These are the slides from my talk at Google Firestarters on 5th September 2017 in London. It's about two tools in particular we use at Smithery (www.smithery.com) to break the patterns that we find can emerge and strangle how people approach their work. The content is a compressed version of some of the material from the Innovation & Future Thinking course I led at IED in Barcelona this summer.
20. “Companies were
comfortable and welcoming
to Design Thinking
because it was
packaged as a process.”
Bruce Nussbaum,
“Design Thinking is a Failed Experiment”, 2011
38. New information
Analysis & synthesis
Previous experience
Cultural traditions
SOURCE: JOHN BOYD
PRESENT}
PATTERNS}
39. The pattern problem
An example becomes a lesson
A lesson becomes a method
A method becomes a practice
A practice becomes a doctrine
A doctrine becomes death
40. We can’t get caught waiting
for things to happen again
93. Gamers Pokémon Public parks
Fashion fans Ltd editions Shopping malls
Patients NHS Doctors Surgeries
Self-driving cars Cheap fuel Village petrol station
Violent mobs Suppression Polling stations
94. All environments
now change faster
than our processes
can allow for…
dynam
ic
and
robust
…we can’t afford to
get stuck in patterns
95. How do we design tools
that break patterns?
An example becomes a lesson
A lesson becomes a method
A method becomes a practice
A practice becomes a doctrine
A doctrine becomes death
100. WHO
WHAT
Culture, Individuals, Groups
What are they part of?
How do they communicate?
What beliefs do they share?
Matter, Space, Objects
What is it made of?
How is it accessed?
What does it depend on?
101. SLO
W
ER
FASTER
WHO
WHAT
Culture, Individuals, Groups
What are they part of?
How do they communicate?
What beliefs do they share?
Matter, Space, Objects
What is it made of?
How is it accessed?
What does it depend on?
What happens in
five years time?
What have the last
24 hours been like?
In the long run,
how is this sustainable?
Step by step, how
does this work?
102. SLO
W
ER
FASTER
WHO
WHAT
Sketch the
momentary
interaction…
Write the 5th
anniversary
press release…
Map the
supply chain…
Evaluate long-term
sustainability…
Analyse population
trends by location…
Sort through user
complaints…
Empathy mapping…
Prototype new
supporting service…
103. SLO
W
ER
FASTER
WHO
WHAT
…using
LEGO
bricks
…for a news
organisation that
doesn’t exist yet
…using metaphorical
territorial features
…as if you are a
UN working group
…as if this is a long
dead civilisation at
the turning point
…as a card game
…using LEGO minifigs
…as if you are a
parasitic start-up
113. people
space
MATERIALISM:
“all things, including
mental things and
consciousness,
are results of material
interactions.”
IDEALISM:
“reality as we know it is
fundamentally mental,
mentally constructed,
or otherwise immaterial”
actions,
interactions,
conversations…
objects,
environments,
systems…
114. people
space
MATERIALISM:
“all things, including
mental things and
consciousness,
are results of material
interactions.”
IDEALISM:
“reality as we know it is
fundamentally mental,
mentally constructed,
or otherwise immaterial”
actions,
interactions,
conversations…
objects,
environments,
systems…
Sometimes it’s this.
Sometimes it’s this.
142. Make your own tools to
break the pattern problem…
An example becomes a lesson
A lesson becomes a method
A method becomes a practice
A practice becomes a doctrine
A doctrine becomes death