The first question has only one right answer, while the second has an infinite number of solutions, including negative numbers and fractions. These two problems, which rely on simple addition, differ only in the way they are framed. In fact, all questions are the frame into which the answers fall. And as you can see, by changing the frame, you dramatically change the range of possible solutions.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”
Albert Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”
Taking photos is a great way to practice this skill. When Forrest Glick, an avid photographer, ran a photography workshop near Fallen Leaf Lake in California, he showed the participants how to see the scene from many different points of view, framing and reframing their shots each time. He asked them to take a wide-angle picture to capture the entire scene, then to take a photo of the trees close to shore. He then asked them to bring the focus closer and closer, taking pictures of a single wildflower, or a ladybug on that flower. He pointed out that you can change your perspective without even moving your feet. By just shifting your field of view up or down, or panning left or right, you can completely change the image. Of course, if you walk to the other side of the lake, climb up to the top of one of the peaks, or take a boat onto the water, you shift the frame even more.
A classic example of this type of reframing comes from the stunning 1968 documentary film Powers of Ten, written and directed by Ray and Charles Eames. The film, which can be viewed online, depicts the known universe in factors of ten. Starting at a picnic by the lakeside in Chicago, the film transports us to the outer edges of the universe. Every ten seconds we view the starting point from ten times farther out, until our own galaxy is visible only as a speck of light among many others. Returning to earth with breathtaking speed, we move inward — into the hand of the sleeping picnicker — with ten times more magnification every ten seconds. Our journey ends inside a proton of a carbon atom within a DNA molecule in a white blood cell.
This magnificent example reinforces the fact that you can look at every situation in the world from different angles, from close up, from far away, from upside down, and from behind. All day long, we are creating frames for what we see, hear, and experience, and those frames both inform and limit the way we think. In most cases, we don’t even consider the frames — we just assume we are looking at the world with the proper set of lenses.
Being able to question and shift your frame of reference is an important key to enhancing your imagination, because it reveals completely different insights. This can also be accomplished by looking at each situation from different individuals’ points of view. For example, how would a child or a senior see the situation? What about an expert or a novice, or a local inhabitant versus a visitor? A wealthy person or a poor one? A tall person or a short one? Each angle provides a different perspective and unleashes new insights and ideas.
At Stanford’s Hasso Plattner School of Design, or ‘d.school’, students are taught how to empathize with very different types of people, so that they can design products and experiences that match their specific needs. When you empathize, you are, essentially, changing your frame of reference by shifting your perspective to that of the other person. Instead of looking at a problem from your own point of view, you look at it from the point of view of your user.
Another valuable way to open the frame when you are solving a problem is to ask questions that start with, Why?
For example, if you are designing anything — from a lunch box to a lunar landing module — you soon discover that different people have very diverse desires and requirements. Students are taught how to uncover these needs by observing, listening, and interviewing and then pulling their insights together to paint a detailed picture from each user’s point of view.
Another valuable way to open the frame when you are solving a problem is to ask questions that start with, Why? In his need-finding class, Stanford d.school Professor Michael Barry uses the following example:
If I asked you to build a bridge for me, you could go off and build a bridge. Or you could come back to me with another question: “Why do you need a bridge?” I would likely tell you that I need a bridge to get to the other side of a river. Aha! This response opens up the frame of possible solutions. There are clearly many ways to get across a river besides using a bridge. You could dig a tunnel, take a ferry, paddle a canoe, use a zip line, or fly a hot-air balloon, to name a few.
You can open the frame even farther by asking why I want to get to the other side of the river. Imagine I told you that I work on the other side. This, again, provides valuable infor- mation and broadens the range of possible solutions even more. There are probably viable ways for me to earn a living without ever going across the river.
The simple process of asking ‘why’ questions provides an incredibly useful tool for expanding the landscape of solutions for a problem.
This type of thinking can be applied to any industry. For example, the directors of the Tesco food-marketing business in South Korea set a goal to increase market share substantially and needed to find a creative way to do so. They looked at their customers and realized that their lives are so busy that it is actually quite stressful to find time to go to the store. So they decided to bring their store to the shoppers.
They completely reframed the shopping experience by taking photos of the food aisles and putting up full-sized images in the subway stations. People can literally shop while they wait for the train, using their smartphones to buy items via photos of the QR codes and paying by credit card. The items are then delivered to them when they get home. This new approach to shopping has boosted Tesco’s sales significantly.
Companies need to continually reframe their businesses in order to survive as markets and technology change.
