Some years ago, I stumbled across a simple design exercise that helps people understand and solve complex problems, and like many of these design exercises, it kind of seems trivial at first, but under deep inspection, it turns out that it reveals unexpected truths about the way that we collaborate and make sense of things.
Pre nekoliko godina sam naleteo na jednostavnu vežbu iz dizajna pomoću koje se lakše rešavaju složeni problemi, i kao mnoge slične vežbe, na prvi pogled deluje trivijalno, ali kada se bolje pogleda, uspeva da otkrije neočekivane stvari o načinima na koje sarađujemo i razmišljamo.
The exercise has three parts and begins with something that we all know how to do, which is how to make toast. It begins with a clean sheet of paper, a felt marker, and without using any words, you begin to draw how to make toast. And most people draw something like this. They draw a loaf of bread, which is sliced, then put into a toaster. The toast is then deposited for some time. It pops up, and then voila! After two minutes, toast and happiness.
Sastoji se iz tri dela, a počinje od nečega što svi umemo: pravljenja tosta. Za početak uzmete prazan list papira i flomaster i bez korišćenja reči crtate uputstvo za pravljenje tosta. Većina ljudi nacrta nešto poput ovoga. Nacrtaju veknu hleba, koja se iseče, pa se stavi u toster. Toster zatim radi određeno vreme. Hleb iskoči i eto tosta i radosti.
Now, over the years, I've collected many hundreds of drawings of these toasts, and some of them are very good, because they really illustrate the toast-making process quite clearly. And then there are some that are, well, not so good. They really suck, actually, because you don't know what they're trying to say. Under close inspection, some reveal some aspects of toast-making while hiding others. So there's some that are all about the toast, and all about the transformation of toast. And there's others that are all about the toaster, and the engineers love to draw the mechanics of this. (Laughter) And then there are others that are about people. It's about visualizing the experience that people have. And then there are others that are about the supply chain of making toast that goes all the way back to the store. It goes through the supply chain networks of teleportation and all the way back to the field and wheat, and one all actually goes all the way back to the Big Bang. So it's crazy stuff. But I think it's obvious that even though these drawings are really wildly different, they share a common quality, and I'm wondering if you can see it. Do you see it? What's common about these?
Proteklih godina sam sakupio stotine ovakvih crteža, i neki su vrlo dobri, jer veoma jasno prikazuju postupak pravljenja tosta. Neki, sa druge strane, i nisu tako dobri. Zapravo su stvarno bezveze, jer se ne vidi šta žele da prikažu. Kad se bolje pogleda, neki prikazuju određene strane pravljenja tosta, dok druge kriju. Tako se neki bave samo tostom, a neki prelaskom hleba u tost. A neki se bave siključivo tosterima, inženjeri vole da crtaju taj mehanički deo. (Smeh) Neki su i o ljudima. Trude se da prenesu ljudski doživljaj. Ima i onih koji se bave logistikom pravljenja tosta, sa početkom u prodavnici. Teleportom prolaze kroz čitav lanac snabdevanja, vraćaju se do njive i žita, jedan čak počinje od samog Velikog Praska. Ima ludih stvari. Ali mi se čini da je očito da, iako su vrlo različiti, svi crteži dele jednu osobinu, i zanima me da li je vidite. Vidite li? Šta im je zajedničko?
Most drawings have nodes and links. So nodes represent the tangible objects like the toaster and people, and links represent the connections between the nodes. And it's the combination of links and nodes that produces a full systems model, and it makes our private mental models visible about how we think something works. So that's the value of these things. What's interesting about these systems models is how they reveal our various points of view. So for example, Americans make toast with a toaster. That seems obvious. Whereas many Europeans make toast with a frying pan, of course, and many students make toast with a fire. I don't really understand this. A lot of MBA students do this.
Većina se sastoji od čvorova i veza. Čvorovi predstavljaju materijalne stvari, poput tostera i ljudi, dok veze povezuju čvorove. Ta kombinacija čvorova i veza čini model sistema, koji prenosi naš mentalni model, odnosno shvatanje određenih pojava. Tome oni zapravo služe. Zanimljivo je da ovi modeli sistema oslikavaju naše tačke gledišta. Na primer, Amerikanci koriste tostere. To je očigledno. Međutim, mnogi Evropljani tost prave u tiganju, a mnogi studenti na otvorenom plamenu. Ne razumem zašto, ali mnogi master studenti to rade.
