Fresh Perspectives
The purpose of the Fresh Perspectives is to help you and your team challenge the status quo. It
is designed to help investigate the necessity, validity, and uniqueness of the current solution or approach. It is a great technique to use at the idea-generation phase of your project – and can give you the impetus you need to discard your current solutions in favour of ones that challenge the old way of doing things.
Download Activity Worksheet
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30-60 minutes -
Groups of 4-8 -
- Copies of blank process tables for all participants/groups
- Pens
- Source: Adapted from the Innovator's Toolkit
What to do
- Share a scenario with participants. For example: Create a new method for health care identification.
- Invite teams to select a focus. This can be an innovation, opportunity, product, service, system, process, or business model. For example: Health care identification that is easy to use, secure, and private.
- Invite groups to document the current solution’s inputs, outputs, customers, suppliers and any other associated processes. For example: Create an ID card that is easy to use but impossible to lose or have stolen.
- Ask groups to add assumptions that they take for granted about the current solution. These can include factual data, physical characteristics, supporting ideas or philosophies and limitations. List this in the rst column (example below).
- Review all process steps, elements, and assumptions and determine if any can be eliminated. Is it necessary, or can it be eliminated without incurring any negative side effects? Indicate yes or no in the second column.
- If the step, element or assumption is necessary, what function or feature does it provide? Record this in the third column.
- Once the elimination and reasons steps are complete, groups should explore alternatives by challenging the uniqueness of the solution. Is it the only way to provide the needed feature/ functionality, or are there alternatives?
- After the process outlined above is complete, make a list of the alternative ideas that you want to explore further.
| Process Step, Element of Assumption | Eliminate | Reason | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Care cards are 5.5 x 8.5 cm in size | No | Provincial standard | RFID chip in a key chain |
| Care cards are blue | Yes | ||
| Cards must be carried on you to receive care | No | Identity verification | Retinal or fingerprint scan |
Debrief
- Did this exercise challenge your assumptions?
- Did it assist in generating new ideas and directions?
- How could you apply this tool to your work in health care?