How to build understanding from perspectives
Dominique Jaurola

How to build understanding from perspectives

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We’re building understanding. Hunome connects different perspectives to build a multidimensional understanding of themes relating to us humans. We think different perspectives can open up a wealth of understanding of what it means to be human, which is why we help humanity make sense of itself. 

But wow – making sense of humanity seems like a huge task. Who has that breadth and depth of knowledge to create a better understanding of all of humanity? 

Well, actually we all do.

Being human is as simple as the way you greet others, or how you fold your socks. Of course, it can also be as complex as understanding behavioral patterns or the ins and outs of social psychology. You could be an expert in anthropology, or just have a really strong feeling about something, but as humans, you’re all qualified to help make sense of humanity. 

And every one of our perspectives, on any theme, contributes to the collective build of understanding. Here’s how.

Building your own understanding

Hunome has been designed so that anyone can easily connect thoughts, ideas, experiences – any perspective, really – on all themes related to humans. 

Let’s look at the use of recreational space, for example. A designer could share insights on the latest thinking on recreational areas, while two town planners could add their perspectives on wild vs manicured public gardens. A member of a community fitness group could share their reasons why recreational space needs to be accessible and adaptable. 

By connecting their perspectives, anyone that is curious about the theme can start to join the dots in their understanding of where their thoughts fit into the picture. Maybe they can see that many actually disagree with their view on public spaces, or that they have an enlightening perspective on this particular topic. They broaden their own outlook on the theme by taking into account other points of view, gaining insights even for things one would not have thought of connecting.

Building shared understanding

What’s more, together they start to make sense of where public spaces and recreation fit into the human experience. Perhaps there are others who are curious also and can expand their thinking from the views shared.  Or maybe there’s a problem that emerges that impacts our collective experience (the mental and physical impact of the lack of green space in built up areas). Humans, adding their perspectives to make a lasting mark on our evolving understanding of public spaces. 

As understanding builds around many themes related to humans, using these insights becomes more common-place in all areas, not just in relation to public spaces. We can explore evolving understanding relating to shared problems, or build systems from their component parts, or understand change and its impact, to get a comprehensive understanding of how the world works. 

Building multidimensional understanding to make a difference

We have the ability to change the world with multidimensional understanding. As insights around the human experience build, so does our ability to make more human-aware decisions. We can start using these insights in practical ways – making personal decisions by building understanding of what’s involved and what’s at stake, or design products and services with a better understanding of their impact. 

And with a better understanding of the human accessible for everyone, we improve our own perceptions, and those of others. This is the impact we hope Hunome has on the world, by helping humanity make sense of itself. 
Take your first step on the journey to helping humanity make sense of itself, Sign up for Hunome today.

Women discuss change and its impact
Dominique Jaurola

4 steps to understanding change and its impact

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Change can be unpredictable, but how you understand change and its impact doesn’t have to be.

Whether we proactively want to make changes to improve our personal lives, or change is being thrusted upon upon us in a professional context, change can have a huge impact on our well-being. Positive change can improve motivation, drive creativity and generally improve our sense of self, whereas negative change can have the opposite effect – increasing stress and anxiety. 

On some level, all change requires a leap into the unknown, especially when you are not the instigator. But even if you are being proactive, a step away from the status quo can throw up a number of uncertainties and still be nerve-wracking. So how can you better understand change and its impact for better results and a smoother transition?

Making positive change, or mitigating the negative impact of change, requires an understanding of the full picture, or the system that the change is part of, and the various component parts that make up the whole. 

Here are 4 steps to understand change and its impact. 

1. Understand your current position

In order to truly understand change, the first step is to understand your starting point. I’ve previously covered understanding the problem in relation to better decision-making, and the same principle applies here. 

Map out everything you know about where you are now: the status quo, the catalysts for change, the stakeholders involved, etc. For example, you may feel that a career change is on the horizon, but you’re unsure about what direction you want to go in. Do you want a new career because you want more financial stability, or perhaps a better work life balance to spend time with your children? By identifying all the parts that make up your current position, you build a working model to base further analysis on. 

2. Identify the end goal

What is it that you want to achieve by making changes? And if the change hasn’t been instigated by you, what could be the best possible outcome? For example, this could be to better understand your customer behaviors. Identifying the end goal not only gives you something to work towards, it also gives you a better understanding of the current problem. What is it about your current system that prevents you from tracking customer behavior, for example?

