Hour 10
Introduction to Thinking Differently
What You’ll Learn in This Hour:
Summary and Case Study
Hour 10 commences Part III, “Thinking Differently,” where we focus on Phase 2 of our Design Thinking Model for Tech (see Figure 10.1). In these next five hours, we explore techniques and exercises for thinking differently and more deeply on the journey to solving the problems we identified and validated in Hour 9. Hour 10 sets the stage for what many consider to be the core of Design Thinking: the need to think divergently and broadly before we narrow or converge that thinking to arrive at a short list of “best” ideas. Once we have converged on the right problem to solve, and that problem is presumably something we can’t solve quickly, we need to alternate between divergent and convergent thinking, perhaps engage in a set of thinking warm-ups to loosen the mind, and probably work through a couple of exercises to help us clear and unclog the mind. We conclude this hour with a real-world “What Not to Do” related to remaining convergent when the situation calls for us to do just the opposite to break free from the mental chains holding us back.
FIGURE 10.1
Phase 2 of our Design Thinking Model for Tech.
Ideation and Thinking for Problem Solving
Why would we ever need to think differently? The short answer is in cases where our usual ways of thinking still leave us at a loss for what to do next. In those cases, we need a place to turn for new ideas on how to come up with new ideas! After all, if the solution to our problem or situation was simple enough to solve with our current tool bag or techniques and exercises, it would have already been solved.
And this is where the power of thinking and ideating differently comes into play. We outlined the notion of ideating in the first two hours. Ideating is a word for a special kind of thinking, the kind that has been pulled out of the quiet of our minds and moved out into the open. It has been shared verbally, transferred to a picture or model, drawn on a whiteboard, or written down and mulled over on a tablet or sheet of paper. Ideation is thought that has been externalized.
As we know, ideation can be performed solo or as part of a broader discussion with our coworkers or broader teams and others. When we ideate solo, we can sometimes arrive at brilliant ideas on our own. With the help of others, though, ideating can help us work through those brilliant ideas and identify more ideas for solving complex problems. In this way we can create and fill up an Ideation Funnel composed of lots of potential ideas, as we see in Figure 10.2.
FIGURE 10.2
The Ideation Funnel is a simple and effective metaphor for collecting ideas.
Let us explore the Ideation Funnel in the context of how our thinking needs to move from convergent (to fill up the funnel) to divergent (to identify and use the best ideas) and possibly back and forth several times as needed.
Divergent and Convergent Thinking
To create and fill up our Ideation Funnel, we need to spend more time diverging and less time converging. As we covered in Hour 3, diverging is about gathering ideas, exploring possible solutions, and expanding our options. To diverge is to grow our ideation pool larger and more diverse. It is precisely the opposite of converging, which is about narrowing down and whittling and trimming our ideas and choices and solutions to very few (and presumably the very best, at least based on what we know today about the problems and situation).
Most of us are naturally wired to look at a problem in a convergent kind of way. We spend very little time diverging (in our heads, typically), and a tremendous amount of time implementing an idea that took us maybe a few seconds to decide upon. But convergent thinking works well for us most of the time because most of our situations and problems are not incredibly complex.
Note
The 55 and the 5
Albert Einstein is famous for his little quips related to thinking. Einstein had the Design Thinker’s hat on when he said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions” (Debevoise, 2021).
But what about when our situations and problems are indeed complicated? And full of expensive and risky options and implications for making a poor initial choice? What if we need more ideas? Better ideas? The key to more ideas and better ideas lies in the ability to diverge, to fundamentally change how we think. Rather than trying to find the single “right” answer to a problem, we need to focus instead on creating a strong list of potential answers or ideas with which to fill up our funnel. The more ideas, the better. That’s the goal! The more, the better. And our funnel of ideas needs to challenge our current thinking as a way to explore our problem or situation through new eyes. There are no bad ideas.
Einstein’s quote on having an hour to spend on a problem captures the essence of Divergent Thinking. The informal goal is twofold:
Come up with lots of ideas.
Avoid jumping into solving the problem too quickly.
Divergent thinking helps us twist around and reframe our problem through many ideas so we can attack the problem with the one or two or three best potential solutions. Thus, we diverge as we think broadly and then converge as we target the potential “best” solution (see Figure 10.3).
FIGURE 10.3
Consider how divergent thinking increases the number of ideas and potential solutions we have while convergent thinking helps us arrive at the right problem and the best solution.
The process of diverging and converging sounds easy. But it is not. It’s hard work. As Einstein also famously said, “Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.”
How can we make thinking, especially thinking creatively, differently, and divergently, easier? Warm-ups can help us, as we cover next.
Warm-ups for Thinking Differently
Research and our own experience bear this out: There are steps we can take to help us get into a more creative mindset. Some might be considered Design Thinking techniques in their own right, but many are simply little tips to help us think afresh.
