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At the 2008 Serious Play conference, Tim Brown, CEO of the superstar design thinking firm Ideo made a fascinating presentation about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play, which can now be found on YouTube. He begins his talk by covering familiar ground, such as our tendency as adults to want to categorize things immediately (which limits the possibilities that were able to see) and our habit of self-editing our ideas (which tends to limit the range of options at our disposal).
He goes on to deliver some fascinating insights, which really made an impact on me:
The need for brainstorming rules: It sounds curious that we should need "rules" for brainstorming, which ought to be the antithesis of structured thinking. But Brown insists that Ideo has found them to be quite necessary. He points out that, as adults, we tend to be deeply scripted with beliefs and behaviors that we bring with us to brainstorming sessions. It's necessary to clear these out of the way before the truly valuable ideas can begin to emerge.
The value of prototyping: At Ideo, Brown and his team have found that there is great value in creating multiple low-resolution prototypes to help the team and their clients think through ideas. He calls this process "thinking with your hands." I love that concept! A crude prototype gives the team a tangible representation of its idea, which can then be refined through successive iterations.
Role playing: What if the problem or challenge you're working on is not a new product but rather a service or business process? How do you “prototype” it? At Ideo, Brown explains, role-playing has turned out to be a powerful tool for designing business services. Why? Because we are all heavily scripted in what's authentic and what's not. Role-playing can help us to quickly discern if a certain type of interaction "feels right" or if something is missing. He briefly outlined two different types of role-playing: Doing it with others, and projecting ourselves into an experience mentally. In both cases, this process tends to give his team members great empathy for the challenge or situation, and tends to result in better ideas.
I strongly recommend that you watch this thought-provoking video! |
