The Ethical-Political Project

Translating a Professional Ideology into Practice for Social Work Leadership in Puerto Rico​

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The tension

The central organization of social workers in Puerto Rico was grappling with a central challenge. Their political and ethical professional project was widely discussed and deeply valued, but it remained largely abstract. It lived in presentations and conversations, but did not translate easily into practice. Leaders and educators struggled to communicate it in ways that practitioners could apply. The result was a shared ideology that lacked structure for action, what participants described as a vision without a way of “walking the talk.”

MY ROLE

I was brought not simply to design activities, but to work alongside leadership in rethinking how this project could be understood, experienced, and enacted across the organization. The participants included practitioners, regional leaders, and coordinators responsible for outreach and professional development across an association of approximately 8,000 members.

• The work began by identifying where abstraction was preventing engagement. Instead of treating the project as a single, unified concept, I helped break it down into its core components and relationships. We developed a visual and conceptual framework, using a tree as a central metaphor, where each role, responsibility, and ethical commitment could be located, understood, and connected. This allowed participants to see not just the idea, but their place within it.

• From there, I designed a sequence of interactive experiences that translated theory into action. This included:

  • Reflective entry activities that invited participants to examine their current understanding of their role, using game-based formats to surface assumptions and tensions

  • ​Developed a large-scale visual and participatory mapping tool that enables professionals to situate their work within a collective ethical-political system.

  • Designed and facilitated a cooperative simulation game that translates activist practice into experiential learning through scenario-based collective decision-making, making visible the decisions, constraints, and strategies involved in professional activism

  • Facilitated spaces for collective analysis, allowing participants to generate insights from their own experiences rather than receiving them passively

• The design emphasized rhythm and engagement. Multi-day retreats were structured to alternate between interaction, reflection, and synthesis, using visual, tactile, and game-based elements to sustain attention and deepen understanding.

• Throughout the process, my role extended beyond design. I engaged as a thinking partner, challenging inconsistencies between the organization’s stated commitments and its educational practices. This included guiding the team to align their pedagogy with their political and ethical goals, ensuring that the way they taught reflected the transformation they sought.

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The Shift

The result was a shift in how the professional project was experienced. Participants moved from discussing the project as an abstract ideal to engaging with it as a set of practices they could interpret, adapt, and carry into their work. The materials and structures developed during this process were refined across multiple retreats, allowing the organization to sustain and evolve the approach over time.