Schlagwort-Archive: Procedure

Swat team into the dark

Shortly after midnight a man was walking his dog. At the end of his street he saw a group of young people next to a streetlight go along on their knees. He approached curiously.
“What are you doing?”
“We live in a guesthouse over there and we lost the key.”
The man’s eyes also scanned the ground: “Did you lose it here?”
“No idea. One started looking here and we formed a circle. ”
“Then why are you looking here?”
The youngster looked bewildered at him: “But this is the only illuminated area.”
The slightly adapted story by Paul Watzlawick creates the framework for the swat team into the dark.

For established companies, group dynamics create an unwanted limitation that requires special measures to open up unused potential. Red Teaming offers an approach for the courageous ones.

  • The idea
    When we are looking for new possibilities, we do not just follow the path of least resistance. There are so-called cognitive distortions (biases) that prevent us from considering the obvious: Groups tend to tie in with the first evidence found (Anchor effect), follow the opinion of the majority (Bandwagon effect) or believe in the aftermath in a logical explanation that determines future actions (Hindsight bias). In order to overcome such fallacies, one must leave usual paths. The Red Team does not necessarily provide a way out, but it rather generates the creative pressure that offers new perspectives.
  • The procedure
    This relates not so much to detailed planning but to the determined implementation of the steps. It begins in advance with the task clarification, i.e. the expected objectives and results. In addition, you need the unconditional management endorsement and support.
    The first step is to examine the circumstances in order to uncover difficulties, wrong conclusions and mental models. In the second step, the resulting internal and external causes are considered, and the actual initiative is prepared. In the third step, the Red Team affects meetings, workshops and other events with contributions that go beyond the normal scope of decision making – e.g. with surprising assumptions, unusual cause-effect relationships and radical proposals.
    The duration of the measures depends on the respective scope and expectations of the management team – e.g. from a few days up to half a year. The concluding After-Action-Review provides a summary of the ascertainable results.
  • The Toolset
    In a literal sense, Red Teaming is prepared lateral thinking – intuitive, volatile, unbiased, challenging and productive. It uses tools such as checklists, dot voting, mind maps, brainstorming, storyboarding,
    1-2-4-all, modeling canvasses and other available team interactions. The decisive factor is the open mind set, which accepts nothing as given, that is open to everything and thinks like the wiliest opponent – however unrealistic, inappropriate or unfair it may seem. The tools are mostly available and just need to be freed from the group pressure of self-restraint. The rules of brainstorming apply – everything that is conceivable and expressed is possible; criticism is forbidden; quantity not quality is decisive; ideas belong to everyone; fantasizing is welcomed.
  • The result
    In order to be able to comprehend the initiative, the Red Team generates a report with the mission, the identified weaknesses, logics and convictions, the evaluation of internal and external influences, the procedure and list of activities as well as the observed effects. It should be clear to everyone that the Red Team is not automatically right with its assumptions and results. The main intention is to create stimulating stress with critical and unorthodox hints, suggestions and solutions.

Bottom line: Getting out of the box is a central task for companies, especially, if they are trapped in joint, successful habits. We are in fast-moving times that threaten every business, no matter how flourishing. To be prepared for drastic changes in the surroundings, it takes more than to letting down your nets in the usual fishing grounds. The key is not lying in the light of the lantern, but in the unknown. Red Teaming is an effective approach to abandoning the own thinking processes, the cognitive distortions and established conclusions. As soon as the management team decides to explore and exploit the dark areas, new opportunities open up for the company. It’s time for sending swat teams into the dark.

The key – the ideal metaphor for a solution

A key without a lock is as useful as a lock without a key. In any case, these two objects serve to prevent entry of unauthorized persons. The key then becomes the symbol of the possibility to block or open access – whether the key belongs to somebody or not. Since only valuable things are locked away, the key is connected to get to a treasure. These can indeed be valuables, but also explanations, recipes or solutions.

The following features make the key the ideal metaphor for solutions.

  • Clear purpose
    The fact that a door or box is closed provides the indication that there is something valuable or interesting behind. The treasure that you get with the key is the real purpose. A solution also has a purpose. These can be economic objectives, improvements or a project.
  • Custom-fit design
    The simplest locks can be opened with the simplest keys. Since unauthorized persons gained access with the help of a picklock, the locks became increasingly complicated. For this reason, today different key types – pin tumbler lock, lever lock, tubular, or ceremonial keys. Solutions also work best when tailored to the target group and, above all, to the problem.
  • Precise implementation
    The understanding of the lock and its purpose is not enough to implement the mechanism. In order for the key to work, it must be precisely fine-grained. Only when all corners and edges correspond exactly to the lock, it opens. The same happens to a solution. For the desired effects the results have to be worked out neatly. You have to answer the right questions that fit the mindset and language of the target group, as well as the intended purpose.
  • Everyday use
    If the implementation and the material of the key are correct, the key will last long in the everyday application. The same applies to comprehensive solutions that have described well all aspects such as the intended application, the operation and the results.
  • Defined procedure
    Even the procedure is similar. To create a key, you first need a pattern, in the case of a solution it is the concrete situation that it is all about. Then one examines the whole and finds solutions, from which one chooses the most probable. Now the implementation is planned and installed. The key is now ready to work out the cuts and edges. In the solution the corresponding components – a business process, data model or responsibility matrix. What remain are then only the guidebook and the use of the new key.

Bottom line: The key opens doors and boxes, thus allowing access to certain results that lie behind the locks. The solution has the same function. Its purpose is to achieve certain results. This similarity makes the key to an ideal metaphor for a solution.