You can become a real life problem solver using your own mind power
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| Mind power |
We all solve problems throughout our lives
Most times we go about our tasks without much of a serious thought. These are
routines; these are not decision problems. Folks doing fixed time daily
work, usually go through steps somewhat like this:
“Waking up in the
morning, we wash, scan the newspaper, have breakfast, prepare for going out to
work and finally leave home for work.”
We do not need to stop, think and take important decisions for carrying
out any of these daily tasks. These are routines.
But sometimes unusual events do
happen
Early morning you
get a call from your friend's wife. She tells you in a quivering voice, “my
husband fell down; he is unconscious, please come.” They live nearby—so you can
reach them quickly. Your mind starts evaluating the alternatives...in a furious
pace.
A whole lot
of decisions are to be taken now quickly. You are faced with an emergent
decision making scenario.
Not always a decision problem involves an unusual or adverse event—nature of Decision Problems
Consider,
Your daughter is
now at the end of tenth class. Final exams are only a few months away. She will
join the select group of senior students in the eleventh class soon. Which
specialization stream should she take? Should she evaluate now what she should
do after 12th? How can you help her?
Or
consider,
Your son is now 26
and has joined a good stable job—now is the time to look for his further
stability. He has agreed to go for marriage—he knows, it might take a year for
the welcome event to finally happen. Can he find his mate himself? Would you
have to help him? How will you go about it?
Both these situations many of us
face and are technically Complex Real Life Decision Problems. These are not
easy at all and have far reaching effects.
These are Personal Life Decision
Problems. In addition to these personal life problems, we face a continual
stream of decision problems in our work lives.
Lastly we have those large
complex and much publicized Corporate Decision Problems.
These involve decision making
usually in teams, involving many kinds of resources and stake holders. Still as
a team member or a team leader we humans only arrive at acceptable solutions to
those Corporate Decision Problems.
We take decisions according to our abilities and resources we have
In most cases, especially for
personal decision problems, we take decisions using random trial and error
approach using our experience in solving such problems earlier. Obviously you
are in some trouble when you have to find the suitable bride for your first
son. You are doing it for the first time.
For any new problem, you may not
be able to use your previous experience.
It would have been so nice if only
you were trained in Mind power techniques to solve real life problems! Well, have
we ever been trained or taught to think in an organized systematic manner enabling
us to take on any decision problem with confidence and consistently reach
better solutions?
In corporate world there are a
large number of systems or methods for improving your work output, but there
are practically no holistic approaches for enhancing your general problem
solving ability that would enhance your mind power.
We all have a large reservoir of
untapped power in our mind. Well tested methods and techniques can free up that
power. With practice you will be able to face not only your problems
confidently but also can take up solving problems of others near and dear to
you.
These are logic and reason-based
practical techniques and have nothing mysterious in them. This collection of
powerful techniques and methods can be practiced showing measurable improvement
in results, and most importantly, this can used by anyone with reasonably
strong interest in learning new things and solving problems.
A number of these techniques are
adapted and assimilated into a framework from the results of work in relevant
subject areas applying our own personal problem solving experiences and methods.
As problem solving is the human activity central to all actions, throughout
ages many thinkers deliberated on how to solve general problems in their own
ways. Thus contributions to this overlay subject came from many thinkers
specialized in diverse subjects and knowledge areas. Some of these areas are:
Mathematics, Innovation science, Management disciplines, leading business
consulting houses, Cognitive science, Computer science, Artificial
intelligence, Psychology and the likes.
To name a few outstanding
personalities whose contribution to the subject of innovation and
problem solving is undeniable are:
1. George Polya—the
great mathematician who was one of the earliest personalities to define problem
solving as an important scientific activity for exploration. Though he was a
mathematician, his recommendation was to solve mathematical problems without
mathematics, just by using problem solving reasoning and techniques.
2.
Genrich Altshuller, the father of TRIZ which
perhaps is the only systematic way to create innovative ideas and solutions.
3.
Edward De Bono, the father of lateral
thinking—one of the most influential personalities in popularizing the idea
that, for innovation one needs to think in out-of-the-box ways and it is
possible to teach even school children to think in new ways.
4.
Thomas L Saaty, the father of
Analytic Hierarchic Process (or AHP in short), the most popular method for
solving complex multi-party multi-criteria decision making problems that occur
in large number of cases in personal and business environments.
This list is by no means complete
or representative of the long lines of thinkers who have made and are
continuing to make highly valuable contributions to this vitally important but
largely ignored area of inquiry.
Throughout these blog posts we
will refer to the personalities and their works whenever the need arises.
From the mention of these rather
intimidating diverse inquiry areas, you shouldn't by any means assume that we
are going into long and difficult academic discussions. Instead our approach
throughout will be to extract valuable results from these areas of work and
assimilate these as easily understandable techniques and methods that can be
practiced by anyone for improving their problem solving abilities in their personal
and work lives.
In addition to assimilation of
these and other resources, we will include a set of techniques that we have
developed through our long problem solving experience. We will present all of
these together as an open ended body of concepts, techniques and methods in the
area of innovation and problem solving.
To make the concepts easier to
understand and remember for further use, we will try always to cite real life
examples and stories to attach physical bodies to the abstract concepts.
It is well known that the best
method to learn problem solving is through solving problems. Following this
maxim, we will pose occasional problems for you to solve. In many cases, we
will go through explaining the solution immediately, but you are advised
strongly to first solve the problem in your own way and then only go through
the explanation. That is the way to learn problem solving.
