By Don Simpson
My Goals: One: write an easy-to-read and easy-to-understand set of articles that describe how to do problem solving and accomplishment that actually works successfully in the lives of the reader. Two: publish or present those articles in a forum that is easily accessible to a broad audience. Three: have the first phase of these articles written and published by the end of 2008.
Introduction:
Problem solving is easy, we do it all the time; we tell our friends, relatives, spouse, coworkers: “all ya gotta do is...” Emphasis on the “ya”—all the other person has to do. Other people’s problems are easy for you to solve because you aren’t the one responsible for actually doing the solution, or living with the consequences. Problem solving gets a lot tougher when the person in the “all ya gotta do” is actually you. One of the challenges when solving our own problems is picking a solution that you can and will do within the desired timeframe.
The goal of this article is to help you learn to be a better problem-solver, hopefully an excellent problem solver. Along with a formula for success, I will give examples of good problem solving and bad problem solving. Examples of bad problem solving are easy to find these days—the newspapers are filled with such examples, mostly from government—local, state, and, yes, those folks in Washington D.C. When you learn good problem solving, something else you get for free is good accomplishment skills, since they both use essentially the same three step process.
My favorite quote about problem solving is from Winston Churchill: “Every problem has a simple and obvious solution that is dead wrong.” This is the first trap you need to avoid; Unfortunately, our elected officials do this constantly, typically by passing a new law in reaction to some disaster. We’ve got plenty of laws that people ignore, another one certainly won’t fix what just happened, nor prevent it in the future. Rather than start on that knee-jerk reaction, it is best to work on the actual problem and the right solution.
A word of warning: I intend to some use “hot-button” issues as examples, and thus will insult you and your pet problem and the popular solution at some point. I’ve had some tense discussions with dear friends and relatives with this philosophy, as you can imagine. The key to solving a problem is not whether you are doing something, it is whether you are doing the right something that actually solves the real problem. If you examine recent history, you will see that not much has changed in our world: how’s that war on poverty going? What about the war on drugs? The war on terror? The glass ceiling? The list of un-solved problems goes on and on. It is time for better solutions; time for finding the real problem(s), workable solutions to those problems, and time to actually do the solution to the right problem.
Here is an example: The Prius Problem—too quiet.
Our Government is hard at work on the Prius problem: Apparently, blind people have complained that it is too quiet. The simple, obvious solution: make it noisier, of course. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is studying ways to make hybrid cars noisier so that pedestrians, especially blind people, can hear them coming. Makes perfect sense, of course—so simple, so obvious... Ever since I heard about this ridiculousness, I have been paying more attention to the noise cars make while walking or riding my bicycle—both quite silent. My conclusion: yes, all cars make noise, some more than others. The primary noise when gliding along at 30 mph is the tires, not the engine. As an example of bad problem solving, let’s look at the problem, presuming there is a problem.
Possible problems:
- Blind people are being killed in alarming numbers by Prius owners. This is apparently not true, since an internet notation said that hybrids are involved in pedestrian incidents at the same rate as other vehicles.
- Other people are being hit by Prius’s in alarming numbers. I read an article a while back where a young boy on a bicycle was hit by a Prius when he turned his bicycle into the driving lane without looking...his mother explained that it wasn’t her son’s fault, since he couldn’t hear the car coming...as an aside, are deaf people killed in alarming numbers by cars? Perhaps the old joke about why farts stink applies here...(so deaf people can enjoy them, too).
- Perhaps Prius and other hybrid cars are fundamentally dangerous because they are so quiet. This is the “it is the car’s fault” definition of the problem.
- Perhaps the real problem: Cars are getting quieter, not just hybrids, so people may have a harder time to hear them coming—especially in this world of cell phones, iPods, etc., but that might be simple not-paying-attention.
Picking a solution
The first phase of picking a solution is to start thinking up possible solutions:
1. Too quiet? Make them noisier. Do this with some sort of “cow bell” The car is at fault, so fix the car...this is the simple, obvious solution, of course.
2. Next come various political solutions, the absurdity of which is a function of how “hot” a political topic this becomes, and whether it becomes a partisan issue.
a. Pass a law that hybrid owners must honk their horn in three quick, short beeps any time they see a blind person that might suddenly decide to cross in front of them. This landmark legislation could be called the Blind Persons Prius Protection Act.
b. Better yet, our legislators could pass a law that hybrid owners must honk their horn in three quick, short beeps any time they see any pedestrian that might suddenly decide to cross in front of them without looking. This legislation could be called the Pedestrian Prius Protection Act.
c. Here in California, there have been a rash of “nanny” laws passed. That would yield a solution of this sort: All blind people would be required by law to have a sighted person accompany them when crossing the street. Furthermore, a rider to the bill would require blind people, especially those living alone, to install compact fluorescent bulbs in all light sockets to save energy. This bill would be called the Lloyd Levine Blind Person Protection and Energy Savings Bill, in honor of the chief nanny bill creator. This bill would probably involve federal funding for the Boy Scouts of America to make sure people are available for helping blind people cross the street.
d. Heck, let’s go all the way and simply outlaw hybrid cars. We keep trying this solution with guns, drugs, etc. The sad effect of this solution would be a black market for ultra-silent cars that sneak up on people...
