BOOK SUMMARY 368
Reframe
·
Summary
written by: Jean-Marie
Buchilly
"The real problem is that you have been seeing problems as
problems, not as creative opportunities."
- Reframe, page 27
Mona
Patel’s deepest passion is to help people realize their potential. She
encourages people to not only face the barriers that are standing in
their way, but to move past them and believe in their own ability to make
the world a better place. She is the CEO and Founder of Motivate Design, and an
adjunct professor at Parsons the New School for Design.
In Reframe, Patel
shares with us the techniques she has developed in her company that bring
people together to empathetically and creatively solve problems. Readers will
learn new ways to understand what holds them back and to overcome barriers
through the Reframework, an eight step process that will help you to get
unstuck.
The
Golden Egg
Where
are all the great ideas?
"Companies
block innovation by starting with what they want to create, not with what
people need."- Reframe, page 54
Let’s
start with a real example. At Disney World, there are buses to bring people
from the resorts to the park. Most of the time, when they arrive, they are
already so packed that you cannot get a seat and you have to wait for the next
one, with no idea about how long it will take to arrive. When thinking about
this situation, many potential solutions come to mind. What if Disney provided
real-time electronic bus schedules with seat availability? What if the park had
a handle on supply and demand and increased the number of buses during the
busiest times of day? What if they had entertainment while people are waiting,
so the wait would be part of the experience?
If you
think about who, above everyone else in the park, is the most in tune with this
problem, you immediately think of the bus driver. Patel encountered this
situation when she herself visited Disney, and asked the driver once she
finally got on the bus. Je already had already considered most of the ideas
above and even more, but he hadn’t told anyone. Why?
There
are three factors at play here:
·
Fears and other psychological barriers (internal influencers)
·
Corporate blocks and barriers (external influencers)
·
BS Excuse Personas (the sum of your fears and blocks)
The
ability to ideate, explore, identify, assess, pivot, and receive feedback is
critical to innovation. Fear is the driving force against this agility, and by
conquering individual fears, we can collectively shift work culture from
fearful to brave and innovative. The fears that we encounter most often in the
research, design and innovation space are the ones below:
·
The unknown
·
Losing autonomy
·
Rejection
·
Change
·
Failure
·
Commitment
In
addition to the fears that each one of us brings to the table, business
structures and rules also create blocks to creativity. The first block is that
companies don’t create the room or permission for ideas to come about. It’s not
in the schedule and they don’t have a line item in the agenda. The second block
is money. Companies try too quickly to map innovation and ideation practices to
revenue. And third, companies start with what they want to create, not with
what people need.
So,
when we ask, “Why isn’t innovation happening?”, we can look at the sum of all
fears and blocks. However, they all represent nothing more than a pile of
excuses, all of which can be overcome simply by recognizing them, deciding to
take a stand, and coming up with ways to get around them.
Gem #1
Creative
openers to problem solving
"Dig
deeper into why you can’t do something. Usually, you can, you are just choosing
not to."- Reframe, page 117
Creative
people are constantly questioning the things they see and experience,
questioning assumptions, authority, reality, and the status quo. But questions
can be tricky. The way you ask a question can impact the answer you get.
Open
questions provide people with opportunities to share deeper-level thoughts,
beliefs and opinions. These lead to eight “creative
openers” that contribute to asking questions that will bring powerful and
actionable answers.
·
Why? to define the problem
·
What if? to get unstuck and create a space for
creativity
·
Imagine if? to really open up possibilities and dream
big
·
What if I can’t? to push beyond the doubts
·
What if I don’t? to ground our efforts and clarify
what’s at stake
·
What? to explore the underlying issues
·
Why not? to incite conversation and spark
competitiveness
·
How about? to comfortably dig deeper
Creative
openers should not be used in all type of situations and they can even cause
some unnecessary confusion and a diffused focus if you are looking for
incremental change or to stop a pain point, for example.
As long
as you’re aware of the blocks that hinder innovation and creativity, you should
be able to use common sense to determine when a creative opener would be
useful. If you can ask open questions, listen, and empathize—you are well on
your way to creative solution.
Gem #2
Just do
it
"Open
exploration grants you permission to get lost, constraints give parameters to
work within."- Reframe, page 156
People
have closed, biased perspectives and are not seeing the problem or opportunity
clearly. This all changes with reframing. Designing a new frame around the same
circumstances allows new perspectives and ideas to emerge. The author proposes
what she calls the Reframework, a set of eight modules that you can
choose from depending on the type of business problem you have and the answers
you need.
Step 1:
The Real Problem
Step 2: A Different Lens
Step 3: Ask What If
Step 4: Funnel Vision
Step 5: Themes
Step 6: BS Excuse Personas
Step 7: Rapid Refine
Step 8: Execute
Step 2: A Different Lens
Step 3: Ask What If
Step 4: Funnel Vision
Step 5: Themes
Step 6: BS Excuse Personas
Step 7: Rapid Refine
Step 8: Execute
Taken
one by one, below are the biggest challenges encountered at each stage.
Step 1:
Define the real problem
Here we can use the Problem Brief, that consists in reframing the problem in four parts as follows: the Problem Space (reality that prevents the goal/state to be achieved), the Goal Space (desired outcome/situation), the Consequence (what’s going to change when the problem is solved), and the Gaps and Barriers (reasons why the problem hasn’t been solved yet).
Here we can use the Problem Brief, that consists in reframing the problem in four parts as follows: the Problem Space (reality that prevents the goal/state to be achieved), the Goal Space (desired outcome/situation), the Consequence (what’s going to change when the problem is solved), and the Gaps and Barriers (reasons why the problem hasn’t been solved yet).
Step 2:
Use a different lens
Put yourself in the other protagonist’s shoes and see the problem from another perspective.
Put yourself in the other protagonist’s shoes and see the problem from another perspective.
Step 3:
Ask questions to frame the future
The central part of the process that will bring the most creative and innovative ideas to the table.
The central part of the process that will bring the most creative and innovative ideas to the table.
Step 4:
Narrow down your ideas
Make all ideas visible and use a method to classify and narrow them down.
Make all ideas visible and use a method to classify and narrow them down.
Step 5:
Identify the themes
Step back and build categories of solutions.
Step back and build categories of solutions.
Step 6:
Deal with people’s fears and beliefs
Make sure everybody can express their fears and beliefs and help them address the tension points before moving forward. If you let them, excuses will hold you back.
Make sure everybody can express their fears and beliefs and help them address the tension points before moving forward. If you let them, excuses will hold you back.
Step 7:
Refine
Once the excuses are handled, refine the idea together.
Once the excuses are handled, refine the idea together.
Step 8:
Ship!
Execute the idea.
Execute the idea.
With Reframe,
Mona Patel provides us with very concrete and directly applicable tools in our
working environments, whether we are an independent or part of a large company.
I am convinced that something is holding you back from making a change. Take
some time to think about it, as well as the solutions are available to you by
exploiting the various tools proposed by the author.
