Here is a thought provoking TED Talk from Tom Wujec, a Fellow at Autodesk where he helps leadership teams solve complex challenges and design their future with emerging digital technologies. He uses the metaphor of drawing the process of making toast to eventually get groups thinking about using systems thinking to do what he calls “Wicked Problem Solving.”
Following is a his 8 steps process:
An Introduction to Systems Thinking and Wicked Problem Solving
DrawToast workshops are a great way to get groups to think freshly about mental models. In just 3 minutes, each person sketches a diagram of how to make toast. When comparing diagrams, people are shocked at how diverse the diagrams are, revealing a wide range of models of what’s important in making toast. It’s a great launch pad for drawing out what’s really important to the group.
There are 8 Simple Steps to the DrawToast Exercise:
Step 1
Prepare
Get the ingredients: felt markers, thick paper stock, sticky notes or index cards, and masking tape. Stage your room with tables, chairs, and a clear wall where you can post your work. It’s important to have enough room for all participants to see everyone’s creations.
Step 2
Invite
In your invitation, set expectations that your meeting will focus on building a systems model of an important challenge – clarifying your vision, improving cash flow, figuring out the next bold challenge. Begin with a simple design exercise.
Step 3
Conduct
Run the meeting informally. Hand out markers and paper to everyone and ask people to draw a picture of how to make toast.
Give them 2-3 minutes.
You may want to play toast-making music…
Step 4
Reflect
Have each person hold up their drawing for all to see. (Let the laughter start) Have the group place their drawings on a large wall space and comment on the drawings; pointing out which are simple and complex, which have people and which don’t.
Step 5
Play the TED.com DrawToast video and let it explain the big ideas about systems thinking. After it plays, ask the group how many nodes they drew and what kind?
Step 6
Draw Your Challenge
Have people draw a picture how to improve what what they are working on as a group. This can include almost anything, strategic or tactical. See ‘Draw Questions’ for inspiration. Make sure people draw individually and in silence.
Step 7
Share
Have people work at tables. showing and explaining their diagrams. Compare and contrast the diagrams and see what is similar and different between them. What links and nodes are common?
Step 8
System
If you have the time, have the group develop a systems diagram of the challenges using sticky notes and drawn links. Building on the previous individual diagrams, have groups of 4-6 people create nodes and links to to solve the challenges.
Are you interested in improving your manufacturing operations? Looking for a manufacturing strategy? Here is a video essay (with a companion podcast downloadable on iTunes) where I compare two dominant manufacturing strategies of today.
The Fluke product managers I talked with last week at Automation Fair were high on technology last week as they showed me the first high-definition Infrared Camera from the company.
The TiX1000 (with 1024 x 768 resolution), TiX660, and TiX640 (both 640 x 480) feature up to ten times the on-camera pixels as are available on standard 320 x 240 cameras and a large 5.6-inch articulating display to help quickly identify issues while still in the field. The TiX Expert Series delivers highly detailed image quality, the most advanced focusing options available on one infrared camera, and the versatility to capture accurate measurements from targets that are challenging, dangerous, or moving too fast.
They told me that the resolution was so good that you could shoot pictures from a distance and still have sufficient definition for detailed analysis. You could, for example, stand on the ground and shoot a distillation column and still see great detail.
The SuperResolution mode feature on the TiX1000 and TiX660 cameras increase image resolution, when viewed in the included SmartView software, four times more than what you get on camera. For example, SuperResolution reveals HD quality in the TiX1000 images with 3.1 million pixels. The TiX660 SuperResolution images have 1.2 million pixels. This higher resolution helps better identify potential issues that might have been missed with other infrared cameras.
The TiX Series can also be sub-windowed to 240 Hz frame rate to capture and analyze sudden temperature changes that occur within a second for advanced research and development applications.
With eight lens options (two telephoto, two wide angle, three macro, and one standard), the TiX Series can capture images from very close up to long range to meet a wide variety of applications.
The combination of high resolution and telephoto lenses captures detailed thermal images from a safe distance for oil and gas, utilities, and preventive/predictive industrial maintenance applications. The super telephoto lens enables users to inspect areas that they could not get close to before and still capture spectacular, detailed infrared images.
At the other end of the spectrum, these cameras, combined with a macro lens, deliver extreme close-up views in extraordinary detail making them ideal for inspection and analysis for the research and development engineer.
The TiX Series cameras feature the most advanced focus options available on a handheld infrared camera for consistently in-focus images. The EverSharp multifocal recording mode utilizes the focus motor to capture multiple images from varying focal distances with the push of a button. Using advanced algorithms, Fluke SmartView software combines the images taken from multiple focal distances and creates an image that sharpens the detail of not just the initial focal point, but the elements around the focal point, providing an in-focus image for objects at different distances. This along with LaserSharp Auto Focus, auto focus, and manual focus provides a variety of methods to capture consistently in-focus images.
Fluke Connect System
TiX Series Infrared Cameras are part of the Fluke Connect system, which allows technicians to wirelessly transmit measurement data from their test tools to their smart phones and tablets for secure storage on the cloud and universal team access from the field. With Fluke Connect, teams can easily access past infrared inspections on the go and look at trends over time. The Fluke Connect app can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
I finally found an interview subject who was willing to try a video interview. On my MacBook Pro with Skype and Call Recorder I can record both video feeds and present a side-by-side view.
In this interview, John Neeley of Fluke talks about the new Fluke Connect solution that connects Fluke manufacturing measurements devices with an iPhone to put measurements in the cloud. Enjoy.