Reframing problems is not a luxury. On the contrary, all companies need to continually reframe their businesses in order to survive as markets and technology change. For example, Kodak defined its business as ‘making cameras and film.’ When digital cameras made film photography obsolete, the company lost out badly, because it wasn’t able to open its frame early enough to see its business as including this new technology. On the other hand, Netflix began delivering DVDs of movies by mail. It framed its goals much more broadly, however, seeing itself as being in the movie-delivery business, not just the DVD-delivery business.
Framing and reframing of problems also opens up the door to innovative new ventures. Scott Summit, the founder of Bespoke, created a brand-new way to envision prosthetics for people who have lost a limb. The word ‘bespoke’ comes from Old English and means “custom-tailored” — and that is exactly what his company does: it makes custom-tailored limbs for those who have lost them.
Scott’s biggest insight was that some people with artificial limbs are embarrassed by their disability and want to hide their unsightly artificial limbs as much as possible. He reframed the problem by looking at an artificial limb not just as a functional medical device, but as a fashion accessory. Essentially, he decided to make prosthetics that are cooler than normal limbs.
Bespoke makes its customized limbs using a brand-new technique for 3D printing. Its designers first do a 3D scan of the surviving limb to make sure that the new limb is completely symmetrical with the surviving one. After they print the new limb, they cover it with materials that match the user’s lifestyle. For example, a new leg can be designed to look like a leather cowboy boot, or it can be covered in brushed chrome to match the user’s motorcycle, or it can be cut out to look like lace to match a fashionable dress. Not only is the leg functional, but the wearer is actually proud to display it publicly. Essentially, the prosthetic was transformed from a medical device into a fashion statement.
Reframing problems takes effort, attention and practice, but it enables you to see the world around you in a brand-new light. As indicated, you can practice reframing by physically or mentally changing your point of view, by seeing the world from others’ perspectives, and by asking questions that begin with Why? Together, these approaches will enhance your ability to generate imaginative responses to the problems that come your way.
As spring quarter 2012 comes to close on the Stanford campus, here are some announcements and resources we are excited to share. Campus life may begin to slow down, but entrepreneurship activity, education and professional development continue to move at high speed.
New Research Honors
Earlier in May, STVP Co-Director Professor Kathleen Eisenhardt traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, to receive the Global Award for Entrepreneurial Research. The prestigious honor is awarded by a collection of major Swedish institutions, who seek to increase interest in the study of entrepreneurship around the world. We congratulate Kathy on the honor, recognizing her work on “strategy, strategic decision making, and innovation in rapidly changing and highly competitive markets.” See a short video from the ceremony>>
STVP Ph.D. student Douglas Hannah is the winner of the 2012 Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship. Lieberman was a distinguished scholar and teacher for over 40 years at Stanford, and the fellowship aims to “recognize and promote doctoral students who demonstrate the potential for becoming academic leaders.” Doug joined the STVP Ph.D. program in 2009 and his research focuses on collaborative firm innovation processes and inter-firm networks. Check out Doug’s profile on the STVP website>>
New Books From STVP Faculty
In April, STVP Executive Director Dr. Tina Seelig released her newest book, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity. The book demystifies the creative process and explains why creativity can be a renewable resource for anyone. inGenius also offers readers a new model, the Innovation Engine, which explains how creativity is generated on the inside and how it is influenced by the outside world. Watch Tina discussing the importance of reframing problems on Stanford ECorner>>
Faculty and policy leaders interested in the future of entrepreneurship education are highly encouraged to join STVP at the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education – Europe 2012. Hosted by Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, REE Europe 2012 will be an interactive conference providing hands-on tools for developing entrepreneurship education, as well as strategies on how to leverage students and local entrepreneurs in curriculum development. See program highlights and register for REE Europe 2012>>
Directed by STVP, the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) is working to bring greater entrepreneurship and innovation learning into undergraduate engineering education across the United States. The Epicenter, along with NCIIA, is offering a number of engaging opportunities for entrepreneurship faculty development. Along with the following two programs, visit the Epicenter events page for future opportunities to connect with the Epicenter.
If you missed any of the spring quarter’s DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminars, summer is the perfect time to catch up with the latest videos and podcasts. This quarter featured startup founders, social entrepreneurs and leaders from the publishing and entertainment sectors. Check out the recently added content on ECorner>>
Today the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (EPI.Center) launches operation to create seismic change in how undergraduate engineers are educated in the United States. The EPI.Center, based at Stanford University’s School of Engineering, will serve as an education, research and outreach hub for the creation and sharing of entrepreneurship and innovation education resources among the nation’s engineering schools.
