This is Andrew Benedict-Nelson, social change strategist and innovation educator. Each week, I share a question that you and your organization can use to find a new perspective on the toughest problems you face. Reply to the e-mail or comment on the site and we can talk about them together!
NOW FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTION
As you work on the problem you or your organization are committed to solving, you likely keep dozens of different factors in mind. Just for a moment, discard all those considerations and only consider how you might solve the problem as quickly as possible. Set aside cost, politics, sustainability and — if you’re willing — morality. What kind of solutions might emerge, and what might they teach you about solving the problem in the real world?
Like many of the exercises in this series, this question takes a page from the world of design. Designers frequently break a problem down into discrete design criteria — the “victory conditions” for a solution — then try solving for them one at a time. This not only inspires a range of possible solutions, but teaches the designers about the different criteria as they go.
Speed is a criterion almost all of us would say we value greatly. Yet that very universality means we often don't think about it critically. We look at various aspects of our world and say, “Oh, I’m sure that is already as efficient as it could be” or “Oh, those people seem nice, I'm sure they are working as fast as they can.”
In fact, it is almost never true. Think of the car you drive. Several factors probably rated higher than speed in its design, including cost, comfort, and safety. You wouldn’t want it any other way!
That’s true of almost everything around us. Thinking about speed and only speed helps you strip away all those other factors and look at the essence of a solution. It’s not necessarily the one you want, but it will help you understand everything better. So let’s try it!
HOW TO DO IT
Start with your gut reaction. How would you solve your problem if someone asked you to do it as quickly as possible? If you are working in a group, ask everyone to write down their initial reactions before sharing with everyone else. These early impressions can reveal important assumptions about the problem.
Chances are your first response is actually not very creative. You may have said something like “I’d skip the three most annoying documentation steps.” So keep pushing yourself to go faster and faster. If you think your idea could solve the problem in five years, how could you get it down to one? To a month? To a week? It doesn’t matter how silly your answers get, as each one will help you see the problem in a new way.
Now let’s take one more approach to developing new solutions. Make a short list of the five or six most important factors you normally take into account as you work on solving your problem. Then cross them off one by one and ask, “How might we go faster if we didn't have to worry about this?”
Guess what? Considering all those other factors besides speed will also help you adapt your ultra-fast idea to the real world. Take an ultra-fast solution you really liked and then add those other factors to it, like you are adding features to the powerful engine of a car. How might the fastest solution be made more safe, more affordable, more inclusive, etc.?
Sometimes groups who undertake this exercise actually discover the core of a great solution. But more frequently, the fastest solution still feels like an impossible fantasy for some important reason. “We wish we could do that, but it's just too risky,” they might say. To help, I sometimes suggest that the group imagine that some other organization is trying the controversial, ultra-fast solution. Even if they think it isn’t right for you, how might you adapt or respond to this development in your field? This can help you see what you imagined can teach you about the real world.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
I’ve got one, but you won’t like it: the Troubled Asset Relief Program created by the U.S. Congress in 2008. While issues like immigration and climate change have languished for years, legislators were able to design a bailout for the financial sector in a matter of weeks. Whether this was a good decision or not, it shows that complex legislation actually can be enacted at lightning speed if the right incentives are in place. If that makes you mad, consider how you might channel that anger into designing similarly speedy solutions to your problem.
Okay, I won’t leave the taste of TARP in your mouth. Here’s a real way I used this exercise with a client. An educational institution was trying to change the emphasis of one of its degree programs. When we looked at the fastest way to make this happen, a simple solution emerged: only admit students who already showed a strong aptitude for the new emphasis. Everyone agreed it would work, but there was just once catch — it would bankrupt the program, because only a small percentage of such students were applying.
But once the organization looked at the problem in this different way, an organic solution emerged: they could use the same idea of selective admissions to create fellowship programs that would help develop the future version of their program. Resources, faculty, fundraising, and more could be organized around these small groups to rapidly prototype the program they wanted to create in the future.
COOL, SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to jump-start creative thinking about your problem using the limits dynamic. It’s one of six innovation dynamics I help people master to improve their critical thinking and build strategies for social change. Reply to this e-mail with your answer to the question and I’ll let you know what I think! Or learn more by visiting http://www.teachingsocialchange.com.
Illustration via Wikimedia Commons.