When we are thinking about design, one of our instincts is often to filter out approaches we “know” aren’t going to work.
Yet sometimes going way outside our comfort zone gives us permission to think differently.
Integrative Thinking is an approach that asks you to go to places you really won’t feel comfortable. You will need to just put all your concerns on a metaphorical shelf: don’t worry, you can take them down later. But once you learn the approach, you will see its value.
So, let’s start by acknowledging that using Integrative Thinking can be uncomfortable at first. It also requires a shift in how you think. Because it centres on opposing models.
What is an opposing model? It is something where you examine the extreme ends of a spectrum. Opposing models are evident in our everyday work and life. For example:
Harm minimisation vs abstinence
Institution vs community
Efficiency vs tailoring
Standardisation vs localisation
Evidence vs experience
Evidence vs co-design
Evidence vs context
Now vs 10 years time
Centralisation vs decentralisation
Prevention vs crisis/acute
You will look at two wildly different ways of solving a problem. Extreme ways. Positions that you often would never even think would be useful or doable in real life. While this can be uncomfortable for some, it can overcome some of our biases, and create the building blocks we need for much better solutions to our problems. We’ve used in a whole range of settings, from thinking about structures to program design and beyond.
Integrative Thinking has some good science underpinning it. It taps into three approaches:
- Metacognition: the understanding or controlling of our own thinking, particularly our biases
- Empathy: appreciating the thoughts and ideas of others
- Creativity: seeking new and unique approaches.
The complete process for Integrative Thinking is set out in Creating Great Choices (Riel and Martin 2017). We have adapted this Integrative Thinking approach in the following method for creating new stronger options.
Step 1: Define the problem
The aim here is to have a rich picture of the issues and clarity about which problem you are trying to solve. The problem tree and a problem statement will help you to create multifaceted problem descriptions.
Step 2: Create two opposing models for solving the problem.
Take the two opposing models and describe them as clearly as you can, aiming for a description that an observer would understand. Explore the models, understanding how they work, what benefits they produce and why those results matter. You may want to do this after you have done some research about how others have solved this or similar problems, so you can bring an evidence base. We’ve included some ideas to prompt your opposing models below.
Step 3: Examine the two models more deeply
This is where you set yourself up for being creative. Take each of the models and unpack them. Ask the following questions:
- What are the benefits of each model?
- Who are the key targets of this model? How might they weigh the benefits?
- Who are the key decision makers for this problem? How might they weigh the benefits?
- What benefits do each of the team members really value the most and why?
Once you have a clear picture of the benefits, you can dig even deeper.
- What are the assumptions that underly each of the models? What happens if they are not true?
- What are some of the cause-and-effect relationships underpinning the models?
All these will give you a much more nuanced view of the different approaches, and help you to identify what features you really want to keep going forward.
Step 4: Explore the possibilities
This is where we start to build our new approach by asking how we can use the features we most like as a basis for a new proposal. Here are three different approaches you can use to spark some creative thinking along the way:
- Ask how we might create a new model by taking one building block from each opposing model and throwing the rest away
- Ask under what conditions could a more intense version of one model generate a vital benefit of the other
Ask how the problem might be broken apart in a new way so each model could be applied to different parts of the problem.
Step 5: Assess your prototypes
There are many ways you can do this, and you will need to choose an approach that is appropriate to your specific problem. For example, you could:
- Test your ideas with the end customers in a workshop or in conversation
- Run a quick pilot
- Do financial modelling of the possibilities
- Test back against current research.
You will want a deep understanding of the outcomes, the risks and the probabilities of particular results, and use these as a basis for decision making.
If you are interested in this approach talk to us about our Public Policy Masterclass.
Or go straight to the authorities:
Jennifer Riel and Roger L Martin 2017 Creating great choices: A leader’s guide to integrative thinking Boston: Harvard Business Review Press
