Research Process

I’ve been collecting research for my thesis project for 5 weeks now and have established a pretty good routine for tracking key facts that I find. I track down my materials via the Internet using simple Google searches and the more academic Google Scholar. My primary source has been the IUPUI catalog and book and article databases. After a general search for content I use Google Scholar to identify more items and track them down in the IU system. General searches in the IU catalogs have also yielded decent results.

If I have a physical version of the source is found I skim the table of contents to see what jumps out. Sometimes that leads me to sections inside and other times I just start reading. I do a lot of skimming until I find topics of interest. Once I find that I focus my reading and use sticky note tabs to mark important sections, noting on the tag why I have marked the page.

After getting a number of tabs established I then transfer the facts onto note cards, reading the sections again to determine relevancy and to review the fact. On the note cards I’ve noted the author, speaker, article and/or book.

If the source is digital, I use a similar process, only I sometimes take screen capture photos of content as well. I have these files all saved in one folder for easy access when needed.

I now have a few nice stacks of cards with key facts on them that are helping me keep my momentum going forward and helping me synthesize and understand the huge amount of information I’ve gathered.

Consultant/Facilitation Practice

Acting as a consultant to a classmate, I helped her devise a solution to small problem in her life through facilitation of a team of 4 peers through the Simplex creative problem solving process.

I had a pre-consulting session with my client and then prepared over the next 3 days for the event. At the group session I had 2 hours to complete 6 or 7 of the 8 steps in the process, which would provide the client with a new strategy for tackling her problem. I think both the individual and group sessions went very well and the solution provided to her problem was very fitting. 😉

Our challenge statement for the client arrived at “How might we help her enjoy shopping?” We determined that she did not enjoy shopping for a variety of reasons, but largely due to allergies. The lack of enjoyment resulted in her having a wardrobe unapproved by her boyfriend and family members.

Leadership Visual

Visual closeup

In my Design Leadership seminar we recently read two articles and visualized our integrated understanding of them. The first article discussed the leadership style of seven different types of leaders. Three of these under perfom, two styles are average to good performers, and the final two types are the cream of the crop, transformational leaders. The second article, written by Design Thinking advocate Roger Martin, focused on the ability to think integratively. Rather than simplifying problems into either-or scenarios using conventional thinking, the integrative thinker is able to create a new third-way to approach the problem.

Click here for my visual. (Warning: LARGE file)

Secrets & Assumptions

As I was leaving school today I noticed simple looking box sitting innocently in the lobby. Too plain to be an advert of any sort but too smart to have been forgotten, I stopped and turned around for further inspection. There was a pad of paper attached to the top, a pen tethered to the back and a simple note asking passerby to share a secret. For their generosity they would be rewarded with a secret from the box’s creator, which was on the flip side of the note. I deposited two secrets, read theirs and was on my way. Kind of a nice end to the day, leaving a few secrets behind as I left for the day.

The incident got me thinking on my drive home about a box created last year by design team 5.0 in the Collaborative Action Studio. I believe they were having communication issues that were hampering their work. In effort to address this they created a similar box. If an issue was thought to be serious enough the member was obligated to discuss it. If the problem was likely an assumption  or minor it could be placed in the box, never to be read; a good symbol for acknowledging fears and then moving on, not letting them hold you back. It seemed to have worked for them as their productivity improved after implementing their version of the secret box.

Maybe we all need a box to deposit our fears and secrets into so that we can move forward, and past our assumptions that threaten to hold us back. Feel free to share your secrets in the comments section, anonymously of course.

How Might…

In crafting my thesis research question I am beginning each attempt with How Might… . It is similar to crafting a challenge statement in a problem solving process. The next step involves identifying, generally, a “what,” a “how” and a “why.”

It’s a tough process, finding an area that has not yet been covered ad nauseum, is specific and focused, but not too specific or too focused. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it but I’ve been throwing a lot of pasta at the wall with little of it sticking. I still need to do some further research so that I can get more specific but I think I’m figuring out how to craft an appropriate research question.

