Use End-in-View Thinking for Lean Design Success

Rule: Use End-in-View Thinking for Lean Design Success

End-in-View Thinking starts with focusing on the future state we seek. Mt. Everest climbers use End-in-View Thinking to map out the best strategy for getting the top of the mountain. Due to changing weather conditions, every climbing season brings a different challenge. This year’s challenge is always different from that of last year. There is no clear path up the mountain, so you must first find one by climbing Mt. Everest mentally in reverse. Your thinking process must move you from the future state to the present. Or as one mountain climber once said “You can’t get there from here, but you can get from there to here.”

At first, don’t be too worried about the “how” of getting there. Focus on creating “pull”. Concentrate on creating a compelling vision of where you are going. My good friend, Colonel Larry Stewart, compares this to a rubber band stretched from your thumb. By pulling it from the destination to where you are now, you are creating tension in the right direction. It brings the objective to you and carries you to your objective.

By using End-in-View Thinking you will find yourself creating ways to do more with less—finding ways to work smarter rather than harder. Thinking in reverse is a way of forcing more of the problems to the surface at the beginning rather than at the end—creating chaos at the beginning to help order emerge at the end. The Huthwaite Lean Design Method gives you a step-by-step way of using End-in-View Thinking.