Training, development, and innovation - For a poetics of deviation

Abstract

Considering, as main reference, Donald Schön’s proposal (1983, 1987) on reflective professionals’ training, and on action competencies development adjusted to solving problems in dynamic and uncertain contexts and volatile circumstances, we intend, in this letter, to resume the reflection on system thinking, considering that its singular design, by the non-standard nature that characterizes it, constitutes the foundation of innovation and development processes. Taking into account the difficulties that resistance to change necessarily brings to the training processes, we also reconvene, on the thread of history, the concept of deviation, by means of an epistemic and (multi)referential examination of the importance of divergence, in its contours, contributions and boundaries, as a vital way to refresh and reinvent perceptions, knowledge and meanings. We highlight the possibility of choice within decision-making processes, understanding it not only as a means to escape from mimetic repetition, but also as an outlet to the uncertain, the unpredictable, and the novel. That is, we intend to reflect on the nature of the creative act as poiesis, in its deep and seductive relation with the creator’s emancipation, the ethics underlying a compromise with human values, the aesthetics of adventure, and the appeal of the open work.