The Art Of Computational Thinking
Our Problems Are Our Opportunities
I heard a great talk a few months ago. It was Conrad Wolfram (probably one of the world’s leading mathematicians) who suggested, that we should stop teaching our kids maths. Whoah!
He said, and I’m paraphrasing, we needed to teach them computational thinking instead. What is that? He said every problem needs breaking apart, exploding it into its parts — if we are to begin to properly solve them. And better still that we explain to kids how to put that idea into practice. Explain to them, for example, that to make their bike go faster they might figure out how much bigger the peddle wheel needs to be than than the one on the back wheel.
According to Wikipedia computational thinking is an iterative process based on three stages: 1. Problem formulation (abstraction) 2. Solution expression (automation) 3. Solution execution and evaluation (analyses)
That REALLY works for me.
We’ve all heard this statement — “Our problems are our opportunities…” Right. In which case we are living through a time of enormous opportunity. In all cases it’s certainly true that there’s opportunity on the other side.
Let’s See?
Every business on Earth has their fair share of problems and opportunities. We’ve suggested that problems present opportunities. Fundamentally though problems need to be overcome for the opportunities to be achieved.
To Do Either We Need To Rip Them Apart
Problems/Challenges
Challenges arrive in many forms.
In business they may well be expressed like this:
- We have a lack of vision, direction or strategy
- We have poor — ineffective systems or processes
- We have an inadequate culture — our workforce lacks engagement
- We see a decreasing market share and competitive advantage
- We have an inability to transform or to keep up in the market
There Are Many More:
Opportunities/Ideas
They’re probably going to sound like this:
- We can create new products or services.
- We want to create breakthrough innovations and initiatives.
- We want to make a new market open up.
- We want to go to market in a new way.
- We intend to utilise new technologies/channels to present the business differently — or to gain efficiencies.
- We plan to transform the culture and get the right skills — so that the business is more likely to succeed.
And Once Again There Are Many More:
The Raw Materials.
Now let’s go back to the idea of ‘computational thinking’ — if we haven’t unpacked these properly — or if we don’t know the whole context of a problem or an opportunity we’ll probably solve the wrong thing. We will almost certainly fail to solve or achieve it completely. It’s critical to appreciate the context.
Unpacking the context quickly illustrates the complexity. Overcoming that is important if you are planning to do justice to either.
A Question Of Perspective
Ask yourself this — which of the following are unimportant when solving a problem or achieving an opportunity?
- The dynamics at large that are driving the thinking?
- The maturity and enlightenment of the leadership?
- The purpose and the intended outcome?
- The metrics by which the success would be judged?
- A shared vision of what the world will look like when the problem is solved or the opportunity achieved?
- The mindset and mental models held by the individuals involved in solving the challenge?
- The action ‘plan’?
- The way (culture) to operate to achieve any of the above.
It’s All Opportunity
Opportunities and problems give the business the chance to think hard about who they are and what they’re made of. Armed with genuine understanding we get to exploit new products and markets.
Because we start to think — we also get to design new solutions of more value to the business.
A Clear Path
If we get the approach right we have the power to make real progress. That demands engagement and understanding. We all have challenges agreeing and aligning on what should be done. And even when we do it’s likely that there are unintended gaps in the meaning and the priority attached to it all.
Decision Permission
Given ownership by the teams and individuals plans will be sustained. Enabling everyone to know what’s happening and why. Empowering people to decide what to do and when.
Don’t do this and they will fail.
A Learning System
Everything is going to be complicated.
As we add even more channels, options, possibilities and adaptations to our lives — the complexity is going to get worse. But therein lies even more opportunity. All our competitors have the same challenge — the opportunity is figuring it all out before them.
