Beyond Connecting the Dots

While working on ”Beyond Connecting the Dots,” with Scott Fortmann-Roe, somewhat by accident, the Bird Feeder Problem emerged based on feedback from reviewers. Over time this has evolved into the “We Have a Problem” model presented in the next section. Along the way the realization was that a model is a lot like a play and should be unfolded as a story.

When you attend a play you watch the relationships unfold between the actors from one act to another. And when you leave the play, if it was done at least reasonably well, you take the story with you. The realization was that my actions of the past were akin to walking up to someone, handing them the script for a play, and five minutes later asking them what they thought. There's simply no way they could understand what was provided in the form and time allowed.

When you ask people to understand something without a basis for understanding is it any wonder people get headaches? When a model is unfolded well in the form of a story insights are conveyed and others don’t struggle to understand. Essentially for decades, I’d been the poster child for Pogo’s “We have met the enemy and he is us!”