Think-it - Problem Solving

As long as one lives, problems will never cease to occur. The only way to get rid of it is to solve them. If you don’t tackle them these will only multiply and make your life miserable. Charles Conn and Robert McLean of Mckinsey say that with the help of 6 mutually reinforcing mindsets one can solve even the most inscrutable problems.

What are these?

1- Be ever-curious - Don’t stop asking questions. Why is this thing so? Why is it not so? That means one should be inquisitive about all the elements related to the problem. There are human biases in decision making, which are confirmation (pre-existing views) , availability (readily available information), and anchoring (relying on first information). These often cause us to stop searching for a range of better and more creative solutions too early. We can overcome this by being curious about the broader range of potential answers.

2- Tolerate ambiguity and stay humble - We need not to be a mastermind who knows what he/she is doing to approach the problem. The element of uncertainty is inherent in a problem. When dealing with uncertainty, it is a matter of trial and error. This requires tolerance for uncertainty. Only a humble person can tolerate uncertainty because guesses based on gut instinct can be utterly wrong.

3- Take a dragonfly-eye view - Dragonfly vision is thought to be like slow motion for humans. Dragonflies see faster than we do; they see around 200 images per second. Dragonfly can see in all 360 degrees around it and nearly 80 percent of the insect’s brain is dedicated to its sight. Dragonfly-eye view symbolizes widening the aperture on a problem or viewing it through multiple lenses i-e seeing from many perspectives. The purpose is to see beyond the familiar pattern into which our pattern-recognizing brains want to assemble perceptions. By widening the aperture, we can identify threats or opportunities beyond the periphery of vision.

4- Pursue occurrent behaviour - Occurrent behaviour is what actually happens in a time and place, it is having an unexpected feel in a time and place. Complex problems can’t be solved easily. It needs a different way of thinking, something new, something untested. Problem solvers should be searching whether evidence on the face of a solution can be observed, or running experiments to test hypotheses. You can think of this approach as generating new insights rather than just looking for what we already know. This means being a restless experimenter.

5- Tap into the collective intelligence and wisdom of the crowd - Chris Bradley, a co-author of Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick, observed that “it’s a mistake to think that on your team you have the smartest people in the room. They aren’t there. They’re invariably somewhere else.” What is that? Crowdsourcing is the answer. In a ubiquitous internet world crowdsourcing invites the smartest people in the world to work with you. The aim is to draw on diverse experiences and expertise other than your own. Start with brainstorming sessions that engage people from outside your team. Try broader crowdsourcing competitions to generate ideas.

6- Show and tell to drive action - Endlessly thinking and debating does not solve any problem. It is action on a solution that solves the problem. In order to solve a problem elegantly, the solution must be obvious. Present your solution emotionally as well as logically, and show why the preferred action offers a fine balance between risks and rewards. Also spell out the risks of inaction, which often have a higher cost than imperfect actions have.

So problem solving is not that difficult. Everyone of us has little or more of all the above abilities. All we need to do is use these. Start by questioning.

That translates to ACTION.