Interested parties can sign-up online for EPI.Center news and updates at: epicenter.stanford.edu.
The EPI.Center leadership team has selected Dr. Tina Seelig to serve as the center’s director. Dr. Seelig is an award-winning educator, having received the Gordon Prize for innovative curriculum design and teaching methods from the National Academy of Engineering in 2009. Dr. Seelig will also continue to serve as STVP’s executive director.
“In choosing Tina as the EPI.Center’s inaugural director, we have an effective and engaging leader who can hit the ground running when it comes to changing engineering education in America,” says Stanford Professor Tom Byers, a principal investigator on the EPI.Center project. “Tina will be instrumental in the EPI.Center’s efforts to identify and harness excellent entrepreneurship education curricula and activities from a wide variety of engineering schools across the US.”
[quote_right]“The economic future of the United States is dependent upon unleashing the enormous untapped potential for innovation in America’s talented engineering students.[/quote_right]Dr. Seelig is currently working with the EPI.Center principal investigators, including Byers and Stanford Professors Kathleen Eisenhardt and Sheri Sheppard, to develop a comprehensive operating plan. With the EPI.Center’s focus on accelerating the creation of the next wave of American innovators, Dr. Seelig is eager to put the center’s work into motion.
“The economic future of the United States is dependent upon unleashing the enormous untapped potential for innovation in America’s talented engineering students,” says Seelig. “I am honored to play a role in engaging higher education engineering faculty and students in this important effort.”
The center is now inviting design submissions for the EPI.Center’s logo. The creator of the winning logo concept design will receive $700 USD. All contest entries must be submitted by September 28, 2011.
Interest in “social” entrepreneurship continues to soar. The number of conferences and business plan competitions on social entrepreneurship are growing rapidly, the number of courses offered on university campuses is expanding, and social entrepreneurship is getting a lot of press. So, what differentiates a social entrepreneur from a plain old vanilla entrepreneur? I must say that it isn’t clear to me….
“A company certainly does not have to be a not-for-profit to be socially responsible.”
To loosely quote Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, “All entrepreneurship is ‘social’ because at a minimum it generates jobs and stimulates the economy.” Given that as a baseline, companies can be socially responsible in an endless number of ways. If a company has family friendly policies, it is socially responsible. If a company recycles used materials and installs solar panels on the roof, it is socially responsible. If a company makes medical products that save lives, it is socially responsible. If a company makes energy efficient cars, it is socially responsible. A company certainly does not have to be a not-for-profit to be socially responsible.
I would argue that people use the term “social” entrepreneurship because they don’t always know what entrepreneurship is. The way we teach it, entrepreneurship is about identifying problems and solving them by leveraging scarce resources. It means creating value, where value can be measured in a wide range of ways. To quote John Doerr, “Entrepreneurs do more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thinks possible.” This can happen in any arena.
For many years, I have been an advisor to a large student group at Stanford, called BASES, that runs the campus-wide business plan competition. Several years ago they started a parallel competition for “social” business plans. The number of submissions were small and the prizes were much smaller than for the traditional business plan competition. Over the past few years, the number of submissions for the Social E-Challenge has grown until now there are as many submissions as the E-Challenge.
“I would argue that people use the term “social” entrepreneurship because they don’t always know what entrepreneurship is.”
There has always been healthy debate about whether a plan can be entered in both competitions at the same time. My fantasy is that some day the winner of the Social E-Challenge will also be the winner of the E-Challenge. It will demonstrate that a company that is attractive using traditional metrics can also have a powerful social agenda.
Below is a video clip featuring Guy Kawasaki, one of the most popular speakers on STVP’s Entrepreneurship Corner website. Over the years, Guy has shared his insights on everything from principles of startup success to tips on how to build enduring brands. Here he talks about the importance of having the goal of making meaning for your company as opposed to making money. He argues that if you make meaning, you are more likely to make money; but if your major goal is to make money, then you are unlikely to make either.
We all face uncertainty in life, especially at times of great change or transition. With our minds full of problems and questions, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by challenging circumstances. Students are keenly aware of this experience upon leaving school, and in today’s guest post, STVP Executive Director Tina Seelig discusses helping students confront uncertainty to turn problems into opportunities.
As we head towards graduation, I have been asked to speak in several classes at Stanford to talk with students about life after school. After sharing some stories about my career path, I decided to do an experiment… I asked the students to write down the biggest problems they are currently facing so that together we could try to solve their problems by turning them into opportunities.
Each student instantly pulled out a sheet of paper and started writing. After a few minutes I asked them to pass them to the front of the room. The problems were all anonymous. As I started reading them, I was shocked and amazed by the problems they wrote down. In retrospect, I’m not sure what I expected, but it was certainly not what I received.
