Using MyCreativity to help elaborate models

Consider this simple model. A Kettle, useful, is used to produce Hot Water, also useful. One of the first things you do when you create a Southbeach Notation model is to try and describe the important elements of your situation, and then gradually elaborate the model to include additional details.

There could be many reasons you might use Southbeach in this way. It could be you are trying to improve a situation, or work out what could fail in a newly designed process, or perhaps you simply want to understand a situation better, and modelling how the various aspects of a situation are related to each other helps put things in perspective.

In this example, we explore how some simple MyCreativity rules can be developed to provide thought provoking questions about a situation to help provoke people into fleshing out the details that could help understanding.

Starting simple, adding the following rules to the modeller:

produces(*, useful) "What (additional) resources does the {source} need in order to produce the {destination}?"
produces(*,useful) "What qualities should the {source} exhibit in producing the {destination}?"

give the following output for this model:

1. What (additional) resources does the Kettle need in order to produce the Hot Water?
2. What qualities should the Kettle exhibit in producing the Hot Water?

Two important questions. No doubt you can think of more. Lets elaborate the model further and see how else we can extend these creativity rules.

In this elaborated model, we have added Electricity and Water as Agents of Type Resource that are being consumed by the Kettle. We have also noted that The kettle needs to be quite, efficient, and fast. These are represented as Agents of Type Quality that are specifying the Kettle. The use of this additional richness in semantic supported by Southbeach Notation allows for more specific Creativity rules to generate more specific, more helpful output:

These elaboration rules:

consumes(&a=*,&r=resource) produces(&a,&o=useful) "Where is the resource of {&r} used by the {&a} to produce the {&o} obtained from?"
specifies(quality,*) "What is the {source} quality related to?"
produces(,useful) "What is the {destination} used for?"
produces(&a=useful,&o=useful) produces(&o,&r=useful) "What other than the {&a} and {&o} is necessary to produce the {&r}?"

Produce this output:

1. Where is the resource of Electricity used by the Kettle to produce the Hot Water obtained from?
2. Where is the resource of Water used by the Kettle to produce the Hot Water obtained from?
3. What is the Hot Water used for?
4. What is the Fast quality related to?
5. What is the Efficient quality related to?
6. What is the Quiet quality related to?

Note that I have already drawn on that Efficiency is related to Electricity, and Fast is related to the production of Hot Water. This allows for further specific rules related to improving quality:

These two improvement rules:

#Improvement
specifies(quality,useful) "How can the {destination} be made more {source}?"
related(quality,useful) "How can the {destination} be more {source}?"

produce this output:

How can the Hot Water be more Fast?
How can the Electricity be more Efficient?

As described in a previous example, there is a relationship between the rules and the way the model is drawn (the 'meta model') - the way the notation of Southbeach is used to represent the real world situation the model is being used to represent. This can be weak or strong. What does this mean? If there are certain specific suggestions you want rules to be able to fire that you don't want to fire for any old agent in the model, then you need to decide how you want to model reality and how you want to pick this up in rules. For example, this model uses agents of Type Resource to generate some very specific questions like: Where is the resource of Electricity used by the Kettle to produce the Hot Water obtained from? Note that the rule knows the Kettle is using Electricity because Electricity is modelled as Type Resource, and there is a Consumes effect between Kettle and Electricity indicating that the Kettle is Consuming the Resource of Electricity.

Note how the rules have a heading of #Improvement. If you were to save these rules in a file along with your other MyCreativity rule sets, this heading allows you to select these rules from this file along with other rules on Improvement from other rule files you may have to all be run against the model at the same time.

(remember these are rules generated against a model you create - so the language is not going to be perfect!... you need to interpret the output, and think about how you phrase the text in the rules and the text in the agents in the model so that when they are combined, they read well)

Lets elaborate the model further according to the questions above - e.g. What's the Hot Water used for?


