Tag: provocation

Challenge the borders of your thinking

Creativity, LearningPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on Challenge the borders of your thinking

I know that a network map of the brain is a thing. I wonder if there is a way you could map your conceptual understanding beyond a simple mind map.

Stick with me as I explore this idea of a “map of our thinking” out loud, it has been something I have long pondered and used in discussions with others. I would primarily refer to it when talking about how provocation changes our thinking.

  • Say we could create a spatial representation of what we know about a topic.
  • It might take up a certain area and have borders.
  • It might be something we can draw.
  • Perhaps there are neighbouring relevant topics.
  • Let’s say the size is relative to our understanding, the bigger the area the more we understand about that topic.
  • We might also be able to quantify the amount of knowledge there is for any given topic, leading to a point of reference of what potential understanding there still is to discover.
  • This map is not necessarily about the connections like a mind map, but more about the aggregate “space” the discovered or known concepts take up.
  • There would be an edge. A thinking border.
  • There would be unknown territory still to be discovered.

So what happens when the borders change.

I have always wondered about the power of using provocation to challenge our thinking. To challenge the borders of what we know. I imagine a provocation being something like a newly discovered perspective on an issue or a series of facts previously not seen. All manner of things can serve as a provocation. They would break that thinking border and create a new space on the map, forcing us to draw a new edge of our thinking. That newly identified space and albeit uncharted thinking would then need some exploring, some thinking and processing. But it would soon be subsumed within the wider map of what we know about that topic.

De Bono refers to how provocations can create movement in our thinking if they are used to challenge a set of ideas. Perhaps the borders of our conceptual understanding become equally fluid when we are faced with different provocations. Perhaps those borders shift and expand, contract and become redrawn as we continue to learn.

Learning Provocations (ideas, how they affect us and why we should use them)

28 Days of Writing, Design Thinking, LearningPublished onUpdated on8 Comments on Learning Provocations (ideas, how they affect us and why we should use them)

Provocation robot.001

During a design thinking inquiry process we use provocation as an engaging starting point or an opportunity to inject momentum in thinking and student engagement. They can come in many different forms:

Questions, Images (and text), Statements, Film, Data visualisations, Change a setting, Artefacts, Quotes, Maps, Proverbs, Role Play, Stories, Music and audio, Animation

I remember discovering this wonderful post from Cristina Milos a few years ago that captured so many wonderful ideas about how to plan for provocation. I highly recommend taking a look and digging deeper into the examples she shares.

For a long time now I have considered how learning provocations have an impact after all we have to plan for this reaction if we include provocation in our learning sessions. I think that provocation produces different reactions in us all, challenging is in different ways:

  • Emotionally (This is challenging how I feel or what I have previously felt)
  • Understanding (This is challenging what I think I know and my assumptions)
  • Perception (This is challenging my point of view)
  • Ethically (This is challenging our shared beliefs)
  • Morally (This is challenging my own principles)
  • Action (This is challenging me to take action, to change or make a difference)

We have to give adequate thought and preparation to the follow up activities – not just planning for provocation, but planning for the reaction to it as well.  If we have carefully crafted a provocation we should expect a reaction, considering the impact it is having on those we are working with and how to structure the learning that flow from it.

I believe that used in the correct way, at the the correct moment, the right type of provocation creates momentum in our thinking or those around us. When we are looking at the impact on Understanding for example, provocation can often create a new boundary or edge of what is known. What follows is an attempt to plot a course into that new territory – our curiosity as our guide.

—

How does the question in the image above challenge you? In which domains (outlined above) does it have the strongest impact on you? What learning structure would be most effective to follow it up?

“Stop One. Stop Them All” a Powerful Provocation from the World Wildlife Fund

LearningPublished onLeave a Comment on “Stop One. Stop Them All” a Powerful Provocation from the World Wildlife Fund
Stop One. Stop Them All - 3
Stop One. Stop Them All  – WWF

This is a great example of a powerful provocation for World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) campaign against poaching from last year. The series of print images were created by the agency Leo Burnett of Sydney – who describe their work as follows: “We needed to highlight the depth, complexity and fragility of the illegal animal trade networks, and empower the viewer to feel that a little bit of help from them could bring down entire illegal organisations.”

Provocations are such powerful devices to use in our design of learning, often used to great effect at the beginning of a period of project (or Immersion). They are jarring and force a response, which can come in many different ways – often creating lasting momentum throughout a period of learning. The imagery used here is a fine example of that, shocking and yet bearing a simple message. Something we can act upon.