Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

If you want people to focus on the focal point, discuss nonsense first.

Rubbing spaghetti Play-Doh on a surfboard means nothing to no one. (At least I think it means nothing to no one. If someone out there has a strong feeling about it, please let me know.) It is the perfect topic for discussion in a class setting when something else is the thing we want to convey.

Two examples:

(1) I was attending a class on project management. We did a four-hour class exercise. The goal of the exercise was to demonstrate synergy, i.e., how groups of persons had better answers than any one person. At the end of the exercise the numbers clearly showed the point. No one, however, got the point. We—a group of project managers—were all discussing the project management questions and when the answers were right and wrong.

The topic used to show the point was close to us. We argued endlessly about it.

(2) I was attending a class on innovation. We did a two-hour exercise. The goal of the exercise was…well, I never did understand the goal of the exercise. The topic of the exercise was intelligence analysis. The class was full of professional intelligence analyst. Four hours after the two-hour exercise ended, the intelligence analysts were still arguing about the rights and wrongs of intelligence analysis. None of them got the point, and their arguing prevented the rest of us from getting the point as well.

The topic used to show the point was close to most of us. Most of us argued endlessly about it.

Teaching a class? Facilitating some sort of learning session? Have a point to make? Have a discussion to illustrate the point? Discuss nonsense. It will be easier for everyone to grasp the point.