Have you ever finished a project or piece of work, been pretty happy with the outcome and then a little while later had a much better idea?

We see it all the time, people putting their heart and soul into a piece of work only to discover that they could have had a much better outcome had they taken the opportunity to think of all the options before they proceeded.

When starting to design, your work will no doubt get the benefit of your intellect, your aesthetic and all your pent up emotions.  Whilst your intellect and your aesthetic will certainly add value to the design process helping to create something you can be proud of, your emotions will cloud the process, potentially even bringing bias and blindness to your work.

So how do you put your emotion to the side when designing?

You can’t. It is hard to suppress those emotions, so why not put everything you have got into your first design, admire it, enjoy it, and then put it to the side and start again.

Your second design won’t have the same emotion involved as you have already got it off your chest, and because the second design has to be different to the first it will provide a nice contrast to your first effort.

And when you have finished your second design, why not put that to the side and design again!  When it comes to good design, the more the merrier, rich choice equals a great decision and therefore a great outcome.

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Written by Lisa Smith

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Lisa is a professional thinker dedicated to helping people unlock their innate creativity and to empower them to think differently – for themselves. She is passionate about building innovative cultures and about harnessing and engaging talent to create thinking communities. Lisa holds an MBA, specialising in organisational change and innovation, which forms the nucleus of her work. She relishes opportunities to share the Minds at Work thinking strategies with government bodies, socially responsible corporate, educators, community groups and farmers, helping them to turn their big ideas into realities.