2(b) Brainstorming solutions
Figure 1. It’s time to spark your creativity and let the ideas fly! (CC0)
Now that you have identified your findings and have framed the problem, it is time to start considering possible solutions. Brainstorming good solutions requires that you keep in mind the information you gathered in your research. This will ensure that the ideas you develop will work for the community you are trying to help, whether it is your household, the school or an external group.
Identifying leverage points
It is important to consider multiple leverage points when looking for solutions. Leverage points are places where a small change can have big results. If you made a systems diagram at some point in your research or when you framed the problem, you may want to mark areas where an intervention is possible. These could be in targeting areas of behaviour, areas of systems, or mental models. It could be that you see an opening with a particular stakeholder or some other group or element of the situation.
Let’s consider an example related to litter. This is a common problem in many communities and has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the area around trash bins of many cities. In Amsterdam, city officials are doing a pilot project to plant mini-gardens around trash bins. The idea is to get people to change their mental models about the acceptability of leaving trash next-to a bin, rather than putting it in the bin or taking the trash to another disposal area if the bins are full. According to Rick Vermen, a council official, the gardens may act as a kind of “moral appeal” to Amsterdam’s residents, as well as improving the look of the city streets. By making a simple change to the physical space around the trash bins, people’s values (mental models) may be triggered and changed, causing a change to their behaviour in the litter collection system. The leverage point here has to do with mental models, affected by changing the space around the bins.
Figure 2. Can gardens around trash bins (left image) prevent littering near them (right image)? (Engelmann, Koleva)
Generally speaking, it is easier to make changes to simple behaviours, towards the top of the Iceberg Model in Figure 3. However, these interventions tend to be the least effective; they do not have much leverage to affect a whole system. Interventions that affect systems directly or people’s mental models have more leverage, but are more difficult and take longer to do. They are worth considering, however, when you remember that systems affect behaviour, and mental models affect systems. So tackling people’s mental models and systems have huge and longer-lasting impacts on behaviour. If you really want to geek out on leverage points in systems thinking, you can have a look at the Leverage Points tool at the end of this Module. It describes 12 theoretical leverage points in systems thinking with some examples.
Figure 3. The Iceberg Model - the deeper we go to find leverage points, the greater the change (Resource: Iceberg)
Generating ideas - going wide
To get good ideas for your project, you will first need to go very wide with your thinking. Some of the best solutions can come from initially crazy ideas. Creativity, mixing ideas, thinking outside the box are all needed at this point. But generating a variety of ideas can be harder than you might think.
There are a number of reasons why your brain may not think as creatively or widely as you would like. One of them is the effect of priming. Priming is when exposure to an idea or stimulus affects your thinking on tasks. So, for example, if you were exposed to the idea of planting gardens around trash bins as a solution to a litter problem, it might prevent you from thinking about other interesting solutions. Your brain may focus on the issue of the space around the trash bin, and be unable to think outside that box. Be aware, that if you came into your project with an idea of how to solve it before you did any research, you might see the impact of priming. This is why we asked you to put those ideas into a parking lot in the Stage 1 Investigating overview. When you know about the effects of priming, you are more likely to be able to reduce its effects when you brainstorm.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming can be a great way to get lots of ideas on the table, but tends to work best in a group project. The idea is to power up the creative part of your brain, and dial down the evaluative part.
It is very important to write down the ideas in some way: paper, white board, post-its, whatever you have available. Post-its are particularly helpful; using them encourages everyone to participate, their equal size promotes a greater equity between decisions, their small size means that people have to summarize and keep ideas short and you can move them around easily.
It can be helpful to identify a person to manage the brainstorming session, so that others are purely involved with generating ideas. But having all people be able to stand, move, gesture, write, diagram is important too.
There are a number of rules for brainstorming, to ensure maximum creativity:
Aim for quantity over quality - get as many ideas out there as possible
Promote crazy ideas - out-of-the-box thinking leads to more out-of-the-box thinking. You could even think about asking for ideas you know won’t work to get things that are really outlandish.
Use other ideas as a basis for your own - build on your colleagues. Think about someone else’s idea and say “Yes! and…”
Don’t judge others ideas during brainstorming - this can shut down creativity
Remain focused on the problem, findings, systems, and frames and leverage points
Use all modes of communication - verbal, written, graphic, gestures
What if you’re stuck?
Sometimes you can have a creative block. Don’t worry. It happens to even the most creative of people! Creativity is something that can be trained and you can get better at it with experience.
In the short run, there are a couple of tricks you can use to help you get the ideas flowing again.
Diffuse thinking. Your brain continues to work on problems even when you are not consciously thinking about them - so let it! Often solutions to problems will come when you least expect it, like on a walk, as you are drifting off to sleep (or are asleep), or in the shower. Be ready to note these ideas when they come.
Figure 4. Taking a walk can let your brain do some serious work (Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Redirect your brain out of the box - Sometimes prompts to get your brain going in a different direction can be really helpful. One technique for this is called SCAMPER prompts (Eberle), which are listed here and further elaborated on in the SCAMPER tool below. SCAMPER stands for a set of directives that move you to consider alternatives:
Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify
Put to another use
Eliminate
Reverse
These simple prompts can often be enough to tweak your thinking to a new idea. Some questions to ask around each of these prompts are in the SCAMPER tool. You can make cards for them to have in a brainstorming session if needed.
