I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

What does not destroy me, makes me strong.

Prosperity tries the fortunate: adversity the great.

A woman is like a teabag -- you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

It is much easier to suggest solutions when you know nothing about the problem.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) realised that astronauts would have to be able to record certain things while performing their duties and so it needed a writing utensil capable of writing in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. Of course, a normal pen will not work since they are all gravity fed, but the design specification called for a pen to be used. After considerable research and development spanning over two years, the working zero-g Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of approximately $1 million U.S. (in 1960's dollars !!). The initial production run was fifty pens. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, issued pencils.

A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it too close to your eye, and it puts everything out of focus. Hold it at proper viewing distance, and it can be examined and classified. Throw it at your feet, and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway to eternity.

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator."

The mangrove forests of the Sunderbans in West Bengal, India are home to deadly Bengal tigers, which are easily able to kill a human. Yet hunters, woodcutters, and honey gatherers often enter these swampy forests. How do they protect themselves? Each person who enters the Sunderbans wears a rubber mask of a human face on the back of his or her head. The belief is that the tiger will only attack its prey from behind. If it can see your face, it will not attack. The masks, issued by the government, are part of a larger program that includes the placement of electrified human dummies and the construction of freshwater ponds to keep the tigers out of the rivers, where people are often attacked.

SPEAKING OF PASTORS... Ten pastors and ten youth pastors are going to a meeting by train. The ten pastors each have their own ticket, but the ten youth pastors (who have little money, of course) have one ticket between them. The pastors ask the youth pastors (in a caring manner), "How are you going to manage with only one ticket?" "Just watch," reply the youth pastors. They all get on the train and the 10 pastors take their seats and hand their tickets to the conductor. But the youth pastors all pile into a bathroom, and when the conductor comes by, a single arm reaches out and gives him the ticket. The pastors, feeling enlightened, decide to try the same thing on the way home, so they purchase just one ticket between the ten of them. The youth pastors buy NO ticket at all. "How are you going to get home?" ask the pastors. "Just watch," the youth pastors reply. When they get on the train, all the pastors pile into a bathroom. Nine youth pastors get into another bathroom. The tenth youth pastor then knocks on the pastors' bathroom door and says, "Ticket please." Out comes a single arm to hand over the ticket. The moral of the story: Don't use a technique unless you thoroughly understand the principle.

Have you noticed that all you need to grow healthy, vigorous grass is a crack in your sidewalk?

A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out. ~ A subjective person came along and said, "I feel for you down there." ~ An objective person walked by and said, "It's logical that someone would fall down there." ~ A Pharisee said, "Only bad people fall into pits." ~ A mathematician calculated how deep the pit was. ~ A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on the pit. ~ An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit. ~ A self-pitying person said, "You haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit." ~ A fire-and-brimstone preacher said, "You deserve your pit." ~ A Christian Scientist observed, "The pit is just in your mind." ~ A psychologist noted, "Your mother and father are to blame for your being in that pit." ~ A self-esteem therapist said, "Believe in yourself and you can get out of that pit." ~ An optimist said, "Things could be worse." ~ A pessimist claimed, "Things will get worse." Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.

A defendant in a lawsuit involving large sums of money was saying to his lawyer, "If I lose this case, I'll be ruined." "It's in the judge's hands now," said the lawyer. "Would it help if I sent the judge a box of cigars?" asked the defendant. "Oh no!" said the lawyer. "This judge is a stickler for ethical behavior. A stunt like that would prejudice him against you. He might even find you in contempt of the court. In fact, you shouldn't even smile at the judge." Within the course of time, the judge rendered a decision in favor of the defendant. As the defendant left the courthouse, he said to his lawyer, "Thanks for the tip about the cigars. It worked." "Well, I'm sure we would have lost the case if you'd sent them," said the lawyer. "But I did send them," said the defendant. "What?!? You did?" "Yes. That's how we won the case." "I don't understand," said the lawyer. "It's easy. I sent the cheapest cigars that I could find to the judge, but enclosed the plaintiff's business card."

According to an ancient Sufi story, a blind man wandering lost in a forest tripped and fell. As the blind man rummaged about the forest floor he discovered that he had fallen over a cripple. The blind man and the cripple struck up a conversation, commiserating on their fate. The blind man said, "I have been wandering in this forest for as long as I can remember, and I cannot seem to find my way out." The cripple said, "I have been lying on the forest floor for as long as I can remember, and I cannot get up to walk out." As they sat there talking, suddenly the cripple cried out. "I've got it," he said. "You hoist me up on your shoulders and I will tell you where to walk. Together we can find our way out of the forest." According to the ancient storyteller, the blind man symbolized rationality. The cripple symbolized intuition. We will not find our way out of the forest until we learn how to integrate the two.

