569: The Way to Make Struggles More Productive, with Sarah Stein Greenberg

Feb 28, 2022

In this engaging discussion, Sarah Stein Greenberg, the Executive Director of the Stanford d.school and author of *Creative Acts for Curious People*, dives into the discomfort inherent in the learning process. She emphasizes that struggle is essential for creativity, describing the 'trough of despair' we all face during challenges. Sarah introduces the concept of productive struggle, encouraging listeners to embrace discomfort as growth. She shares insights on navigating innovation and the importance of honest feedback in development, transforming struggles into opportunities for success.

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ANECDOTE

Trough of Despair

Sarah Stein Greenberg's team redesigned an irrigation pump in Myanmar, aiming for affordability.
She felt despair before a design review, but a mentor called it the "trough of despair," a normal part of the creative process.

INSIGHT

Zone of Proximal Development

Real learning and innovation happen in the "hard but exciting" middle zone between comfort and impossibility.
This zone, called the "zone of proximal development," pushes skills and fosters growth.

ADVICE

Forecasting Discomfort

Prepare teams for the discomfort of innovation by foreshadowing challenges.
Use visuals like the "design squiggle" to illustrate the messy process of creativity.

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Sarah Stein Greenberg: Creative Acts for Curious People

Sarah Stein Greenberg is the Executive Director of the Stanford d.school. She leads a community of designers, faculty, and other innovative thinkers who help people unlock their creative abilities and apply them to the world. She speaks regularly at universities and global conferences on design, business, and education.

Sarah holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and also serves as a trustee for global conservation organization Rare. She is the author of the book Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways*.

In this conversation, Sarah and I discuss the reality that all of us face with real learning: uncomfortable struggle. We detail some of the typical pattens that occur with struggle and how we can almost predict it at certain points. Plus, we discussed what Sarah and her colleagues have discovered about we can do to make the most of the struggles we regularly face.

Key Points

Part of the process of creativity almost always feels terrible. The “trough of despair” is hard, but also essential.
Struggle helps us learn better. There’s a sweet spot between what you already know well and what seems impossible. That middle zone is productive struggle.
It’s helpful to set expectations in advance when innovating or creating that discomfort is an indicator that you’re moving forward.
When people are in the midst of struggle, shifting the focus from thinking and talking to actually doing can often illuminate the best, next step.
Productive struggle often comes at predictable moments. When it does, scaffolding and models can help move us along to get to where we need to go.

Resources Mentioned

Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways* by Sarah Stein Greenberg

Interview Notes

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