In a roundabout way I came across a post on using problem definition techniques to support effective problem-solving. I’m usually a little suspicious of some of the management and personal development material that is floating around, but when I thought through some of the following ideas in the context of recent projects, some of these made a degree of sense…and some would probably engage me in endless procrastination!
- rephrase the problem in order to change your perception
- expose and challenge assumptions by making them explicit and scrutinising them
- chunk up (this sounds unpleasant!) – play with ‘altitudes’ - (loving the jargon!) – ask ”what is this an example of?”, “what’s the intention behind this?”, “what’s this part of?”
- chunk down (I’m really starting to get flashbacks of misspent nights out) – ask “what are the parts of this problem?”, “what are the examples of it?”
- look at it from multiple perspectives
- use effective language constructs (assume a myriad of solutions, e.g. ”In what ways might I…?, make it positive, frame the problem in the form of a question “In what ways (action)(object)(qualifier)(end result)?
- make it engaging
- reverse the problem e.g. if you want to win, what would make ou lose?
- gather facts
- …erm, actually get on with solving it…..?
