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Generating Ideas

-- and HOW to use them effectively in practice…

Via the OPMS process!

Contains ‘overlay’ animations: Please download and save to your hard disk, then

use F5 key to run the presentation! (The presentation will make no sense at all to you if

you just scroll through it!)

Work in progress

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OPMS: ‘One Page Management System’

This presentation is primarily intended to demonstrate the following proposition:

We all always do have some ideas available about any issue/ Mission in which we have

some interest

Generic aid to problem solving & decision making

Enables (individual and group) users to identify a Mission of current interest.

Then elicits their current ideas about the Mission…

Then enables them to construct models showing how various ideas may be related to each other…

These models are readily developed into effective Action Plans to accomplish the desired Mission!

Detailed technical information is available in other presentations: write to gs_chandy@yahoo.com

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If you’re confronted by an issue or problem in which you have any interest at all, your mind will

ALWAYS have some ideas about it!

OPMS provides simple intuitive processes that enable you to articulate and develop those ideas so as to actually resolve your issue or problem effectively!

Step 1: WRITE DOWN YOUR ISSUE OR PROBLEM IN THE FORM OF A ‘MISSION’.

(Examples, next slide)…

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Here are some examples of Issues/ Problems - and Missions related to them:

Individual Problem: ProcrastinationIndividual Problem: Insufficient Income

Related Mission: “To ensure I earn sufficient income – within 1 year!”

Individual Problem: Poor results in my math exams

Organizational problem: Excessive attrition in the Company

Individual Problem: “Lack of software to demonstrate OPMS concept”

Related Mission: “To create the OPMS software”

Societal Problem: High level of illiteracy in India

Individual, organizational or societal problems – you can very effectively tackle

them all using the OPMS approach!

Related Mission: “To get over my habit of procrastination – within a

few months”Related Mission: “To get over our

problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months!”

Related Mission: “To properly understand all topics in my math

syllabus – and thereby significantly improve results in my math exams

(within 1 year)!”

Related Mission: “To achieve a level of at least 90% true literacy in India –

within the next 10 years”

NOTE: These Missions are NOT unique – any problem/issue confronted could have several different Mission Statements

responding to it…

Each Mission Statement is a reflection of the ideas of the individual/group that generated it.

Societal problem: Unsustainable human population

Related Mission: “To understand the dynamics of and work towards a truly

sustainable human population on earth”

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If you’ve written down your ‘problem’ or ‘issue’ in words – good! That’s the

first essential step…

If you’ve taken the next essential step and have articulated a Mission

formally – GREAT! That is the crucial step to help take you forward...

(In fact, for every problem confronted, your mind would have already taken several steps -

automatically!)

But it would be useful to recognize these characteristics of your mind and learn to use them

effectively by FORMALLY writing things down. So - here’s the ‘First Trigger Question’… (next slide)

For example, think of any ‘Mission’ that interests you – and your mind will of its own ‘automatically’ generate some

ideas to accomplish it!

In fact, your mind has alredy done it for you – think of any problem or issue of interest to you: your mind will

‘automatically’ generate a “Mission” to tackle that problem!

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Mission ‘M’: “To get over my habit of procrastination – within a few months”

Mission ‘M’: “To ensure I earn sufficient income – within 1 year!”

Mission ‘M’: “To properly understand all topics in my math syllabus – and thereby significantly improve results in my math exams (within 1 year)!”

Mission ‘M’: “To get over our problem of attrition in this Company – within 6

months!”

Mission ‘M’: “To create the OPMS software”

Mission ‘M’: “To achieve a level of at least 90% true literacy in India – within

the next 10 years”

First Trigger Question: “What, in your/my opinion, are the THINGS TO

DO to accomplish Mission ‘M’?”

Here is the appropriate ‘First Trigger Question’ for each Mission that appears below. (In the Trigger Question, simply substitute your

‘Mission’ for the words: “to accomplish Mission ‘M’”):You’ll ALWAYS find that – if you have any real interest in the issue under discussion - your mind has in fact already

intuitively articulated the appropriate question for each Mission (and probably has also generated a few responses to the

Trigger Question)!!

What to do about it next? Well…just start WRITING DOWN the answers that have come to

mind! (Some examples provided, next slides)

Step 2: Ask a ‘trigger question’

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Some examples to illustrate the start of the OPMS process…

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Some examples to illustrate the start of the OPMS process…

• Assume you have just a very few ideas!An Example:

• Towards an Action Plan for this Mission: “To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months”

Click on example you want to see

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Assumption: You have very few ideas about your Mission!

• ZERO Ideas

• Just ONE Idea

• TWO Ideas

• THREE Ideas

• FOUR Ideas (later)

• MORE Than Four Ideas!

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Assume that when confronted with that ‘trigger question’, you

have ZERO ideas!