At this point, you should also identify the variables that could have an impact on getting from your current position to the end goal. If you implement a new tech solution, will you have to retrain your employees? Does it integrate with your existing tech stack? With an idea of the variables, you can start building an understanding of the ‘moving parts’ of the change.

3. Design your path

How do you get from your current position to the end goal? Plan out the steps and the resources needed to get from your current position to the end goal. Do you need external help, for example? Now is the time to figure out where that may come from. 

Consider how the variables identified impact the steps as you progress – chances are that once you start adjusting one variable, it’ll have a knock-on effect elsewhere. Make sure you’re aware of the possible consequences, especially on those whom the change affects. 

One tip to making sure you’re on the right path is consulting with your stakeholders at this stage. Speaking to the people involved, allowing them to understand change and getting their feedback on your suggested path forward may allow you to consider it’s impact from another perspective. 

For more information about how human-centered design helps build business resilience, check out Mika Raulas’ blog.

4. Implement the steps

You have your base line and where you want to go. You have all the steps in between. It’s now time to implement. As you progress with implementation, monitor the other components that you’ve already identified to see how they develop in line with the changes that you make. 

You may find that it’s plain sailing, but as we all know, change is unpredictable and so keeping an eye out for unintended consequences means that you can react with speed and precision to mitigate any negative effects. Luckily, having mapped out the system that the change is part of, you can understand change in a way that enables you to assess its impact and adjust your approach for the best possible outcomes.

Here are just some perspectives about change. Come add your own to help build a multidimensional understanding of change, and other themes.

 

People rush past each other ignoring each other's humanity
Dominique Jaurola

Social disparity: Is the world growing further apart?

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Last year, we saw many issues that divided the world. The US presidential race, the world-wide Black Lives Matters movement, masks, to name a few.

Of course, this extreme polarization itself isn’t the issue. There will always be people at either the ends of the spectrum of any debate. Social disparity lies with the lack of nuance. The ‘you’re either with us or against us’ attitude. 

We find ourselves in a very black or white world without the many shades of grey that color any healthy debate. Complex issues are boiled down to simply ‘For’ or ‘Against’ and we find ourselves growing further away from those who have a different perspective.

But how have we got to this point, and how can we fix it?

Social media advertising breeds disparity

Mika Raulas talks about the social media advertising model in his blog. Social platforms package up data on users and sell super-targeted advertising to companies who want to reach their perfect customers. 

But these algorithms aren’t designed with the individuals using the platforms in mind, rather those who want to target them.

This is why you often see the same type of content that you’ve engaged with displayed over and over again. The results are an echo chamber where very specific views are played back to the individual, and amplified through their network. 

There becomes very little space for diversity of thought when it appears as though your particular brand of thinking is the main stance on a subject. 

Social disparity hinders problem-solving

Segmented perspectives are great for advertisers, but not so good for problem-solving.

When we consider wicked problems and the systems thinking needed to approach them, polarization makes it harder to come up with a solution. I talk about the future of humanity and how a holistic view helps us understand the full problem, but also how changes to one component affects other areas.

On the other hand, a narrower view removes our ability to address these types of problems. We become so focused on our own view without considering the big picture, and without exercising our curiosity or empathy.

For example, lack of fair access to education is a global issue, a wicked problem, and a symptom of social disparity. Improving access to education requires exploring every perspective to build a better understanding of the issue. 

Diversity in perspectives challenges our own thinking and encourages us to view the world in a different way. It can even make us smarter. It’s here where creativity and innovation are born.

Disparity in gathering information

But even gathering different perspectives to further our thinking, can promote social disparity.

In today’s world, information is fragmented or held in siloes. You might watch a video, or read an article and browse the relevant Wikipedia page to understand an issue. But you may never get access to academic research on the topic or have sight of someone’s private musings.  

Pulling together information to get a true picture of things takes time and money. Gaining understanding becomes about those who have the ability to do so, and those who have not. It also limits the scope of design, problem-solving and decision-making to be geared towards those who have, which widens the gulf further.

If we want to close the gap, we must stop wearing our differences as badges and start embracing our diverse points of views. Once people can be brought together around a theme, we can start building a better society, together.

Here are just some perspectives about social disparity. Come add your own to help build a multidimensional understanding of social disparity, and other themes.

