Diagram Your Last Breakthrough
Most breakthroughs are more like “break ins.”
And I don’t mean that in a good way.
From what I gather, inspiration is something that happens to most people. It “sneaks up” on them. In a way, folks are the victims of a breakthrough more often than they are the perpetrators.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can go on the offensive. We can court the muse, pursue inspiration, tempt lightning… In short, I believe we can commit a breakthrough. Or at least, we can increase our odds of committing one.
And rather than spell out how, I’ll give a simple homework assignment to anyone who’s interested:
First, take stock: “How did I arrive at my last breakthrough? What was it? How did it happen? What events or thoughts or interactions or observations precipitated it?” Write down the four or five steps which preceded the insight, which sparked the “Aha!” moment…
Chances are, you just reverse-engineered your own personal breakthrough process.
Next, take action: Take the description of your last breakthrough, and treat it as a prescription for your next one. “What problem am I trying to solve? If breaking through in this context were like the last one, what might I do to replicate the steps?”
I know, I know, serendipity can’t be manufactured. I get it.
But what if it can?
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One of the defining contributions the d.school is helping teams ask themselves, “What kind of thinking is appropriate, when?” We call such clarity being “Mindful of Process.” And it can seem like semantics until you realize we need to show up in different ways.