The British economist E> F. Schumachker, best known for writing Small is Beautiful, argued (in his book A Guide For the Perplexed) that there are two fundamentally different types of problems: "convergent problems" and "divergent problems." Convergent problems have a solution: "the more intelligently you study them, the more the answers converge." Divergent problems have no "correct" solution. The more they are studied by people with knowledge and intelligence the more they "come up with answers which contradict one another." The difficulty lies not with the experts, but with the nature of the problem itself. If you are in Boston and want to travel by car to Albany, there is a right answer to the question, "What is the fastest route to Albany?" But there is no right answer to the question, "Why do you want to go to Albany?" Schumacher's favorite example of a classic divergent problem is: "How do you most effectively educate children?" Different people of integrity and intellect will, inevitably, come to very different conclusions. It is important to realize that divergent problems are not convergent problems that have not yet been solved. Rather, they are problems for which there is no single, best solution.

========================================================= Creative Problem Solving By Mary Alyce Burkhart, Ph.D. and Kevin L. Polk, Ph.D. Copyright 2000, All Rights Reserved Introduction We start everyone off with problem solving because it is the most familiar ground for you to cover. It is also one of the things you are most conscious of doing from day to day. You may call the process "decision making." While decision making is part of problem solving, it is actually step four in the process. That is the reason why many people have trouble with problem solving; they tend to skip over the first three steps, then they forget to include part of step five. So one of the first things to learn is to stop calling it "decision making" and start calling it "problem solving." The decision is made in step four. As you can see, creative problem solving involves five steps. The reason we know that is because two psychologists, Goldfried and Davidson, studied good problem solvers back in the 1970s. They studied people who had great problem solving track records. These people used the following five steps to tackle problems. I have simplified the language and (hopefully) made the steps a bit more fun to read about. Step 1, Attitude: Goldfried and Davidson called this "Problem Solving Orientation." It's the realization that life is just a series of problems to be solved. You might as well just roll up your sleeves and get to work solving them. I call it having a good attitude. This one may be obvious to you, but it's one of those obvious things you will tend to forget about when you have a problem in front of you. If you have a poor attitude, the chances of coming up with a successful solution for the problem is pretty slim. The absolute worst attitude is summed up in the phrase: "I can't do that." At that point all problem-solving stops. If you think you can't solve a problem, you can't. At least there is not much point in going through the rest of the steps with that attitude. Remember; start with "I can do this." There is a universe of difference between can and can't. Don't make light of that difference. Of course there are many other thoughts that can lead to a poor problem-solving attitude. Not as bad as "can't," but enough to mess up the process. So here is a list of some negative thoughts that you might use, or you might hear other people using when going into problem solving. You need to catch these thoughts and change them before you go to step two in the process. - This is too hard. - I know other people have done this, but it's much harder for me. -If only I had more (time, money, help, talent, name your excuse), I might be able to solve this. - Why does this always happen to me? - The world is out to get me. I'm the only one with this problem. - This is an emergency! I don't have time to think about this! So let‚s take a look at those thoughts and see how we might change them into ones that will create a better problem-solving attitude. "This is too hard." This statement is very close to "I can't." The better way to think is, "I really don't know how difficult this problem is to solve.?" Why? Because we all have had what seemed to be huge problems that were solved with some minor changes. Then there were the problems that seemed simple and ended up being very difficult to solve. The great thing about creative problem solving is that you just might think up a simple solution to what seemed to be a difficult problem. So enter into every problem solving opportunity with an open mind. You don't ever really know how hard or simple a problem is going to be. "I know other people have done this, but it's much harder for me." This statement is close to the first, but it adds that element that you are somehow less adequate to solve the problem than others are. If you think you are less adequate, chances are you will be less adequate. There is no need to enter into problem solving with this thought. It stifles your creativity. "If only I had more (time, money, help, talent, name your excuse) I might be able to solve this." This is an excuse for not doing anything. This one is straight out of the procrastinator's handbook. This thought allows you to wait around for some good fortune to come your way before you start to work. Time, money and help may or may not be part of what you need to solve a problem. If you need them, then that's another problem to be solved. "The world is out to get me. I'm the only one with this problem." The world is not out to get you or anyone else. If you take problems personally, you end up feeling sad and angry. Neither is going to help you solve problems. In every life there are thousands of problems to be solved. Everyone has thousands, everyone. "This is an emergency! I don't have time to think about this!" Believe it or not, this is the one I hear the most. I call it being in "emergency