With my moonshot proposal and 5 WHYs completed, the next part of the design thinking process came unexpectedly!
Matt and Dorothy took us through a role play centred around a fictitious School Hall scenario. Each of the MIT 2020 group were given parent personas from the local community to act out (e.g a pizza maker, a lawyer, a bach cleaner). The gathering was led by a senior staff member (Matt) with a representative from ERO (Dorothy) in attendance. Parents were asked to prioritise a series of issues impacting the school. There was a tangible sense of frustration as we progressed from one issue to another. Indeed, comments from 'the floor' got quite heated at times:
"We need more information!
What do you mean my kid can't listen!
Are you telling me my kid is dumb?
It's not my problem?
What are the teachers doing to fix this?
Why are we only hearing about this now?
The senior staff member (Matt - heroically sticking to character!) pretty quickly came under the pump. Due to circumstances out of 'his control', he could not provide any of the details requested by parents to help clarify each issue and figure out which were the most pressing.
At some point, the penny dropped. It turned out that the 'issues' we were hotly debating were in fact the achievement challenge statements from each MIT member.
GENIUS!
Having each MITer in character as part of an audience dialled down any potential awkwardness or defensiveness that might have come up had we been asked instead to present our ideas in front a group of relative strangers.The role play was a way for us to hear an upfront critique of our initial musings and prompted each of us to go back and re-examine our initial problem statement.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:- was the issue expressed in concise language? was the issue actually worthy of investigation as a design thinking project?
Role Play A: Context: It's week 4 of the new school year - a Year 9 student returns to primary school. He is happy to see his old home class teacher but eventually reveals he is not getting on with his Maths teacher (also the Form Dean) He says 'she thinks I'm dumb Miss!' He is acting up in class, he is on detention and the school will be calling his parents. 
Role Play B: Context: A math's lesson in class - a student is trying his best to figure out what do with a maths problem. He shows increasing frustration - he is not able to understand the problem or how to figure out an answer. He complains that it's all too hard - he is convinced he cannot do the work and just gives up.
