meaning in the world. We partnered with the Centre for Social Innovation in New York, and for months I ran lunchtime workshops to test out the different topics and core content that would go into the Disruptive Design Methodology set. It was not long after we launched that I decided to run the first Fellowship program in New York, which was one of the most exciting and exhausting experiences I’ve ever had! Then came many more Fellowships, each being curated by a Fellow from the last. From New York we went to Mexico City then São Paulo, Melbourne and San Francisco, Christchurch, Cape Town and Kuching.
Our last fellowship in Kuching
Highlights from this period were the Park Demolition Tea Party, Drink and Design Nights, Designercise and Secret Dinner Parties in random locations like construction sites around NYC, yellow school buses, and many boat rides! The first Fellowship in NYC was what really gave me the motivation and conviction to push through the inevitable challenges with an unfunded start-up.
Act 2, Years 3-6: Farming
The in-person experiences popping up around the world were elating, but being someone who always wants to challenge myself and wanting to increase the space for curating and learning led me to purchase an abandoned farm in rural Portugal to set about designing a HQ for our programs that would be nature-immersive. We spent just over 3 years restoring the incredible space that was the CO Project Farm, and hundreds of people came to workshops and programs there. It was also an extremely complex project to manage and filled with accidental learnings and deeply memorable moments (stories for another time!).
The community building was enhanced by our monthly donation-based open-day lunches, where the first Sunday of every month we opened our doors, picked the organic produce and collaboratively cooked a massive vegetarian meal together. I learned so much from everyone who came and contributed to that beautiful system, and despite us having to let go of the farm in a very difficult decision during Covid, I treasure all that was built, shared and learned there.
Collecting veg on the farm
Highlights from this period were summer camps, star gazing, nature immersions, bountiful tomatoes, donkeys and failed kickstarters. There is always something to be learned and gained from every experience, even the ones that seem so hard and complex at the time. I know the farm was a very enriching experience for everyone who came there, and I am eternally grateful to everyone who contributed and energized that incredible space.
Act 3, Years 6-9: Future
Covid was a disruption for everyone; for us, we had the benefit of having already built out an extensive online learning system in 2016 to cater to the growing need for capacity-building around systems, sustainability and design for positive impact. So when the shutdowns started and we had to postpone all our programs, refund everyone and scramble to stay afloat, being able to build and offer more accessible and hopefully agency-activating content online was what kept us going through that complex time.
Like everyone in this period, we had to make difficult decisions and find creative ways of connecting in a time when the only ways to safely connect were online. For an experimental knowledge lab that was about interactive and imersive experiences, it was definitely a shock to go from being actively curating and connecting with hundreds of community members a month to zero.
Emma and I with our cookbook (after we were able to be in person again!)
Emma and I wrote a cookbook called Hero Veg based on all the times we and the team had made food for groups of people around the world (The UnSchool has a really strong food philosophy where we only do local, low-waste, healthy vegetable-centric food that is designed to be delightful). We also built an UnSchool community app as a way of trying to find connections amongst the isolation (which we sunsetted last month).
The UnSchool App (now sunsetted)
This third act did change the nature of the UnSchool in many ways, as we ran many online immersive programs with incredible groups of people from around the world. I actually found this model was a great way for people who would otherwise not be able to come to an in-person program due to family commitments, finances, etc. a really great outcome of this swap from mostly in-person with a little online, to all online.
Memorable moments from this period include building incredible online communities, finding ways to learn together despite the enforced separation, and building an app, despite how hard that is to do. Adaptation and acceptance are two words that I think of when I recall the experiences of this time.
What's next?
My birthday post from our 5th birthday
On our 5th birthday, I wrote an article saying that I wanted the UnSchool to be obsolete by its 10th birthday. I hoped that we would have seen systems thinking and sustainability be integrated into schools and programs, being normalized as a practice, and to have seeded the role of a creative change-maker in the world. I also think that all things have a natural expiration, but will that be the case in 12 months time? Let’s see. I am always hopeful that change is right around the corner, and that we can all contribute to shifting the status quo to design a future that works better for all of us.
We also started a new online learning platform called Swivel Skills, which is filling the sustainability skills gap for professionals and companies (along with taking up all our tiny but mighty team’s time). Whereas the UnSchool online learning supports individuals that are passionate about building their change-maker and leadership capacity, Swivel Skills courses are about equipping teams and entire businesses with the practical skills needed to bring about a sustainable, climate-positive and circular economy.
Having worked on many curriculums to make change around the world, I’m also very passionate about creating the content that can be used in schools and universities that will enable the transition, so maybe when the UnSchool turns 10 it can give away content to the educational community!? At least I have a year to see what “obsolete” looks like for the UnSchool in 2024.
One thing is for sure, I’ve unlearned a lot of unforgettable things from creating the UnSchool, the CO Project Farm and all the projects and initiatives we have spun out, like the UNEP collaboration that created the Anatomy of Action and many other free resources we have created along the way.
To everyone who has been involved in this journey in big and small ways, a big thank you. Life is a learned experience; we all have things we need to unlearn and redesign, and I’m very humbled to have a career and community that helps make that happen.
Happy 9th Birthday UnSchool!
Love,
Leyla
