1) The document discusses the principles of backward design for planning goals and assessments. 2) It provides an example of using backward design to plan a dinner party, including setting the goal, determining evidence of success, and planning assessments. 3) The document also discusses methodical inventive thinking techniques that can be used in the planning process, such as unification, division, and analogy, and provides tips for effective brainstorming such as focusing intensely on ideas for short periods before moving in a new direction.

1. Micaela Ziv
WFS Master Class, July 2015
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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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15. Effective brainstorming
How do we make brainstorming
creative, ensuring we end up with
plenty of good, original ideas?
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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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