Personal Rules and other problem solving tools

Personal problem solving rules are great aids in quick and assured real-life problem solving

Power of decision-action-event chart

Personal rules are kind of patterns, but the difference lies in the form of representation and use. Personal rules are represented in the form of

if <condition> then <action>.

A specific personal rule, if sufficiently abstract, can be used in different contexts but with no variation in action. The value of a rule lies in its action invariance. You have seen one example of the use of a personal rule which can be used in any transaction involving small coin change. Furthermore, the nature of a rule is intangible. It does not represent a physical entity.

In contrast, identification of a specific pattern may be used by our decision making mechanism to take different actions depending on the context. To take an extreme example, if you see a tiger in the forest, you might want to run to save yourself; but if you see it in a zoo, you will enjoy its splendor (or you may feel sorry for it, if you are an animal lover). Tiger represents a visual pattern that creates different reactions under different circumstances or contexts.

Patterns can be of any type: tangible or intangible – it may take any form. It may be a spoken word, voice tone, fragment of a song as well as all tangibles. All physical objects are identified by their specific patterns in our mind. Pattern identification is ubiquitous.

A rule specifies what to do if a specific pattern is identified.

We may classify primary pattern based rules as those which we all learn to carry on with our daily lives. Learning of these rules also happens through primary or secondary experiences, and through training, teaching and other learning channels.

The problem solver’s recommendation that you become aware of the rules you are following in a specific context is also valid for these primary or basic pattern based rules. Awareness creates explicit representation and makes it possible to manage and use the rules better by increasing the specific rule belief. In any case, once you follow a rule, it is ingrained in your mindset.

The rules that we are discussing are different from usual pattern based rules in the amount of analysis required in creating them or their novelty. You usually create a problem solving special personal rule after some amount of analysis.

After all these vague explanations the fact remains that the pattern based rules and problem solving rules have no clear-cut dividing line. Whatever be the rule, the objective of taking up this issue here is, to emphasize that for using a rule for problem solving purposes consciously and analytically, you must become aware of it first. As a problem solver you need to constantly analyze—isn’t it?

Example of a special personal rule through a story 

In this story, the DA (Decision Analyst) and DM (Decision Maker) is one and the same person that is you.

Story 1: Which station to reach?

After spending a thoroughly enjoyed evening at your friend’s house you have decided to call it a night, took leave of your friend and boarded a bus. The bus would take you to one of the two Metro stations and you will next take a Metro train towards your home.

The bus was just about to reach a junction C at which it would take a right turn and after about 5 minutes later you would have to get down at Stop A and walk another 5 minutes to the Metro station Y.

Instead, you could have got down at the junction (Stop C) itself and proceeded in a straight direction to Stop B to access a second Metro station X nearby. Walking time from the Stop B to the Metro station X is negligible in this case.

In short, you estimated that it would take about the same time to reach either station X or station Y from the point at which you were located.

Under usual circumstances, in this route you would board any bus that you get; either going to Stop A or straight to Stop B without any preference. But this evening just before your bus would stop at the junction (Stop C) you looked at your watch and exclaimed, ‘Oh, the last train is to pass any time.’ You didn’t know the exact time of the last train, but you had an idea about when it would pass. If you miss the last train you would be considerably delayed in reaching home. What would you do? Any more information needed to take the decision regarding whether to access station X or station Y?

The following shows the situation.

Give it a thought. However small, this problem needs some thought and is an example of a decision problem we face daily. You need to analyze the situation, the facts given and objectives to be fulfilled.

Mark that, all through this thread, we will always use our analytical capability and deductive reasoning wherever we need to.

To give you a chance of analysis, we will take a break.

First barrier first: posing as the DA, do you have all the information needed to arrive at the right decision?

By now perhaps you would have got the answer to this question already. The answer is No: you need to know the direction of movement of the train. That is the crucial information you need for analyzing further and decide right. This is the first part of the solution.

Sometimes, we choose the crucial information as: the direction to your home. My counter is: unless the train moves in the direction in which your home is, how can you think of reaching home? Thus this part solution is covered by the train movement direction solution.

