2. All you need is….
Logic and
Imagination:
qualities we can acquire
and develop
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3. Logic Backward design: a
framework for making our thinking
more effective and more likely to
produce results.
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4. Backward Design principles
Set goals / targets / desired outcomes
Determine acceptable evidence of achievement
Design assessment tools
Plan actions accordingly
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5. A Dinner Party - 1
1. Goal:
Have a successful dinner party
2. Acceptable Evidence:
People came, ate and enjoyed themselves
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6. A Dinner Party - 1
1. Goal: Have a successful dinner party
2. Evidence: People came, ate and enjoyed themselves
3. Assessment ( in this case - empirical/qualitative):
A flopSo-soExcellent
50% came80% cameEveryone cameAttendance
Nothing specialMostly very goodVery tastyFood
Awkward – hard
work and little
laughter
Conversation
flowed most of
the time
Lots of
conversation and
laughter
Enjoyment
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7. A Dinner Party - 2
Planning
Set date / choose and invite guests
Decide on the menu
Go shopping
Prepare the meal
Set the table and plan seating
Enabling skills: what you/your team need to know before
you start brainstorming…..
See the following example…..
ENABLING
SKILLS
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8. Futurist thinking workshop - BD
1. Goal: Participants leave with knowledge and skills to
apply volitional futurist thinking
2. Evidence: Participants can present a basic plan applying
what they have learned and knowing what enabling skills
they/their teams still lack.
3. Assessment – Via your feedback
4. Enabling skills:
Understanding the principles and terminology
Understanding Backward Design
Understanding effective brainstorming / methodical
inventive thinking techniques
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9. Imagination Methodical Inventive Thinking
not as paradoxical as it sounds……
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11. The Simple M.I.T. approach
An inventive idea is usually the outcome of the resolution
of a certain contradiction or conflict, while remaining
within the ‘world’ of the problem.
Inventive/creative thinking is characterized by the ability
to absorb more details, and then distinguish and generate
more alternative paths of action.
Basic components needed for a breakthrough in creativity
are:
curiosity and flexibility
ability to cope with vagueness, change or uncertainty
desire to invent.
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12. How to go about it
Determine the required action
- what you want to achieve but don’t know how yet (i.e.
your desired outcome in BD).
Analyze the components of the problem world
- look at everything you know
Constraints
– list the realities/obstacles you can’t ignore
Apply a thinking tool
– one of the BD enabling skills you have acquired
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13. M.I.T. tools - 1
Unification – This deals with actions, functions, uses and
the connections between them.
Division – This deals with the perception of the whole and
its breakdown into parts. A kind of Lego game. Special
cases are the subtraction of components and adaptation
to the environment. The tool of division also deals with
sub-components and the connections between them.
Particle Method – This enables us to imagine new
structures and ideas and frees us from the need to
understand the details of realization in advance. It also
deals with situational analysis.
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14. M.I.T. tools - 2
Multiplication – This deals with adding elements of the types
that already exist in the problem world and the connections
between them.
Adding a dimension – This deals with properties,
characteristics and the connections between them. It also deals
with adding a dimension of time and space, state and
dimensions typical of the problem world.
Inversion – This deals with logic, order, processes and the
connections between them.
Analogy – This deals with other worlds that are similar to the
problem world, and the connection between these content
worlds and the problem world.
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16. The Motion Principle
Instead of waiting for brilliant ideas to mysteriously
emerge – be proactive and dynamic
Focus on one direction of thought and rapidly move on
to the next.
This motion is what generates creativity – our
brains are creative when they are on the move! Just
focus intensely for a short time, then take an opposite
direction.
www.simpleinnovation.co
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