So you can measure the complexity by counting the number of nodes, and the average illustration has between four and eight nodes. Less than that, the drawing seems trivial, but it's quick to understand, and more than 13, the drawing produces a feeling of map shock. It's too complex. So the sweet spot is between 5 and 13. So if you want to communicate something visually, have between five and 13 nodes in your diagram. So though we may not be skilled at drawing, the point is that we intuitively know how to break down complex things into simple things and then bring them back together again.
Brojanjem čvorova se može izmeriti složenost crteža, i u proseku ih ima između četiri i osam. Ako ih je manje, crtež deluje trivijalno, ali se brže razume, a ako ih je više od 13, čovek se izgubi u crtežu. Previše je složen. Znači da je najbolje između 5 i 13. Ako želite da nešto prikažete slikom, neka na dijagramu bude između 5 i 13 čvorova. Iako možda ne umemo da crtamo, bitno je da umemo da složene stvari instinktivno raščlanimo na jednostavne, a zatim ih ponovo sastavimo.
So this brings us to our second part of the exercise, which is how to make toast, but now with sticky notes or with cards. So what happens then? Well, with cards, most people tend to draw clear, more detailed, and more logical nodes. You can see the step by step analysis that takes place, and as they build up their model, they move their nodes around, rearranging them like Lego blocks. Now, though this might seem trivial, it's actually really important. This rapid iteration of expressing and then reflecting and analyzing is really the only way in which we get clarity. It's the essence of the design process. And systems theorists do tell us that the ease with which we can change a representation correlates to our willingness to improve the model. So sticky note systems are not only more fluid, they generally produce way more nodes than static drawings. The drawings are much richer.
Tu dolazimo do drugog dela vežbe, uputstva za pravljenje tosta, ali ovog puta pomoću nalepnica ili kartica. Šta se tada dešava? Kad koristi kartice, većina ljudi crta jasnije, detaljnije i logičnije čvorove. Vidi se kako se vrši postepena analiza i dok se model gradi, redosled čvorova se preuređuje poput Lego kockica. Iako to deluje nebitno, zapravo je veoma važno. Jedino tom brzom smenom između stvaranja i sagledavanja i analize postiže se jasnoća izraza. To je suština procesa dizajna. A teoretičari sistema nam kažu da je lakoća sa kojom menjamo način prikaza ideje srazmerna našoj volji da poboljšamo model. Ne samo da su sistemi sa karticama fleksibilniji, već i sadrže mnogo više čvorova od crteža. Mnogo su detaljniji.
And this brings us to our third part of the exercise, which is to draw how to make toast, but this time in a group. So what happens then? Well, here's what happens. It starts out messy, and then it gets really messy, and then it gets messier, but as people refine the models, the best nodes become more prominent, and with each iteration, the model becomes clearer because people build on top of each other's ideas. What emerges is a unified systems model that integrates the diversity of everyone's individual points of view, so that's a really different outcome from what usually happens in meetings, isn't it? So these drawings can contain 20 or more nodes, but participants don't feel map shock because they participate in the building of their models themselves. Now, what's also really interesting, that the groups spontaneously mix and add additional layers of organization to it. To deal with contradictions, for example, they add branching patterns and parallel patterns. Oh, and by the way, if they do it in complete silence, they do it much better and much more quickly. Really interesting -- talking gets in the way.
Sada počinje treći deo vežbe, crtanje uputstva za pravljenje tosta, ali u okviru grupe. Šta se tada dešava? Dešava se sledeće: isprva je neuredno, pa još neurednije, i još neurednije, ali što se model više prerađuje, najbolji čvorovi se sve više ističu i svakom sledećom verzijom je model sve jasniji jer se gradi na tuđim idejama. Time nastaje zajednički model sistema koji objedinjuje sve različite tačke gledišta, što je sasvim suprotno onome što se obično dešava na sastancima, zar ne? Ovi crteži mogu da sadrže i preko 20 čvorova, ali je teško da se čovek izgubi u njima jer i sam učestvuje u njihovom stvaranju. Zanimljivo je da grupe same menjaju ili dodaju nove načine uređivanja dijagrama. Na primer, da bi se izbegle protivrečnosti dodaju se grananja ili paralelne putanje. Uz to, sve mnogo brže i bolje ide ako se radi u tišini. Stvarno zanimljivo - pričanje ometa.
So here's some key lessons that can emerge from this. First, drawing helps us understand the situations as systems with nodes and their relationships. Movable cards produce better systems models, because we iterate much more fluidly. And then the group notes produce the most comprehensive models because we synthesize several points of view. So that's interesting. When people work together under the right circumstances, group models are much better than individual models.
