How to climb outside the box: 5 Techniques for seeing new perspectives in stale situations

A key insight I have gained from spending a long time studying problem solving is this: it’s not always about just one point of reference.  We have all heard the terms ad-nausem about “thinking outside the box”.  Instead of reiterating that here I want to present five ways to gain new insights in sticky situations.

Technique # 1: Go ask someone outside the situation

Russell Ackoff says that in messy problems most of the answers come from outside the situation.   The situation often limits our ability to perceive new information about where we are at and where we are going.   If you are really stuck I would recommend going to talk to someone else outside the situation who doesn’t have an emotional investment.  They will show you some key things you may have missed.

Technique #2: Deliberately argue with yourself and others

Okay, so this won’t exactly present you with a trophy on “how to win friends and influence people.”  But what it will do is give you the ability to see the issue from multiple angles.  You know, life is not a novel, movie or play.  There are no narratives in life so to speak.  When you are faced with a mess you need to synthesise the available perspectives you have and understand their viewpoints.  There is no better way to do this than to debate and argue about them.  It should be noted here that I do not mean fight or squabble.  Wasting time on that kind of thing is just plain stupid.  I mean by reasoning through the alternatives through common sense talking.

Technique #3: Find the idea and present it’s enemy

C. West Churchman spoke about the “systems” approach and it’s enemies in the 1970′s.  Now, I don’t wish to give you an academic treatise on that, but consider what an enemy of a theory would be?  It’s the opposite idea.  Every idea you have is only as good as it is defended.  That is, evolutions’ enemy is creationism for example.  What’s your idea?  Create it’s enemy and that will soon show you new perspectives that will help you gain insights.

Technique #4: Make an intuitive leap

Horst Rittell said that a plan is only as good as the variables around it.  As soon as you try something, you change the environment and you change the variables.  So why not make an intuitive leap and try something.  You’re stuck on a problem?  Act!  Don’t get stuck in the paralysis of analysis.  It will create a platform for failure.  Try something and see what happens.  Only failure awaits and given where you are now… surely it can’t be all that bad?

Technique #5: Lateral Thinking

A well established method for seeing new patterns in messy situations is to invoke lateral thinking.  This is moving sideways within established thought patterns by introducing new ideas.  You can learn the basics of it by attempting it.  In my way of thinking Lateral thinking takes a core idea and adds another idea to that core idea creating a synthesis.   I have seen things like people making a new chocolate bar and thinking about how a tyre might relate to it.  From that we think black, chocolate… licorice… chocolate covered licorice!  De Bono himself says that lateral thinking in “systems” terms requires a sideways shift in our thinking.  So we stop picking the problem apart, we start using different ideas in conjunction with the problem to give ourselves a new insights.  At first it seems illogical.  However, after a while of doing it you will find your mind will automatically create the bridge between the core idea and the lateral idea.

Bonus Technique: Synthesis (concept shifting) – the act of creating new ideas

Okay, so I have sort of made the bonus point here swallow all the others.  It is the most powerful of all of them and for this reason I would recommend it.   I refer to synthesis as concept shifting.  It’s differs from lateral thinking in that causes us to create a series of new ideas to engage into the problem situation.  It abandons the idea that anything other than facts about a perception can be gained from analysis and instead creates new ideas out of the inherent tension in the situation and routinely shifts between them.  Sounds very academic doesn’t it?  It isn’t.  It’s simply the decision to follow ideas as they flow out of tension and shed light on new situations.  Don’t worry I am writing a book on it .

If I was to say that blogging was the best way to communicate deep information then I would be a liar on two counts.  Firstly, the count that blogging communicates shallow layers of information and secondly it does so in small parts.  What I want you to take out of this post is the idea that there are more than what I have said above… these however have served me well.  Try them out!

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