Finally, the rule set looks like this:

#Elaboration
produces(*, useful) "What (additional) resources does the {source} need in order to produce the {destination}?"
produces(*,useful) "What qualities should the {source} exhibit in producing the {destination}?"
consumes(&a=*,&r=resource) produces(&a,&o=useful) "Where is the resource of {&r} used by the {&a} to produce the {&o} obtained from?"
specifies(quality,*) "What is the {source} quality related to?"
produces(,useful) "What is the {destination} used for?"
produces(&a=useful,&o=useful) produces(&o,&r=useful) "What other than the {&a} and {&o} is necessary to produce the {&r}?"
#Improvement
specifies(quality,useful) "How can the {destination} be made more {source}?"
related(quality,useful) "How can the {destination} be more {source}?"

and the output looks like this:

1. Where is the resource of Electricity used by the Kettle to produce the Hot Water obtained from?
2. Where is the resource of Water used by the Kettle to produce the Hot Water obtained from?
3. What (additional) resources does the Kettle need in order to produce the Hot Water?
4. What qualities should the Kettle exhibit in producing the Hot Water?
5. What is the Hot Water used for?
6. What other than the Kettle and Hot Water is necessary to produce the Cup of Tea?
7. How can the Hot Water be more Fast?
8. What is the Fast quality related to?
9. How can the Kettle be made more Fast?
10. What (additional) resources does the Hot Water need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
11. What qualities should the Hot Water exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?
12. What is the Cup of Tea used for?
13. What (additional) resources does the Tea bag need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
14. What qualities should the Tea bag exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?
15. What (additional) resources does the Milk need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
16. What qualities should the Milk exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?
17. How can the Electricity be more Efficient?
18. What is the Efficient quality related to?
19. How can the Kettle be made more Efficient?
20. What is the Quiet quality related to?
21. How can the Kettle be made more Quiet?

Note how the rules we wrote earlier for the initial model also make sense for the parts of the model added later. MyCreativity can be configured to give you the full list of output like this, or just limit the output to what is relevant to the part of the model you click on.

For instance, setting the extent to extended and clicking on the Cup of Tea, gives just this output:

1. What (additional) resources does the Hot Water need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
2. What qualities should the Hot Water exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?
3. What is the Cup of Tea used for?
4. What other than the Kettle and Hot Water is necessary to produce the Cup of Tea?
5. What (additional) resources does the Tea bag need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
6. What qualities should the Tea bag exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?
7. What (additional) resources does the Milk need in order to produce the Cup of Tea?
8. What qualities should the Milk exhibit in producing the Cup of Tea?

Rule sets for MyCreativity can be developed like this as you are building a specific model, and then reused with any other model. This rule set is quite generic. Its not complete - there are lots more ways you could elaborate, or add detail to a model... but its a start... that can be built on.

An example method for developing Southbeach Notation Models

Whilst Southbeach Notation itself does not impose any methodology, it is sometimes useful to see how other people have been using it. This example is one way of assessing a situation, brainstorming improvement options, and establishing action plans involving the need to consult large numbers of people. It includes a very simple Southbeach model of a manufacturing firm by way of illustration. Several iterations of the model are shown to demonstrate how a model may be built up through structured questioning. At each stage, the new agents that are added to the model are highlighted in yellow.

Four phases of activity are described below:


More details on example activities and pointers for each phase are provided below:


Model the situation:

Identify & interview stake holders

What are the priority areas?
What are the goals?
What’s helps achieve the goals?
What are these dependent on?
What’s counteracting the goals?
What are the real issues?
What causes those issues?
What’s the root cause?
What other resources do we have?

Assess the differences in perspective
Break differences of opinion down into their parts to get to the issues
Agree what’s important and why, remove the rest

Cost, harmful, and considered a risk, counteracts Profit, which is useful and the goal of the firm. We keep this model deliberately trivial for the purposes of illustration and gradually expand on it below.

Tips

Don’t ask leading questions
Your opinion is irrelevant; Mine their knowledge
Watch body language; Ask pointed questions
Differentiate opinion or hearsay from fact
Seek corroborating evidence

What is most important? What are the goals and risks?
What is most useful? What is most harmful?
What led/is still leading to this situation?
What resources are available? What are the enablers?
What are the risks, blockers & constraints? How can we mitigate against them?
What is the ideal outcome?


Elaborate and refine the model
Who else should be consulted?
- Specialists?
- Customers?
- Suppliers?
- External experts?

What’s missing from the model? (stand on each block and ask...)
- What else does this produce?
- What else produces this?
- What else does this counteract?
- What else counteracts this?
- What are the enablers and positive forces for change?
- What are the blockers and inhibitors?

Here we look at what produces the Cost and Profit and what is counteracting them. Sales leads to Manufacturing, which generates both Revenue and Cost. The revenue contributes to the profit and the Cost counteracts it. The Profit is also counteracted by Corporation Tax.

