{"id":2435,"date":"2019-11-14T13:51:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T13:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2019-11-14T14:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T14:03:18","slug":"the-design-group-at-tedx-part-1-learning-to-change-our-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/the-design-group-at-tedx-part-1-learning-to-change-our-minds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Design Group at TEDx – Part 1: Learning to Change Our Minds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Open University hosted TEDx last week<\/a>, providing a platform for a range of interesting and diverse speakers across the UK.<\/p>\n

The Design Group (not short of something to say in public) was represented by no less than four speakers. Claudia Eckert, Helen Lockett, Stephen Peake, and Derek Jones.<\/p>\n

Over the next few weeks each speaker will post something about their talk.<\/p>\n

First up:<\/p>\n

Learning to Change Our Minds by Derek Jones<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My TEDx talk was all about ideas. In particular, what people do with ideas and how that shapes their world and others.<\/p>\n

Here’s the original script – not quite the same as the presentation but it hopefully gives some ideas. At some point, I’ll also\u00a0 do a follow up on some of the Cognitive Superpowers I’ve collected so far – if anyone\u00a0 has any suggestions for these just comment below!<\/p>\n

\n

Wow. We\u2019ve been introduced to some incredible ideas, haven\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what TED talks are about \u2013 \u201cIdeas worth spreading\u201d?<\/p>\n

And is that not amazing in itself? How do you \u2018spread\u2019 and idea?<\/p>\n

Think about how that works \u2026 quite literally \u2026 for a second.<\/p>\n

A bunch of strange people you\u2019ve never met before have walked in front of you, noise has come out of their faces, and you ended up with an idea. In your head. From here. To there.<\/p>\n

You have a new idea in your head.<\/p>\n

That’s quite neat.<\/p>\n

The world of ideas<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m interested in ideas.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a designer (an architect) so my job is to come up with ideas; to work with them. So I\u2019m really interested in what they are, where they come from.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m also an academic \u2013 a researcher \u2013 so I have to be quite careful about how I study ideas.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s quite tricky because ideas aren\u2019t well defined; they\u2019re not made of \u2018stuff\u2019; they change; they\u2019re different for different people, at different times.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019m also a pragmatist \u2013 I try to take a simple, practical approach to studying things.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I apply that to studying ideas:<\/p>\n

Ideas come from thinking. Thinking comes from cognition. Cognition is stuff that happens in our bodies: our brain, neurons and the all the stuff<\/strong> that goes with that.<\/p>\n

One of the results of taking this approach is quite surprising.<\/p>\n

When we compare what people are aware of thinking and what\u2019s actually happening, the two things aren\u2019t the same at all.<\/p>\n

It turns out that we are only aware of about 10% of what happens in our heads.<\/p>\n

Some researchers reckon it\u2019s as low as 5%<\/p>\n

That begs the question \u2013 what on earth are we doing with the other 90% ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Subconscious\u2019 thinking<\/h3>\n

And, yes, a lot of this activity is stuff we don\u2019t need to know about: \u00a0keeping breathing; that we don\u2019t fall over; hoping that people won\u2019t hate us…<\/p>\n

But there is something common to all of this thinking \u2013 it\u2019s utterly and completely selfish.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inside you; so it\u2019s about what you like; what you prefer; what you want.<\/p>\n

That selfish thinking affects thinking we\u2019re aware of; which affects our decisions and then the things we do. And it makes us make pretty biased.<\/p>\n

Without us realising it!<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the really mind-blowing thing \u2013 when we\u2019re called out on these, we make up stories about our biased choices and actions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called motivated reasoning. We use \u2018rational\u2019 arguments to support something we\u2019ve decided subconsciously; something we want to believe. But we create a reality about it that might not be true.<\/p>\n

For example, this is how I can go into a shop for milk and come out with a bar of chocolate the size of a small child.<\/p>\n

Now, what I don\u2019t say is \u201cI have an animal-like lust for chocolate. I like the dopamine \/ serotonin buzz from chocolate. The yellow sticker calls to me. I am an animal. Chocolate. Eat. Gooood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh no.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll come up with little reasons: “I did a press up last week”; or “I deserve a little treat”; or (here’s the good one) “It was on special offer.”<\/p>\n

Ever wondered why chocolate is always on special offer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You’re being given a motivated reason.<\/p>\n

Motivated reasoning is just one of those cognitive processes that happens in that space between conscious and subconscious thinking. The world of ideas.<\/p>\n

They are a way of changing or denying reality in our heads.<\/p>\n

It’s how biases become real; it\u2019s how gambling works; it\u2019s how we can believe inaccurate things about vaccinations;<\/p>\n

It\u2019s how we are able to deny climate change.<\/p>\n

We evolved mechanisms to create different realities for important survival reasons. Problem is, we evolved in a very different contexts to today – not a planet covered in 8 billion people.<\/p>\n

These mechanisms, these\u00a0 fallibilities, are what make us, as humans, dangerously unsustainable as a species.<\/p>\n

Superpowers<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s gone a bit dark \u2013 let\u2019s see if we can turn it around. It\u2019s a TED talk after all.<\/p>\n

And, we\u2019re not going to change the future if we don\u2019t embrace our fallibilities\u2026<\/p>\n

In fact, how\u2019s that for an idea \u2013 let\u2019s rebrand our fallibilities.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s turn human weaknesses into superpowers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a designer I use motivated reasoning all the time. In fact, Research shows that designers are way better at motivated reasoning (i.e. lying convincingly) than any other group.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s my job \u2013 to make stuff up and then convince people it could become true.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m paid to be a convincing liar.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a superpower!<\/p>\n

Lying<\/span> Motivated Reasoning is a superpower<\/strong><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the important bit \u2013 the bit I really want to share with you today.<\/p>\n

Some designers are able to deliberately use these ‘subconscious’ cognitive processes.<\/p>\n

Good<\/strong> designers are able to turn their superpowers off as well as on.<\/p>\n

For example \u2013 I have an optimism switch. I can turn on optimism (in my head) so that I can imagine all kinds of things \u2013 stuff that\u2019s not normally possible for me.<\/p>\n

Optimism is really neat. We evolved optimism as a species to ensure reproduction in really hard conditions, where we really had to believe that we could survive despite all the evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

So I use that to design buildings! I deliberately switch mind states to get the job done.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a kind of superpower – I have loads of others, too. And what makes is a superpower is that I can use it deliberately. I can change the way I think.<\/p>\n

Sharing superpowers<\/h3>\n

It strikes me that these ways of thinking \u2013 of changing your thinking \u2013 might be quite useful in other ways \u2013 in other domains.<\/p>\n

In fact, maybe we\u2019re wasting design education on design students. Maybe we\u2019re teaching the wrong people to be designers.<\/p>\n

Adults are no use \u2013 they\u2019ve proving they can\u2019t be trusted with them.<\/p>\n

What about children? We already know that we don\u2019t make nearly enough use of children\u2019s creativity (95% of them are creative geniuses, after all).<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

You see, as a design teacher, the worst thing I can give students is my old ideas.<\/p>\n

The best thing I can give are my superpowers, ways of thinking about the future, to enable them to come up with their own, new ideas.<\/p>\n

You see, we\u2019re not going to change the future by designing more stuff, making more stuff, or even changing more stuff.<\/p>\n

We can only change the future by changing ourselves.<\/p>\n

And we don\u2019t have much time either \u2013 not enough time to evolve, anyway\u2026<\/p>\n

But we can change how we are able to think.<\/p>\n

To do that we have to learn to, quite literally, change our minds.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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