1. How to solve problems like a genius.Geniuses are just ordinary people who stumble on a knack or way of thinking that enables them to think and learn more effectively and creatively than others.
When you closely examine how “geniuses” like Newton or Archimedes thought, they didn’t simply sit under trees or in baths until their enlightenment: they used some very powerful and practical tools to create order out of their thoughts and find answers to problems that few people ever thought to solve.
In this article, we explore some of
tools great thinkers used. They are as applicable now as they were then. These techniques will help you to: ·Clear your head when faced with a challenging problem. ·Generate more than one workable solution to your problem. ·Think creatively. ·Think productively instead of re-productively. ·Give you clear methodology that will make solving problems straight forward and stress free.
First, here are some of common factors of world’s great thinkers: ·The idea generation was in pictures and images rather than words. Einstein and da Vinci drew diagrams instead of writing words and sentences. ·Their thinking was unrestrained; nothing was consigned to bin until it had been fully investigated. ·They treated thoughts as things. ·Ideas were explored using association. ·They looked at ideas from different perspectives. ·They were prolific and recorded everything. ·They fuelled their imaginations with knowledge. ·Their thinking was focused. ·They were passionate and determined about discovery. ·They made mistakes but instead of seeing them as failures, saw them instead as “ways of how not to do it”. ·They saw potential in everything. ·They saw mistakes and unexpected surprise results as valuable opportunities to learn from. ·They never gave up.
Consider this definition of "problem": a problem is an external event perceived as a mental, physical, emotional or intellectual threat to individual/s concerned. Chances are, your problem only became “a problem” when you became personally involved causing your perception of an event to shift; before that, it was just an event, when you perceived that you were potentially threatened by it, event became a problem.
Everything (including problems) starts in your head. Using your imagination and thinking processes constructively while you solve problems gives your mind “stuff” it needs to be productive (create new solutions) as distinct from re-productive (create more of old which is what probably landed you with problem in first place).
One of most reliable ways of solving a problem is “systems” strategy.
This method does not allow you to add complications that do not exist and it ensures facts are gathered without hindrance of destructive emotion (the first indication that an event is turning into a problem).
Seeing entire system (i.e. problem and everything associated with it) enhances insight into a problem and allows you to deal with real issue. Most often, when solutions don’t work it’s because they are solution to a perceived problem, not real one.
Genius is simply a way of thinking.
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2. Take Action Applying System Thinking to finding real problem ·Write down what you perceive problem to be. (e.g., general performance is poor) ·Look at all symptoms that lead you to that conclusion (e.g. late arrival, low motivation, agitated behaviour between colleagues, missing deadlines) ·Take each symptom and write down all possible causes for each one (NOTE: be as unbiased as possible (e.g. possible causes for missing deadlines – working late hours, unclear job descriptions, unclear management decisions, unreasonable timescales, etc.) ·Take each of possible causes and determine if they apply to situation (e.g. Do people work late hours? Are timescales unreasonable? Is communication between staff and management clear?). Sometimes it is worth using some form of external mediation at this point to ensure an unbiased outcome. ·Once you have determined some definite causes, work on those solutions instead of general issue of “poor performance”.