Design Thinking in Action: Taxonomy Kick-starters
In the same way that guardrails (which we’ll cover next hour) help us ideate more richly, sometimes a bit of structure can help kickstart our thinking processes. Taxonomies can give us a much-needed mental boost when our minds are too tired or too cluttered to think in new ways:
- SCAMPER’s 7-step process gives us new ways of brainstorming and filling up our Ideation Funnel.
- The Agile Manifesto gives us 4 values and 12 principles by which to evaluate and think.
- UX Design leverages Heuristic Analysis for ideation and its 10 usability heuristics.
- The Possible Futures exercise uses the STEEP acronym to help us think across 5 or more dimensions.
- A Boats and Anchors exercise can benefit from a standard risk register taxonomy as a way to think more broadly.
- The AEIOU exercise for problem validations uses 5 steps organized around the AEIOU mnemonic to help us easily remember to validate activities, the environment, interactions, necessary objects, and users.
Taxonomies are like cheat cards for our brains! They’re fair game and super useful when we need a set of thinking and creativity kick-starters.
Design Thinking in Action: Solo Tips for Divergent Thinking
Steps and tips we take as individuals can help us get into a mindset for thinking differently and divergently. Thinking in a divergent rather than traditional convergent manner takes practice, and we walk through many of these in the next few hours. From common Brainstorming to Running the Swamp, MVP Thinking, Worst and Best Exercise, Backporting into the Past, Fractal Thinking, Force Field and Golden Ratio Analyses, Möbius Ideation, Finding the Wormhole, and so many others, there are plenty of techniques and exercises for thinking differently and filling up our Ideation Funnel.
And there are practical activities or simple tips that can help us more quickly get into a divergent or creative mindset. Consider how our own experience with some of these tips might have given us some of our own best ideas over the years as we see in the following list and in Figure 10.4:
- Dreaming about what the future could hold
- Drawing what’s in our head
- Building a skyscraper with toy blocks or LEGOs
- Building a pasta noodle or paper bridge with a neighbor
- Creating the most accurate or best-distance paper airplane
- Designing a four-cup holder with only paper and tape
- Drawing a house without lifting the pen or retracing a line
- Considering which car we’ve owned that we should have kept
- Listening to a podcast or music
- Taking a relaxing bath or shower
- Meditating and praying in a quiet place
- Getting a massage or spa treatment
- Taking a walk or going for a run
FIGURE 10.4
Tips and techniques for thinking divergently are at our fingertips.
Of course, there are many other useful activities for thinking differently. Biking, mowing the lawn, yoga, swimming, surfing, lifting weights, and performing other repetitive activities give our minds space and time to wander. With space and time and repetition comes mental freedom.
Design Thinking in Action: Teaming Up for Divergent Thinking
Once we have completed our solo act for warming up, it’ll eventually make sense to get back together with others and practice Divergent Thinking in a team setting. For starters, make sure we actually include others to help us think. The key to thinking differently is as much about Diversity by Design (covered in Hour 4 and throughout) as it is about techniques and exercises that help us think differently. For example:
- Practice mindfulness exercises together before we think together.
- Build (something, anything!) together to think together.
- Explore the more than 40 different kinds of thinking and ideation covered here and across the next four hours.
With our creative juices flowing and a divergent mindset to match, it’s time to actually think differently. But thinking differently doesn’t mean giving ourselves a blank sheet of paper. As we will soon see, thinking differently thrives within the constraints, boundaries, lenses, perspectives, or guardrails that we give ourselves. Turn to Hour 11 to learn more, and more importantly to practice and use these techniques and exercises.
Techniques for Clearing the Mind
Sometimes our minds are so full of our own ideas and self-reinforcing biases that we need to clean things out before we get down to thinking. Consider how the next two simple techniques help us work through the stuff in our heads and clear the path for thinking differently and freshly.
Design Thinking in Action: Snaking the Drain to Work Through Clogs
When problems arise, all of us tend to fall back on what’s known and comfortable. Low-stress answers help us deal with high-stress situations. So we naturally look for the quick fix that’s always worked before. But what if the quick fix isn’t quick or isn’t the right fix? What if it’s just clogging up our thinking? What if that’s why we are unable to think differently?
When the quick fix is not enough, we need to reset our minds and our teams and our colleagues to think differently. We need to clean out the muck and mess in our heads. And it can be hard! We cannot just ignore what’s stuck in our heads, after all; the simple and known quick fixes tend to creep back, keeping us from thinking differently.
When the muck or clutter of old ideas remains stuck in our heads, we often cannot help but stay stuck in that mindset. To free our minds to think differently, consider Snaking the Drain. Try talking through how the quick fix maps to today’s realities:
- What do we like about the quick fix?
- Why is the quick fix not a good fit this time?
- What will the quick fix lead to?
- Why is it time to bury it, at least for this particular situation?
With as little emotion as possible, talk through its advantages and disadvantages to rule out that quick fix for the last time so we can restart our thinking with a clean slate. Snake the Drain to refresh, reset, and rethink (see Figure 10.5).