Selecting ideas - going narrow
After you have a wide range of ideas on the table, it is time to ‘go narrow’. This means filtering the ideas to select the one(s) that you want to try. There are many possible ways that you can filter ideas but four particularly useful ones will be discussed below.
Figure 5. Once you have brainstormed, you need to narrow down the ideas for action using filters to help you choose the best ones (adapted from Starks, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Filter 1 - Grouping
As you brainstorm ideas, you will likely see that some are similar. You can group these together and it might give you further thoughts to refine the idea. You could also group ideas together by the area of the Iceberg Model they focus on: simple individual or group behaviours, systems, or mental models. You can also look to connect ideas that go together from these three groups - perhaps you can already see how mental models / systems / behaviour will work together in a solution.
Don’t be afraid at this point to discard bad ideas. You want to focus on the best, most promising ideas to move forward. However, you may not be ready to completely put those bad ideas in the trash; they can also go into the idea parking lot discussed in the Stage 1 Investigating overview. Remember, even bad ideas may have an insight that could be useful later. So park them, if you want, to revisit later if you find you are stuck again, or looking for an interesting new angle to try out.
Filter 2 - SWOT
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. When you are narrowing down ideas, it can be helpful to do this analysis to discard ideas that are weak or have unreasonable threats (risks) associated with them.
Strengths and weaknesses refer to internal factors. These are factors related to the idea itself or your team. So for example, if your idea to reduce plastic waste in the household is to visit a zero-waste shop to get supplies, in addition to the normal grocery store, an internal weakness could be the limited time available for the family to do multiple shopping trips.
Opportunities and threats refer to external factors. These are the factors outside of the idea itself or your team that help or hinder your idea. Again, taking the example of reducing plastic waste in the household, an external opportunity would be the fact that your town has a zero waste shop that could allow you to purchase many supplies without plastic waste.
Once you have identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it will be easier for you to narrow down the best ideas. These would be the ones that have more internal strengths and external opportunities, and fewer internal weaknesses and external threats. The SWOT Analysis tool below can help you organize your ideas.
Figure 6. Elements of a SWOT analysis (Xhienne, CC BY-SA 2.5)
Filter 3 - Impact / Feasibility
To narrow down ideas, you should also consider their impact and feasibility.
Impact refers to how much change will come about because of your action. Impact can be considered from a number of perspectives. High impact actions could affect large numbers of people, or affect people in a big way.
Feasibility refers to what extent you and your team have the ability to carry out the action, whether the action is ‘doable’. Your SWOT analysis may have already raised some issues for feasibility, but the questions below can help you determine whether an action is ‘doable’:
do you and your team have the time to carry it out?
do you and your team have the skills to carry it out?
do you and your team have the resources to carry it out (including money)?
will you and your team be able to get the required support (including approvals from authorities) to carry it out?
Figure 7. An impact / feasibility map for your community (CC0)
You could also consider your sphere of influence. This means the area over which you have some control. It makes no sense to identify a leverage point where you cannot make a difference right now. For example, if you were trying to reduce plastic consumption in your household, you might identify a point of leverage as changing laws (systems) about the types or amount of packaging in the grocery store. But while changing the laws may not be something you can influence right now, you can begin by considering points of leverage inside your own household. Starting small and later sharing and scaling your experience will gradually expand your sphere of influence, giving you more leverage points.
A position map is a useful way for you to compare ideas with one another in impact and feasibility. You would discard any that have low impact and low feasibility. A position map for impact and feasibility might look like Figure 7.
You can also swap in other qualities, besides impact and feasibility, for position maps if you can think of other ways to judge your ideas.
Filter 4 - Doughnut Model
You can further filter your ideas by examining them using the questions from the Doughnut Model matrix in Figure 8. At this point, you should be evaluating the possible actions by asking:
will they help people in the local community thrive,
will they regenerate and support, or at least do not harm to, the local-ecological environment (top right of the matrix),
will they support (or at least do no harm to) the wellbeing of people worldwide (lower left of the matrix), and
will they regenerate and support, or at least do no harm, for the global ecological environment.
You should aim for actions that answer all four questions in the affirmative.
Figure 8. The Doughnut Model matrix can help you filter your ideas to ensure that your ideas help your community to thrive in balance with its local environment and the wellbeing of all people and the health of the planet (Raworth).
Project Activity
Identifying Leverage Points - If you have created a systems diagram in your research or framing, identify several leverage points. Are they in the easy / low leverage category, focused on behaviours? Or are they in the harder, but higher leverage category, focused on changing systems or mental models?
Organize a brainstorming session if you are working in a group. You can use the Brainstorming Rules tool to set out the rules for the group for this activity. If you are alone, brainstorm yourself, making sure to follow the same rules.
Narrow down your ideas with the four filters discussed in this section: grouping filter, SWOT filter, impact / feasibility filter (position map), and Doughnut Model filter.