Click here to read all of my HM… statements

Topics of Interest

Click here for the full Areas of Interest Visual

A key method for success in tackling complex, ambiguous problems (such as identifying thesis research questions) is to create a visual model (or visualization) of the problem space. The one above is a map that covers my topics of interest to this point in my thesis project research and begins to build connections between the topics. Also identified are design lenses, which I will eventually need to establish.

It is always interesting creating these things. You never know what patterns or relationships will pop up that you didn’t recognize before and only were able to see once you started separating and organizing the muck.

Negotiation Exercise Reflection

In our collaborative studio course last week we went through a 1-on-1 negotiation exercise. The scenario pitted two mid-level managers at a newspaper in a negotiation to spend $1M. I thoroughly enjoyed the negotiation role playing and possibly got too involved in my character’s perspective to produce a result closer to what I think that I would have reached for in my life.

As Coleman, one of the first emotions I felt was a sense of competition with Martinez. Competition is certainly part of many workplaces and this scenario made sure to play that aspect up through the inclusion of potential job promotions and encouraging us to exceed stated goals. (Both of which are appropriate workplace phenomenon.) The secretive nature of the exercise also helped to create an us, advertising, versus them, editorial, mentality, and I fell for the common trap of thinking that we both could not win.

Action Planning

For the first semester of our thesis class we will need to produce a thesis project proposal. The proposal consists of: researchable question, sub questions, justification, limitations, literature review and a research plan for the second semester.

The first draft of the proposal is due Oct. 26. To ensure that I have the draft completed on time I created an “Action Plan for the Thesis Proposal Draft.” To do this I identified what content I needed to produce (see above) and the actions I would need to take to develop the content. These actions essentially consisted of research, writing, creating visuals, talking with faculty, refinement, more research and decision making. Some sub-level actions needed to meet other demands of class include regular blogging and creating visualizations.

On to the Action Plan:

Serendipit-Y-Generation

Since we last talked about my thesis project I was ruminating on Design Education and made my way into generational traits. I figured that the future of education revolves around the Y-Generation (a.k.a. Millennials, Echo Boomers, First Digitals) so we should be considering them when constructing educational methods. I just dove into this idea last night and one thing (of many) I discovered was that that some researchers have proven is that there are generational traits (generationism) and that the generation born between 1980 and 2000 (+/-) has a natural tendency towards left and right brain thinking. According to Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind,” thinking/creating/working with both sides of the brain will be the new economy. This type of thinking is also crucial to innovation as we need to balance creative (new ideas!) and analytical (logical systems!) thinking to come up with truly innovative concepts. His theory, as well as my belief, is that leveraging both sides of the brain will be crucial in solving the most pressing and complex problems within society. So, if the Y-Gen is predispositioned toward this sort of thinking they may be able to successfully address the slew of fuzzy problems that we know of (and those that we haven’t yet discovered).

Brainstorming’s Unwritten Rule

Today in our Collaborative Action Studio the first-year students were re-introduced to “brainstorming,” one of many techniques for ideation (generating ideas) before going through a session led by an experienced facilitator. Second-year students were encouraged to sabotage the experience or to exhibit negative brainstorming behavior as an example of how unproductive or uncomfortable the sessions become when executed poorly (I think the new students figured it out quickly… smart bunch). Before and after the session we talked about how to properly facilitate a brainstorming session and the errors that were exhibited.

It had been a few months since I had facilitated brainstorming or ideation and just this morning before class I had gathered a group of students to ideate on a meeting that we will be hosting. Later in the day when we reviewed best practices for ideation facilitation I realized how rusty I had become in just a short time without practice. Brainstorming seems easy to execute but in reality, leading a productive, engaging and successful session takes a lot of skill and awareness. Reviewing the rules and tips was a nice refresher and reminded me that I need to reflect upon and review core skills such as these on occasion.

There is one rule however that you will not find in any as yet published ideation guides. Fortunately I am here to share it with you:Quite simply, make sure your pants are zipped. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had violated this cardinal rule while leading my session earlier in the day. In all honesty the odds are good that I will make this mistake again; but there is no need for you to follow in my steps. Avoid ego assassination and check your fly before stepping in front of a group of people ready to shout out anything that comes to mind.