E17: Surface vs Deep Structure and Innovation

What if linguistics holds the key to better problem solving? Welcome to Invisible Solutions. I'm your host, Steven Shapiro. Each week we tackle your most complex problems using the lenses from my book, Invisible Solutions. If you need the lenses, go to getthelenses.com and with that, let's get started with today's episode. In today's episode, we're not going to use any of the lenses specifically, but we're going to talk about why the lenses are so important. And to do that, we're going to explore a concept from linguistics. In linguistics, there's the idea of a deep structure and a surface structure. And I think by digging into these, we're going to be able to gain some really interesting insights into the way that innovation works inside of organizations. So first, let's talk about the definition. Deep structure is the meaning. It's what you want to convey. The surface structure is the actual configuration of the words used to express what you want to say. So when a client asked me to help them polish the words in their mission and vision statements, I actually passed because for me, this wasn't a worthwhile endeavor. When you debate the specific words that should be in your mission or vision statement, you are automatically focusing on the surface structure. But if your goal is alignment and understanding, the words are not as important as the intent, which is the deep structure. Access to the deep structure isn't intellectual. It is visceral. It is emotional. It is, as the word says, deep. So to get to the deep structure, if we're talking about missions and visions to do this, what I would suggest is that a team visit and interview clients, talk to the individuals inside their organization that's being impacted by the work, talk about why they're in business, have each person on the team share personal stories, get emotional. The specific wording of a purpose, mission, or vision statement, which is the surface structure, is not as important as the meaning of behind the words, which is the deep structure, because the deep structure is where you tap into implicit motivations. Now, let's talk about the application of deep structure versus surface structure for the structure of your business, because I think this is actually quite interesting. Companies are known for having binders and binders of policies and practices and processes. However, these documents typically only describe the surface structure, how the work should be done. What we really need to convey is the deep structure behind these policies and processes. Why are they designed this way? What do we really want to achieve? What's the impact of doing things this way? Why are we in business? The why and the what are Key aspects of the deep structure. You want people to understand the deep structure beyond an intellectual level. You want everyone to understand it at a visceral level. Unfortunately, most businesses document the surface structure or the how and when there is any deep structure, as little as it might be, it's really provided at an intellectual level rather than an emotional level. And doing this limits innovation. Now, back when I was younger, I was a musician. I played the saxophone, I played the bassoon. I love music, and I think music is actually a great metaphor. And when we think about the construct of organizations, the way we've typically structured organizations is the surface structure. And I would call that classical music. So if you think about classical music, it's basically every note, every intonation, whether you go louder or softer, all those are part of the surface structure. It's actually written out, and there's very little room for interpretation. So if you have different organizations playing the same piece, they will typically sound quite similar. Jazz, on the other hand, is about the deep structure. It's about the chords, the rhythm, the time signatures. And when you have that basic information that you need for jazz, a jazz ensemble can improvise and innovate within the confines of this intention, rather than being forced to play a specific set of notes. So players are free to express what comes to them in the moment, Adhering to a set of loose structures, they feel the music in their bones. I remember I did a speech many years back. This was in Nice, France, and for the event, they had a jazz band that they'd hired for the event itself. And I thought, this is going to be really interesting. We're going to try something. And so what I told the band before I got onto the stage is that in the middle of my speech, I'm going to come out and I'm going to ask the band to come out. And I'm not going to tell them what we're going to do, but I'm going to demonstrate something to the audience. And so about halfway through my speech, I said, hey, let's. Let's listen to some classical music. And we had some classical music piped in. I can't remember, there was Mozart or Beethoven. And I said that the music that we're listening to was performed by a particular orchestra, but if it was performed by a different orchestra, it would sound pretty much the same. And then I brought out the jazz band. It was another sax player, a drummer, a bass player and a piano player. They had no idea what they were about to do. I looked at the guys and I said 12 bars, B flat blues. I'll count it off. 1, 2, 3, 4, boom. And then we jumped into some music and we played for about 10 minutes. And I thought maybe you'd just be interested in hearing just a little bit of this music. So here was me playing the saxophone with a jazz band in Nice, France. I think this was in 1999. Now all I did was I gave them the general structure of the music and we were able to innovate within that. And so when we focus on that deep structure, that structure that allows innovation and improvisation to emerge, well, now we are able to create something that's much more powerful. And from an organizational perspective, innovation becomes a much more natural act because everyone is clear on the what and the why and to some extent, the whole. But from there, we innovate the how. Work becomes a truer expression of each of the individuals. So when it comes to processes and policies, maybe we need to focus less on the surface structure and more on the deep structure, because I think at the end of the day, this is going to save time and increase the level of innovation within any organization. So, given this is a podcast on problem solving, you're probably wondering, what does deep structure and surface structure have to do with problem solving and reframing? The deep structure is the real problem you want to solve, and the surface structure are the words you use to express it. So, for example, 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 the 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. It contains so much more than can be included in a short question. The deep structure might include other questions such as, what do we mean by life when we say work life, balance? Or how would we know if we've achieved that balance? Or why do we want to achieve this balance? What's the problem we're really solving the problem behind the problem? Or what's wrong with balance? Right now, as you can hear, a simple problem statement really can't get to all the juicy goodness associated with the actual problem. So in the process of creating the surface structure for a problem, lot of detail is lost, and that information can be very important for finding the best solutions. So what does this mean for problem solving. Although you want to take the time to construct a meaningful and well framed problem statement, in other words the surface structure, you also need to make sure you have as many details from the deep structure as possible. Typically, when problem solving with clients, we don't just have a problem statement, we have a problem brief, and the brief provides the detailed description of the information in the context needed to better solve the problem. One key part of a problem brief is the evaluation criteria, and I find this to be so incredibly important because this allows us to objectively choose the best solutions rather than relying on instinct or opinion. So the deep structure holds the key to better problem solving when done in conjunction with a surface structure. So you want the problem statement, but you also want the problem brief that provides all of the details necessary to better solve the problem. On today's episode, we explored surface structure versus Deep structure. We talked about why this distinction is important for developing mission and vision statements. We even looked at how the concept could be used for the design of your business model that classical versus Jazz. And then finally we talked about why understanding surface versus Deep structure is critical for problem solving. And with that, we are at the end of this week's episode. To submit problems you want solved on this podcast, go to www.invisiblesolutions.com podcast.com and remember to download the lenses go to getthelenses.com I look forward to being with you next week. Until then, happy problem solving.