Solution diversity, anticipating change, and the science of World Cup grass. Whether it be in the office or on the airplane headed to our next program, we’re always talking about the issues and trends that are shaping the way we learn as well as what interests each of us on the team. Read more below.
Masterbuilding Solution Diversity
Most business education rewards finding a single, right answer. But Andrew Sliwinski, head of product experience at Lego Education, argues that’s exactly the wrong leadership instinct in a complex world. Instead, Lego has a metric called solution diversity: if ten groups of kids build the same thing in response to one open-ended design challenge, the curriculum failed and no real learning happened. The goal is ten groups, ten different outcomes. That principle applies well beyond the classroom. In fast-changing business environments, organizations trained to lock in on a single solution develop blind spots at institutional scale. Broaden your team’s perspective before you optimize for efficiency. Examine the problem from multiple viewpoints and be better prepared for a world with multiple solutions.
A Small Change For Big Decisions
In a recent video, Philosopher L.A. Paul has a provocative argument: some of life’s biggest decisions can’t really be made rationally. The person on the other side is fundamentally different from the person going in. These are transformative experiences and while we can research the impact of a big decision, we can’t anticipate the felt experience of how we will change because of it. To illustrate, she uses a computational experiment that feels very of the moment: AI agents trained in a 2D world were then placed in a 3D one. To deal with the new reality, the agents adopted a 3D framework that ultimately replaced the 2D one entirely. The old agent was gone. That’s what major life transitions do to identity, changing us into different versions of ourselves along the way. No amount of planning can prepare us for that, and maybe that’s the point. We can live out the change in anticipation of who we’ll become.
The Obsessive Science Behind World Cup Grass
How do you grow a consistent playing surface across 16 cities, 3 countries, and 10 different climate zones? Researchers from Michigan State and the University of Tennessee took over 3 years to develop a precise seed blend (84% Kentucky bluegrass and 16% perennial ryegrass, if you’re curious) grown in shallow plastic trays a mere inch and a half deep. With nowhere to go but sideways, the roots interweave into a dense, durable mat that can be rolled up, shipped, and installed in any stadium on the tour. After rigorous testing with 3D printed cleats, the team convinced FIFA to switch to these universal ‘grassmats.’ The margins that separate good from great one are sometimes measured in seed ratios and root depth.