Create the space for dialogue
Next time you’re afraid to share ideas, remember someone once said in a meeting let’s make a film with a tornado full of sharks.
I had to laugh about this advice, which received an automatic promotion into my future talks and presentations on creativity and innovation!
In this second issue of our August throughline, we explore one side of the feedback dynamic, the giver of feedback. Let’s look closely at the feedback experience from the giver’s perspective.
I stumbled on a website by Chris Berthelsen called Patterns of Creativity in Japan during some recent research. Today I share three of the ideas that are part of the collection.
Drafting or prototyping is one of the later stages of the design process. Our approach and mindset have the potential to influence anything we create.
The key to success: share your ideas early and often.
One of the simplest prototypes you can create is to describe your idea to someone else.
Your Minimum Verbal Prototype or MVP is a more rounded description of your idea — not just one of many ideas on a list. Your verbal outline creates the first impression and helps someone understand your initial intent.
The MVP is the kick to begin representing your idea in a more tangible way.
The Word prototype is from Greek prōtotypon “a first or primitive form,” from prōtos “first” + typos ‘impression, mould, pattern.”
A different way to approach prototyping is:
To engineer as many opportunities for feedback as you can.
Feedback is the main reason we share drafts. Rough and ready versions give us the chance to test and think about what works and what doesn’t.
And to truly understand how bad our ideas are.
When you share a First Verbal Prototype, you activate a feedback loop to develop your creative ideas.
Remember, the only thing worse than a bad idea is to isolate an idea from feedback for too long.
Feedback is oxygen for your ideas. It will help them grow and get stronger, starved of it, and your ideas weaken.
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The situation with the pandemic means we are stuck in a constant decision-making diagram. In PC (pre-covid) times, we had enough slack to balance the intense management and leadership needed.
I wondered if the military might provide some insight into making decisions under fire – metaphorically and literally. I discovered a model of decision making called the OODA Loop. Read on for an outline of the model and how you can use the techniques in times of uncertainty.
The OODA Loop has four phases: Observation, Orientation, Decide and Act.
It was developed in the late 70s by John Boyd, a military strategist, fighter pilot and Colonel in the United States Air Force.
Insights from studying air combat revealed patterns of decision making which Boyd established as the OODA Loop.
All decisions are based on observations of the evolving situation tempered with implicit filtering of the problem being addressed.
Here are the four stages. I tailored the descriptions and questions to how a leadership team might collaborate on the OODA Loop. But they can be easily adapted to a different context.
Gather data, input and observations about the environment and unfolding context.
Position ourselves to take advantage of what we notice. Orientate ourselves towards the future.
Harness implicit understanding and orientation to make a choice.
Implement the decision.
A couple of other notes and ideas resonate with me, which I know you will find helpful.
The key concept with this decision-making model is the pace you move through the loop.
Here is Dr Michael Ryan from the World Health Organisation talking about the speed of response to emergencies, like the ebola outbreak.
Perfection is the enemy of the good when it comes to emergency management. Speed trumps perfection … The greatest error is not to move. The greatest error is to be paralyzed by the fear of failure. If you need to be right before you move, you will never win.
A caveat is the ability to slow the tempo enough to observe and orient with precision. This slower section makes the decide and act phases move faster.
the entire “loop” (not just orientation) is an ongoing many-sided implicit cross-referencing process of projection, empathy, correlation, and rejection.
You have to guard against this.
Boyd considers the first two phases take the most energy. When we orientate the decision, we access our genetic heritage, cultural traditions, and prior experiences.
In your team, this becomes complex and is often the stumbling block we call paralysis analysis. Your team gets stuck overthinking the information available.
During World War II, Winston Churchill, after hearing that the landing craft designers were spending the majority of their time arguing over design changes, sent this message: “The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.’”
We use the OODA Loop in rapidly evolving situations, an unfolding environment, or a shifting problem state.
However, if we only focus on feedback, we are always looking to the past.
Feedforward propels us onwards. Information that tips us forwards to the following action. Feedforward helps us identify the next step. In the OODA Loop, it contributes to the next phase.
Boyd’s emphasis on feedforward relates to my ongoing study of critique, assessment and feedback strategies.
Thanks for exploring this model with me; I hope it helps you improve the speed and precision of your decision making.
This article is a Dialogic Learning Weekly. Regular inspiration to save you time and provoke your thinking—a newsletter designed to build your cognitive toolkit and enhance your practice.
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