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The sweet spot in business consulting is showing clients something they’ve never seen before. That was the concensus of our consulting team’s work last week at our mid-quarter summit as we reflected on our problem-solving techniques. It was our second foray reflecting on how we solve problems, and we agreed we’ll do it again later this year.
We concluded that we’re most successful in discovering fresh insights about an intractable problem, when we step way back to see the problem from a different perspective. We strive to intentionally shift our point-of-view in order to see the problem in a new light. We turn the problem on its side, and upside down, and inside out, etc., and we don’t stop, until an epiphany occurs—a moment of clarity in which we discover a whole new way of seeing it. In short, we assume a different relationship to the problem.
By shifting our cognitive framework, a creative solution almost invariably emerges. In fact, it’s been there all along — as Aldous Huxley observed –it’s just been indiscernable. Hidden in the weeds because our cognitive biases keep us from from seeing it.
When figuring out how to solve a customer’s problem, the tendency is to come up with a concrete, linear solution that eliminates or “works around” the root cause of the problem. Ironically, some of the best solutions arise from a non-linear approach. For instance, a major breakthrough in computer printing technology was made possible by creating a new language (called “Postscript”) for communicating from a computer to a printer. We came up with several illustrative examples of break-through solutions like this.
The key to creative problem-solving is to get outside of our conventional “framing,” and see it in a different context. Change the composition of the problem, or the lighting. Walk away from it.
Seeing the problem differently requires first checking one’s judging mind at the door to the extent possible. Don’t worry. You can always re-assert your cognitive framework and linear, analytical mindset when you get done or, better yet, revise it.
Last week’s conversation about applying creativity to problem solving was very insightful. We left convinced that we can improve our capacity for creative problem-solving by tackling many different kinds of problems – gardening, oil painting, learning a language, teaching a child, eradicating malaria — in addition to solving the kinds of problems we get paid to solve…
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