Being effective within an organisation requires insight and skill. Being effective doesn’t necessarily mean right solutions or even the right effect.
Being right implies a correct answer, point of view or solution. Being right often implies an individual’s winning solution or approach. Being right in itself doesn’t get things done.
In today’s hive-minded culture, the individual often loses out to group think and collaboration or the Cloud brain. Are we collectively better off?
Blockchain security is based on statistical agreement. 7 out of 10 people agree on a transaction and it is therefore correct and valid.
Group thinking, or democracy delivered Trump, not the theory of relativity. You could argue that Einstein’s discovers was based on a progression of historical group thinking.
Adrian Burnham, in his book ‘The Brainstorming Myth’, says “Research shows unequivocally that brainstorming groups produce fewer and poorer quality ideas than the same number of individuals working alone. Yet firms continue to use brainstorming as a technique for generating ideas.”
Design Futures is a new way of examining current situations and collaboratively imagining future scenarios. Because the future can never really be predicted, Design Futures generates a variety of choice based on a realistic and fact-based present.
The plurality of choice is important. One size fits all does not work. The future is not linear, but often a result of interdependent and indeterminate outcomes and results with different needs for different people, cultures and communities.
So how are ideas and solutions chosen in today’s organisations? In spite of collaborative approaches, mostly through uninformed and hierarchical processes. The challenge is convincing those in charge to choose the right and most effective solutions.
An organisation is only as innovative as it’s senior leaders and their ability to listen. Let us hope, but not assume that leaders today surround themselves and listen to a group of diverse people engaged in creative dialogue to deliver effective and right choices.