On Internal Communication Day , we spoke with Sebastián Castiñeira , professor of Organizational Care Design in the Master's Program in Communication for Change Management , about a question that runs through the subject's proposal: what does it mean to care within an organization?
For Castiñeira, care is not a task added to management, but an inherent dimension of people who inhabit a world with others. Drawing on Heidegger's concept of Sorge , the subject proposes thinking of care as something that is always present and, therefore, can also be designed: "it is created, it is recreated."
One of the first exercises involves mapping the network of relationships within each organization. This is not simply about identifying audiences or stakeholders, but about making visible the specific relationships that shape everyday experience.
It allows us to recognize connections that often go unnoticed or unseen. “You are recognizing it and, therefore, you are making it conscious, communicating it, and regenerating it,” Castiñeira explains.
From there, the philosophical framework allows us to ask what these relationships are like. Following Buber and his distinction between I-Thou and I-It , care can also be understood in the way we recognize the other: "Is it a relationship in which time is given, in which there is listening, in which a face appears, or a relationship that reduces the other to an instrument, to a function?"
The next step involves going beyond the symptom. Drawing on Bourdieu, Morin, and the concept of habitus , the proposal seeks to recognize implicit patterns and rules that underpin certain situations within organizations.
In dialogue with Donella Meadows' thinking, the concept of the leverage point emerges : identifying which element of a structure can mobilize others. For Castiñeira, understanding this difference is central: "The leverage point is not the solution. The leverage point is what needs to be moved."
The intervention thus begins before designing a response. It involves understanding what sustains a situation and where a movement capable of opening new possibilities for transformation can occur.
Change is not a solution that is simply applied to an organization. Building on Ezio Manzini's work on participatory design, the course incorporates the logic of co-design: "You are not the one who has to apply a solution; you have to convene your assembly." It thus assumes a facilitator role, creating the conditions for those involved in a situation to participate in its transformation.
This process introduces generative devices developed by Elizabeth Sanders, which aim to bring forth possibilities that don't always emerge through rational conversation. Collage, role-playing , and other dynamics allow for the exploration of what lies beyond immediate consciousness. The goal is to move from thinking about a solution to creating, experimenting, and iterating with others.
In five weeks, the course itself put this logic into practice. Each class was, in Sebastián's words, "the testing of a prototype that we had to co-create and iterate over and over again." The generative device then ceased to be just a tool and became the experience itself: "our Generative Device was the course itself." The proposal was built through experimentation, exchange, and constant revision.
From the EPC perspective, this approach broadens the understanding of internal communication as a field of study and intervention: working on communication also involves understanding the relationships and practices that shape organizational life.
As a final reflection, Castiñeira summarized the experience: “The care I received was also a wound… A wound of beauty that happily remains open to continue healing and reaffirms my belief in the wonder of this vocation.”
