Solving problems is a really nice ideal isn’t it? But, how often in life do you find yourself in a position where your problem cannot be solved? What do you do then? In previous articles I have spoken about ‘perspective shifting‘ and the art of solving problems by changing your mind. What I want to share with you today is how to solve problems by building a bridge and getting over it.

Taking the first step: Coming to terms with reality

Let’s just push aside the how you got there for a minute and work on solutions. Does it matter? You there now how to we navigate a way around it? You don’t. You build a bridge and get over it. The thing is we get hung up on looking for the causes so much so that we forget to think about what really matters… the solution. You don’t actually solve most problems. You rebuild the environment in your life as such so that the problem can’t occur any more. If you are up against the wall it’s because you are trying to solve a problem that probably doesn’t want to be solved. The first step is therefore looking at the problem and asking yourself, ‘what would it be like if the problem didn’t exist?’ NOT, ‘How can I solve this thing.’ For really messy problems you will not get free until you accept the fact that you need something to swallow it.

The second step: Finding a bigger picture view that removes the need for the problem to exist

I have already talked about this in my perspective shifting article. What I want to talk about here is that problems that are a mess require a new way of seeing. Finding that may be impossible and it may require hope and/or a miracle. It is however, the ideal we need to aspire to. If your problem is, ‘I don’t have any money’ then the most obvious answer is to go get some more. I would disagree. Why? Well, whatever you have been doing up to this point clearly hasn’t worked has it? If it has worked then why don’t you have enough money? A better way of expressing the problem would be to say, ‘I am not in a position to receive more money.’ You then begin to ask yourself, ‘what can I do to get into a position to earn more money.’ If you are desperate enough the answer will become apparent as you think through your options.

The second step involves you looking at your situation and finding a bigger picture or creative solution that dissolves the problem. It is only your own beliefs that tell you things can’t change. Start saying, ‘things are getting better.’ You will be surprised how the solutions will suddenly appear when you change your attitude. It’s just as easy to say ‘things are getting better’ as it is to say, ‘nothing is ever going to change’. When I was earning less than $6000 a year I began saying, ‘I am prosperous’ and quoted bible references on prosperity. This began to change my life. Over the last five years I am in a position where I am earning more than ten times what I did just five years ago. Who can tell where I will be in five years? In a much MUCH better position!

In this second step you need to stretch yourself and I think begin to use your imagination. See the problem gone and ask yourself, ‘what do I need to be in order for this thing to be gone?’ Don’t get stuck in the rut of solving the problem. That will not get you anywhere. Look for options to dissolve the problem.

The third step: acting on it by taking one step at a time

As you come to see the bigger picture view of what is going on around you, it won’t be long before you realise that there will be something small you can do to build the panel on your bridge. The first step will be there. Sure, it may be taking a new job or doing something completely controversial to your family members. The important thing to remember is that it’s one step after the other. As you take the first step, the second will become apparent. After you take the second, the third will become apparent and so on. After a while you will put yourself in a position so that that next ten steps are easy to see. This could take a few years or even decades so be patient!

The final step: Stick with it

Imagine that as you navigate your way over the problem you are laying one part of the bridge down after the other.   If you throw down the towel now you will never make it.  You will more than likely have to go back and build it again and again until you get it right.  Sometimes, it might take you years to get it right.  Still I think that’s better than living with the mess don’t you?

If you notice the picture I have included with this post it’s a bridge over a river.  If that river was your mess then you don’t build a bridge under the water do you?  You build the bridge over the water in order to bypass the trouble.  You don’t go through it either because that doesn’t make sense.  The only way to be truly rid of a mess is to gradually build a bridge over the river of the problem so it can’t bother you anymore.  That however, is a another post for another day.

A problem can be defined as a mismatch between what we expect and what actually happens in our lives. As we come to identify problems we find that our problems are often linked to an expectation we have imposed on our surroundings. To take this definition further a problem is better thought of as being an expectation that we have that does not match what we presently experience. This means our present experience is defined by our expectations. Reality, is often not what we would like it to be.

Expectations: What are they?

An often easy out for us to say something like: just don’t have any expectations. Unfortunately this is not possible. An expectation is a desire for something you want to come to pass in your own life. That desire, is as much you, as you are you. Most of the time you don’t even realise that expectation is there until the heat of the day (circumstances) reveals it. Expectations are deep down desires that I think need to be cultivated, not ignored. In some circumstances, your expectations need to shift or be changed because some of them are poisonous. Ultimately, the problem you perceive is tied to some kind of expectation you have in your life. Now, we can take our definition of what a problem is even further. A problem is an expectation or desire that has does not match what we expect reality to be. The problem does not lie in reality as such, it lies in causal structures we have mapped over reality. Here’s an example.

