100 Posts in 100 Days
It’s time for “The Pulse”, a collection of things that I have found interesting lately and that are keeping me going.
A Slight Change of Plans: The Thai Cave Rescue (Podcast)
First off, let me share that “A Slight Change of Plans” was named by Apple as the best podcast of the year in 2021. Host Dr. Maya Shanker interviews guests who have lived through life-changing experiences.
In this episode, she interviews Dr. Richard Harris, an anesthesiologist and expert cave diver, who was called upon to rescue a Thai soccer team when they were trapped 2.5 miles deep in a flooded cave.
From how Dr. Harris was recruited, the planning of the rescue, to the implementation of the rescue, and to the post-rescue meetings, this story is captivating at every turn.
The portion of the conversation (listen from 43:28-45:23) that has been particularly thought-provoking for me is around decision-making and how we evaluate the quality of the decision-making process. Dr. Shanker is noting the personal and public responses to the positive outcome of this harrowing event and wondering how they would have been different if any lives had been lost. She notes that the decision-making process would have likely been the same, but the outcome would have generated a very different kind of reaction. She says:
“We often assess the quality of our decisions based on their outcomes, not the actual quality of the decision-making process. And so what that means is that chance can cut many ways, but we end up relying on chance to tell us, in turn, how good the decision was. So, at the end of the day, even if it had been a failure, your plan that you came up with with your team may actually have still been the best plan.”
I am a reflective person. This makes me consider how often I reflect solely on results and outcomes as compared to how often I reflect on planning, problem-solving, and decisions that came prior. Interesting, to me.
Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconvetional Ways by Sarah Stein Greenberg (book)
Because I wrote about this book in Post 49: Crafting a Metaphor, I thought it deserved a mention here. Part of a collection of resources coming from the K12 Design Lab at Stanford University, this book is a treasure trove of processes you can use individually or in teams to unleash your creative side and come up with innovative solutions to the problems you are trying to solve.
Untools (website)
Speaking of processes and ideas for creative problem solving, here is another resource with a collection of ideas. Organized and searchable by category, the basic ideas are available for free. There are some options to purchase templates and design tools and it looks like an app is about to be in beta test mode, but I found the free resources worthy enough for a recommendation here.