ReDesign Aurora

ReDesign Aurora is a place for educators, designers and future thinkers to learn more about our work as a team committed to transforming student learning. We are learning how to work in an authentic 21st Century space that features the guiding principles of design thinking. This will be a weekly collaborative communication for our team members and for educators who are committed to doing something different in service to our students. This space will feature a regular design opportunity for ideas…brainstorms…possibilities. We hope you’ll join the conversation!

Ideate…or Advocate?

The APS Teaching and Learning Team is refining our understanding of designing together. What seems to be a simple process:

turns into a challenge and reflection moment. Every. Time. We. Meet.

How do we come to the table with needs and users identified, and yet not have a pre-set plan or idea that we want to push through without ever talking to users? How do we keep our ideas fresh and ripe for ideating rather than asking for approval? Time crunches. Enthusiasm. Initiative pressures. Success stories from other districts or other designers. All make ideating a bit more challenging than we may have thought in the beginning at our first Idea Jams or entry level Design courses.

Designers become adept listeners. Nonverbal “tells” about what the user is actually feeling or saying are the bread and butter of the empathy interview. The words, especially the repeated ones or the ones that come with vocal emotion cues, are the gems we take away so that we can design based on that moment or that idea. Whether the user gives a firm and definitive NO or an emphatic YES! we hit the sweet spot.

Listening to each other, and ourselves, for advocating language is another skill that is necessary. When the team is designing at a high level, and trust, vulnerability and interdependence are flowing, we can push against what we hear in service to returning to ideating, open source thinking and designing together. This supports the team’s commitment to avoid approving or fighting against something that has come to the table as a set idea who’s promoter just wants to get it done. There is a LOT to be doing, and it makes complete sense to be efficient. It really does! But there is so much potential lost..the opportunity to do something never done before is swept away before we know it.

The Language of Advocating

Here are a few watch words to listen for at your next design session…or ideating conversation on the back of a napkin:

“Here’s my idea…” or “I was thinking that we should…” (notice the “my”…nothing wrong with coming up with ideas…at all! But the question becomes, “why do you need us?”)

“If we would just…” (“just”…the by-word of efficiency and pre-set ideas).

“Here’s how we used to do it…” OR “Here’s what this group is doing…” (BEWARE: open sourcing is GENIUS! learning from others and improving on it…and then paying it forward is the way it goes today. Advocating makes this about cutting corners for team design and doing what has been done before. No problem unless we haven’t asked the USER).

“Yeah…but…” (Death by But…the plug is pulled…the idea withers…the team starts over)

The Language of Ideating

The language of ideating is fraught with the norms we use for design:

• No judgment
• No ego
• “yes…and…”
• “How might we…?”
• “We can if…”

When team members or those who are asking for some new ways of thinking start using this language, it welcomes energy and creativity. The sky’s the limit!

Watch Your Language!

At the next design encounter…even just a conversation over a napkin or cup of coffee, listen for the language you are using and your colleague uses when discussing possibilities. Be brave and bold to REFRAME the language you use. Offer a different way to consider the idea…or a new way to bring life to the discussion or proposal. Ideating always begets better ideas than were originally thought possible.

ReDesign Challenge:

What language inspires YOU? What do you say to yourself or others on your team that launches better thinking, energy and ZEST?

What language advocates? What’s the most nuanced phrase you’ve caught yourself saying or falling prey to when it’s time to ideate?