3. One internet posting I saw even suggested that quiet cars be fitted with a transponder that would activate a sensor that blind people would carry. Perhaps another simple and now obvious solution...
4. Train pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. to “look both ways” before crossing, changing lanes, etc. Parents could train their children to be self-responsible in this regard.
5. Train owners of quiet cars, like hybrids, to be more aware of pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. since they clearly sneak up on them un-noticed, and be ready to take appropriate action should that person head into their path, such as turning their steering wheel, using the brakes, beeping the horn, etc.
The next phase of picking a solution is to pick the best solution—one that actually solves the real problem. What solution, or in this case which solutions do you do? Yes, the cowbell might work, until people learn to ignore them, or there is so much ambient noise that it gets drowned out, or maybe they are talking on their cell phone or listening to their iPod, or just not paying attention... hmmm. By naming the problem “The Prius Problem”, you define the problem as: “the car’s fault”, so you inevitably head for a solution that involves fixing the car and ignoring other solutions.
I guess you can see that I don’t think much of most political solutions. The worst part of political so-called problem solving is that people quickly lose sight of the real problem. Once the problem has a catchy name, like “The Prius Problem”, everything that anyone doesn’t like about Prius’s gets thrown into the mix. Here in California, to encourage people to buy hybrid cars, owners of the more efficient hybrids, like the Prius and Honda Civic, could get special stickers that allowed a lone driver to drive in the carpool lane. Almost immediately people started complaining—the hybrid drivers were going too slow...some even going the speed limit! Then there could be lobbies, like big oil companies who might blame hybrids for lowering oil consumption. Next thing you know, Congress just has to outlaw hybrid automobiles because of The Prius Problem.
So, on to the real solutions...solution three seems another simple, obvious solution. The trick there is who pays for the retrofit of the cars already in service and the sensors for every blind person, or do we wait a generation for all cars and all blind people to have this feature as it is phased in. Nice solution if someone else has to pay for it. What ever happened to that “V-chip” to save us and our children from having to watch bad TV?
Luckily, you don’t have to pick just one solution...solutions four and five could both be implemented. If our legislators still feel the need to pass legislation, solution five could even mandate NTSB testing for noise levels, then specify cars that would require mandatory warnings. The quiet designation could even be a selling point for some vehicles, although the training might be a good idea for all drivers. What about blind people? Obviously the “look both ways” solution doesn’t work, but training owners would, since reminding them that the person with the white and red cane can’t hear them would invoke extra caution.
How do you “do” these solutions? Each of us can start by training our children to stop, look, and listen before crossing the street. I probably learned to look both ways from my deaf grandparents. We can each be better, more courteous drivers—in the words of Professor Dumbledore: “it is called being polite”. Toyota, Honda, and the other hybrid car manufactures could “make lemonade” of this by advertising the “problem” and the solution reminding everyone to be careful pedestrians crossing, train our children to be careful pedestrians, and to be more careful drivers—especially hybrid owners.
The problem solving steps:
1. What is the problem? Always ask: what problem am I trying to solve? What is the real problem? Separate out symptoms of the problem and get to the actual problem or set of problems. Is this actually your problem? My life sure got simpler once I realize that I was not responsible for everyone else’s problems...obviously I’m still trying to help, though, but now I’m helping you help yourself.
2. What is the solution? This step has two phases; the first is defining all—or at least several—of the possible solutions. The next phase is to see which of those solutions will actually work, that is, which ones actually solve the problem, which you can do, and which you will actually do. Discard solutions that don’t solve the real problem or cannot or will not be done by you. It is ok to get help solving problems, but you need to be the primary solver if it is your problem to solve.
3. Do the solution. This is the hard part, since it means actual work on your part—the talk is over, time for action.
Pitfalls in problem solving:
1. The top pitfall in problem solving is defining the problem in terms of the expected or presumed solution, as in the first example: Too quiet as a problem demands less quiet as a solution.
2. Thinking that catchy name is actually the problem.
3. Picking the wrong problem, most often thinking that a symptom is actually the problem.
4. Picking a solution that you can’t or won’t actually do. Examples include needing to win the lottery, inheriting large sums of money, growing a few inches taller, suddenly being perfect in every way, etc.
5. Getting mired in the details of doing the solution, rather than treating each “bump in the road” as another problem to solve.
Don Simpson
August 30, 2008
Copyright 2008 Donald E. Simpson