Iz ovoga se mogu izvući sledeće pouke: prvo, pomoću crtanja događaje shvatamo kao sisteme čvorova i njihovih veza. Pomoću kartica se stvaraju bolji modeli, jer se mogu mnogo lakše menjati. Rad u grupi stvara najopširnije modele zbog spajanja različitih tački gledišta. To je zanimljivo. Ako ljudi sarađuju pod pravim okolnostima, grupni modeli su mnogo bolji nego pojedinačni.
So this approach works really great for drawing how to make toast, but what if you wanted to draw something more relevant or pressing, like your organizational vision, or customer experience, or long-term sustainability?
Vidimo da ovaj pristup dobro funkcioniše za pravljenje tosta, ali šta ako poželite da nacrtate nešto bitnije, recimo viziju kompanije, ili uslužnu delatnost, ili plan za dugoročnu održivost?
There's a visual revolution that's taking place as more organizations are addressing their wicked problems by collaboratively drawing them out. And I'm convinced that those who see their world as movable nodes and links really have an edge.
Dešava se vizuelna revolucija, jer sve više organizacija rešava nezgodne probleme tako što ih zajednički iscrta. Siguran sam da su u prednosti oni koji na svet gledaju kao na pokretne čvorove i veze.
And the practice is really pretty simple. You start with a question, you collect the nodes, you refine the nodes, you do it over again, you refine and refine and refine, and the patterns emerge, and the group gets clarity and you answer the question.
Ceo postupak je prilično jednostavan. Počne se od pitanja, sakupe se čvorovi, usavrše se, pa se sve ponovi, usavršavate i usavršavate dok ne dobijete jasnu sliku i odgovor na pitanje.
So this simple act of visualizing and doing over and over again produces some really remarkable outcomes. What's really important to know is that it's the conversations that are the important aspects, not just the models themselves. And these visual frames of reference can grow to several hundreds or even thousands of nodes. So, one example is from an organization called Rodale. Big publishing company. They lost a bunch of money one year, and their executive team for three days visualized their entire practice. And what's interesting is that after visualizing the entire business, systems upon systems, they reclaimed 50 million dollars of revenue, and they also moved from a D rating to an A rating from their customers. Why? Because there's alignment from the executive team. So I'm now on a mission to help organizations solve their wicked problems by using collaborative visualization, and on a site that I've produced called drawtoast.com, I've collected a bunch of best practices. and so you can learn how to run a workshop here, you can learn more about the visual language and the structure of links and nodes that you can apply to general problem-solving, and download examples of various templates for unpacking the thorny problems that we all face in our organizations. So the seemingly trivial design exercise of drawing toast helps us get clear, engaged and aligned.
Taj jednostavan postupak crtanja i prepravljanja donosi izuzetne rezultate. Važno je znati da je bitna komunikacija, a ne sam model. Toliko različitih tački gledišta može da stvori stotine ili čak hiljade čvorova. Jedan od primera ovoga je kompanija Rodale, velika izdavačka kuća. Jedne godine su izgubili dosta novca, pa je grupa direktora tri dana iscrtavala celokupno poslovanje. Zanimljivo je da su nakon iscrtavanja celokupnog poslovnog plana, sistema i sistema, ostvarili zaradu od 50 miliona dolara, a ocena mušterija se povećala od prolazne do najbolje. Zašto? Zato što su direktori sad sve organizovali. Trudim se da pomognem kompanijama u rešavanju nezgodnih problema iscrtavanjem u grupi, a na sajtu drawtoast.com sam sakupio neke od najboljih primera. Tu možete da naučite o vođenju radionica, o vizuelnom jeziku i o sastavu čvorova i veza koje se koriste za rešavanje problema, kao i da skinete razne šablone za borbu protiv teških problema u kompanijama. Naizgled trivijalna vežba iz dizajna nam pomaže da dobijemo jasnu sliku, angažujemo se i organizujemo.
So next time you're confronted with an interesting challenge, remember what design has to teach us. Make your ideas visible, tangible, and consequential. It's simple, it's fun, it's powerful, and I believe it's an idea worth celebrating.
Kad se sledeći put suočite sa zanimljivim izazovom, setite se šta nam dizajn poručuje. Neka vam ideje budu vidljive, određene i značajne. Jednostavno je, zabavno i moćno, i smatram da je to ideja koju vredi proslaviti.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)