 

Make better decisions
Dominique Jaurola

3 tips to make better decisions in every aspect of your life

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Make better decisions. It sounds simple but in practice, it’s not as easy you might think. 

As humans we make more or less 35,000 decisions a day. These decisions can vary from the small things; like what socks to wear; or whether to watch the news, to the bigger choices; will a gap year be detrimental to my career prospects; should we be making environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes; do I go for the big promotion? 

When considering the bigger decisions that we make, both personally and professionally, we know that the outcomes of these decisions have an impact on wellbeing. I loved Barry Schwartz’s great TedTalk about how more choice has made western societies more dissatisfied, rather than making us happier. 

The fundamentals of most strategies for decision-making include objective setting, investigation, establishing options, reacting and evaluating. Many of us already follow this pattern in some form or another, whether consciously or not, from a very young age. And for that reason, I don’t tell you how to make a decision – I want to share how you can make better decisions. Ones that consider all the variables, have maximum impact, and are sustainable in the long run. 

Tip 1. Take a moment to understand the whole issue

The decision you are making may be based on one area and it’s direct impact to you. Take the decision of whether you should go freelance, for example. Going freelance would give you more flexibility and potentially more money.

But like most things relating to us humans, there’s likely to be a series of interconnect points, or systems, that exist around that one topic. Is there a saturation of freelancers in the market? Will new tax rules make it harder to profit from being freelance? Is working by yourself better for your well-being than being in a team?

Understanding the whole system ensures that your ultimate decision is based on the whole issue, not just the pointy bit that is directed at you and your immediate needs.

When considering how human-centered design can help businesses build resilience against COVID-19 uncertainty, Mika Raulas talks about the importance of understanding the core problem. Whether you want to solve a problem or make better decisions, the same principle applies. Your end decision becomes more sustainable when you take into account the whole.

Tip 2. Consider the other perspectives

Who else is interested in this topic at the heart of this decision and why does it interest them? You’ll be seeing and interpreting the topic from one angle but taking the time to understand other points of view gives you a much fuller picture. 

Right now, you have a certain perspective but as you journey down the path that your decision leads you on, it’s pretty likely that your perspective will change and evolve. Someone else, may already be at that point, or have a completely different point of view that makes you consider the whole issue in a different way. Being aware of the different sides to the topic, and understanding why someone thinks that way can save you a lot of effort and surprises.

As an extension of that, take into account the needs of those whom your decision will impact. My blog about how understanding humanness helps you make better decisions goes into this, but essentially a better understanding helps you make better decisions that have the right impact on the people around. 

Tip 3: Be ready for change

We’ve all been there – you make a decision based on the information that you have to hand, but then a new factor emerges that shifts everything. My first two tips can help to prepare for issue-related shifts, but big surprises, whether from the macro-environment or somewhere else, will always, always exist. For example, you enroll in a university course to study philosophy, but your partner is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity in another country. 

And while you can’t plan for every eventuality, you can build a network that helps you understand and evolve your thinking quickly. Whether this is a team of trusted advisors, a repository of materials, or a platform that does all of the above, being prepared means that you can respond to the issues and make better decisions at pace.  

At Hunome, we’ve created a platform that helps our members make better decisions, by allowing them to understand themes holistically, the different perspectives involved and the people who have contributed to them, and real-time evolution of themes. See how Hunome can help you make better decisions by signing up for Hunome today.

Man works in isolation
Mika Raulas

How human-centered design can help companies survive the COVID-19 pandemic

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So here we are. Twelve months on from the global spread of Covid-19 and the end is still a distant, blurry dot on the horizon. The impact that the pandemic has had on society is undeniable, so how can human-centered design help companies get through the uncertainty that lies ahead?

Misconceptions around human-centered (human-aware) design

You may think that a bit of research to understand your stakeholder groups might be enough to give you a path forward through rocky plains. After all, if you run an employee focus group, they’ll tell you how you can motivate them to work from home, right?

Wrong. Dominique Jaurola makes a great case for why understanding humanness can help you make better decisions, but I want to look at how you can use human-centered design to build business resilience during and after the pandemic.

It’s astounding how the word ‘design’ conjures up lofty thoughts of a graphic or product designer doing amazing things. In the context of lean, agile and human-centered business, everything is designed with purpose that revolves around humans.

