Wicked Problems: Peripheral Vision
Ability One: Peripheral Vision
(This post is a follow-on to my posting over at CPH127 about wicked problems, take a look at that first to set the context. This is the first of several postings on capabilities and states of mind that companies need to have to address wicked problems. )
Bill Bradley is today known primarily as a politician in the US, but in his youth he was an outstanding basketball player. Among several notable abilities, he had a natural gift: his eyesight. Specifically, he had abnormally good peripheral vision. Whereas normal peripheral vision covers a horizontal field of 180 degrees, his covered 192 degrees - he could literally see behind himself. Vertically, most people can see 47 degrees upward while looking straight ahead. Bradley could see 72 degrees, meaning he could see the basket even when looking at the ground. These factors gave him an ability to see things on the court that others could not, and detect threats and opportunities earlier than others players. (For a nice essay about Bill Bradley, see this book by John McPhee.)
Peripheral vision is an interesting thing: it provides much less detail but much more sensitivity to movement than our central cone of vision (which is only about 7 degrees in diameter). Peripheral vision is essential when you’re in the jungle or on the savannah, spotting movement at the edges that indicate danger. But our medical tests for eyesight pretty much ignore peripheral vision, focusing instead on how much small detail you can resolve in your central cone.
Business analysis is often the same way. Movements at the edges that are ill-defined are ignored, and all tools and attention are focused on what we can see clearly with great detail that's right in front of us. But it’s the movements at the edges that can both be the most threatening, but also represent the new opportunities. This is where the disruptive innovations that Clayton Christensen talks about come from. By the time you can prove their existence in detail, it’s too late.
Wicked problems are very difficult to understand by staring straight into them and looking for clear detail, however. They need to be approached from the edges, sort of like doing a jigsaw puzzle where you find the edge pieces first. Having peripheral vision that is trained to be sensitive to the edges is a key capability (this applies both to product teams and to business units - wherever wicked problems occur).
So encourage staff and managers to pay attention to and nurture their peripheral vision - meeting with their “whacky” customers who push your products to the limit, talk to people who aren’t your customers any more and find out why, and pay close attention to disruptive innovators making cheap and “poor” products that your traditional customers wouldn’t touch. And if you think you're facing a wicked problem, don't expect hard numbers on it; by the time you've got solid data, it's probably too late.
Next up: Pattern Experience
Adam
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By the way, when I first read the book, it helped lead me to devote hours to practicing my shots from every angle "just like Bill".
I agree with your wicked analysis. You need to have some perspective to solve the problem, and sometimes the best perspective is simply stepping back and away from it for a moment or two to determine "What is the real problem here?" Especially in technical support, many tend to focus on the technology aspects of the product did this or that instead of... when the user was simply trying to do something else. Figuring that out sometimes seems like a miracle when it really is so simple.
Thanks for a heads up on the book, I'll check that out.
A quote from Michelangelo I to use to think about wicked problems goes "Sculpture is easy. You just keep cutting away until you hit skin." As you say, you need to be able to take a holistic view of the problem. Getting caught up in the technical details is easy and tempting, as they are so tangible and immediate, but they may not define the boundaries of the problem. Something much less tangible and rules-based may be defining the problem, hence the art in knowing where the skin lies. Once you've stripped away the excess, the solution is obvious. Until then it's clear as, well, marble.
Intriguing post. I look forward to following up with the recommended book as well. Will be keeping the Michaelangelo analogy in the foreground of my mind in the hopes i might find my own form of marble too. Thanks.