The man and the flat tyre parable

There was as man who was driving home from work on a rainy afternoon when suddenly his tyre blew out. Angry at the situation the man slowly edges over to the curb and gets out to assess his problem. He studies his problem and doesn’t see the 18 wheeler approaching from behind. He is hit and killed. Now his problem no longer exists. Why? Because he is dead. Problems are perspectives on events that are tied to deep rooted expectations of what we take things to be. Here is another one.

The stock market problem

The CEO of SuperCompany Inc. (sorry burned out at the moment couldn’t think of a snazzier name), walks into his office one morning to a frantic Chief Financial Officer. He says to the lady, ‘My God Chloe, wants the matter, you look like crap?’ The CFO hands the CEO a piece of paper with a media report that the company is going bankrupt due to bad investments in Australian wheat. The CEO takes one look at the piece of paper and throws it in the bin. The CFO is amazed. ‘Why did you do that,’ she asks. He looks back at her and says, ‘That’s not my problem,’ he says, ‘my problem is that we are going bankrupt and you had to tell me via a media report!’

In this example we can see that neither the CEO or CFO were aware of the problem until it was created for them to believe. These are boundary judgments. Those ideas which we create that form rules and expectations of what we think is the case. In this case the company didn’t think it was going bankrupt. How much of what you hear is ‘actually’ the case? There is a reality and you can be sure it will impact on you but it’s a reality of intersecting ideas and thoughts some of which cause great problems (like the internet bubble burst) and some of which cause smaller ones.

Three ways of exploring a problem by changing your mind

There are three ways I know of problem solving by changing your mind. Here we go:

Doing nothing

When we absolve a problem we actually do nothing. There are times when a ‘wait and see’ approach is called for. Say you are building an adwords campaign to boost traffic to your website. You select a bunch of keywords and wait. They come back with a little bit more traffic everyday than the amount you had before. A bit more, a bit more and a bit more. Imagine if you grew impatient? You then start to muck about with keywords and ruin the campaign. In this case you should do nothing, observe and then take action if required.

Invoke dialectical processes

When you begin to examine life from many angles you begin to see just how limiting your point of view is. If you are facing a problem you can’t solve. Begin to play the devil’s advocate. Take the heart of the contradiction and expose it for what it really is. I recommend using at least four contradictory ideas to analyse the situation. Let’s go back to our stockbroker example above. What if he said the CFO, ‘I don’t believe the report because I trust your judgement… are we going bankrupt?’ He could have also taken the dreamers approach, ‘Now that I have read this report, I believe it will turn out for our good.’ In turn he could have taken a mathematical approach, ‘Show the numbers is this true?’ Then again he could have taken the view of a seasoned old veteran, ‘Listen to me, there is no crisis, people invent nonsense like this all the time. Put out a statement saying we are not going bankrupt and quote some numbers. People will believe that over some half-cocked media report.’ In short, take what you think the problem is and look at it’s enemy. By teasing out the enemy you will be able to see the faults in your own thinking.

Creative problem solving

Creative problem solving is the hardest and least likely to succeed in a problem solving intervention. This is when you take a brand new idea that hasn’t been tried which removes the old one completely. In this version you solve the problem by changing the expectation on which it’s framed. What? I mean you take the initial expectation of the problem, the idea that the problem is a problem and you begin to move into a new way of thinking that gets rid of the problem. In essence you change the rules of the expectation by shifting the ideas it’s built upon to a new solution that removes the need for the old one to exist. For example, our friend with the tyre problem had a death problem which is a nasty creative solution to his tyre problem. The tyre is the least of his worries.

When people create a problem it’s built on expectations and perceptions. Problems often revolve around what we think is the case. I know managers who will not make decisions because of fear. Fear stops creativity because it blocks the flow of anything opposed to it. You need to begin to create rather than do what you think you should. A creative solution is a new idea that moves the old out of the way. If a market problem emerges it’s because of perceptions. If there is a climate crisis, we have found that through our man-made data, analysis and conversations. If we find there isn’t… it’s exactly the same process.

When we change our mind about something new solutions begin to emerge.  As we learn to shift the perspectives that hold us back we will change our mind and new more creative solutions will spring up.