So let’s look at the four human-centered design principles:

  1. Understand the core problem
  2. Focus on the humans
  3. Everything is a system
  4. Iterate, prototype and test – fast

1. Understand the core problem

It’s easy to spot a problem, but when companies start considering where it stems from and what other areas of the business are impacted, they start to solve the fundamental, underlying issues, not just the symptoms. Researcher, professor and author Don Norman talks about fundamental problems and symptoms of problems, and you can read his take on the four human-centered design principles.

Back in March 2020, when countries began to lockdown, many companies were presented with the problem: can our employees work from home? A quick fix may have been to adopt some kind of video conferencing software, or to ensure that all employees had a work laptop.

While these solutions would have certainly fixed the immediate issue, a human-centered design approach may have addressed the problem like this: do our processes allow for business continuity? A more thorough investigation down this path, would’ve revealed that a new laptop wasn’t the quick solve that was needed. Support and guidance on how to manage one’s timetables, working positions and conditions, etc could have been addressed right away, not just when problems arose later down the line. And how about the customer experience?

2. Focus on the humans

The pandemic has demanded that businesses show their human sides to employees, customers, but other stakeholders also. But in order to show their own humanness, and to truly embrace human-centered design, companies must understand the needs of all the humans who are involved, while taking account of the history, culture, beliefs, and environment of the community.

Companies need to show that they genuinely understand and care about the people that are behind them. This is an idea that we heard time and time again, from companies at WebSummit last year.

While considering your stakeholders needs is crucial, so is bringing them along on the journey. Whether developing a product, finding a solution to a problem, or rolling out a new process, involving the people who are going to be impacted is a sure fire way to get their buy-in. Particularly at a time where companies are having to pivot quickly, following this human-centered design principle enables them to believe in what you are trying to achieve.

3. Everything is a system

Far too often, technology is introduced to solve a particular issue, without considering the implications on other interconnected factors within a system. Rather than focusing on isolated components, companies should consider the entire activity that is impacted.

For example, eagerness to install a chatbot programme to support customer service, may reduce the time a customer has to wait before they receive a response, but it may also increase the number of misdirected customer queries, leading to increased dissatisfaction. It doesn’t matter how good the customer service managers are, being sent off in the wrong direction will almost certainly result in a poor experience.

By considering the whole system, you can design holistically while considering what really matters to the people involved.

4. Iterate, prototype and test – fast

Implementation of changes requires patience to try, rethink and repeat until you find the right combination for what you want to achieve.

We often hear that agility is the key for business growth and innovation, and being flexible is important now, more than ever. The companies that are able to try something new, then go back to the drawing board and repeat, are the ones that have proven their ability to adapt to the instability that Covid-19 has presented.

Two notable examples are Zoom, which has managed to scale up and roll out new features at a phenomenal rate, and AirBnB, which has managed to pivot it’s entire approach to the vacation market, from holidays abroad to home stays.

And of course, those who consult with their stakeholders throughout the process, will find that people are forgiving when something doesn’t work if they can play a part in making it better.

See the problem, and see it well

Philosopher Karl Popper said ‘all life is problem solving’. He was very much on point with the attitude with which we can move forward in tough times. Right now, it may feel like companies are trying to build on shifting sands but taking a human-centered design approach helps to shift the perspective from what is right for the company to what is right for the humans who surround it.

Or as a Hunome member recently put it: ‘See the problem, see it well, from the direction of what matters in the world.’

To see how Hunome can help you apply human-centered (human-aware) design to your business, sign up for Hunome.

 

Woman uses viewfinder to gaze ahead
Dominique Jaurola

What does the future of humanity look like?

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In the past 12 months, our attention has been drawn to many problematic aspects of society. The soft spots in our societies have been exposed as the pandemic stress tested our models. The problems that have arisen are going to impact the future of humanity if we ignore them.

Mika discussed how the social media advertising model promotes segmentation of the consumer base in his last blog. An unintended consequence of this is that segmentation is more apparent in society. If we allow this to continue, the rifts become deeper and the hostility we experience online spills over into everyday society. We’re actually already seeing this taking place – recent protests have made the news world-wide when peaceful demonstrations for a cause spill over into violence. Somehow social media has given us license to be angry, unyielding, and worse, violently hostile towards anyone that has a different point of view from our own. The future of humanity, left unchecked, becomes the stuff of nightmares.

