Work Across Domains

One of the commonly known ways of getting some originality into your thinking is to work across knowledge domains. The principles of this commonly held view that great ideas occur at the intersections of current knowledge domains form the basis of Frans Johansson's book 'The Medici Effect'. The idea behind the book is simple:

If nothing else this gives you a rationale for mixing the membership of your imagineers across stakeholder groups, interests, and know-how, with the aim of mixing ideas to get new ideas.

A useful starting point is to take small mixed groups of staff and students of about 15 members from different areas of the institution and get them to 'vision' what the new facilities might provide. Get them to write their ideas on post-it notes in silence for about 5 minutes and then stick them on a flip-chart. Ask the group to gather to move the ideas around bringing common ones together in groups. This usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes. Having got the groups or themes of ideas ask each member of the group to allocate points to the themes by giving each person 10 points that they can use as they wish.

The top themes can then be taken by smaller sub-groups (3 in each group works well) and given the SCAMMPERR treatment. Even if this only results in confirming what the group thought at the outset it is worth doing for the fun involved but the chances are that it will result in new ideas for what the project should do. For example, in designing a new library or learning centre you might consider how it could be used for teaching or social functions.