Examples in different contexts
Reducing plastic in the household
LP = Reduce the size of the input flowAction = purchase more plastic-free products in householdLow impact / high feasibility
LP = Change structure of input flowAction = Change shopping patterns / cooking habits to enable reduced plastic packaging useLow impact / high feasibility
LP = Change the rulesAction = Change the laws to require less plastic packaging, ban the use of plastic packagingHigh impact / low feasibility in short term
LP = change system structureAction = Get local grocery store to add zero-waste shopping section, or move to completely zero-waste shoppingHigh impact / low feasibility in short term
LP = change mental modelsAction = inform and persuade household about the impact of recycling on plastic use and waste; inform and persuade household about zero-waste options and incorporating them into habits and routinesLow impact / high feasibility
Because of the time limits of the project, the student choose to pursue several of the low impact / high feasibility actions at the same time: purchase more plastic-free products, change shopping / cooking habits, change mental models in the household
Mitigating CO2 emissions in the school
LP = change the structure of the flows into and out of the system and processesActions = choose alternative sources of energy and heating (solar power), planting more trees to offset the CO2 emissions, swapping in LED lights, changing the transportation methods used by faculty, improve building insulation, changing transportation methods used by students to get to and from campus from around the worldHigh impact / some high feasibilty (tree planting) and some low feasibility (changing student transportation forms) in short term
LP = the structure of information flowsAction = put signs in all classrooms reminding people to turn off lights and devices when leaving a roomLow impact / high feasibility
LP = change the rules of the systemAction = lobbying the local, regional or national government to change laws to require renewable energy sources in the school’s energy mixHigh impact / low feasibility in short term
LP = changing the mental models of people in the system Action = informing school decision-makers of the link between CO2 emissions and climate change, and the threats of climate changeHigh impact / high feasibility in short term
Due to time constraints on the project, the students choose to take several strategies that had high feasibility and a mix of impacts:
- plant more trees to offset CO2 emissions
- post signs to remind people to turn off lights and devices
- inform decision-makers about the link between CO2 emissions and the threats of climate change to move towards more impactful action on energy sources (such as installing solar panels)
Informing people with Down syndrome about social distancing during a pandemic
LP = Change systems structureAction = Contact local NGO to work together on a campaign to get the government to always publish accessible, easy-to-read information.High impact/low feasibility in short term
LP = Change the structure of flows into the system (types of information) and the mental models (about the importance of accessibility and inclusion)Action = Create an example for guidelines on social distancing measures - and share it with people with disabilities, organisations and government bodies, to demonstrate that they are useful and not difficult to create. Potentially high impact (if it gets properly shared)/ high feasibility
Due to the lockdown conditions at under which they were operating, the students decided to create actual online materials rather than campaigning for the NGOs/government bodies to do it.
They considered a digital booklet, but decided to go with a video slideshow with pictures of people with Down syndrome and simple text. This format made the information easy to edit and share.
Tools
A description of 12 leverage points to consider for changemaking. A tool for those really wanting to geek out on leverage points in systems theory.
A simple set of 5 rules to set for brainstorming sessions. The tool will help your group get the most ideas on the table.
A set of cards that helps you generate new ideas or improve existing ones. The tool moves your brain out of a box and in different directions.
A graphic organiser for breaking down the internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats for an organisation, action, or product.
A graphic organiser for comparing multiple ideas according their impact and feasibility. The position map can be adapted for other criteria comparisons too.
A description of the Doughnut Economics Model and the four lenses used to apply the Doughnut at the city-level. Two ways of using the model for Youth Mayors projects are described.
Works cited
Eberle, Bob. Scamper: Games for Imagination Development. Prufrock Press, 1996.
Engelmann, Maximilian. Trash gardens. 15 July 2020.
Koleva, Rosica. Trash. 19 May 2020.
Raworth, Kate et al. Doughnut Economics Action Lab, 2020, Amsterdam City Doughnut, www.kateraworth.com/2020/04/08/amsterdam-city-doughnut/.
Resource: Iceberg/Graphics Template. Waters Center for Systems Thinking, 2019, waterscenterst.org/resources/iceberg-graphics/.
Starks, Anthony. “AIGA Funnel.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 July 2012, https://tinyurl.com/y8yjp6f6.
Turner, Neil. “Walking.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 23 Mar. 2005, https://tinyurl.com/y8px5rkr.
van Vliet, Jakob. “Amsterdam Plants Mini-Gardens around Bins in Drive to Cut Littering.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 June 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/12/amsterdam-plants-mini-gardens-around-bins-in-drive-to-cut-littering#img-1.
Xhienne. “SWOT Analysis.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 May 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis#/media/File:SWOT_en.svg.
Images for examples in different contexts source information:
Samoilov, Yuri. “Coronavirus.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 20 Mar. 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ya2ngksd. CC BY 2.0
Webster, Tony. “Plastic Bottles - Waste.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 Sept. 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/87296837@N00/7992944072. CC BY 2.0
XoMEoX. “Tree.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 28 May 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y8bw46ns. CC BY 2.0
