Tools #1: Dogs and Tools

Trying to learn as an adult is so hard. You already have so much of your neural network built and weighted that you get pulled back into old patterns. I mean the saying goes you can’t teach an ol’ dog new tricks. But, I think a better version is you can’t teach an ol’ dog new ways of performing old tricks that treated them well so far and got them to where they needed to go. That’s too long I guess.

I stumbled across this site: https://untools.co/ that is all about trying out different mental frameworks. My goal is to read through one of these each week and truly digest it, get into the noggin, and hopefully, it will push this ol’ dog to be some __% better.

What’s funny is that I’ve spent the better part of 10yrs facilitating innovation sessions for groups of 20+ people specifically around breaking your thinking. It’s just really hard to do this for yourself. Turns out people need people.

Untool – Conflict Resolution Diagram

https://untools.co/conflict-resolution-diagram

• They reference this was pulled from the “Theory of Constraints” by Eliyahu Goldratt
• The goal of this tool (aka “Evaporating Cloud”) is to be used when a conflict seems impossible.
• There are three parts worked in the following order:
  • Demands/proposals of the opposing sides: these are usually mutually exclusive which is what creates the conflict.
    • Ask: What does the other side want to do? What do I want to do?
  • Underlying needs or requirements of both sides
    • Ask: What needs are satisfied by the proposal of each side?
  • Shared goal or objective that’s behind the needs
    • Ask: What will be achieved by meeting the needs of both sides?
    • This is important to come to a shared understanding as you become part of the same team, but you happen to be approaching it differently.
• Now that the above is taken care of, you’ll need to discuss the assumptions that are behind the original approaches. This will most likely uncover why the approaches are at odds.
• Ending – now you build the solution together with a focus on the shared vision/goal.

This reminds me of a reverse flow Opportunity Solution Tree that Teresa Torres talks about https://www.producttalk.org/opportunity-solution-tree/

Remember: focus on the outcomes and let that help dictate the path…hopefully a path takes into account kindness 😀