Solution Thinking

Solution ThinkingThe Development of a Thoughtful Design

The development of a thoughtful design

• Complex situations are different from complicated ones in a particular way.

• Both involve multiple elements interacting, and both can be “net positive” or “net negative”. But complexity ideally features a success from difficult relationships, whereas complication features a lack of success due to the difficulty of the relationships.

• Successful complexity is most valuable when the complexity allows a needed outcome not available from simplicity. But complexity also presents higher degrees of difficulty when it must be changed to allow or provide different outcomes.

• Professionals working on changing complex situations increasingly talk about the need to solve problems that have low or uncertain definition. The challenge is similar to confronting a highly out-of-focus image where the picture at hand needs far higher resolution before we can tell what it intends to communicate. Part of the challenge is also to determine what the framing of theimage actually includes or omits, and how that affects the way details are connected and organized within.

• Higher resolution creates the opportunity to examine and decide on what evident meaning can and should be addressed. Techniques for increasing the resolution include analysis, pattern recognition, and trial-and-error distillation among others that may “enhance” and “clarify” available information about details and relationships.

• The techniques themselves may be simple or complex, and their use comes with a risk of creating images that are not factual representations of the underlying situation being resolved. They need not be mutually exclusive, and they may themselves evolve.

• This risk points out, however, that the desired initial impact of the resolution is not about the output being “truth” but instead about being actionable; and the essential goal is not about the completeness of the technique but instead about the maturation of the incremental outcomes towards having a desirable impact.

• In effect, the overall resolution effort is a form of development aimed at producing utility of desirable known value. If the effort also becomes sustainable, then it is a way for development to continue adding to a progression of benefits over time. It is alsoimportant to acknowledge that the “developer” may also be the target beneficiary, as well as that competency can vary from one developer or situation to another.

REQUIREMENTS:WHOHOW

GOALS:WHATWHEN

OPTIONS:WHATHOW

SCOPEwhat & who

OBJECTIVESwhen & how

NEEDS:WHY

WHEN

PRIORITIESwhen & who

orwhy & how

CONSTRAINTSwhat & why

FormPlace

Timing

Effect

In producing a new solution, the process is not “about” the process! The process is about maturing an emergent solution.

Our approach engages a solver that investigates and a stakeholder that decides, who together explore ways to arrive at, and finalize, four key aspects of a solution: form, timing, place, and effect. In a solution these aspects are compatible with each other.

The four aspects are not sequentially derived. They are simultaneously nominated as potential specifications, that are each modifiable for developing coherence and equilibrium with the others as an intentional future state.

We show how those solution aspects fit as value propositions among four areas of predictable common interest in the solver-stakeholder interaction: objectives, constraints, priorities and scope.

STAKEHOLDER DECISIONS

SOLV

ER IN

VESTIG

ATION

S

© 2016 malcolm ryder / archestra

REQUIREMENTS:WHOHOW

GOALS:WHATWHEN

OPTIONS:WHATHOW

AGENTSwhat & who

CLIENTSwhen & how

NEEDS:WHY

WHEN

ACTORSwhen & who

orwhy & how

MANAGERSwhat & why

FormPlace

Timing

Effect

STAKEHOLDER DECISIONS

SOLV

ER IN

VESTIG

ATION

S

Reference: Policy and Culture

Referen

ce: Histo

ry and

Expertise

Our technique is based on identifying the interests that characterize the relationship of a solver and a stakeholder. (Who, what, when, how, why. We assume that all “solutions” are location-specific; i.e. where is not a variable interest.)

But further, our value contribution analysis looks for critical distinctions and the responsibilities for generating them. From lessons learned, we now assume that when these distinctions are not made in practice, the probability of successful outcomes will usually fall dramatically.

Where the interests are the samefor the solver and stakeholder, we suppress them, to leave the differences more explicit; then we assign the differences as known responsibilities of roles in the relationship. Co-operation of roles generates the solution.


Solution maturation as progressThe various participants and their inputs are orchestrated to achieve “realizations” and “acceptance” of definable options.

MODEL

IMAGINATION

PROPOSITION

INVENTION

TEST

CONTEXT

Solution value: Independent,

based on Possibilities

Solution value: Dependent,

based on Relevance

DEMO

SOLUTION DEFINITION (RESOLUTION)

Model results may provoke re-imagining. Likewise, Demo results may provoke re-invention, and test results may provoke altering the current proposition


MODEL

IMAGINATION

PROPOSITION

INVENTION

TEST

CONTEXT




based on Relevance

DEMO

competition

scheduling

resources

demand

technique

permission

SOLUTION ACCEPTANCE (ADOPTION)

Many variable conditions may predispose the potential alignment of current iterations of imagination, models, propositions, etc.


MODEL

IMAGINATION

PROPOSITION

INVENTION

TEST

CONTEXT




based on Relevance

DEMO

competition

scheduling

resources

demand

technique

permission

PROTOTYPING

The ability to work beyond prior restraints and precedents may be essential to framing an immediately addressable problem.


MODEL

IMAGINATION

PROPOSITION

INVENTION

TEST

CONTEXT




based on Relevance

DEMO

competition

scheduling

resources

demand

technique

permission

INFLUENCING

Tailoring is a matter of both socializing and acclimatizing a “solving” option so that it represents a viable opportunity.


MODEL

IMAGINATION

PROPOSITION

INVENTION

TEST

CONTEXT




based on Relevance

DEMO

competition

scheduling

resources

demand

technique

permission

ALIGNING

Acceptance involves belief, support, and accommodation if a solution deployment is to be usable.


Archestra notebooks compile and organize decades of in-the-field empirical findings. The notes offer explanations of why things did happen or can happen in certain ways or to certain effects. The descriptions are determined mainly from the

perspective of strategy and architecture. They comment on, and navigate between, the motives and potentials that predetermine the decisions and shapes of activity as discussed in the notes. All notebooks are subject to change.

©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra [email protected]