“What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO

‘To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months’? ”

Seriously: your mind is a powerful instrument that will ALWAYS have some ideas about

EVERY issue in which you have any interest! If you really have NO ideas at all, that is good

indication that you have no interest. Give it up for the moment, till you do generate some

interest in the Mission…

We’re 100% sure that everyone definitely does have ideas on any issue in which he/she has the least

interest…(though it’s entirely possible that you may have failed to

capture the ideas you do actually have) …(and even on many issues in which there is no real interest)!

But DO check out the rest of this presentation first, to understand how ideas can be effectively handled to

ensure that you can always get something productive out of EVERY idea you have…

You really, honestly and truly think you have

ZERO ideas?!!!! (Aside: I think you are seriously wrong).

What to do about that?Simple: that just means you have ZERO interest in

the Mission – and you really should be doing something else entirely!

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To handle any idea effectively, one needs to understand clearly and effectively act on the following simple fact:

Every idea is ALWAYS dependent on

a host of other ideas!

The ‘One Page Management System’ (OPMS) is designed to enable you to handle

this crucial fact! (Just check out, for instance, how many ideas will develop

out of this simple fact!)

Some basics about handling ideas:

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• Grab hold of all good ideas available about the problem or issue - continuingly

• Record the ideas generated - continuingly • Put the ideas together in the right kind of

usable order – continuingly – create effective action planning

• Modify ideas to reflect the environmental reality - continuingly

• ‘Integrate’ every relevant issue that might come up - continuingly

To tackle any kind of issue, resolve any kind of problem effectively, these are the things that need to be done:

The ‘One Page Management System’ (OPMS) enables us to do ALL of the above - most effectively indeed!

Click here if you do have ONE or more ideas!

If you do not have a practical system to help you do all of this effectively, you may well fall into the HUGE

error of thinking you don’t have any (or enough) ideas to be productive!

If you feel you have no ideas that could be productive, then you will for sure not do the quite hard work to

grab hold of and then explore the ideas that you do in fact ALWAYS have in your mind! In fact, it’s only that hard work you do with your existing ideas that could

possibly make them productive in due course….

If you do not make the initial needed effort to at least explore the ideas you already have in mind, then for sure you will not do the harder work to develop the

ideas that you do have so that they will become usable and effective!

So let’s take a look that that list once again, shall we?

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Just ONE Idea

TWO Ideas

THREE Ideas

FOUR Ideas (later)

Ah… you DO have a few ideas!

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You have just ONE idea!

“What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO ‘To minimize

the problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months’? “

And the ONLY idea your mind generates is (say):

“To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company”

NOW, what to do?Let’s discuss how to proceed on that single idea that your mind

has generated…

We already know that this element “CONTRIBUTES TO” our Mission …therefore the model of our perceptions is as

displayed, next slide…

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The following logic goes to the ‘heart of the matter’:

As the accomplishment of ‘A’ is perceived to contribute to the accomplishment of ‘M’ (and there is no

contribution from ‘M’ to ‘A’), one may temporarily just focus only on ‘A’...

To find out specifically why each person who puts in

his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company –

within 6 months (‘M’)

“should contribute”

A simple representation of the mental model showing “contribution” is shown below:

…because every action and every step taken to accomplish ‘A’ would also contribute to the accomplishment of ‘M’!

To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company –

within 6 months (‘M’)

This simple attribute of the relationship “contributes to” – together with the ‘transitivity property’ of the relationship – provides us with the most

powerful ‘Action Planning tool’ possible, as we shall demonstrate…

The general principle is: Just focus on the lowest level element that contributes to your Mission!

‘M’ is still there - in the background! But you do NOT have to worry about it directly any more, because working to accomplish ‘A’ would be

‘CONTRIBUTING’ to accomplish ‘M’

Click here if you have MORE than one idea!

Now that the focus has changed, ask the trigger question about the element at the new focus – and for sure you will soon find that you

have MANY more ideas coming up!

The prose translation of the above representation of the above mental model is: “To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company SHOULD CONTRIBUTE To minimize the

problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months” [also, “ ‘M’ does NOT contribute to ‘A’ ”, though the ‘non-contribution’ is left implicit and ‘non-

contribution’ is not formally shown in the representation]

“What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her

papers wants to leave our Company?”

Don’t you find that now you have MORE ideas coming up??

That’s one of the features of this modeling process: the focus of your questioning changes with every structure constructed, and thereby you are enabled to generate

more ideas - continuingly!

