Straw Dock Proposal For Problem Solving
Straw man proposals for problem solving ( straw man proposal ) are increasingly used in the organizational area. It is a mechanism for creating ideas and starts with a draft. It exploits the human and creative potential of a work team and above all from every member of a team.
Note that this is not a typical brainstorming method. The goal here is to formulate a temporary solution to a problem while you come up with something better. A straw man proposal requires many different ideas from the contributing group. Then these proposals are merged, or disappear if necessary when you need to rebuild the original draft.
The US Department of Defense first applied this technology in 1975. The Air Force needed an urgent action plan and designed this technology to find a quick and temporary answer to that particular challenge. Later, the initial “straw doll” would be replaced with the “stone doll” and then with the “iron doll”.
The aim was to achieve greater consistency and equity / assets ratio in the strategy.
Straw dock proposal is a simple collaboration strategy for problem solving
Straw doll suggestions have become quite popular in problem solving in recent years thanks to the well-known consulting company McKinsey & Company. This global organization basically works with problem solving. They work for large companies, institutions and even governments around the world.
The fact that they use this strategy as a mechanism to respond to the challenges they face is the first clue to its usefulness. First, it’s easy to do. It also promotes synergy between all members of the organization. In addition, it promotes the step-by-step construction of a more sophisticated and effective action strategy.
Straw dock proposal for problem solving
Straw doll suggestions are a useful and effective tool for problem solving for all group compositions. The purpose is to build, shape and design a preliminary action plan in the form of a draft. Then redefine this draft until you find a more effective answer. Thus it rises from straw doll to iron doll.
The benefits of this brainstorming mechanism
As we mentioned at the beginning, this article is not about classic brainstorming techniques. In this case, you start from a draft, from an already designed base that forms the straw manikin. Then it is called to a meeting where each member contributes his ideas, his criticisms and his suggestions, but always with the beginning of the draft.
Some of its benefits are:
- It is a form of problem solving that unites working groups.
- It allows each member to contribute their abilities and creativity.
- The method promotes feedback and better hypotheses by breaking down those that do not work.
- It improves the brainstorming process by starting from a previous plan (a draft, or a straw man).
This proposal prevents the group from getting stuck. They do not look for perfection directly but move forward in phases : from straw doll to stone doll to iron doll etc…
The different steps of the straw doll proposal
This proposal requires the following specific steps. By adapting to them, the group will know what to expect and how to proceed. What each member must know is also that they must try to argue against and disprove the reasoning behind all proposals.
All perspectives are then taken into account in order to ultimately build a temporarily feasible and logical strategy. Later, the group meets again to continue fine-tuning the action plan.
The steps
- Create the draft proposal. Each member of the group creates their own proposal or strategy for the straw man.
- Present the conceptual proposals. The second step is the submission of all drafts. Each member presents their action proposal to the rest of the group. Then they analyze, debate and criticize all the ideas that are not useful and keep the ones that are functional.
- Discussion. After gathering all the interesting suggestions from the members, the group continues to discuss the ideas to shield, eliminate or accept parts that may be useful. They build a straw manikin with each of these elements.
- Conclusions. A straw dock proposal has already been approved at this stage, but parts of it are torn off and added. Thus, the group gradually reaches more or less valid conclusions.
- Final decision. At this time, the straw dock is now complete. The group has reached a final (but temporary) decision which they can apply and which all members agree on. But as we mentioned above, the goal is to further refine the strategy to create a more solid, secure and effective action plan.
In conclusion, it can be pointed out that a rather interesting work dynamic arises that integrates each member of the organization into a problem solution. It is interesting, simple and something that many work teams use today.
