Points of View
Reformulate a work problem through the eyes of different people and find new directions for solutions.
Why this exercise
The way a problem is worded determines which solutions we look for. A customer would ask "How can we reduce late shipments?" differently: "How can I know exactly when my order will arrive?". A driver: "How can I avoid waiting two hours to be loaded?". The CFO: "How can we stop paying penalties?". Each wording opens its own door. The exercise is a tool for the first stage of the DO-IT creative process (R. Olson).
How to run it
- Each team formulates a training problem or its own work problem in the first person.
- The team draws three role cards and formulates the problem the way each of these people would. 8 minutes.
- It combines the three wordings into one, the strongest. 4 minutes.
- Teams read out all the versions. 5 minutes.
- Individually — the same steps for your own problem in the workbook.
Debrief questions
- Which wording opened a direction you had not thought of?
- Whose point of view turned out to be the most useful?
- The most unexpected wordings come from "distant" roles: a child, a chef, a ship's captain. If a team has drawn only "close" ones, suggest adding one distant role.
- Laughter is a good sign: barriers are coming down. Ask them to write down even the joke wordings — the best one often grows out of them.
Similar exercises
Business Game "The Tower"
Give the group a shared experience of working on a task with limited resources, which is then used to debrief goal setting, choice of strategy and roles.
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Build control of your own task in advance and without the typical mistakes: total, hidden or "occasional" control.