In-Class Exercise

Feeling the Gap: Naming Your Disembodied Drag

Based On: Defeating the Disembodiment of Design in the AI Age (Right AI™)

Concept: The Disembodied Drag, the physical and creative disconnect between your idea and a machine-produced outcome

Duration: 35–40 minutes

Format: Individual work, then pair or small-group debrief

Materials: Paper, pen or pencil, sticky notes if available, a laptop or phone with a GenAI tool, a timer

WORKFLOW SCENARIO

"A customer's order arrived damaged. They contact support wanting a refund, but the item is a final-sale product. Map the full workflow from first contact to resolution."

Your map must include: an entry channel, at least one decision point or policy conflict, an escalation path, a resolution, and a follow-up moment.

Part 1The Embodied Workflow Map· 10 minutes

By hand, map the full workflow for the scenario above. Use boxes for steps, diamonds for decisions, and arrows to connect them. No digital tools, no templates, no talking.

Include every touchpoint from first contact through resolution and follow-up.
At each step, jot one word for what the customer is likely feeling.
Do not worry about neatness. Capture the logic and the emotion, not a polished diagram.
Keep the map face down when time is called. You will not look at it again until Part 3.

Part 2The Machine Translation· 10 minutes

Without looking at your map, open a GenAI tool and type one prompt asking it to design the same customer service workflow. Generate an output.

Describe only the scenario, as if your hand-drawn map never existed.
Ask for the same shape of output: steps, decision points, escalation path, resolution.
Generate once. Resist the urge to regenerate or re-prompt until it matches what you pictured.
Notice how it feels to translate a lived customer moment into typed instructions for a machine.

Part 3The Gap Journal· 8 minutes

Turn your map face up and place it beside the AI output. Answer the following on your own.

1. Where did you feel the drag while typing your prompt in Part 2?

2. What decision points, edge cases, or emotional beats did your hand-drawn map include that the AI's version left out, or the reverse?

3. Compare the two workflows side by side. Where does the AI's version feel more complete? Where does it feel generic?

4. On a scale from Conductor to Spectator, where did you sit during Part 2?

5. Name one embodied habit, sketching, voice, or a walk-through, that you will build into your workflow design process before you open a GenAI tool next time.

Part 4Group Debrief· 8 minutes

Pair up or form small groups of three to four. Compare your gap, then bring these prompts to the full class.

Did anyone's AI-generated workflow surface a step or edge case you hadn't considered? What made that useful?
How might a voice walkthrough of the customer journey, instead of typed steps, change the drag you felt?
What would it look like to Know Your Role as conductor the next time you use AI to draft a workflow or process map?