WANT AN ELEGANT SOLUTION? Contemplate These Questions
As an innovation provocateur for the past 33 years with these organizations, one thing I've noticed is that even the brightest of people spend very little time looking for elegant solutions to their problems. All too often, they go with the "first right idea" -- one that is often lame, ho hum, or just plain stupid. If you are faced with a challenge or problem these days that needs a fresh approach, pause for a while, noodle, and jot down your responses to at least some of the following questions. Fifteen minutes effort now is likely to save you hours of wasted effort down the road.
1. How can you frame your challenge, problem, or opportunity in the form of a question, beginning with the words "How can I?"
2. What are three other ways you can frame your question?
3. What is the back story of your problem? Its history?
4. What are your limiting assumptions about the problem?
5. What have you tried before that's worked? What hasn't worked?
6. What are your your hoped for outcomes?
7. Imagine it's a year from now and you have succeeded. What does success look like?
8. What are your intuitions telling you about how to proceed?
9. Imagine your fairy godmother granted you a wish? What would it be?
10. What is the simplest possible solution to your problem?
11. What if time was not an issue? How would you approach your problem differently?
12. What advice would a five-year old give you?
13. If you already knew the solution to your problem, what would it be?
14. Who do you need to brainstorm with or get feedback from?
15. What if money were no object? How would this change your approach?
16. How would the person who most inspires you approach your problem?
17. Open the nearest book and point randomly to a word. What clues does this word give you about proceeding?
18. What is the root cause of your problem?
19. If you had to solve this problem today, what would you do?
20. Jot down as many possible solutions to your problem as you can in the next five minutes. Then circle the one that most intrigues you.
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MitchDitkoff.com
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