Change Staircases' Designs to Fight Obesity

I am a student of architecture. I love great building design and am frequently in awe of the creativity and imagination that architects drawn on in designing great spaces.

So, not surprisingly I was excited to see Renzo Piano's new wing for the Art Institute of Chicago. It is extraordinary, and part of how come Piano is considered to be one of the finest architects in the world.

In my professional life, on the other hand, I work with leader's of organizations, or I could just as easily say the architects of organizations, helping them express their own creativity in furthering their vision and commitments for their organization. In the process I encourage leaders to expand the arena in which they look to solve problems - go outside your industry, look at what is happening in other fields you can co-opt. I even encourage them to formulate new problems, as a context or catalyst for their creativity. Problems that will forward their businesses when the problem is solved.

So not surprisingly I was fascinated to see the possibility of architects having a hand in contributing to a breakthrough in one of the most troubling conditions of our time - obesity. I could see a fruitful collaboration between architecture and healthcare in this headline on Twine, "Change staircases' designs to fight obesity", from the Times of India. Like all insights, obvious after the fact.

If staircases were more accessible, and more attractive, we would be more likely to use them. And, if we used them more, as just one of the things we do in this culture, we may well be less obese.

I wonder how many ideation sessions on reducing obesity, or promoting healthier lifestyles, included asking architects to make stairs more enticing, more easy to find, more part of the fun experience of moving from one level of their buildings to another?

Now that would be a breakthrough.

Change staircases' designs to fight obesity - Health - Health & Science - The Times of India

Counter-Factual Thinking

I was very strongly indoctrinated in the value and importance of fact-based management. That thinking was so part of the culture of the early years of my career. Even explanations or proposals that wandered into speculations or conjecture were pulled back on track with interjections like, "just the facts please" or "just stick to the facts".

Later in my career as I became the-man-in-charge with the accountability to profitably grow the business I began to see relying solely on the facts for decision-making pretty much meant we were consigned to stay inside the current thinking or paradigm. If facts didn't support a particular course then it was speculative. We were unwittingly operating in an incremental improvement model, and extension of the past model, more of what we knew to do - but better. That's all that facts could justify.

So we decided to augment fact-based management with counter-factual thinking and decision-making. Thinking and decision-making that was driven by vision, intention, the future, our aspiration - all expressed as a desired future that could not be validated by any supporting facts, or forecasts.

As we made out decisions and engaged in the actions that were needed to realize the outcomes the decisions were intended to bring about, we were clear that one of two possibilities would emerge:
We would fail. We would realize that what we intended was not going to happen. If we did not forget the possibility of failing we would catch ourselves early on and either change course or abandon this particular line of explorations. If we forgot that failure was a high probability we missed early warning signals and the cost of eventual failure was much higher - and usually more embarrassing.
The second possibility - the one we intended, wanted even - was a breakthrough, a new discovery, a new and exciting set of outcomes that we could not have achieved by sticking to what was predictable.
So a possibility I encourage managers to work inside of is the possibility of failing. Flirt with that possibility. Know all the signs and signals and what the emotional experience of failing is.
Some failure is inevitable unless you live so cautiously as to be of no value as a leader or manager. Much as a rock climber would know the signs and signals of missteps - not to be deterred but to be more aware.