Introducing wicked problems

The deep divide in society is a wicked problem to solve, and what I mean by that is a social or cultural problem that’s difficult to fix (Interaction Design has a great bank of content all about wicked problems). This could be for a number of reasons, incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the financial or economic burden of solving the problem, or even the interconnected nature of this problem with others (think Homer-Dixon’s ingenuity gap that I discuss in my blog about where perspectives come from!).

In fact, the issue of polarization in society is just one of many wicked problems that have arisen over the years. We think about the climate change debate, how to promote equality, or access to education. These are all examples of wicked problems that have existed for sometime, but have been brought into sharp focus in recent years and months. And it’s hard to even know where to begin solving them, but at the same time the consequences of leaving them unaddressed are untenable – the future of humanity depends on us being able to solve these problems.

How to solve humanity’s biggest problems

Design theorist Richard Buchanan was the first to connect design thinking to tackling wicked problems in his 1992 paper. The theory has since developed to suggest that systems thinking, how components of a system influence each other as well as other systems, combined with agile methodology, a collaborative and iterative approach to design and development, can inspire the innovation needed to solve wicked problems.

Simply put, the innovation needed to tackle wicked problems comes from understanding the big picture as well as the detail and context, while working together for continuous improvement. No big deal then.

When I think of the problem of polarization, I often wonder what it’ll take for people to accept other points of view. Perhaps if instead of dividing, platforms worked on creating an inclusive and collaborative environment, different perspectives can be brought together for better understanding of the overall issue. And once we understand the overall issue, we can work together to apply context and meaning. Sound familiar? In the true fashion of interconnected wicked problems, perhaps a solution to one problem, can also help to solve many others.

This is what we’re doing at Hunome. We’ve created a platform that can help address some of the biggest and smallest problems that face the future of humanity, designed for collective sense-making and building better understanding for self or with others. To see where your wicked problems fit in, sign up for Hunome.

A curious woman enjoys reading a book
Dominique Jaurola

Unpicking curiosity

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Understanding how curiosity works and its link to wellbeing

This week, I’ve been curious about curiosity. 

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and American University have measured different types of curiosity and found that there are two distinct archetypes; hunters and busybodies. 

Whereas the busybody type jumps from topic to topic and forms loosely connected knowledge networks, the hunter type connects closely related topics to form tightly clustered networks that fill in knowledge gaps. Curiosity occurs on a spectrum and most people practice both styles of curiosity, although may have tendencies towards one way or another. 

By monitoring Wikipedia browsing habits, the research itself has taken a novel approach to the way that curiosity is measured (you can read all about that here). It’s findings have also identified a potential tool for improving education and overall well-being. 

But curiosity is a two way street: consumption and curation. Consumption, or how we gather information, is the focus of the Penn/American research, but that’s only half the story. Once the information is collected, curiosity guides us into shaping it for our own satisfaction. In other words, it’s not just about how you go looking for things, but how you hold onto things for different purposes. 
If you think about when you read a book and all the wonderful insights you glean. The feeling associated with finding a piece of information that resonates with you has a profound impact on wellbeing – I like to call aha moments – the emotional response when your understanding crystalizes and you discover a little bit more about yourself and the world around you.

Read about how the world around us to shapes our perspectives.

But then how do you hold onto the insights from that book that really interest you? Your curiosity extends beyond the initial consumption of that information to curation. This could be for all kinds of reasons – to come back at a later date, to share with the world, to reference in something you are creating. You extend the emotional satisfaction from the aha moment by shaping that information into something that you can put your mark on, be it a memory, notes, or a well crafted tweet. 

And while there’s no doubt of the positive impact of consuming and curating information, what then happens when you can’t retrieve that information? Your memory fails, you lose your notes, your tweet disappears so far down your timeline that it’s never seen again and your curiosity was all for nothing. There may be a different emotional response, one of frustration or fatigue, that then has a negative effect on wellbeing.

The good news is that by understanding the way in which we find information, and shape it for different purposes, we can design for it – create tools that actively stretch and strengthen the curiosity muscle. We can encourage people to find and manage their findings in a way that enables curiosity and allows it to continue to flow, benefiting all kinds of applications.

And when we do this, we’ll be able to see the true impact on wellbeing and emotional satisfaction.