FIGURE 10.5
Snaking the Drain helps us refresh, reset, and rethink.
And if we still find that old idea creeping up and crowding out new ideas, turn to Sacrificing the Calf instead, covered next.
Design Thinking in Action: Sacrificing the Calf to Kill Dead-End Ideas
We’ve all been in situations where we try to think of new ideas, but the same old tired solutions or quick fixes keep pushing themselves back into our heads. These dead-end ideas might even make sense too. But what if there’s a better way? More to the point, what are the many ways, the many possibilities? How can we think anew to identify these possibilities?
One way to do so is to simply take the dead-end ideas off the table and call them what they are for us at this particular time and with this particular problem: dead. These dead ideas truly need to be killed (or some may prefer “retired”). Killing off our dead-end thinking can help us see a new path for solving a tough problem or making progress again. We use their death as a Forcing Function (a powerful technique we’ll cover in more detail in Hour 16) for trying new ideas or learning new skills.
Examples of dead-end thinking might include
- Leaning exclusively on what we know today versus discovering something new to carry us into the future
- Leveraging our current skills and competencies rather than modernizing them
- Defending our ideas or positions simply because they were ours (and leaning on any other biases as well)
- Protecting our sacred cows rather than reinventing those cows in a way that’s more relevant to today’s markets, realities, or economics
- Failing to toss out traditional strategies in favor of new thinking
- Panicking by choosing to stand still
Use this technique in conjunction with others such as Snaking the Drain, covered previously, to reset and think anew. Venturing into the unknown will surely pay dividends compared to staying in the same past, unsuccessfully navigating the same problems again and again.
What Not to Do: Stay Convergent!
If we don’t change our mindset or respark our creativity, how will we ever break free from the mental chains holding us back? In a large high-tech company stuck in a slow ERP transformation process, the team on the ground kept falling back on the same techniques and ideas that failed previously to make a difference. They battled schedule and staffing issues with traditional IT project management techniques, battled mis-set expectations with band-aids, and essentially relegated themselves to reacting at the whim of an executive team who was, by design, never really close enough to the details to drive real progress.
The project team spent little time thinking and lots of time doing. Instead of thinking through problems deeply and differently, the team quickly arrived at a perceived next best step and then invested tremendous time and energy executing what was typically not the next best step. Further, they wasted even more time dealing with executive escalations and unhappy stakeholders. They didn’t know what they didn’t know, however, and didn’t see another way until a fresh set of minds flipped this ongoing cycle.
Instead of spending a brief time thinking through their myriad of challenges, with new eyes and new techniques they worked through each challenge together. Design Thinking slowed the team down at just the point where the executive team was escalating and screaming to go faster, go faster. But Design Thinking eventually made that velocity possible as a period of divergent thinking paid dividends that convergent thinking was incapable of delivering. Listening to Einstein and spending more time thinking and less time doing helped this team and this critical business transformation program break free of its well-camouflaged chains. And it helped the executive team and a broad base of stakeholders regain confidence in the team on the ground and their ability to make real progress again.
Summary
In this hour, we explored the critical need for both convergent and divergent thinking. Together, these foundational techniques form the core for ideating and thinking differently. Then we turned to three warm-ups for helping us loosen our minds, including Taxonomy Kick-starters, tips for thinking divergently solo, and additional tips for thinking divergently as a team. Another two exercises—Snaking the Drain and Sacrificing the Calf—helped us unclog our minds. And we concluded Hour 10 with a real-world example of “What Not to Do” when we’re stuck and the same old kinds of thinking lead to the same old outcomes and no progress. We saw how the power of slowing down and thinking divergently can help us restore confidence and velocity by breaking free from the mental chains that hold back our teams and ourselves.
Workshop
Case Study
Consider the following case study and questions. You can find the answers to the questions related to this case study in Appendix A, “Case Study Quiz Answers.”
Situation
The Executive Committee at BigBank is losing faith in the ability of the team executing one of the dozen initiatives underneath the OneBank umbrella. Satish himself has stepped in at different times over the last year to help, but no real difference in velocity has materialized. Team members are executing in the same ways they have previously executed, and unsurprisingly they’re getting the same results and little progress. The initiative’s key stakeholders are nervous they’ll need to move go-live yet again, and a few of them have started questioning if BigBank needs to disband the team or the initiative altogether.
Satish needs your help again, and he’s willing to fight whatever battles need to be fought—based on your advice—to restore confidence in this team and in the value of this initiative.
Quiz
1. Is this initiative’s team fundamentally flawed in how they have been executing?
2. How might the team flip their execution model in the short term?
3. What is the danger in changing how the team thinks and executes in the short term?
4. What kinds of warm-ups or simple exercises might the team find helpful in thinking differently?
5. Some of the team members seem stuck in their way of thinking, and they need help clearing or unclogging their minds so they can think with a fresh perspective. What do you suggest?