Always Crashing In The Same Car

I’ve paused for the first time in a while. And it’s good to reflect. When projects come thick and fast, you can drive, or drift, through in the same way, regardless of previous success.

Do you endlessly offer up offer Frog a la Peche in the face of all evidence? (Confused? Here’s a link)

This isn’t “I’ve always done it that way”-ism. I think that’s rather different – albeit a pernicious blocker to achievement. What I’m talking about is something subtler, and it’s well described in this article. “Our brains don’t learn from our past mistakes to the extent we might hope. In fact, thinking about past flubs might only doom us to repeat them”. Sounds worrying, but you might think that doesn’t happen to you. Yeah? Read this:

“In 2008, researchers at McMaster University in Ontario found a similar problem took place with “tip of the tongue” phenomenon. “This can be incredibly frustrating — you know you know the word, but you just can’t quite get it,” the researcher Karin Humphreys told LiveScience at the time. “And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can’t imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do.” The reason? The time you spend sifting for that word reinforces a “mistake pathway” in the brain, essentially digging yourself further into the wrong groove. The next time you’re hunting for the elusive word, your brain will reflexively draw a blank instead.”

Sounds more familiar now? And if so, have I been busy burning new mistake pathways? I know that when running research, I have come to one of my own questions and thought: “Uch, why have I used that? I always have to rephrase!” And then it turns up again in another design… Or, for at least a few months, I was analyse data rather laboriously. Previously I’d done it far more efficiently. Just once I hadn’t been able to make it work, hence a long-hand workaround. And, it seems, I burned this new path.

But as I reflect, I’ve thought about how I have learned. At the outset my approach to qualitative was very much set up around free discussion. That’s my comfort zone. But I recognised some of its limitations; it’s not others’ comfort zone, it can limit how much some could express themselves, it can be reliant on people arriving with answers. So, I’ve naturally adapted, and now design involves a greater mix of written response, small group exercises, use of stimulus, online groups and others. Next I want to look at using games, and potentially use of video capture.

That provides a richer insight, and allows me to be far more flexible in applications. It’s all aspects of the employee experience – from never-thought-about-them-potential-candidate, to engaging-the-seen-it-all-before employee, to capturing the collective wisdom of the workforce.

And you know what – it’s different for me. I’m not burning down the same pathways, it’s keeping it fresh and less formulaic. And if I’m on my toes, that’s always going to get a better result.

However busy you may be, keep working on your own game.