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You have MORE than one idea:TWO IdeasTHREE IdeasFOUR Ideas (later)MORE Than Four Ideas

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Next case: in response to the initial Trigger Question, TWO ideas are available:

• To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

• To conduct an ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave (‘B’)

TWO Ideas Available:

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To find out specifically why each person who puts in

his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

“should contribute”

To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company –

within 6 months (‘M’)

To refresh memory, here is the available model with just one element contributing:

M

A

To conduct an ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave (‘B’)

Element to be added:

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We already know the new element ‘B’ contributes to the ‘Mission’ M: “To get over our

problem of attrition in this Company”

i.e., B M

…so, we ask how it “contributes to” the element ‘A’: “To find out specifically why each person who

puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company”

Does B A? Response: YES!

B A

To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave (‘B’)

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To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To get over our problem of attrition in this Company (‘M’)

“may contribute”

To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving (‘B’)

Prose translation: “To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who puts in his papers MAY CONTRIBUTE To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company, which MAY IN TURN CONTRIBUTE To get over our problem of attrition in this Company”

Step by step, element by element, the model can be built up (using the specific ‘transitivity property’ of the relationship “CONTRIBUTES TO”). There is a useful software available that can help us do this modeling

without us needing to do any of the ‘transitivity calculations’ to make a rigorous and correct model.

The ‘contribution arrow’ from ‘B’ to ‘M’ is not shown – it is implied through the transitivity of the relationship “contributes to”

Now, the ‘next trigger question’ for the above model is “What, in your opinion are the THINGS TO DO to

conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving?”

Next slides, we illustrate a model built from THREE ELEMENTS responding to the trigger question…

The moment this new trigger question is posed, more ideas should immediately become available!

“What, in your opinion are the THINGS TO DO to conduct an

‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving?”

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Three ideas available!

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“What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to get over our problem of attrition in this Company?”

• To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company

• To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave

• To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company!

Three ideas are generated in response to the trigger question…

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We wish to add this third element to our model:

“To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company!” (‘C’)

“may contribute”

To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To get over our problem of attrition in this Company (‘M’)

To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving (‘B’)

The existing model with two elements

We know for sure that ‘C’ contributes to ‘M’ as it was generated in

response to the trigger question: “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to accomplish ‘M’?”

At the same time, we can clearly see that ‘A’ contributes to ‘C’ – and that ‘C’ does NOT contribute to ‘A’. The software asks specific

questions to find out these perceptions!

We come to know these facts about the relationships through the modeling software asking appropriate questions of the people doing the modeling – and these facts as they become known

enable the software to put element ‘C’ into an appropriate position as shown, next slide…X

X

X

Further, as ‘B’ contributes to ‘A’ and ‘A’ contributes to ‘C’, we know that ‘B’ MUST contribute to ‘C’ by transitivity! Because

of this inference, we do not need specifically to ask any question about the relationship between ‘A’ and ‘C’. As our

models become larger, we get a quite sizable amount of inference through transitivity.

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As argued earlier, we know that element ‘B’ “contributes to” the accomplishment of all other

elements in the model, so for the moment we could focus only on element ‘B’, knowing that the

accomplishment of this element helps accomplishment of all the others!

To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To get over our problem of attrition in this Company (‘M’)

To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving (‘B’)

“may contribute”

To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company! (‘C’)

We have succeeded in inserting element ‘C’ into its appropriate logical position in the structure!

This attribute of the relationship “CONTRIBUTES TO” – together with its

‘transitivity’ – renders this modeling process a very useful tool for Action Planning on real

issues of all kinds

We may focus on element ‘B’ in the full confidence that doing whatever we need to do to accomplish that

element will help to accomplish all the other elements in the model… This is true whether we have four

elements in the model – or four hundred!

Next, we look at the ‘four-element’ model

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•To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company•To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave•To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company•To ensure fairness in treatment at all levels to all members of the Company

Four Ideas!

We wish to add this element to

the model

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To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To get over our problem of attrition in this Company (‘M’)

To conduct an ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving (‘B’)

“may contribute”

To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company! (‘C’)

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To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company (‘A’)

To get over our problem of attrition in this Company (‘M’)

To conduct an ‘exit interview’ with each person who is

leaving (‘B’)

“may contribute”

To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our Company! (‘C’)

To ensure fairness in treatment at all levels to all members of the

Company

A couple of modeling questions later, we find the right location for

the new element!

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Next, we consider the usual case: We have a fair number of ideas that would

help to tackle the issue at hand, but we may NOT have the comprehensive set of

ideas required!

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“To minimize the problem of attrition in this Company – within 6 months”

List on next slide. The model displayed after the list was constructed using the OPMS software, which asks the

modelers appropriate questions about the relationships they perceive between elements, does needed modeling

calculations - and finally displays the outcome…

Quite a number of available on Mission under consideration:

(This is the usual case in most Missions)

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“What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to get over our problem of attrition in this Company?”

