every good conversation starts with good listening - unknown

And that’s exactly what we plan to do.

The format will be mostly similar, however, less connecting as a team and more connecting with others connect with from day 2. While we are on the hunt for answers, we will actually be capturing a whole lot more questions in the form of HMWs, or How Might We…

The way these conversations work will be pretty straight forward. We will use our conversation starters based on our open queries and assumptions that are linked to our big question from day 1. We will open up any range of conversation paths and let those like you guide the conversation where is most important for you to take it.

As we go through this process, the team will be listening and everytime we hear something of interest it will be captured as either a note, or a ‘How might we…‘ Let me give you an example.

Someone I’m chatting with mentions, ‘oh I just have such a hard time finding the best tool to use for x..’. So on a sticky note, I would write _‘How might we… help ‘Collective y’ find the right tools for x’…_And that’s my HMW.

So why do it this way?

Well, in short, we are so well practiced in spending 55mins about the solution, we only spend 5mins understanding the problem. And Einstien proposes the opposite may be more effective.

The advantage of notes and HMWs is it stops our automatic leap to a solution (solutionism) and instead encourages us to frame a question based on a problem or a need. This works similarly to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), by using an intervention to disrupt an automated process. We need to retrain our automatic response from thinking about how it MUST be done and redirects it toward thinking how it MIGHT be done. One closes the door to possibility, the other kicks the door right off its hinges. And an open door allows the magic to walk right in.

So, would you like to help bring the magic in? If you care about improving hot_tech, then let us know you’d like to be a part of our conversations and complete this form here.