A modest proposal: creative, innovative, game-changing, and a design-thinkers utopia; but to a black hat thinker, a far-fetched fantasy. In his TED talk’s video, John Bohannon introduces a new way of presenting information, sharing scientific discoveries, and providing visual displays. The scientist and writer provides a visually appealing display to support his thesis. His proposal is centered on fixing the financial crisis and he earns big points for the creativity of his solution. Bohannon argues that poorly-made PowerPoint presentations have a multitude of issues: they soften the audience, they distract the audience, and they create a false sense of competency and understanding. Instead, Bohannon feels that dance is an effective alternative to the visual demands of a PowerPoint presentation.
Before I plunge into my black hat analysis; here is a point-format summary of Bohannon’s proposal:
– The government needs to reduce or cut the spending on arts programs (performing/visual)
– The unemployed dancers must be re-assigned to working with ‘innovators’
– These dancers will revolutionize the way presentations are done.
– Dancers can logically and visually explain complex problems.
– The dancers win, the economy wins; clients win.
How does Bohannon’s idea involve design thinking?
– Dancers can and should be used as prototyping tools for designers.
– The adaptability and flexibility of dancers allows for innovation and creative design thinking.
I have several criticisms of this video as a whole, but I do want to give Bohannon the credit he deserves: he developed an idea that pushed the limits, he successfully prototyped his idea at the TED talks, and he effectively communicated the subject material.
Now, time for the black hat: Why am I not a fond supporter of this idea?
There are various reasons why I believe that the proposed idea is ineffective and highly unrealistic. Having gone through the D.Studio course, I realize that there is great merit to both ways of thinking -divergent and convergent. I tend to be highly analytical, logical, and fact-oriented – convergent. It is for this reason that the divergent approach of Bohannon does not appeal to me, my convergent side just screams out the following arguments:
- Mr. Bohannon is the founder of the Dance Your Ph.D – he is obviously trying to advertise this venture, and make it appear as a worldwide phenomenon. However, the first prize of this international competition is merely $1,000 and the contest does not even have its own website.
- Mr. Bohannon argues that cutting funding for the arts program will reduce U.S. national debt by 1/1000th of a percentage. $140,000,000. Not bad, but I believe that the cost of accommodating all the unemployed individuals will easily eliminate this $14 million dollar gain . And let’s not forget: most businesses seek a profit: a company will not hire a dance team to come in and replace the trust-worthy Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s simply ridiculous. I can not see KPMG employees presenting their financial proposals using dancers. The human body is flexible, but making a `3` would be a circus feat by itself.
- Dance is distracting. Poorly made PowerPoint slideshows can be too, but training people to make proper presentations is far easier than training and hiring a dance team. Even in a prototyping situation.
Clearly, I was intrigued by this TED video: it illustrated clearly how design-thinking has led someone to challenge the core presentation technique of the modern world. However, the feasible and realistic scope of this video did not appeal to me. I struggle to understand Bohannon`s divergent thinking, as I cannot see the real-life application of his prototype. Perhaps he should circle through the Ask-Try-Do process one more time, he might be onto something with dance, but he could very well be targeting the wrong industry and market.