Jim Collins calls it the ‘discipline to discard.’ Jonathan Ivie calls it ‘knowing what to leave out.’ Matthew May says ‘have something missing.’

No matter what you call it, all the current talk about design thinking and using design as a platform for ‘non-design’ pursuits comes down to a discipline. It’s so tempting to not want to miss out on an opportunity, that we’re fond, it seems, of throwing even the kitchen sink into the mix.

The discipline to exclude in order to achieve design excellence is really an act of confidence and courage. The confidence that our solution is the right solution, the courage to advance it into the unknown of public critique.