Some problems were written in bold letters (I NEED A JOB) and others were written in tiny letters that were nearly impossible to read (I want a boyfriend). They were scrawled as a quickly crafted list with dozens of existential questions or they were written with an unsteady hand (I am not motivated). It was clear that these big, bold questions are looming in these students minds.
They are finding, as generations before them have, that life after college is filled with zillions of questions without a right answer.
After doing this exercise in a few classes, the patterns started to emerge. Clearly, even after receiving an education at a top tier university, a large number of students are struggling to figure out what they want to do with their lives. And, of course, the gloomy economic environment isn’t making life easier. They are finding, as generations before them have, that life after college is filled with zillions of questions without a right answer.
While in school, students live a life that is cut up into quarters or semesters with a nice long summer break. They are given specific assignments and receive a grade at the end of each one. They know if they have done well or not. But, life beyond college is quite different. It is the ultimate open-book exam.
In fact, after school, we are the students AND the teacher, creating the tests ourselves. Nobody gives us a text book or a course reader, and the comforting rhythm of semesters and summer breaks is gone. In fact, a colleague of mine in Chile provocatively tells his students that they should take courses from the worst professors at their school since this will prepare them better for life where they won’t have a talented teacher showing them the way.
In the classes this quarter we organized all the questions into categories and spent as much time as needed addressing all the concerns. Students stayed long past the allotted class time to think about these problems in creative ways. One of the benefits of this public discussion was that the students all realized that each of them was facing similar challenges. They are all going out into the unknown and need to learn a brand new set of skills, including how to motivate themselves, how to make decisions with incomplete information, and how to embrace the uncertainty on the path ahead.
As the Stanford campus receives a healthy dose of spring showers, our students are finalizing their schedules for the upcoming quarter. And coming off the bounty of events at Entrepreneurship Week 2011, many students are looking to add entrepreneurship-related courses. STVP offers a number of choices for students interested in entrepreneurship, or those whose next great idea has been hibernating through the winter. It’s time to push those slumbering ideas into start-up action.
Check out our spring offerings below, including courses on organization theory and management, global marketing, creativity, and financial knowledge for entrepreneurs. Plus, in our humble opinion, all students should register for the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar. If you’re not sure entrepreneurship is for you, attend this one-unit class to hear amazing stories and insights from the brightest entrepreneurial minds. Check out the DFJ ETL speaker list for Spring 2011.
Only available to students selected for the Mayfield Fellows Program, this first section of the three-part MFP course sequence focuses on understanding management and leadership within high technology startups. Students work with engineering faculty, founders, and venture capitalists, as they explore issues of organizational development, financing, recruitment, and market strategy. Learn how the MFP experience changes lives.
MS&E 140/240: Accounting for Managers and Entrepreneurs
Instructor: Francis Stanton
Open to graduate and undergraduate students, Accounting for Managers and Entrepreneurs introduces concepts related to accounting and the operating characteristics of accounting systems. Designed for students who will need to work with accounting information for operational uses, the course identifies how to interpret and use accounting information to make decisions.
How do you market technology-based products to a global audience of customers? Learn how in this course that examines cases of startups and other technology firms that are doing this work. Students will not only learn how to target markets and build partnerships, but will also tackle issues of sales and negotiations and outbound marketing.
MS&E 180: Organizations: Theory and Management
Instructor: Pamela Hinds Limited enrollment.
This course examines classical and contemporary organization theory. Students will explore the behaviors of individuals, groups, and organizations, and come to understand why certain behaviors impact the management of organizations.
Enrollment preference is given to MS&E majors.
This popular and highly experiential course explores the variables that stimulate and inhibit creativity and innovation in individuals, teams, and organizations. Through classroom activities, design challenges, and interactions with visiting experts, students will learn that every problem is an opportunity for a creative solution.
The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar is a weekly speaker series that presents innovators from across the business, finance, technology, and philanthropy sectors, to share their insights with aspiring entrepreneurs. Through MS&E 472, students have the opportunity to learn real world knowledge from prominent leaders and entrepreneurs.
As 2010 comes to a close, it makes sense to take a moment to consider how we have spent our time throughout the past year, and to choose what to focus on in 2011. Anyone planning entrepreneurial adventures in the coming year should be prepared to judiciously manage their time, as it’s one of an entrepreneur’s most precious commodities. Today’s guest post is on the real value of time, from STVP‘s Executive Director, Tina Seelig.
