Creativity Central [Marty Baker]

Like an earthquake, every eureka moment has a series of aftershocks.  One of the most fascinating of these after sights is discovering your blind spots.  Typically, you'll hear lines like "The answer was right in front of me and I couldn't see it."  "I was solving the wrong problem."  "I never challenged the conventional thinking."

Isn't fallibility great?

Years ago, Russell Ackoff, a teacher at the Wharton School wrote a great article called "Infallibility."  I am paraphrasing some of the highlights because it sheds some more light on our blind spots.  In an experiment conducted by Alex Bavelas at MIT, subjects were taken into a room where slides were projected.  The slides were produced by waving a flashlight in dark room over unexposed film.

The subjects sat at desks in front of two buttons.  They were told to press one of the buttons after each slide. Here's the twist.  If they pressed the "right" one they would be paid, if they pressed the wrong one, they would get nothing. 

There was nothing said about what parameters determined the "right" choice.  After a few slides, most subjects began to formulate theories to explain the rewards they received and soon they were quite sure that their theory was correct. 

When the experiment was completed the subjects were asked to reveal their theories.  Then Bavelas told them that they were rewarded at random.  They was absolutely no relationship between the buttons pushed and the rewards.   Most of the subjects were surprised, but insisted that they theories were correct.  They would not abandon their theories.

Story 2 from Ackoff.  C. West Churchman and Philburn Ratoosh at U.C. Berkeley developed a management game played by a team of four.  One acted as a CEO, the others as managers of manufacturing, marketing, and finance.

The teams were asked to improve the performance of a simulated firm.  The simulation was generated by a well-known mathematical model from which an optimal solution could be derived.  (Note:  all the students who were used as subjects had attended a class on this model and its solution had been presented.)

On each team was a student who served as the financial manager who was told the nature of the model and its solution.  They were asked not to reveal this information to their team until they received a signal from the experimenter.  "They were asked to pretend that they made they made the discovery on their own."

Only a small percentage of the teams adopted the optimal solution when it was proposed to them. 

Now, the follow up.  Churchman and Ratoosh described the experiment and the results at many meetings and seminars.  The explanations of the failure of the teams to implement the optimal solution was discussed and corrective actions suggested at these meetings. 

Churchman and Ratoosh recorded these suggestions and tested them in the same experimental situation but with new subjects. The probability of implementation was not significantly increased.  Ackoff's takeaway.

"Those who do not know but think they do are more dangerous advisors than those who do not know -- but know it."

Ask yourself "where are my blind spots?"  (Yes, very difficult.)  A better option is to keep an open mind to unconventional solutions.   I will give you an example I've used in seminars.  Let's say NASA is losing money. What if they collectively decided that they weren't in the space exploration business but in the trash business.

What if all the nuclear and garbage waste was transported into massive floating containment spheres?  What if that were a multi-billion dollar business.  (Enough to finance other space missions).  I give this freely to NASA with apologies to the Universe.  (Maybe hurtle these pods into the Sun).  

Take 30 minutes and list possible blind spots. What assumptions need to be challenged?  What processes are going to lead to better outcomes?