I’ve read a number of books over the past few months (and haven’t written about any of them – yet!), but the one I finished most recently is called Change By Design by Tim Brown (with Barry Katz). I was interested in the book because of its focus on “design thinking.” Design thinking is more encompassing than just good design practice, it’s a larger philosophy. Brown presents a lot of great anecdotes (from his work at IDEO), but I appreciated one of his more simple pieces of advice about brainstorming. If you’re not careful, you’ll miss it. For our purposes, I’ll call it “the HMW approach.”
HMW stands for “how might we” and it’s a better way to phrase a design challenge or brainstorming question. Think about it, we typically phrase brainstorming challenges like this:
- “What is the future of the library reference desk?”
- “What library/learning services do undergraduate students need most?”
- “What strategies can we use to improve assessment (exams, assignments, etc.) methods?”
BUT, if we apply the HMW we end up with questions like:
- “How might we enable students to get the information they need quickly and efficiently?”
- “How might we improve the library/learning experience of the average undergraduate student?”
- “How might we alter our assessment methods to make them more meaningful to students and teachers?”
I love three things about the HMW approach. First, the word “might” suggests that we are open to all kinds of possibilities. Second, the inclusion of “we” means that we have an active role (and responsibility for) affecting change on the organization. Third, you almost have to follow up “how might we” with a verb that focuses on improvement – it reminds us why we’re all doing the brainstorm/design challenge in the first place.
It seems like such a simple turn of phrase, but sometimes such a turn leads to new possibilities. Thanks Tim!