• To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company

• To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person who wants to leave• To put into place policies that ensure that people will NOT want to leave our

Company• To ensure fairness in treatment at all levels to all members of the Company• To make every employee in the Company a real owner of the Company• To ensure that people who join will measure up to the highest standards• To ensure effective training at all levels• To ensure that each person working in the Company feels he/she owns the

Company• To reward people fairly for their work in the Company• To pay valued people excellent salaries (as soon as they prove their worth),

good perks and a motivational ownership package in the Company• To enable each person to chart what he/she can demonstrate is a worthwhile

direction to the Company• Etc, etc…– Any number of relevant elements may be generated by interested Stakeholders!

The ‘elements’ to be listed here were some ideas that came to mind on one

person considering this Trigger Question

Each organization will have its own ‘separate environment’ vis-à-vis ‘attrition’ – and the best

way to find out about that environment is to ask real stakeholders this kind of ‘trigger question’

The process of modeling enables us to create what could become, over time, an effective and comprehensive Action Plan to tackle the

problem/issue identified, accomplish the related Mission…

The ideas available to begin with almost certainly will NOT be the comprehensive solution we need to resolve the issue ‘once and

for all’ – real world problems are NOT done with ‘once and for all’! However, we can always ensure steady progress towards a well-defined Mission. Some of the ideas generated may be weak or

even wrong. As we model them, our perceptions of relationships will show us the appropriateness of each element and their

placement in the model…

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The perceptions of stakeholders to the issue are elicited through ‘modeling questions’ like the following:

Does, in your opinion,To find out specifically why each person who puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company

CONTRIBUTE To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person

who wants to leave?”

Response: “NO”

Click for next question!

Does, in your opinion,To conduct a ‘exit interview’ with each person

who wants to leave

CONTRIBUTETo find out specifically why each person who

puts in his/her papers wants to leave our Company

?”

Response: “YES”

A relatively small number of questions later, the model is ready to be displayed – next slide…

The question is then reversed…

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This is an image of the model made with all the elements on the list. It is too large to accommodate easily on a single slide, so (next slides) we

break it up so as to view sections on separate slides

“may contribute”

Model constructed using OPMS software

The model is constructed taking benefit of the transitivity property of the relationship “CONTRIBUTES TO”.

[Transitivity means:If ‘A’ ‘B’

and ‘B’ ‘C’, then ‘A’ MUST ‘C’;

(where ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ are elements and ‘’ represents the transitive relationship being modeled)]

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Top level of model…

“may contribute”

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Lower left section of model…

“may contribute”

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Lower right section of model:

“may contribute”

Any size of model may be created. However, we have

found that maximum clarity of understanding of systems is obtained when we work with

models ranging in size from 5-15 elements and then

continuingly develop those!

Notice that there are THREE elements at the lowest level of this model (contributing to all elements above them):

-- To conduct an ‘exit interview’ with each person who is leaving-- To make every employee a real owner of the Company-- To ensure the best and most effective training at all levelsIf we know how to accomplish these elements, we have the beginning of our Action Plan. If we do not, then we ask new trigger questions based on these elements… the process continues till we are confident we are able to perform effectively the lowest elements appearing in the model … then step by step we move upwards through each level in our model!It doesn’t really matter whether we have eleven elements in our model – or eleven hundred: we just

focus on the lowest level elements in our model (as they

“contribute to” all elements above them)!

The logic that we have previously explored tells us that accomplishing these three elements would help to accomplish all the elements

appearing above them in our model…

That’s the simplicity of Action Planning via OPMS

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We have demonstrated the following:

1. On any issue in which we have some interest, we ALWAYS have some ideas

2. We need never be worried that there are too few ideas – as we can always generate more ideas!

3. Our ideas may not be comprehensive to begin with (or even entirely correct), but we can always work towards making them comprehensive AND correct by adding systematically to our initial ideas (after we model them via ISM)

4. We need never feel overwhelmed by any large number of ideas – because by building “contribution models”, we can always legitimately focus on just a few of those ideas, without at all losing sight of all the other ideas!

5. Systematically building on our available ideas can help us correct our initial errors of thinking; can help us develop a set of ideas comprehensive enough to create effective action planning to help us accomplish any chosen Mission!

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Information about John Warfield’s books, papers, etc: http://www.jnwarfield.com

and see also the ‘John Warfield Collection’ maintained at the library of George Mason University

http://www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/warfield.htm

The OPMS is based on the seminal contributions to systems science by Professor John N. Warfield.

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Free copy of OPMS prototype software available on request!

For more information about OPMS, contact:

G.S. Chandy(Intelligent Systems for U and Me, Bangalore, India)Bangalore Tel.: +91-80-2847 8881; +91-80-2279 2756 Camp - Mumbai:C/o: Sahi Oretrans Pvt LtdFort, Mumbai – 400 001, INDIATel.: (Direct): +91-22-4033 5424; (Board line): +91-22-4033 5424e-mail: gs_chandy@yahoo.com