Problem framing is an important part of designing innovation. Using tools that encourage the inclusion of people that are most affected by the problem is important to the Innovation Fellowship as well as including people with the power to drive change from the outside. When combined we refer to these groups as the community of adopters. The community of people who are being invited to drive change, whether from the inside or from the outside, need to feel that the solution to the problem is accessible to them, available to them, owned by them, and can benefit them.
The Innovation Fellowship finds it imperative to include those that have traditionally been left out of designing solutions and so we’ve looked at a combination of tools and mental models including the Problem Tree, the Problem Framing Canvas, and Theory U to guide us.
The tools ensure that we are able to design at the margins for those who have the greatest need, and who are traditionally left out of the design process. To complement this approach, innovators are encouraged to take a critical look at their assumptions and the biases that influence their view of the problem. This helps them to open up their view since one person’s blind spot might be very obvious to another. Being in fellowship with people from different organisations and communities provides a safe opportunity for exposing potential blindness and inattention in how a problem has been framed by making it reciprocal.
“Success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener”
Bill O’ Brien
Theory U is a method developed to look into the interior condition from which we operate and lead change. It proposes that the quality of results that we co-create in social systems is a function of the quality of awareness and consciousness that system participants operate from.
The problem framing process is the downward leg of the U, where innovators surface, become aware of, and let go of past patterns of behaviour that deter them from empathising with the perspective of others and letting go of inaccurate or limiting assumptions.
This lays the ground for them to deeply connect with their self and their work before we begin the practice of envisioning, where participants step into sensing the possibilities and creating a vision of a better future in which the problem has been solved.
Tips for Sensing:
Most of these tips involve practicing openness, creating possibility and overcoming the kind of blindness and inattention that can lead to innovation breakdowns.
Openness to Discomfort:
Be open to disharmony and a sense of unease or discomfort. Something in the world is not right and we need to go more deeply into that. And perhaps there is something within us that also is not right. It can be difficult, even painful, to not only see and accept this but also to investigate further.
Openness to Others:
Finding people who see things differently from us and building on what they see can show us different perspectives that can be illuminating as well as challenging.
Openness to Possibility:
Engaging with multiple perspectives and listening to both agreement and disagreement, acceptance and resistance, commitment and rejection allows us to see other possibilities.
Overcoming Blind Spots:
Interacting with someone who does not see things the way we do can be hard, especially if they challenge our cherished and deeply held beliefs. If we can do this, the rewards are great because we not only avoid tactical errors we might not have seen but we might even find better possibilities for more innovative solutions.
Notice:
Seeing how your attention expands from your single narrower picture of the problem to the more encompassing view of a diverse group of observers is something you can capture in a journal, in notes, in a mind map, in a systems diagram as well as in meditation or in conversations with your colleagues, your coach, your mentors and even a stranger on the bus – just for fun.