studio non troppo : mindful design : facilitation

Photo: atomicjeep

Little problems sometimes merit treatment with big-time tools. The problem solving methodology I teach, TRIZ, is most commonly used to solve mind-bending (and sometimes multi-million-dollar) engineering design problems, but it can also be a good companion when addressing non-technical problems.

Here’s an example:

In order to make progress when working on a project, it’s important to focus on details, to not get distracted by philosophical or high-level questions. But if I were unaware of the relevant contexts, the higher-level questions (including “why?”), the strategic issues, and the ethical/moral issues, it would be too easy to be digging a hole in the wrong place, digging the wrong depth of hole, or even digging a hole when I should be doing something else entirely.

TRIZ suggests I formulate this conundrum as what’s called a physical contradiction: “I should be narrowly focused” and “I should not be narrowly focused.”

Then TRIZ suggests applying what are called separation principles. Two separation principles that work in this case are separation in space and separation in time.

Separation in space might lead me to focus on the details of the problem whenever I’m seated in my task chair, at my desk, working on my computer…while avoiding detail focus whenever I’m not physically in that context.

Separation in time would hint that I might try setting a timer: 40 minutes of focus, then 10 minutes of break and 10 minutes of higher level thinking and reflecting.

Clearly, these are only two possible solutions. And the tools available through TRIZ are massive, towering over such a simple, little problem. But anything that can burst me out of an “either/or” mindset into the open landscape of “both/and” possibilities is worth drawing on.