mode." That means you don't have to think much. You just make a gut decision and go with it. Never mind about the long-term consequences, just make the decision! The fact is that 99.9% of life is NOT an emergency. You have time to think. Your brain, however, does not want to take time to think. It knows that it is a supercomputer and it wants to act like one. For some parts of your life this is a good thing. You don't want to be taking time to consider every little move you make during a day. You would never get much of anything done. There are a many things that do require you to slow down and think. You know what they are because you really don't have the answers to them. You just take stabs at solutions and hope for the best. So when you catch yourself saying, "This is an emergency.," slow down. Ask yourself, "Is someone going to die or get really sick if I don't make the decision fast?" If the answer is "No," then chances are you have time to think. There may be dozens of thoughts you can have that get in the way of problem solving. You will know when you are having them by how you feel about the problem. If you are motivated to take it on, then your thoughts are probably fine. If you feel sad, mad or frightened of the problem, check out the thoughts you are having about it. Find the negative thoughts and make them into positive ones. There is just no replacement for a good attitude when it comes to creative problem solving. So get one! Step 2 - Defining/Describing the Problem When we talk about a problem we talk about six things. As a matter of fact, these are the only six things humans talk about. When it comes to creative problem solving you want to make sure you have answered some questions about these six things before you start coming up with solutions. The six things are: Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why (called 5 Ws and an H). I know you have seen these questions since the third grade. You use each of these words at least a hundred times a day. Now you want to carefully apply them to solving your problems. You do that by deliberately slowing down your thinking and asking yourself at least the following six questions about your problem: 1. What is the problem? 2. Who owns the problem? 3. Where does the problem happen? 4. When does it happen? 5. How does it happen? 6. Why does it happen? There are thousands of other questions you can ask about a problem that include the five W's and an H. These are just ones to get you started. You don't have to ask thousands of questions. Just ask enough so that you develop a clear picture of the problem you are dealing with. Note: If you are solving a problem with a group, then you want to keep asking questions until everyone in the group has a good picture of it. This is exactly the place where you can get the group "buy in" you hear so much about. If everyone has had their chance to describe how they see a problem, and they know the other members of the group have heard them, then chances are they will "buy in" to the solution. The mistake people make by themselves and in groups is skipping over this process. They "think" they know what the problem is and go on from there. In reality you can probably never know a problem completely. That does not mean you want to get stuck at Step 2 forever, it just means you want to take plenty of time to get a clear picture of the problem by defining and describing it. Let's get back to the list of questions and take a look at some possible pitfalls in each one. What is the problem? The most common mistake is saying that a problem is a person instead of saying it is the behavior of a person. So instead of saying, "Bill, you're a problem," say, "Bill, your behavior is a problem." Once you say that you can measure the problem. Measure you say? Yes, in order to know the "what" of a problem you need to be able to measure it. This is where "How" questions are used. For example, "How short or long is it?" "How much does it weigh?" "How many." You see, you can't measure "Bill." You can measure how many widgets he makes in an hour, how fast he types and how many phone calls he makes. You can even measure how friendly he is. The point is that you want to state "what" a problem is in terms that you can measure. This will make Step 5 in the process a lot easier. Who owns the problem? You want to ask this question to make sure you are not trying to solve someone else's problem for them. Other people's problems seem a lot easier to take on. That's because you don't have the emotional commitment to the problem. You also don't have to suffer the consequences if the solution does not work. You will discover, however, that other people's problems are infinitely hard to solve. You can't define the problem because you don't know it well. The only exception to this is when someone asks for your help. If they do, take them through these problem-solving steps. Otherwise, solve problems that pertain to you. Where is the problem? The pitfall here is that people just forget to ask the question. Where refers to a place. In the case of those Mars probes that keep disappearing, the problem is on Mars. That's a tough place to have a problem. Fortunately most of your problems will be here on earth. Does the problem happen at work? At home? In the car? Sometimes where a problem occurs is very important. Always ask the question just in case it is. When is it a problem? Again, the most common mistake is forgetting to ask the question. Is it only in the morning, afternoon, evening? Maybe it happens only when others are present. Every problem occurs in a context of the things around it at the time that it happens. Figure out all that is happening at that time. How is it a problem? I like to think of "How To" books when I think of this question. They are laid out in steps that you do one after another. Problems occur the same way. First this happens, then that happens, then the next thing happens. The pitfall is that we often think of a problem as the final step in the process. In reality the problem may be at one of the steps along