Thursday, June 21, 2007
Debating Design
I don't think I've mentioned it before on here, but I was a debater in high school, and I'd like to think I was pretty good. Even though that was a long time ago (93-96), it's no exaggeration to say that my years in high school debate were some of the most influential and educational in my life. I learned a lot of skills, ideas, and techniques that are fundamental parts of the way that I communicate at work to this day.I could go on forever about it, but for I'll just share a concept called Stock Issues. In debate, the Stock Issues are the traditional components of a debate case. You might think about using it as a framework for presenting a solution in the business world. Give it a shot next time you have a presentation, whether internal or external. You don't necessarily have to use the debate jargon- just using the concepts is oftentimes enough. Sometimes I even leave one or two out for the sake of brevity (like topicality and significance), but they're all worth considering.
1. Inherency: The status quo is incapable of solving the problem
2. Harms: The status quo is harmful
3. Solvency: The proposed solution will solve the problem
4. Topicality: The proposed solution is relevant to the problem at hand
5. Significance: The advantages of the proposed solution are significant
For example, let's say you're presenting a case to your boss in favor of a company blog. Obviously my points here aren't the strongest, but you can see how to the Stock Issues as a structure for an idea. These are just top-level ideas, but you get the point:
1. Inherency: We currently just copy and paste press releases onto the website
2. Harms: Nobody visits our press release section, so nobody knows about our new products
3. Solvency: Nobody reads the press releases because they don't take advantage of the online medium. A blog is the perfect solution because it is relevant, engaging content.
4. Topicality: Creating relevant content is key to generating web traffic
5. Significance: Engaging the blogosphere properly can yield millions of visitors if a post is picked up by Digg, Engadget, etc.
In future posts I'll cover other debate-related topics like uniqueness, disadvantages, kritiks, the various speeches (for the debaters out there, I think the 2AR is the most important!), and more. Hope they're useful for you! Check out some debate resources at the NFL site if you're interested.
Labels: design management
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