Hunome is designed to speed up your sense of Ahas and let the multidimensional perspectives inspire us. At times you stumble across very surprising thought connections. This we call our assisted serendipity.

A line of people looking at their individual phones
Mika Raulas

Deep social rifts – the negative impact of social media on society

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Something is wrong with the social networks we’re using today. 

The news has been dominated in recent weeks by moves from the big platforms that have made us all question their role in facilitating constructive exchange of opinions and ideas in society. Facebook and Twitter banned President Donald Trump in the wake of civil unrest in Washington. A confusing message regarding WhatsApp’s privacy policy saw millions of users switching to rivals for fear of having their data shared, and resulted in the messaging app backtracking on that change attempt. 

The fact of the matter is that people feel uncomfortable with the far-reaching impact of social media platforms on society. Regardless of whether you agree with censorship, or see the necessity in data-sharing, the question remains – why do we feel so uneasy? 

The impact of the social media advertising model 

Well, social media platforms know everything about us with terrifying precision (for those who haven’t seen the Social Dilemma, what are you waiting for?!). These companies can share the intelligence they gather on users with companies, advertisers who want to target their perfect customers. While this segmentation has its purpose (and has revolutionized the world of sales and marketing), it’s a massive use of resources and these algorithms are not used to benefit the individual using those services but rather the business of the platforms and their clients, the advertisers. It’s also created a very ugly and unwanted byproduct- deep polarization. 

Huge cracks are forming in society. It’s plain to see everywhere, not just in US politics. Covid-19 alone has thrown up many points of contention: vaxxers/anti-vaxxers, mask/no masks, lockdown/herd-immunity, for example. And the impact of social media is speeding along this ‘you’re either with us or against us, there’s no in between’ attitude. For all the benefits we’ve gained from the rise of social media platforms, we’ve lost some quite crucial things: the art of discourse, empathy and understanding. We’ve lost what makes us human. 

Breaking away from the status quo

What can be done about this? Our lives are so entwined with these social media behemoths that it’s hard to see how to breakaway. But perhaps it’s not a question of breaking away, and more a case of putting humanness back in the mix. 

Expecting the platforms of today to change their business models to really serve their customers, the users of the content on their platforms, is difficult if not impossible. Nevertheless, there’s a need for more inclusivity, more of a focus on the collective experience and understanding. 

Platforms that  are truly customer-driven, encourage actual meaningful debate where members respect each other’s perspectives are going to stand out in a world where pontification is rewarded by likes (which gives no context and in itself is problematic, but that’s a topic for another day). By encouraging discussion, our differences become just as valid as our similarities, and we can begin to understand each other, and ourselves. 

Sucks for the advertisers though, right? After all, they’ve built sales pipelines on the data available from social media platforms. Well actually, no. 

Now is the time for change

Businesses are moving towards human-centricity (read my blog from WebSummit to see why some of the biggest names are putting humanness in the heart of their strategy). They want to understand their customers beyond the demographics that are readily available through social advertising. They want to know the human beings behind the buying decision – by understanding the real problems they face, their true desires and concerns, businesses can offer solutions that have a better impact on society as a whole.

We’ve hit a crunch moment. We have a chance to change the direction that humanity is heading in, away from the hostile and deeply divided world and towards something that offers comprehensive understanding. It’s time to fix the negative impact of social media on the fabric of society. Let’s seize the opportunity – individually and collectively. Let’s make sense of humanity together.

Inverted perspective from a glass orb
Dominique Jaurola

Where does perspective come from? – how perspectives can fuel human ingenuity

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At Hunome, we’re in the business of perspectives. We connect them, analyze them, build on them. But where do these perspectives come from? The short answer is our members, but there’s so much more to it than that. 

Starting with human ingenuity

Human ingenuity is the way in which human minds influence how we think, work, play, but also construct relationships, interact with each other. Our ingenuity can cause problems, find solutions to problems, transform things and rationalize thought.

Human ingenuity has long been our competitive advantage but as the world we operate in becomes more complex and rapidly exceeds our intellectual grasp, political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon pinpoints the ‘ingenuity gap’. As we solve one problem, a new, more complex issue that has not been accounted for emerges. Just look at the societal impact of social media platforms, the polarization of society, the world’s response to Covid-19, to name just a few topical examples.

The issue isn’t the lack of ingenuity, rather than the growing need to broaden our understanding to keep up with the world around us. If we cast the net wider, we catch more fish. 