the path to the problem. Make sure you describe the steps of a problem to get a good picture of it. Why is it a problem? I like to call this the "Philosophy" question. That is because you can go really deep with a "why" question. For example, "Why are we here on earth?" When it comes right down to it, a problem is a problem because someone thinks it's a problem. What's a problem for me may be no problem to you. Sometimes a problem is just not a problem if you look at it differently. This sort of goes back to Step 1 and your attitude about a problem. Through defining the problem you may change the way you see things. The problem may just go away. Don't make light of this, I have seen it happen hundreds of times! Step 3 - Generating Solutions (a.k.a. Brainstorming, Thinking Outside the Box) This is where you will truly put the "creative" in Creative Problem Solving. This is also where people often jump in to the NON-creative problem solving process. They don't think about their attitude, they barely describe the problem, then they come up with a solution. You will notice this step is called Generating Solutions (emphasis on that plural "s"). This is the point that you want to pull out all the stops and just think of every possible thing you might do to solve the problem you have defined. If you get stuck set the problem aside awhile and get back to it later. If you are still stuck, go back and check your attitude, then describe the problem some more. Then do more generating of solutions. Literally write down every idea you have. If you can't write fast enough, then tape-record them. Just let the solutions fly! Notice there is no mention of evaluating the solutions. That is because you don't want to evaluate at this point. Have fun and say any crazy solution that comes into your head. The more far out the better. Laugh and have fun with it. Also come up with more serious solutions. Don't label them as wacky or serious though, just say them and record them. There are more things you can do to get creative in this process. One is simply to change rooms. Yes, change rooms or go outside! This will cause you to see the world differently. It may even cause you to redefine the problem. (That's okay because you can always go back and do more defining.) How about go out and exercise, then generate some more solutions. You will change the state of your body, so maybe you will see things differently when you come back. You see there are hundreds of things you can do to jump-start your creativity and generate more solutions. Don't limit yourself. Above all remember the two primary rules for generating solutions: 1) Record every solution you (or the group) thinks of. Don't ever let one get away! 2) Never evaluate solutions at this stage. This is not the time for that and it will stifle creativity. Leave the evaluating to step four. For now Generate Solutions! If you watch people problem solve like we do, you will notice a lot of violations of rules 1 and 2 for Step 3. We usually see no time at all spent on Step 1 (Attitude) and precious little (if any) time spent on Step 2 (Defining and Describing). Then a solution is brought up that does not get written down. Then the person (or group) goes to work deciding whether that's a good solution or not. If it's judged to be good, problem solving is over. As you can imagine, this is NOT the road to creative problem solving. We can not stress enough the importance of following the rules of recording all solutions and not evaluating them as they come up. Above all make this an exciting process. Jump up and down, get your energy going, get excited. Think of it this way, if this is a problem worth solving, isn't it worth getting excited about? If the answer is "No," then go back and check your attitude. It needs adjusting. Step 4 - Choosing a Solution In Step 3 you came up with several possible solutions to your problem. You were careful to record them all and not evaluate them. You also made extra effort to get excited about generating the solutions. Now it's time to make a decision! You will decide what solution you want to try out. In a way this is going to be a repeat of defining and describing, but this time you will be describing each solution, then deciding how well you like it. If you tape-recorded your solutions, write down ALL the solutions you came up with. If you are by yourself, a piece of paper will do. If you are doing this in a group, do it on a board where all can see. Next, make two columns down the right side of the solutions. Label one column "Pros" the other "Cons." When you think of a good reason to use the solution, put a hash mark (|) in the pro column. Do the same for cons. Also, write down a note about each pro and con so you can remember what the hash marks stand for. The process of finding pros and cons is much like describing and defining the solutions. You ask questions like, Who will do it? What will be done? When will it be done? Just go through the five Ws and an H and define and describe each solution. This process often gives you more definition of the problem. You may well think of new solutions while you are doing this. That's fine, just put them at the bottom of the list and go back to defining the other solutions. When you have gone through each item on the list you will have a pretty good idea of which solutions you might want to try. So narrow the list down and really analyze the ones that look promising. Now comes a very important question, Which one do you think you can get most excited about doing? Try to find the most exciting solution because that's the one you are most likely to get motivated to do. That brings us to sustainability. For the most part you are better off if solutions follow the old "KISS" rule (Keep It Simple and Sustainable). If a solution is too hard and too complicated, it won't get done. If it's something you will forget to do, it won't get done. That's why it's important to see if you get excited about a solution. The simple fact is that you will tend to do things you are excited about doing. A good solution that gets