Atoms, Bits & Design

Professor Shiba, who has been teaching in LFM since fall 1991, began with an overview of his background, noting that his focus as a student was in statistics and fisheries. He is renowned for his work in using intuition to create hypotheses that can then be proven by logic. Not surprisingly, the major metaphor that he has used in developing his thinking and consequently in consulting and teaching with global organizations is a fishbowl - and the notion of swimming with the fish. To demonstrate, Shiba drew a fishbowl, showing a fish inside and a researcher outside, observing. “The traditional researcher is objective, observing from the outside and trying to understand. This is a good way to create objective measures to test a hypothesis.” He then drew a picture of himself jumping into the fish bowl, explaining that his focus involves not proving a hypothesis, but creating one. “To create a new hypothesis requires a different approach, for which intuition is needed instead of logic,” he told the group. “You need to jump into the fishbowl and swim with the fish - with the customer - so you can experience that view and intuit a hypothesis. It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover, so you need to jump both inside and outside the fishbowl. This approach is my way of life.”