Most people look at their bank accounts with great attention and assess how much money they have to spend, to invest, and to give away… but, they don’t look at their time the same way, and end up wasting this incredibly valuable resource. In fact, time is much more valuable than money because you can use your time to make money, but you can’t use money to purchase more time.
Time is the great equalizer… each day has only 24 hours — nobody has any more than anyone else. Everyone, from poets to presidents, fills those hours, one after the other, until they are all filled up. Every single minute is unique, and once gone, can never be regained.
When you look at someone who has accomplished a lot, you can be pretty sure that he or she has spent considerable amounts of time mastering the required skills, filling hours upon hours with hard work. There are those who look at others’ accomplishments and say, “I had that idea, “ or “I could have done that.” But ideas are cheap and intentions are just that. If you don’t invest the time needed to achieve those goals then all you have are empty ambitions.
People often say, “I don’t have the time to…,” fill in the blank with whatever you like: exercise, make dinner, write a book, start a company, run for political office. What makes these people think that they have less time than anyone else? Of course they don’t. We all have the same 24 hours in each day and make real decisions about how we spend them. If you really want to get in shape, then carve out time to exercise. If you want to write a book, then pick up a pen and do it. And, if you want to run for president, then get started. It isn’t going to happen if you plan your day around your favorite TV shows or spend hours updating your Facebook page. These are entertaining distractions that eat up your irreplaceable time.
I teach a course on creativity and innovation at Stanford University. During a workshop on how to brainstorm I often give the following prompt: There aren’t enough hours in a day. Come up with creative solutions to this dilemma. The brainstorming results in an endless list of solutions — from the practical to the preposterous — demonstrating that there are lots of ways to extract more from each hour, each day, and each year. Some of the most interesting solutions involve figuring out how to do two things at once. I know many people who have successfully incorporated this approach into their own lives.
For instance, I met a woman named Audrey Carlson several years ago who was struggling to figure out how to spend time with her friends and take care of her growing family. She started a group called “Chop and Chat.” Every Sunday six friends got together to cook at a member’s home. Each member brought the ingredients to make a different recipe that was then split into six portions. Members took home six different main courses for the week. Chop and Chat was an inventive way for the women to cook together, socialize, and prepare meals for their families.
Another example is venture capitalist Fern Mandelbaum. You would assume that meetings with Fern take place in her office… and you’d be wrong. Fern is an avid athlete and her meetings take place on hiking paths. Everyone who knows Fern knows to wear walking shoes and carry a bottle of water to their meetings in anticipation of a strenuous hike. Fern finds that this strategy is a great way to get to know each entrepreneur while also getting exercise.
There is an oft-quoted saying that “time is money.” You can interpret this to mean that time is a valuable currency. In fact, each day another 24 hours is deposited into each of our “bank accounts.” We get a choice about how to spend these hours. We decide how much we spend right away, how much gets invested for the future, and how much we give away. The worst choice is to waste these hours by letting them slip away.
It is almost noon, and I have 12 more hours to invest today!
STVP‘s Executive Director, Tina Seelig, empowers her students to embrace all their experiences by creating a failure résumé.
Yes… a failure résumé.
This is a great way to appreciate the lessons you learn through experience. So while you’re busy polishing up a standard résumé, framing your most attractive qualities and accomplishments for others, you might want to take time out to build your failure résumé.
Here is Tina’s explanation of this powerful tool:
I require my students to write a failure résumé. That is, to craft a résumé that summarizes all their biggest screw ups — personal, professional, and academic. For every failure, each student must describe what he or she learned from that experience. Just imagine the looks of surprise this assignment inspires in students who are so used to showcasing their successes.
However, after they finish their résumé, they realize that viewing their experiences through the lens of failure forced them to come to terms with the mistakes they have made along the way and to extract important lessons from them. In fact, as the years go by, many former students continue to keep their failure résumé up-to-date, in parallel with their traditional résumé of successes.
A failure resume is a quick way to demonstrate that failure is an important part of our learning process, especially when you’re stretching your abilities, doing things the first time, or taking risks. We hire people who have experience not just because of their successes but also because of their failures.
Failures increase the chance that you won’t make the same mistake again. Failures are also a sign that you have taken on challenges that expand your skills. In fact, many successful people believe that if you aren’t failing sometimes then you aren’t taking enough risks. Additionally, it is pretty clear that the ratio of our successes and failure is pretty constant. So, if you want more successes, you are going to have to tolerate more failure along the way.
You deserve to take credit for all that you have learned in life, so use this tool to do it. What are you waiting for? It’s a job each of us is perfectly qualified for.