Tips
Keep asking what causes this until you get to the root cause
See all sides of the argument
Decompose contradictions into their parts
- “Cut costs” + “Increase marketing budget” = ???
- - Choose between one or the other?
- - Move budget from elsewhere?
- - Improve marketing efficiency?
Remove unnecessary information
Differentiate hobby horses from the real issues
E.g. absence of something is not necessarily an issue – it could be the interviewee leaping to conclusions about what the solution is…. “The problem is we have no leadership”… or is it just that this person does not agree with the leadership?


Brainstorm Improvement Options

Each of the questions below targets a different creativity centre in the brain, and focusses on a different part of the problem in the system. Consider each question carefully and make sure to answer them specifically (e.g. consider the harmful effects of pollution: protect from harm (e.g. using a mask to avoid inhaling pollution) is quite different from reduce harm (e.g. using unleaded fuel), is quite different from reduce ability to produce harm (e.g. reduce engine size or speed limit), is quite different from prevent harm (e.g. pedestrianize the town centre), is quite different to avoid harm (e.g. don't go into the town, stay in the country).

Ask what could improve the situation?
- What are the enablers for this?
- What are the blockers and how can we overcome them?
Ask what could worsen the situation?
- How could we prevent this?
- What are the risk mitigations for this?

Increase usefulness
- Introduce more kinds or quantities of useful agents into the system
- Find a way for useful agents to last longer or be more efficient or effective
- Change agents somehow so they are more useful or have more uses
- Make more use of...
- Increase the ability to produce the useful, Find other ways to produce the useful
- Go to where the useful agents already exist or are available
- Find another way to get the useful that is not affected by the harm
- Find another way to get the useful that has not harmful side effects
Decrease harm
- Prevent harmful agents from coming into existence
- Remove harmful agents altogether
- Change agents somehow to decrease their harmfulness
- Reduce the ability to produce harm
- Protect useful agents from harm
- Avoid the harm

Improve
- Find a way to increase the usefulness without increasing the harm
- Find another way to get the usefulness that does not produce the harm
- Separate the conflicting behaviours or tensions
- - in time / space / by perception / condition
- - Transition to super-system / sub-system / alternate system / inverse system
Step back and consider alternatives
Move to the next generation of the system
Remove the need for the system

Here the ideas for improving the system are shown as blue boxes. Blue boxes are not yet part of the system being diagnosed, but rather, represent the recommendations arising from the analysis of the Southbeach Model of the system. Here Offshoring is designed to counteract Cost, as is Reduced Stock, which is achieved by implementing a Build to Order process. Sales are increased through additional Marketing activity.

What are the risks?
What are the external influences that could adversely affect us?
In what way might we be harming or harmed by the environment?

Here we examine what additional external factors may affect the system. Competitors, considered harmful, counteract Revenue. Warranty Activity contributes to Cost which erodes Profit. This causal chain is saying that both Competitors and Warranty Activity indirectly erode Profit, so we had better do something about it.

What can we do about those risks?
Can any of those harmful factors be turned to use?
How can we work in better harmony with the environment?

Research & Development is recommended here to identify Potential (dotted box) new Products that could counteract Competitors who do not have comparable products, giving us some of the market share that was previously with competitors, as well as directly increase Revenue by winning new customers attracted by this new Product. Continually asking 'what other benefits does this have?' yields R&D tax rebates which increases Profit further. Warranty Activity is reduced by an Improved Quality Assurance process. Note that the new process and products will have their own costs, which will erode profit. These are not shown here as they are a necessary part of the idea evaluation - the business case for each blue activity block - they are not a part of the system we are improving until those blue blocks are implemented.

Tips
Brainstorm improvement options, in the above categories, or directed in some other way
Collect improvement ideas
Group ideas together to create better ideas

Run professionally facilitated workshops
Use independent third parties who are not blinkered by history and have no bias
Consult experts as needed, from within the firm and outside
Use the wisdom of crowds – run virtual idea management campaigns using services from firms such as imaginatik.com
Consider what others in the market are doing

Consider the implications, what could the unforeseen consequences of your actions be? How can you protect against them? How can you make your solution last?

Planning Tips
What are the consequences of taking these actions, Useful and Harmful? (Impact analysis)
What preparatory steps should be taken?
What resources are available?
What other activities could our plan integrate with or leverage?
Consider what change management activity will be needed
How can we ensure adoption of the new solution?
Communicate and Educate far and wide
How can we ensure realisation of the benefits?
Consider planning in a benefits realisation phase
Establish metrics
Identify roles and responsibilities
Establish governance and necessary support or operational processes