Invent as you go

Yesterday I participated in an incredibly stimulating meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, the purpose of having it was quite unclear. We all felt that we had things to sort out, but we had little idea of how we should organize the meeting. Instead of talking about the organization, we started to explore parts of the (very fuzzy) problem together. Along the way we invented tools to help clarify our vision of both the problem and its solution.

The most impressive thing we came up with, was to let each in turn express his or her take on the situation, which was summarized with simple words or phrases on the whiteboard. Then the person was asked to rate each of these words and phrases, either positively or negatively, which was represented by a red or green dot. We were eleven people, and after this exercise we had a stunningly clear picture of our opinion of the subject we were discussing. Especially the green and red dots were very effective, since it was obvious whether the group was overly positive or negative.

Why can’t problem solving always be like this? Why do we want rules and procedures when a group of people talking to each other can come up with insanely effective solutions?