Forming perspectives

Humans apply complex thought processes to bring together ideas and see the relationships between diverse subjects. We form perspectives by connecting our own internal pool of our emotional response, context from our own experiences, feedback from our senses, with contributions from other humans, the environment around us, and so much more. 

Our perspectives are our points of view and they form our perceptions, our own truth or reality. Once formed, they fuel our ingenuity, enabling us to organize ourselves differently, communicating and making decisions in new ways.

We are constantly processing and understanding the world around us, and applying our learnings. But as if that wasn’t impressive enough as it is, we also have this remarkable ability to understand other peoples’ perspectives. 

Combining perspectives with human ingenuity

We put ourselves in other people’s shoes, taking on their motivations and drivers to understand their perspectives. Human ingenuity then allows us to learn from a situation and respond in a totally different way, by taking on another’s point of view. So much so, that humans actively seek out other perspectives daily in our personal and professional lives. This diversity of thought enriches our ability to collectively comprehend, solve problems, and make decisions. It expands our realm of understanding to encompass that which exists outside of ourselves. 

This is where Hunome comes in. Our platform is designed to help connect perspectives and make sense of any number of themes. Much like humans are able to do internally, perspectives can evolve and topics can be built upon as members collectively add their viewpoints. Analysis enables further insights that deepen our understanding. 

To see how Hunome harnesses perspectives to enhance human ingenuity, sign up for Hunome.

Woman considers notes left by other people
Dominique Jaurola

Why does humanness in decision-making matter?

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The concept of putting humans at the core of our decision-making process is nothing new. From Kellogg development of cereal with feedback from the patients in the late 19th Century, to the introduction of focus groups in the 1940s, we’ve always sought the views of the collective in order to make the right choice going forward. Even now, we scour the internet for other people’s experiences or knowledge so that we can figure out what is right for us. 

Decision-making 1.0 – market research

Humanness in decision making isn’t as simple as just asking a person however. It’s about understanding the quality of being human – what really makes us tick. 

The trouble with many of the qualitative research methods mentioned above is how they relate to actually making the right choices going forward. Many of these methods work in a very short and isolated manner. They often produce the wrong kind of input to longer-term thinking or to areas where things are changing rapidly, and almost never take into account the next new thing that will shift the game. In this world, different styles of inputs are necessary to make unbiased, future-oriented decisions. 

Human bias enables us to understand the world around us and protects us from the unknown. Bias is necessary in a lot of ways and we all exercise many types of bias in our day-to-day lives. The problem lies when you have too many perspectives that have stemmed from the same biases. What you end up with is a type of echo-chamber where actual innovative decisions are replaced with something that is much more one-sided. 

The next challenge we face is gathering and processing information. Granted, the internet has made collecting data much easier, however information is scattered and can lack context. This makes the task of gathering the data that is of actual relevance, then analyzing and extracting understanding a herculean effort. 

But why is this? 

Decision-making 2.0 – tech in decision-making

One reason is our reliance on similar, relevant and related, technology-found ideas of what something looks like. Another is that human ingenuity creates new directions for a whole field.

This means that searching for ‘related’ is not as easy as it sounds. For example, what some may call strategy, is known as business design in the agile and creative world. Those two worlds may never find each other, until the technologies make the connection. 

There’s no doubt that AI makes those connections easier. We’re increasingly using AI to help us make choices in our personal life (think Netflix recommendations – even so, not always the best suggestions). AI is even being used to streamline processes in the workplace for better business decision-making. 

However, while AI’s integration into work processes can result in more effective decision making, there’s no way that an algorithm can build upon information that doesn’t yet exist, reassess rules to take into account the exception, or understand the impact of an unexpected anomaly. That’s where our human ingenuity comes in. 

Decision-making 3.0 – humanness in decision-making

Humans create discontinuities. When we consider what might be, we do not rely on past data alone. When we consider what is in our essence as individuals or systems, our humanness, we utilise our human ingenuity. Sylvain Duranton makes a compelling argument for this in his TedTalk back in September 2019. 

The reality is that even in this modern age, understanding our shared humanness remains fundamental for better decision making, even with all the wonderful messiness that we bring into the process. At Hunome, we want to help the world make better choices. To see how we do this, sign up for Hunome and add your perspectives to the thought networks for multidimensional shared understanding.