When I moved into a leadership role I thought that I'd be so far from design I may not love it– boy was I wrong. I was in the deepest trenches of design-problem-solving that I didn't even know existed.
When I found myself starting my day with "where do I start" more often than I'd like to admit, I realized I needed to return to what I know. I know how to approach problems using design-thinking methods.
This starts with making time for deep work where we allow ourselves to diverge our thinking.
Make time for "deep thinking"
The worst thing we can do as leaders is to minimize our highest valuable work. When you move into a leadership role you may see your calendar fill with meetings.
It's just as important to block off that highly-valuable maker time as a leader as it is for an individual contributor.
When we remove the noise (close slack, email, calendar reminders) and create a space for creative, open thinking, and focus on just ONE problem, we can diverge our thinking and move the needle.
4 steps for your "deep think" session
Frame your session by writing your objective. This will help keep you focused on one problem.
Diverge your thinking by writing as many ideas as you can think of to solve the problem at hand. Alternatively, try the "how might we" exercise by reframing many problems, within a given topic, as opportunities.
Reserve some time at the end of your session to jot down next steps or prepare something that you can share out to your team.
If you're not ready for next steps, pull in a colleague and present your divergent ideas. They'll help you funnel your focus and challenge your assumptions.