done is a whole lot better than a great solution that does not get done. This is the end of Lesson 4. Now you have a Good Attitude, you have Defined and Described the problem, you have gotten excited and Generated Solutions and you have now Chosen A Solution that seems good and you are motivated to do. Lesson 5 - Doing and Reviewing In lesson 4 you learned how to go about choosing a solution. That came from your Good Attitude, your Description of the problem and getting excited about Generating Solutions. You defined each solution and decided whether it was worth a try. You decided on a solution that you are pretty sure you can stay motivated to do. Now you are ready to try it out. In other words, you are ready to "Do It." Before you do it, however, you want to make sure you will know if it's working. Remember back in Step 2 when I said it is important to define a problem in terms you can measure? Now you will want to use those measures to see if your solution is working. If you wanted to make more widgets per day, then you will need to count the widgets you make and see if you made more. What you measure depends entirely on how you defined the problem in the first place. So it's a simple matter to go back to Step 2 and see what you wrote down about the problem. Choose something you can measure. Now you will need to determine how things are in the present. For example, how many widgets are we making per day now? How much do I weigh now? How much money do I have now? Whatever you measure now will be your benchmark for checking how well your solution works in the future. If you implement the solution and thing improve, great! If you implement and things get worse, oops, it happens to the best of us. Things may even stay the same. In all three cases you have more work to do. Let's say things got better. Are they as good as you would like? If they are, how are you going to keep them that way? That may be a whole new problem to solve, maybe not. Maybe you can see a way to adjust your solution to make it even better. That often happens. Then again maybe your solution messed things up. This is called the rule of unforeseen consequences. Try as you might sometimes you just can't see how things will turn out. This is when that good problem-solving attitude really comes in handy. If you have a good attitude you will say, "Well, at least I learned something." Then you can go back to defining the problem equipped with the new information you now have. Face it, there is no other way you could have got that information without trying. [Sidebar] This is a good time to tell the story of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. He had to try over a thousand times to find the right filament. He was once asked how he could stand making over a thousand mistakes. He said something like, "They weren't mistakes, they were just steps to making a light bulb." With each attempt he knew what did not work. This is the true nature of problem solving. There are no failures; you just get more information. [End Sidebar] The third scenario is that things stay the same. Then there is a good chance that you did not have the problem defined well. In essence, you missed your target. The better you define your problem the more on target you will be with your solution. The answer is to keep your good attitude and go back to defining. Notice that while Creative Problem Solving is a five-step process, you will almost always backtrack to previous steps. For that matter, since problems are just a way of life, you will be continually restarting the process as one problem leads to another. If you are like most of us at times you will get in a hurry and skip over a step or two. That won't be a problem if you catch it. Just go back and do the step(s) you skipped. As you get into the flow of checking your attitude, defining, generating, choosing, then doing and reviewing the process will become second nature to you. Then when you hear others talking of solving problems you will begin to listen in terms of what stage they are in. What you will really notice is how they skip over crucial stages in the process. Remember, problem solving IS life. At times thing may get you down and you will feel stressed, sad and irritable. Of course, feeling stressed, tired and irritable is a problem! So go through the problem solving steps and find a solution. You will find that just going through the steps will help you feel better. That is because you will know you are about to do something to feel better. Lesson 6 - An Example Here is an example of how one might run through the creative problem solving steps you learned in Lessons 1 through 5. Example: Losing Weight You see this problem everywhere. We all know it is a popular problem because billions of dollars are spent on it every year. What people who want to lose weight tend to do is jump from one solution to another as they hear about the latest diet or exercise fad. For example, for years we avoided fat. Now we are told that may not be that big of a deal. Then we are told to avoid carbohydrates. First you have to do strenuous exercise 20 minutes a day, every other day. Then it's okay if you do ten minutes of good paced walking several times a week. The problem for a lot of people is that no matter what they try they either don't lose weight, or they don't keep it off when the lose it. This sounds like a problem for the Creative Problem Solving Method! Step 1: Attitude. In my opinion this is the source of most people's problems with weight. On the one hand they say they want to lose weight and keep it off, on the other hand they may be thinking, "I really can't lose weight." If that word "can't" is really in their thinking, they are doomed to failure. There are much less obvious attitude problems, however. One is control. A lot of people are angry because they have to lose weight. They are told they should lose weight, so they try, but secretly they resent it. They think thoughts like, "I know they all say I'm supposed to lose weight, but I should be able to eat what I want." Someone thinking this thought