Stephen ShapiroFAST Innovation® · Innovation made practical, personal, and playful—with lasting impact. Hall of Fame Speaker. Author of seven books on innovation. Creator of Personality Poker®.

E17 Deep vs Surface Structure and Innovation

Name: E17 Deep vs Surface Structure and Innovation
Uploaded: 2021-03-31T11:00:20+00:00
Duration: 42 s
Channel: Stephen Shapiro
Description: Deep structure is the real problem underneath the words you use to describe it. If you ask "how can we improve work-life balance?" you might miss…

31 Mar 2021 · 1 min

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Deep structure is the real problem underneath the words you use to describe it. If you ask "how can we improve work-life balance?" you might miss solutions that reframe the question entirely. Language shapes what you can solve.

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The deep structure is the real problem you want to solve, and the surface structure are the words you use to express it. The surface structure would be the actual how can we problem statement. So, for example, if you want to solve the problem, how can we improve work life balance? This is the surface structure. These are the words. As we've explored in previous episodes, words are very important as they can have a big impact on the solution you develop, because changing just one word can impact the range of solutions. But what if language itself actually limits our ability to solve problems? This is where deep structure comes into play.