Things people have said about the displayed thinking concept:
- A technology to facilitate the thinking process
To support concurrent windows of thinking
- A visual-spatial display of relationships and connections
To show whole actions with multiple agents
- A structure to make sense of a lot of data
To show patterns and sequences
- A highly interactive group process
To reach and show consensus
- It separates and then combines
Creative and analytical modes of thinking
- Turns group thoughts into actions
- Displays collaborative results
In an easy to follow and comprehend story
- Uses brainstorming to generate and germinate ideas
Captures ideas individually on index cards
Expresses ideas in words, drawings or pictures
Ideas can be quickly moved, combined or prioritized
- Encourages piggy backing and hitchhiking of ideas
- Changes the group model
From a relay team
- Where the baton of responsibility is passed sequentially one
lap and one person at a time
To a
- Basketball team model where the whole team continuously
focuses on getting the ball into the basket.
A metaphor for displayed thinking
- Displayed thinking is to ideas what word processing is to words.
- Speeds the process
- Improves the results
- Allows for rapid correction
- Provides an array of new options
- Connects related components
- Can be merged and sorted
- Is easy to store and retrieve
- Provides a template of operations
- Offers a navigation palette
- Sets a new standard
What does a displayed thinking storyboard look like?
It looks like an outline of ideas on a wall. Completed
storyboards are at:
Storyboard
Planning Center
Storyboard
Overview
It resembles familiar communication displays:
- Airline emergency procedures cards
- Architectural blue prints
- Comic strips and cartoons
- Musical scores
- Front of many family refrigerators
- Scheduling boards
- Sports play diagrams
The PLL-SIS Strategic Plan was generated with a facilitator using
displayed thinking techniques.
Attorneys have used thinking displays for courtroom exhibits,
forensic animation, negotiation, dispute resolution, charting damages,
settlement, and beauty contests.
Professor Joseph A. Grundfest, Stanford Law School, recently
combined technology and displayed thinking by submitting court
documents with hypertext links.
Displayed thinking would be ideal for a interdisciplinary team
working on intranet requirements or a team converting existing
training into multimedia.
How old is displayed thinking?
As originated by Mike Vance, it is only about a quarter of a century
old but throughout history thinking has been recorded and displayed in
a variety of media:
- Cave walls
- Clay tablets
- Animal hides
- Papyrus
- Blackboards
- Flipcharts
- Grease boards
- Copy boards
- Smart boards
- Electronic version of grease boards
- Accepts text, data, voice and graphics
- On the fly from anyone connected to the smart boards
Who are the leaders in displayed thinking?
These pacesetters have refined and individualized displayed thinking
type of storyboarding to include a variety of tools and techniques:
- Dedicated displayed thinking places
- Creative planning centers
- War rooms
- Decision rooms
- Annual storyboarding conferences
- Planning Center Methods
- Portable storyboard walls
- Compression model
- Storytelling
- Group graphics
- Grid system using post-it notes for designing presentations
What kinds of organizations use displayed thinking concepts?
According to storyboarders Jim Norman and Jerry McNellis, the list
is long and impressive. Many are Fortune Five Hundred companies, such
as:
- General Motors
- General Electric
- Federal Express
- Exxon
- General Mills
- American Red Cross
- City of Dayton
- City of Phoenix
Is displayed thinking used in libraries?
Many of the cornerstones of how information is organized involve
elementary forms of thinking displayed: classification, cataloging,
indexing, subject bibliographies, footnotes, alphabetizing, shelving
books by call number, online menus, and home pages--not to mention law
digests, tables of cases, annotated codes, and citators.
Today law librarians have a golden opportunity to build on this
solid foundation and to make their value and expertise more visible by
systematically weaving advanced displayed thinking into their
operations and communications.
What does the displayed thinking process involve?
- Space and facilities are specifically arranged to facilitate
group interaction
- Team is oriented to the project
- Ice breaker or trust building activity to create group rapport
- Established relaxed atmosphere
- Team goal and role is clarified via both creative and analytical
modes of thinking
- Topic selection
- Problem identification
- Current situation description
- Possible problem causes
- Possible solutions
- Solution selection
- Resources and restraints
- Implementation - the briefing board
- Who will do what, when and in what order
- Do, Doing, Done, Hang-ups, and New Input categories
- Solution preserved in a public place
- Ideas are never rejected
- Even though they might not be on the topic
- Stray ideas go into holding categories in the storyboard
- Parking lot - Important but not for this issue
- Data dump - Need to know but not at this time
- Hang ups - What is stalling us out
- Debriefing, evaluation, and celebration
How do I learn the procedure?
- Follow the first rule of research
- Find a person who knows--an expert, such as
Jim Norman
- Sponsors annual conferences in Phoenix
- Focus is on research and education
- Experienced in law applications
- Get hands-on experience with displayed thinking
- Attend a seminar or storyboarding conference
- Invest in a displayed thinking seminar or product
- Participate in a displayed thinking event
- Practice it informally with friends
- To solve a common problem
- To explore a political issue
- To think "out of the box"
Principles of displayed thinking:
- Think it, see it, do it
- Synergy happens when you are having fun
- Simplicity, clarity, and elegance
- Tell a story and it will be remembered.
Where can I learn more about displayed thinking?
See
Bibliography (last month)
Related sites
A
Performing Medium for Working Group Graphics
Story
Boarding Is an Art (PDF)
Storyboard
Technology
StoryBoard
Partnering
Thunderbolt
Thinking Glossary |
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