is losing weight for the wrong reason. The right reason is because of your health and how good you feel, not what people want you to do. There are dozens of different ways people can sabotage weight lose with negative thoughts. If you are trying to lose weight, don't forget to check your attitude work on changing any negative thoughts into positive ones. For example, you might think, "Eating healthy is good for me and can also taste good. I do not have to give up my favorite foods or enjoying meals with friends and family." Step 2 - Defining the Problem Who's problem is it? If it's your problem with your weight, that's fine. If it's someone else's problem with your weight, that's not okay. (This takes you right back to attitude, make sure you want to lose weight for you, not someone else.) What is the problem? Well, the obvious answer is fat, but there can be other problems. Maybe you have expensive clothes that you are about to "grow" out of. Maybe your doctor has told you your heart is in trouble. Maybe you want to be more attractive to yourself so you will be more attractive to others. Maybe you like chocolate just a little too much. Where is the problem? You might say the problem is in your butt and gut. Then again the problem might be hanging around the pastry shop too much. Maybe you can't get in your car anymore. There are lots of "where's." When is it a problem? For sure it's a problem when you are eating. It's a problem when you are hungry. Is the problem when you are with others or alone? Do you eat the most at a certain time of day? Timing has a lot to do with eating. Make sure you define it well. How? How do you decide what to eat? How do you eat? Fast or slow? How do you cook dinner? How do you get something for lunch? How do you shop? How do you exercise? Better, how do you avoid exercising? You really need to know the steps you take to eating and exercising. Why? Why do you really want to lose weight? Be honest with yourself. Make sure you have a good reason that motivates you. Generating Solutions: Take up marathon running. Become a vegetarian (they always look skinny). Go on the latest diet. Exercise for five minutes a day. Count calories. Cook low fat meals. Cook high protein meals. Take up a new sport. Get liposuctioned. Buy and use an exercise machine. Buy a new scale. Go on diet pills. Don't go food shopping for weeks. See your doctor. Go on the "Chocolate" diet. Take off your clothes (guaranteed to lose weight) Choosing a Solution: Obviously some of the solutions are silly. It won't take long to define those. They are there to have fun, so they get written down in the spirit of having fun. Marathon - Who? You. What? Running. Where? On the road, on a track? When? Morning or afternoon for several hours at a time. How? Get up, get your running clothes on, take off. Why? It's a good way to burn calories. Pros: Definitely will lose weight. Cons: Very Time consuming. Pounds your body. You get the idea, you can do the rest using the 5Ws and an H, then doing pros and cons. What you want to end up with is a solution that has a good chance of working AND there is a good chance you are motivated to do it. If you are not motivated, then that's another problem. (How will I get motivated to _________.) Doing and Reviewing Let's say "Exercise five minutes per day" was chosen, and exercise was defined as "Brisk Walking" in Step 4. So you put five minutes of walking per day in your schedule for several days. After each day you look back and recall if you spent time doing "Brisk Walking." If no time was spent, you need to go back to Step 1 and check your attitude. The same thing can be done with any of the solutions that seem likely to lose you weight, as long as the solution is defined in terms that you can measure. Walking can be measured in miles or minutes per day. Weight lifting can me measured in reps and how much you lift. Weight loss is measured in pounds and inches. Whatever you do come up with a measure that you know you can keep doing. If you stop reviewing your progress, then you probably will stop doing the solution. That usually means that your problem will not go away, or it will return. Keep reviewing how well you are doing your solutions. It's the secret of solving any problem. ================================================== Here is a check list of the five Creative Problem Solving Steps and the most important points to remember about each one. -Attitude - Problems are just part of life. Just roll up your sleeves and take them on. Remember you CAN solve problems. Most problems are not emergencies. -Defining and Describing - Ask Who, What, Where, When, How and Why questions about the problem. Ask them until you have a good "picture" of what the problem is. -Generating Solutions - Get excited! Then let the solutions fly. Record them all. Don't evaluate them, just let them out! If you get stuck, set things aside and get more information. Read books and articles to find possible solutions. Take your time, it's not an emergence. -Choosing a Solution - Get your list of solutions and define and describe each one. Ask the 5 Ws and an H question about each one. Then write down the pros and cons of each solution. Narrow the list down to solutions you are pretty sure you can get motivated to do. Then choose the one that seems to be a good solution that you WILL do. Do and Review - Try out your solution and see if it works. You know what to measure because you described that in steps 2 and 4. So measure your results and see if the solution is working. If it works, keep reviewing your results. If not, go back to step 1. Remember! This is not a rigid process. You will find yourself jumping around the steps. As a matter of fact, you will probably catch yourself after you have implemented a solution and it's not working. Then you will recall that you skipped over some steps. Don't be hard on yourself. I catch myself doing that and I have been doing this for almost 20 years! Just go back and go through the steps you missed. Have a Great Time Problem Solving! Warmest Regards, Drs. Burkhart and Polk