Furthermore, as the active entity are only two: the train and you, it is always better— rather there should be no hesitation in choosing the train movement direction as the crucial further information required.

We will now have a second break for you to analyze the second part to get the final answer before showing you the modified situation diagrammatically.

Taking up the problem again, most probably you have already found the answer:

You should go for station X and not station Y.

We will go through the reason using a step by step fact based elaboration approach.

1.   You have estimated that it would take about the same time for you to reach station X or station Y from position C at which you are now located.

2.   Last train is expected to arrive any time.

3.   As the train would stop at the first station for a brief but still a little bit of time and it would also take time to move to the next station, the two of these duration summed up is the buffer or extra time that you would get, if

      You move to the next station for the train. This is the first conclusion.

4.   The train moves from station Y to station X.

5.    With this buffer time in hand and also knowing that reaching either station X or Y from Stop C takes the same time, you would improve your chances of catching the last train considerably if,

      You decide to board the train at station X (next station for the train). This is your final decision or conclusion.

If you look at this step by step reasoning which in fact is an example of deductive reasoning, you would find it rather exhaustive and precise, (it can be made more detailed though and you will be able to carry out this task yourself) even bringing out apparently small points. Two principles: principle of exhaustivity and principle of precision have been applied here.

You may say, in real life we do not think in such details and also who has the time to bother so much!

True, many times you won’t have much time to take a decision. Also, even if you have time, it is really a bother to sit down with pen and paper and go through fruitless formalism.

We agree with you on both counts. We only recommend:

      Go through the above process carefully and try to think in that manner.

      Also, after you have taken some decision and everything got settled, if you get time, analyze your just solved problem and its solution path using the above approach. With continued practice, you would automatically start thinking in a systematic organized manner.

Decision-Action-Event chart

The decision making steps can also be represented using a form of what we call decision-action-event chart. This also is a very useful tool and can be used in analyzing complex decision making processes. More clarity can be achieved by using such a chart. Remember, the smallest decision making unit is a yes/no decision. We use a diamond shape representing such a yes/no decision unit. There is one path into the diamond and exactly two paths or possibilities coming out of it. This form is very precise and exact. Sharp edged rectangle represents event and round edged rectangle represents action.

This is a simple diagram as important decision was only one (though you need to take a number of minor decisions in both cases).

yes/no decision making has two great advantages

Use of this form of yes/no decision units to represent a complex decision making has two great advantages:

The first advantage is achieving outcome exclusivity. As there are only two possibilities or outcomes of every unit decision, all possibilities or outcomes are inherently Exclusive to (or separated from) each other; they cannot affect each other in any way.

Effect of one outcome on another immensely complicates decision making problems. Using this yes/no approach forces you to think in small digital and precise chunks and makes the decision chart completely exclusive outcome-wise.

The second advantage lies in achieving exhaustivity. As you break up complex decisions into small parts, you can very well see if anything is missing.

Amongst other high-end problem solving practitioners, McKinsey consulting has even coined the catchy name of MECE – meaning Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive –   for the above two properties of decision making taken together.

Applying this concept at every area of decision making as far as possible makes decision making much easier, decision quality better and more assured.  

Later we will expose you to a more elaborate yes/no diagram to give you an idea of its usefulness.

Creation of personal rules happen from analysis of your experiences of successful problem solving

So, what rule did you use in this case?

Personal Rule 1 to be used in this type of cases:

“Access the station that comes later in the desired direction of movement of the train.”

During subsequent commuting by Metro rail you needed to fine-tune this rule farther consciously by analyzing each such case, but you never failed to use this rule whenever you had to travel by Metro rail.

Lastly, can you say what the turning point was?

The turning point was: the moment when you looked at your watch. Only then you became aware of the problem and then decision making became necessary.

Afterwards you analyzed the situation. You felt that you shouldn’t have started your journey home from your friend’s house so late.

Consequently you formed a minor and more specific rule: Personal Rule 2:

“When starting from your friend’s house, if it is evening, you would always check the time and select the route accordingly”.

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