THE LIGHTNING DECISION JAM
A methodology that allows you to quickly surface problems and decide whether you should act on them or not!
I introduced the Lightening Decision Jam methodology to my Entrepreneurship students at Marymount School of New York this semester.
The Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) is an exercise created by AJ&Smart as an easy way to help your team make faster decisions and find quick direction — and is inspired by the core principles of the design sprint. Watch the video here.
These are the steps in a Lightning Decision Jam Methodology
- Start with problems
- Present problems
- Select problems to solve
- Reframe problems as standardized challenges
- Produce solutions
- Vote on solutions
- Prioritize solutions
I started the activity by asking the students to identify things that were working for them in their day-to-day at school. Then I asked them to identify stuff that wasn’t working for them. Here’s a look at the results:
We used the boat and anchor analogy which is a helpful metaphor for teams that are trying to make decisions quickly and effectively. The analogy helps teams to remember that they need to make decisions quickly, even if they are not perfect, and that they are not tied to their decisions.
The next step was to categorize and organize our problems, so we used the affinity mapping method to do this. This helped us organize our data and surface common themes. The students then voted on what problems they wanted to move forward with and tackle.
Homework(H/W) won!
The next step was to generate ‘How Might We’ questions around Homework (H/W) so that we could start ideating. Here are the How Might We (HMW) Questions:
HMW do H/W in class so we have less to do at home?
HMW limit time spent on H/W based on each class?
HMW focus on H/W and procrastinate less?
HMW utilize classtime to do less H/W?
HMW encourage teachers to make H/W more engaging and less tedious.
HMW limit time spent on H/W based on each class?
We then began the ideation phase. This is when I introduce the students to ‘idea quotas’. It's important that the students focus on churning out as many ideas as they can (quantity) over quality. We talk about IDEAFLOW (by Jeremy Utley (Author), Perry Klebahn (Author), David Kelley (Foreword), idea fluency, and idea flexibility. Fluency — Refers to the speed and quantity of idea production — aka goofy ideas and FLEXIBILITY — refers to ideas that are truly different and distinctive -aka- great ideas.
Once our ideation sessions are over, I bring out a 2X2. See below:
An impact and effort 2x2 is a matrix that can be used to prioritize tasks or projects. The matrix is divided into four quadrants, with the impact of the task or project on the vertical axis and the effort required to complete it on the horizontal axis.
The quadrants are:
- Low effort, high impact: These are the tasks or projects that are easy to complete but have a big impact. These should be the first things you focus on.
- High effort, high impact: These are the tasks or projects that are difficult to complete but have a big impact. These should be the next things you focus on.
- Low effort, low impact: These are the tasks or projects that are easy to complete but don’t have a big impact. These can be put on the back burner.
- High effort, low impact: These are the tasks or projects that are difficult to complete and don’t have a big impact. These should be eliminated.
The impact and effort 2x2 can be a helpful tool for prioritizing tasks or projects. It can help you to focus on the tasks or projects that will have the biggest impact on your business. It was fascinating to watch and listen to the students deciding what should go where. One of the ideas that ended up in the “Forget about it for now” quadrant read “Stop assigning so much homework”- I’m guessing the students knew the faculty wouldn’t buy this one. However, I think this is one of the most valuable ideas that came up. The research shows that homework doesn’t necessarily make you a better learner or a deeper thinker. Particularly if it’s just ”busy work”, which a lot of homework tends to be. So here are some How Might We’s HMWs that the students generated:
How might we design the homework experience to be engaging for students?
How might we design homework that is impossible to plagiarize?
How might we make ChatGPT and other AI tools part of the homework routine?
The results of our impact vs effort 2X2 board are below:
So now we are at the implementation phase, which we will start after Spring Break. Stay tuned for the results.
In summary, the students were introduced to: Lightening Decision Jam, Impact vs. Efficiency 2X2, Affinity Mapping, and ‘’How Might We’ methodologies. All of these methodologies are encountered day-to-day by anyone working in the design and innovation fields. Additionally, real-world digital tools can help students to develop the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication.
