Case Overview
| Partners |
SMART Fukushi Lab, Nikken Sekkei Ltd., among many others |
|---|---|
| Request | The "mobility challenge" facing regional cities is a complex social issue that goes beyond a mere lack of transportation, intertwining across every field including welfare, education, and logistics. As such, it is difficult for any specific business or government to solve alone, and a unified approach among citizens, companies, and government was essential. However, it is not easy for diverse stakeholders with different positions and interests to sit at the same table and align their pace (co-create) toward concrete actions such as proof-of-concept experiments. We were asked to support the design of the overall process so the project could run and sustain itself, the management of dialogue spaces that do not create adversarial structures, and the "visualization" needed for all stakeholders to share the overall picture of the complex issue. |
| Project overview |
We supported the groundwork for diverse stakeholders—citizens, companies, and government—to co-create in addressing the intricately intertwined "mobility challenges" of a region. Rather than starting from service development, in the "Community Drive Project," which emphasizes "developing people" and "the consensus-building process," ZUKAI provides end-to-end accompaniment from the upstream stages—from the overall project design, to driving it forward as the secretariat, to the planning and operation of workshops, and to the development of the "Mobility Challenge Map" that becomes the common language of dialogue. |
| Period |
July 2024 – |
About This Project
Under the concept of "regional mobility is built by everyone," the "Community Drive Project (CDPJ)" first develops the proactive people (community drivers) who move a region forward, before developing any service. ZUKAI participated alongside its partners: SMART Fukushi Lab (located in Kurobe City, Toyama Prefecture), a general incorporated association that promotes DX in welfare, and Nikken Sekkei Ltd. (located in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo), an organizational design firm engaged in architectural and civil engineering design supervision and urban design. Beyond producing the "visualization of issues" output, we took on the overall project design, the practical work of driving the project forward as the secretariat—such as setting agendas for regular meetings, task management, and information sharing among stakeholders—and the planning and facilitation of dialogue spaces (workshops), supporting the entire co-creation process.
This project has been adopted as a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism mobility human-resource development model project for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 (https://www.mlit.go.jp/sogoseisaku/transport/kyousou/).
For details, please see the website below.
https://cdpj.jp/
1. Overall project design and driving it forward as the secretariat
From the launch phase, we became deeply embedded in the secretariat function, structuring and organizing the project's objectives and roadmap, as well as the role allocation and relationships among the various actors involved in the project. By clarifying the overall process using diagrams and the like, we served as a compass that lets every member involved move forward without losing sight of "what phase we are in now and what we are aiming for," and we adjusted the complex interests and balances unique to a co-creation project.
2. Planning and facilitation of workshops where diverse sectors intersect
In the workshops held multiple times in places such as Kurobe City, Toyama Prefecture, and Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, we handled everything from planning to overall facilitation on the day. We organized and structured the diverse opinions and emotional voices flying around from participants of different positions (residents, government, companies). We prompted realizations such as "so that issue over there and this issue here were connected," and designed dialogue spaces aimed at mutual understanding and consensus-building, rather than adversarial structures like "government vs. residents."
3. Development of the "Mobility Challenge Map" and other common languages for dialogue
We analyzed the several hundred or more voices gathered through workshops and online surveys (Liqlid and Honne POST), making use of AI as well. We unraveled the true issues behind those surface-level challenges, and visualized them as a single diagram, the "Mobility Challenge Map," connecting cause-and-effect relationships and the negative cycles (loops) in which issues deepen one another with arrows.
Having this challenge map made it possible to form a shared understanding that the issues of each position are in fact connected, and that issues cannot be solved unless people unite across their positions. As a next step, it was also used so that, based on this shared understanding of the issues, residents themselves could plan and carry out which issues to take action on.
The Project's Results and What Lies Ahead
Through careful process design, the operation of dialogue spaces, and the visualized challenge map, we have created conditions in which the people involved can more easily regard the project as their own concern. Among the local residents who saw the map, people who realized "there are things we can do too" and act proactively (community drivers) emerged one after another. In Kurobe City, micro-projects (small proof-of-concept experiments) planned and carried out by residents themselves, such as the "Operation Escape from Ride Aversion" and "Mutual-Aid Transport," have actually gotten underway.
Through visualizing issues with diagrams and designing processes involving diverse actors, we create "a new gateway to social participation." This project is one form of that practice. We will shape this mechanism into a sustainable form, build a structure with an eye toward rolling it out nationwide, and advance further social implementation.
