“Projects fail all the time because we unwittingly bake the end solution into our initial objective. Rather than enduring an uncomfortable (but highly necessary) period of ambiguity, we fall into the trap of limiting our creativity by setting a project goal that is too narrowly defined from the start.
Take the story of the American scientists and the invention of the “space pen,” for example. The scientists were given the task of designing and creating a pen to deal with the problem of ballpoint pens not being able to write in zero-gravity. They spent considerable time and money developing the idea, which resulted in using nitrogen under pressure, supplying the ink without the need for gravity.
The Russians just used a pencil. Instead of setting out to design a ballpoint pen that was gravity-free, they looked for ways of being able to write upside down.
Whether it’s true or not, this much-told tale illustrates the importance of not backing your idea into a corner early on. Creativity – and ultimately, sensible and appropriate ideas – come out of smartly identifying a problem that needs to be solved and working from there, rather than setting a narrowly defined goal that reads too much into what you want to create.”
Bovenstaande is een stukje uit een artikel van The 99% (geweldige website!) over buiten de lijntjes denken: The power of uncertainty. De moeite waard als je regelmatig te maken hebt met het definiëren van problemen/opdrachten en oplossingsgericht werken.
Eva Brands ('87) uit Rotterdam.
