KISS (or rudely put, “Keep it simple, stupid”)

One of my favourite authors and characters is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. A favourite idea that comes from him is "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Combine this with Occam’s Razor which states that “Among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected,” and we have the basis for thinking styles that will always help us KIS in our Design Thinking endevours.

It also makes me think that Sherlock Holmes was actually one of the greatest Design Thinkers the world has never known, as a Design Thinker that is.

Permit me to state my case while keeping it simple.

One of Sherlock Holmes's greatest strengths when building hypotheses and making inquiries and crowd sourcing for information was to engage in inductive reasoning, since he could never be quite sure that he had taken ALL that should have been accounted for, into account. (Deductive reasoning would ensure we can be confident that we have reached a few logical hypotheses taking everything into account, but that lies outside the purview of this discussion.)

So…what the heck does all this have to do with Sherlock Holmes using Design Thinking, or connectivity in VUCA environments?

Apart from asking you to read his stories, I would also suggest that simplicity is the name of the game in a VUCA world, just so we keep the VUCA aspects to the barest logical minimum, knowing when and where assumptions are being made. This of course  is the one and only principle of Occam's Razor.

Design Thinking methodology, that takes into account the views of many multidisciplinary experts and laymen, needs powerful inductive skills so that they ideation process can be carried out methodically and final solutions narrowed down quickly.

Rapid prototyping and Testing, plus the Empathising and Connecting aspects, require us to confidently eliminate the impossible, and identify the most probable truth no matter how impossible it initially looks.

There.

Design Thinking has been a natural part of our thinking processes. We had just never actually labelled it as such, so have never recognised our each and every capability as potential innovators. All we need to do is to understand and implement some basic methodologies, and then be willing to takes risks and make lots of mistakes quickly, cheaply and with not too many adverse impacts.

Have I not made it quickly apparent why Sherlock Holmes was a great Design Thinker, and just by following the KISS acronym?

Or am I just being stupid!?