Rapidinnovation -- The Journal - DesignKata #1

I believe that all problem solvers, innovators, design thinkers need to develop a suite of practices that enable them to perform better as time progress. "Design Kata" offers such a suite of practices that would help any problem solver to move towards better contextual understanding of any situation he/she faces if not attain greater wisdom and keener insights. 

As problem solvers and design thinkers we always take decisions. Our quality of decision making determines the quality of our performance in our field of work.

So, the first "design kata" that I recommend is to have a 'decision making journal'. Whenever, we take an important decision on some problem, it helps if we take care to write down in a journal what decision we took, how we arrived at those decisions and what is expected once the decisions are implemented.

We can also make note of how we felt physically and mentally while taking the decision.

Over time, a well kept journal, written in our own handwriting, would reveal patterns in our decision making style and process, which we can then modify and develop as desired for enhanced performance. And if need be we can then develop more patterns of thinking and practice them to see the outcomes they produce. In this manner both our repertoire of techniques and our confidence in our problem solving skill increase over time.

Such journals also help us keep a tab on the decisions we took for a specific problem. It would not only remind us to take a feedback of the effectiveness of implementing our proposed solutions but also record the benefits those solutions provided over a longer period of time. It helps us enhance our understanding of problems, improve our problem solving skills and increase the depth of our thinking.

Over the last 31 years my shelves are filled with more than 100 such journals that have kept track of my thinking process, styles, approaches I took to tackle thousands of problems in my field of application including my moods on specific days and how I felt during the process.

Looking back, I can clearly see at what point of time, my own signature style of solving problems emerged, which must be the goal of any problem solver or decision maker, i.e. to develop his/her own signature tune and learning over a period of time.

To my mind this is the number 1 Design kata a problem solver must initiate and practice.

How much do you agree on this?

 

CL - Experiential Learning

Experiential Learning through observation by linking actions to their consequences is simple and probably a natural way to learn anything. We do it all the time.

Conceptually, the idea is simple to understand. A child puts his finger into a candle flame and immediately singes his finger and feels the heat. He learns never to put his finger into an open flame. He learns this because his action and the feedback (unintended consequence of the action -- burning sensation) are very close by - almost instantaneous. However, with age he would also learn how to handle fire for useful purposes too.

If that is so, why people in industries and organizations have hard time learning? The reason appears to be obvious. Actions and feedback of consequences of the actions are separated by time and space challenging cognitive ability of a human being. Since the consequence of a person's actions might appear after a long time and may appear at a different place it then becomes unlikely for a person to connect 'actions' to their 'consequences' to make meaning and learn from his/her actions in a holistic manner.

Can't this simple yet effective method of Observation Based Experiential Learning experiences be designed & applied in industries and organizations?

Surely! The design would involve simulation of the job environment or engage people on an actual job where a skilled facilitator then links the consequences (either unintended or helpful) to the array of actions a learner is free to choose or employ. By linking the two (action and the consequences) learning takes place.

I would call this 'talent development'. Undoubtedly, such talent development within an organization not only helps the person but also helps organizations improve the 3 fundamental Ps -- Productivity, Performance and Profitability.

The video provides a demonstration of a successful Observation Based Experimental Learning experiment we designed for shop floor workers, which we found rather challenging.  The feedback of the consequences was given in their mother tongue (Bengali).

Needless to say that the learners were happy with the experience and so were their top bosses who initiated the program.

However, there seems to be three tricky issues in the design and implementation of such observation based experiential learning.

These are

1. The designer and the facilitator must be comfortable and attentive to handle the uncertainty that comes up in this process of self discovery.

2. The designer and the facilitator must have strong grounding in 'Design Thinking' and 'Systems Thinking'.

3. The facilitator must be well aware of the consequences of each action especially the unintended ones. That is a facilitator must be well versed with the possible 'failure modes' of a system under study and must also know how to provide the proper feedback in a manner understood by learners.

 

CL stands for Creative Leadership