Microsoft Technical Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network In the course of a recent Microsoft Access programming project, we had three difficult technical problems where we decided to call a support hotline for advice. This article compares the two support numbers we tried: Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network. As a result of this research, we have come to the following conclusions: 1) that Microsoft Technical Support and the Psychic Friends Network are about equal in their ability to provide technical assistance for Microsoft products over the phone; 2) that the Psychic Friends Network has a distinct edge over Microsoft in the areas of courtesy, response time, and cost of support; but 3) that Microsoft has a generally better refund policy if they fail to solve your problem. In the paragraphs that follow, we will detail the support calls we made and the responses we received from each pport provider. We will follow this with a discussion of the features provided by each support provider so that readers can do their own rankings of the two services. Our research began when we called Microsoft regarding a bug that we had detected when executing queries which pulled data from a Sybase Server into Microsoft Access. If we used the same Access database to query two databases on the same server, we found that all of the queries aimed at the second database that we queried were sent to the first database that we had queried. This problem existed no matter which database we queried first. Dan called Microsoft's Technical Solutions Line, gave them $55, and was connected with an official Microsoft Access technical support person. As Dan began to explain the problem, the support person interrupted him, and told him that since it was clear that it was not just a problem with Access but with the two programs together, Microsoft would not try to help us. They did,however, have a consultant referral service with which he would be glad to connect us. Dan then asked if we could have our $55 refunded, since Microsoft was not going to try to answer to our question. The tech support person responded by forwarding Dan to the person in charge of giving refunds. The person officially in charge of giving refunds took Dan's credit card info again, after which Dan asked about the referral service. It was too late, however -- the refund folks could not reconnect Dan with the tech support guy he'd been talking with, nor could he put Dan in touch with the referral service hotline. End of Call One. Our second call came when Dan was creating some line graphs in Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access actually uses a program called Microsoft Graph to create its graphs, and this program has a "feature" that makes the automatic axis scale always start the scale at zero. If all of your data are between 9,800 and 10,000 and you get a scale of 0 to 10,000, your data will appear as a flat line at the top of your graph -- not a very interesting chart. Since Dan was writing Visual Basic code to create the graphs, he wanted to be able to use Visual Basic code to change the graph scaling, but he could not find anything in the help files that would tell him how to do this. After working with Microsoft Graph for a while, Dan concluded that it probably didn't have the capability that he needed, but he decided to call Microsoft just to make sure. Dan described his problem to the technical support person, whom we'll call Microsoft Bob. Microsoft Bob said he'd never gotten a call about Microsoft Graph before. He then left Dan on hold while he went to ask another support person how to use Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Bob came back with the suggestion that Dan use the online help. Dan, however, had already used the online help, and didn't feel that this was an appropriate answer for a $55 support call. Microsoft Bob didn't give up, though. He consulted the help files and learned to change the graph scale by hand and then began looking for a way to do this via code. After Microsoft Bob had spent about an hour on the phone with Dan learning how to use Microsoft Graph, Dan asked for a refund since he had no more time to spend on the problem. Microsoft Bob refused the refund, however. He said he wouldn't give up, and told Dan that he would call back the next week. Microsoft Bob did call back the following week to admit failure. He could not help us. However, he couldn't give us a refund either. Microsoft Bob's supervisor confirmed Microsoft Bob's position. While Microsoft Technical Support hadn't solved our problem, they felt that a refund was inappropriate since Microsoft Technical Support had spent a lot of time not solving our problem. Dan persisted, however, explaining that if Microsoft Bob actually knew the program, he would have been able to give Dan a response much sooner. The supervisor made no guarantees, but he instructed Dan to check his credit card bill at the end of the month. The supervisor explained that if Dan saw that the charge was still there at the end of the month,then he would know that he hadn't gotten a refund. End of Call Two. Our third call to Microsoft involved using the standard file save dialog from within Microsoft Access to get a file name and directory string from a user in order to save an exported file. The documentation didn't make it clear how to do this using Visual Basic code within Microsoft Access, and Dan decided to call Microsoft to ask if and how a programmer could do this. The technical support person he reached told him he was asking about a pretty heavy programming task. He cheerily informed Dan that he'd called the wrong number and advised Dan to call help for Visual Basic, not Access ($195 instead of $55). This technical support person was extraordinarily helpful in getting Dan his refund. End of Call Three. Stymied by our responses from Microsoft, we decided to try another service provider, the Psychic Friends Network. There are several noticeable differences between Microsoft and the Psychic Friends Network. Microsoft charges a flat rate per "solution," which is a single problem and can be handled in multiple phone calls. As described above, Microsoft may or may not issue a refund of their fee if they fail to provide a solution for your problem. The Psychic Friends Network charges a per minute fee. They do not offer a refund if they cannot solve your problem. However, unlike Microsoft, they will not charge you extra if they provide more than one solution per call. We decided to test the Psychic Friends Network by asking them the same questions that we had asked Microsoft Technical Support. We called them and were quickly connected with Ray, who was very courteous and helpful. Like Microsoft Bob, Ray quickly informed us that he wasn't fully up to date on the programs that we were working with, but he was willing to help us anyway. We started off with our first problem: making a connection from Microsoft Access to two different Sybase Servers. Ray worked hard on this problem for us. He sensed that there was a problem with something connecting, that something wasn't being fulfilled either in a sexual, spiritual or emotional way. Ray also identified that there was some sort of physical failure going on that was causing the problem." Do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" we asked. Ray denied that he knew about any sort of bug in the software. "Are you sure there's not a bug?" we asked. Ray insisted that he did not know of any bug in the software, although he left open the possibility that there could be some bug in the software that he did not know about. All in all, Ray did not do much to distinguish himself from Microsoft Technical Support. He wasn't able to solve our problem for us, and he wasn't able to confirm or deny that a bug in Microsoft Access was causing the problem. We then asked Ray our question about using Visual Basic to set the axes of a chart. Ray thought hard about this one. Once again he had the sense that something just wasn't connecting, that there was some sort of physical failure that was causing our problem. "Could it be that it's your computer that's the problem?" he asked. "Is this something that happens just on your computer, or have you had the same problem when you've tried to do the same thing on other computers?" We assured Ray that we had the same problem on other computers, then asked again, "This physical failure that you're talking about, do you mean that there's some sort of bug?" Once again he assured us that there wasn't a bug, but that he didn't know how to solve our problem. "I sense there's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. If you'd like, you can call back tomorrow. We have a couple of guys here, Steve and Paul, and they 're much better with computer stuff than I am." To conclude our research, we asked Ray about our problem with the standard file dialog box." It's the same thing as the last one," he told us. "There's some sort of sickness here, and you're just going to have to sweat it out. There is a solution,though,and you're just going to have to work at it until you get it." Conclusions: In terms of technical expertise, we found that a Microsoft technician using Knowledge Base was about as helpful as a Psychic Friends reader using Tarot Cards. All in all, however, the Psychic Friends Net work proved to be a much friendlier organization than Microsoft Technical Support. While neither group was actually able to answer any of our technical questions, the Psychic Friends Network was much faster than Microsoft and much more courteous. Which organization is more affordable is open to question. If Microsoft does refund all three "solutions" fees, then they will be the far more affordable solution provider, having charged us no money for having given us no assistance. However, if Microsoft does not refund the fees for our call regarding Microsoft Graph, then they will have charged us more than 120% of what the Psychic Friends charged, but without providing the same fast and courteous service that Psychic Friends provided. Microsoft Tech Support (800) 939-5700 The Psychic Friends Network (900)-407-6611