At the end of this post we have
listed a few valuable resources on problem solving and innovation related to
the personalities just mentioned. If you are extra curious, you might explore
these resources. But in doing so, there is a chance of getting confused with
overload of hard to understand materials.
In time we intend to cover many of
these and other concepts, techniques and methods along with additional concepts
and techniques.
All through this series of posts
by "problem" we would mean, any situation where some amount of
thinking is required for taking the right course of action. In other words by
"problem" we mean a "decision problem" where the right
decision is the need of the hour in an environment of confusion.
Very often and all around we get
to hear people say, "What should I do? I can't think of anything."
The situation may be deadly emergent or not so critical, but undoubtedly
the situation has a "decision problem" in it that needs to be tackled
properly so that the persons involved in the decision problem are satisfied and
relieved.
We will be discussing this rather
neglected area in these blog posts. To be specific, we will be discussing: how
we can increase our mind power and solve our real life problems systematically
with more confidence and assurance of success.
Systematic and Scientific Real Life Problem Solving
You may wonder—is it possible for
you to learn and improve your mind power and general real life problem solving
abilities? Yes it is very well possible. We have already mentioned this aspect
and we believe anyone can learn to think more effectively and gradually become
a Problem Solver.
You can't solve a problem that has
suddenly cropped up and made you deeply worried by learning only one single
technique or method, but the host of valuable techniques, practices and methods
spread over many disciplines that we have hinted at will come to your aid if
you know how and when to use which technique. We will expose you to these techniques
and methods during our interactions with you to gradually increase your power
of mind.
Our First recommendation towards
becoming a Problem Solver who approaches any problem systematically and
confidently is:
Try to know how you solved any past problem, concentrate
on your own problem solving process, note down in brief each of the significant
problems you solved. Later refer to these cases and fill up with more analytical
inputs. You would become in time what we call—a Self Aware Problem Solver.
This is not the only thing that
will enable you to solve any problem, but this will make you take the first
step towards it. And this valuable practice needs to be continued, let's say just
like one item of your daily physical exercise.
It is not difficult, and has no
cost but only gains. Just start doing it and check your progress time to time. There
is much to know. A first step to lifelong learning can be taken anytime. It's
never too late.
Where does Innovation come in?
Where does innovation fit in? When
you recognize innovation, you will surely agree that the core component of any
significant problem solving is innovation; real life problem solving with a
systematic and scientific approach includes innovation.
Once you recognize innovation with
clarity and observe the process of innovation, you would have taken the first
step towards increasing your inventiveness.
Common perception is: only
terribly intelligent people having high IQ have rights to inventiveness.
Our take is different: high IQ or
great exam performance does not automatically lead one to inventiveness—anyone
with apparent average intelligence has the potential to become a powerful
innovator and real life problem solver.
We will cover innovation from a
few different angles with examples and problems.
Real life problem solving and
innovation is basically a matter of aligning one's thinking assets or focusing inherent
power of mind.
Potentially everyone has enough
thinking assets or mind power. Alignment of these assets is only needed for
creating an innovator and real life problem solver out of you. Our experience
says—it is possible for nearly everyone, whoever you are.
We involve ourselves in solving
others' problems so that not only someone is benefited but also our own mind
power increases while we solve others' problems. Just like doing maths or
exercising your body, the more you solve problems more will be your power of
mind.
To be continued...
Resources:
1.
George Polya:
The great Hungarian mathematician who was perhaps the first to formalize the
concept of Problem Solving.
a. In
1945 George Polya published the book “How To Solve It” which quickly became his
most prized publication. It sold over one million copies and has been
translated into 17 languages. In this book he identifies four basic principles
of problem solving. A brief extract is here.
b. Wiki on George Polya
and his ground breaking work - “How To Solve It”.
2.
Genrich Altshuller,
a Russian scientist, is the father of TRIZ, an acronym in Russian for
"Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (or TIPS in English)". Though initially
TRIZ focused primarily on technological innovation, later it has grown to a
body of knowledge that offers a whole new way of creating innovative solution
in any area of human thinking.
a. Wiki
on Genrich Altshuller.
b. Wiki
on TRIZ.
c. On Altshuller from
triz-journal. The triz-journal edited by Ms. Ellen Domb
is another rich resource on TRIZ knowledge.
d. Altshuller Institute for TRIZ studies
contains a large reservoir of valuable archived knowledge and also knowledge on
continuing work on innovation.
3.
Edward de Bono
is best known as the father of Lateral Thinking, but his biggest
contribution perhaps is in popularizing the idea that innovative thinking can
be taught and learned and is one of the most important elements in human knowledge.
a. Wiki on Edward de Bono.
b. Edward
de Bono set up his own website as far back as in the 1990.
4.
Prof. Thomas L Saaty,
originally a mathematician, is the inventor and architect of the powerful
multi-party multi-criteria decision analysis framework of Analytic
Hierarchic Process (or AHP in short) and its generalized version of
Analytic Network Process that takes into account of the inter-dependencies of
the criteria of evaluation. AHP has widespread applications in choice, ranking,
procurement, and even national level strategic policy making problems amongst
others.
a. Wiki
on Prof.
Saaty.
b. Wiki
on AHP.
c.
There are lots of materials on the
AHP on the web. A brief tutorial is available here.
Read my other blogs on Innovative idea generation and its basic principles and Get smart, get innovative usingTRIZ
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