The WTF!? Framework
Not all WTFs are created equal.
I was sitting across the table from a friend in a San Francisco restaurant. I told him that I was packing up, uprooting my kids, and heading overseas in hopes of doing meaningful things and discovering new experiences (without knowing a lick of the language). His response was drawn out, unabashed, and poignant:
“What. The. F*ck!?” (aka WTF)
Just days before that unforgettable lunch, I had been asked to help IDEO co-found an innovation lab for a client in another continent. My friend thought I was leaving a good situation in the Bay Area. He deemed the decision unwise. After all I was going to an unfamiliar area — with little to no access to a rich network of family and friends for that long. I was taken aback, and started to consider his sentiment. I wanted to give it a fair shake. Was it really a WTF moment or just an over reaction? In subsequent weeks, I shared my decision with some colleagues and other friends. I got a series of varying WTFs. And they were accompanied by different expressions: the blank stare, the silent mouthed “whaaaaaat…”, the big eyes and huge grin, the awkward chuckle and shifty-eyes, and the slap-on-the-arm and biting lip. Not all felt the same. Some even felt good. So I started to think, “Is there more than just one type of WTF?!”
I took my query to the 2 x 2 framework to help me understand the potential variations of the WTF. It goes something like this: the “bad and weird” to the “good and unexpected” running along the X-axis; the “intentional” to “random” running up the Y-axis.
Random x Good & Unexpected is the most awesome type of WTF?! Imagine looking out into the dark and seeing a mystical creature: “WTF?! Is that a unicorn?” It’s a delightful surprise with a pleasing outcome — thus, it is called the “Serendipity WTF.”
Random x Bad & Weird is the most awful. Think Indiana Jones who runs away from a group of assassins only to fall into a snake pit — “WTF?! Are those poisonous life threatening cobras? Yup!” (FYI: Indy has a terrible phobia of snakes.) This one isn’t really in your control, but one you will likely encounter here and there in life. This is the “Cringe WTF.”
Intentional x Bad & Weird is the most moronic. For example, a few years ago I went through this 11 mile extreme obstacle course. The last obstacle required me to run through 10,000 volts of dangling electric wires, in wet clothes after dragging myself through mud and rock. “WTF?! Why would you do that?” No surprise then that this is called the “But Why? WTF.” (Admittedly, I blacked out twice on that one, but finished and had a heck of a time).
Intentional x Good & Unexpected is the most aspirational. One might argue that this isn’t even a WTF?! But wait. Say your buddy who did OK in school decides to apply to an Ivy League college and several other average schools. She gets all letters of admission back, and the only one that accepts her is the Ivy League one (despite the odds having been stacked against her). “WTF!? Did you just ONLY get accepted into one of the most elite colleges in the country?” I call this the “Triumph WTF.”
My intention of going abroad was to land in the Triumph WTF bucket. Sure, I’ve seen the others too. For example, I serendipitously met one of my creative idols, Blek Le Rat (attributed founder of stencil street art), because he was doing a show hosted by my friend’s studio—random and freakin’ awesome. Yet, bad WTFs happen too no matter how hard you try to avoid them. I was walking in an open market one day and saw a bizarre buggy-eyed mannequin with its tongue sticking out—it just happened, and now I can never un-see it. But like anyone along the way, you try to avoid the bad, plan for the good, and hope for the best. In my case, I’ve come to a foreign land with no previous experience, and I intend for it to facilitate good and unexpected experiences for me and my family. But that’s the thing: good WTFs require you to take risk and be proactive (no matter how much you plan). Life will present you with lots of unwanted WTFs anyway — so you might as well go after the good ones. At the least, I’ll have a bunch of cool stories to tell.
So next time someone WTFs you, when in doubt, pause and chart where it might actually land. It might surprise you (in a good way).