This is an ineffective solution to a non-existent problem.

A woman went to the doctor's office, where she was seen by one of the older doctors. After about four minutes in the examination room, she burst out of the office, screaming as she ran down the hall. A new doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was. She told him her story. After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another room, then marched down a back hallway to where the older doctor was and demanded, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you just told her she was pregnant? The older doctor continued to write on his clipboard as he responded without looking up, "Does she still have the hiccups?"

How God Uses Problems In Our Lives God uses problems to DIRECT you: Proverbs 20.30 God uses problems to INSPECT you: James 1.2-3 God uses problems to CORRECT you: Psalm 119.71-72 God uses problems to PROTECT you: Genesis 50.20 God uses problems to PERFECT you: Romans 5.3-4

Michael Jordan will make over $300 000 a game : $10 000 a minute, assuming he averages about 30 minutes per game. Assuming $40 million in endorsements this year, he’ll be making $178100 a day (working or not)! Assuming he sleeps 7 hours a night, he makes $52 000 every night while visions of sugarplums dance in his head. If he goes to see a movie, it’ll cost him $7 , but he’ll make $18 550 while he’s there. If he decides to have a 5 minute egg, he’ll make $618 while boiling it. He makes $7 415 per hour more than the minimum wage (after the wage hike). He’ll make $3 710 while watching each episode of Friends. If he wanted to save up for a new Acura NSX ($90 000) it would take him a whole 12 hours. If someone were to hand him his salary and endorsement money, they would have to do it at the rate of $2 every second. He’d probably pay around $200 for a nice round of golf, but will be reimbursed $33 390 for that round. Assuming he puts the federal maximum of 15% of his income into his tax deferred account, he will hit the federal cap of $9 500 for such accounts at 8:30 a.m. on January 1st, 1998. If you were given a tenth of a penny for every dollar he made, you’d be living comfortably at $65 000 a year. He’ll make about $19.60 while watching the hundred meter dash in the Olympics. He’ll make about $15600 while the Boston Marathon is being run. While the common person is spending about $20 for a meal in his trendy Chicago restaurant, he’ll pull in about $5600. Next year he’ll make more than twice as much as all of our past presidents for all their terms combined. Amazing, isn’t it? BUT: Jordan will have to save 100% of his income for 270 years to have a net worth equivalent to that of Bill Gates today !

"A perfectionist is a man who has a general impression of what is good, but a specific impression of bad."

When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

I didn’t bite off more than I could chew -- it just grew in my mouth. --

High heels were invented by somebody who was kissed on the forehead.

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. – Edward R. Murow, 1959

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. --

Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you do hold well. -- Josh Billings

The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps." -- David Lloyd George

A problem is a chance to do your best. -- Duke Ellington

Sometimes we get walloped with the messiness of life when we least expect it. Take what happened in Tainan, Taiwan. On January 17, 2004, a 66-ton sperm whale died and was beached on the southwestern coast of that island. Two weeks later, on January 29, authorities decided to truck the dead whale to a laboratory where they could do an autopsy. So they loaded this 56-foot behemoth on a flatbed truck and were hauling it through the streets of Tainan, when the whale exploded. Yes, exploded. It had been decomposing, of course, and all those internal gasses reached a breaking point. As the truck was making its way down a busy street, all of a sudden the whale exploded, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours. Isn't that just like life sometimes? You're going about your business, and the whale explodes. Job had something like that in mind when he said, "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward." (Job 5:7). Citation: Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: "Thar She Blows!" AOL News (1-29-04)

Human waste has bedeviled NASA engineers from the get-go. Alan Shepherd's first 15-minute suborbital flight was so short that no one thought to install a urine receptacle in his space suit. At T-minus 15 minutes, an electrical problem caused an 86-minute delay on the launchpad. Shepherd's bladder soon reached the bursting point, and he radioed the first-ever "Houston, we have a problem" message. After some deliberation, mission control had an answer: "Do it in the suit."

The question “What shall we do about it?” is only asked by those who do not understand the problem. If a problem can be solved at all, to understand it and to know what to do about it are the same thing. On the other hand, doing something about a problem which you do not understand is like trying to clear away darkness by thrusting it aside with your hands. When light is brought, the darkness vanishes at once.

Fix The Crucial Things

When something crucial is missing, several things break down. And when the missing thing is supplied, several things get better. We write all our words using the same 26 letters. If one letter (e.g., "k") is missing, many words will be misspelled. When the missing letter is supplied, many words will be spelled correctly. Fixing one word fixes many words.