October 2019 Edition Apparel October 2019 issue | Seite 28

CMAI IVY LEAGUE
up, conventional thinking, and that this rigidity
prevented them from thinking beyond the usual
pattern, as a result of which they were unable to
draw with lesser lines.
Throughout the session, he explained that the
first step to design-thinking is thinking clearly and
beyond the prescribed rules.
MIND-MAPPING FOR CREATIVITY
Pavan allowed Members to let this thought
sink in, leaving them to themselves for a brief
while. He recommenced the session with more
examples and anecdotes. Post this, he spoke
on how big corporations achieve success by
drawing on the lives and philosophies of leaders
who consciously practise thinking differently, and
gave Members a glimpse into the inner workings
of many established companies. His examples
consisted of names such as General Electric (GE),
Wipro, Arvind Limited, and many more.
Moving on to the next and final segment of
the session, Pavan divided the participants into
teams. As per his instructions, each team needed
to have seven men and one woman. He drew
three pathways to demonstrate that too much
chaos is not healthy, and neither is too much
rigidity. He therefore advised each team to follow
the middle ground, i.e., a few flexible rules, to
achieve the goal of the task successfully. In the
following few hours, Members were to create a
mind-map of 15 things that they thought were
necessary to run a business effectively. Later,
these teams were to be further divided into
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I APPAREL I
October 2019
smaller teams, with each consisting of only a pair
of Members. They were then asked to challenge
their own assumptions about running a business.
“Think at least five ideas that you can use
to challenge the basic criterion of running a
business. Write them on a sticky note and
paste it next to the assumptions. This way, you
will be able to ideate in an unorthodox manner
and break away from the normal constructs
of running a business. Ideas have the power
to redefine conventions, so take it upon
yourself to change things around by operating
unconventionally within conventional rules,”
Pavan explained.
He further went on to talk about start-ups
and their principles and with that, he equated
the ideas and observations put forth by the
Members. Quite affirmatively, he said that having
no rules, too, is chaos, while too many rules
make for bureaucracy. So a few rules and some
structure represent autonomy, which, precisely, is
the breeding ground for design-thinking.
As he moved on to discuss the top ideas put
forward by Members, everyone was keen to
learn more, and eagerly asked him questions.
Thoughts and questions kept pouring in even as
the day neared the end, so much so that
Pavan had to request Members to carry their
thoughts to dinner.
Mr Sanjay Vakharia then felicitated Pavan
with a memento, and officially ended the
session, encouraging everyone to take the
discussion offline.