Last week I had a good catch-up with an developer, and whilst we were talking about how things are and how we move forward from here, he reminded me of something that I think we all need to get a sense check on.
He said, “remember all complex problems are just lots of simple problems added together” We all know it, but it doesn’t mean that in the throes of busy working days and weeks, we remember it and follow it.
So today’s blog it about problem-solving and keeping things simple. (Thank you Shreyas)
“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Albert Einstein
Taking a structured and deliberate approach to problem-solving does not come easily in business. In the book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow", author Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and Professor at Princeton University, talks about the two modes of thinking humans generally adopt when solving problems.
"System 1" is the emotional and intuitive mode of thinking that we apply by default to most situations in life.
"System 2" is a deliberate, logical approach we take to solving more complex problems we encounter.
Humans are naturally inclined to apply "System 1" thinking because it is fast and takes little mental effort compared to "System 2". Moreover, we use "System 1" on a subconscious level - even when we think we are being logical and deliberate. Therefore, it is not surprising that "System 1" thinking pervades all aspects of our life, including the workplace.
“System 1”, is fast and intuition based; and “System 2”, is thoughtful, slow, and decided.
While “System 1” tends to get things done quickly, it’s prone to mistakes and over-simplification of problems, so the problem tends to be morphed or delayed rather that truly solved. “System 2”, on the other hand, can make sense of these complicated issues but is often tied down by a slowness of reaction.
Success relies upon slow thinking and fast movement.
I’ve talked in previous blogs about the brain a lot, and everything we’ve talked about before comes into play here again. The 2 systems relate to the sub-conscious and conscious brain.
We’ve talked about how the sub-conscious brain drives 95% of our day, and if it is only capable of fast thinking then that means a lot of our problem-solving is being driven by what happened before, and we therefore just repeat old solutions, ways of thinking, approaches.
This is because, every time we experience change our subconscious ‘fast’ brain stores a memory of that change. That memory us made up of facts, like dates and results, and is framed by the emotions we experienced. If, for instance, the change was deemed a success, but the process of change was steeped in anxiety and stress our subconscious brain will associate bad feelings with change. No amount of facts and figures will alter our sense that ‘change is bad’. Our ‘gut’, where we physically experienced the ‘bad change’ will warn us to steer clear. What we need; is better memories.
This is where our ‘slow’ conscious brain comes in. If we are actively engage in the problem-solving, for instance by entering into dialogue and fostering participation, we can use our Slow Brain to process information about the change, draw our own conclusions and formulate the best way to make it succeed. This leads to positive feelings about change which are stored by our Slow Brain for future reference.
For anyone in the world of work this is important as problem-solving can be very challenging when we need the wider company as well as ourselves to think and act differently.
An important differentiation at this time – slow thinking does not mean doing it slowly – we need to make decisions swiftly – we are constantly being asked to deliver faster – this is about creating the headspace to use our conscious brain to apply a different way of thinking, one that requires our brains to slow down, to come out of patterns and repetition and create the space to apply the type of problem-solving that, like the tortoise in the analogy, gets us over the finish line in first place.
There is a quote that I once came across that said, "You can't logic your way through emotion". Humans were emotional and instinctive creatures long before we gained the ability to reason. Wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase and developing financial modelling skills did not change the fundamental way we think and respond to situations.
"System 2" thinking requires conscious and intense mental effort, and that is why we don't do it all the time, even if we wanted to. Nonetheless, frameworks actually help us shift into "System 2" simply by slowing down our thinking process. By introducing steps, sequences, and activities that delay our response to the problem, we allow our logical brain to kick-in and do its work. This is not something that only applies to Business Analysts or Technical Consultant type roles, this is something we can and should apply to every business problem so that we can say, "hey, slow down, do we really understand what we are doing?". I’m told that in the world of computer science this is called decomposition or the basis of the divide and conquer algorithm.
So the model I want to challenge you to do when you are required to change something in your life (work or personal) is to take a step back, and determine the type of problem we are trying to solve – does it impact the superficial or fundamental layer – are we looking deep enough to really address root cause not immediate causes.
Is the problem simple or complex? If it’s complex – can you break it down, what do we need to do to really ensure we’re focussing effort on the fundamental – not sticking plasters. Sometimes we do need to go slower to go faster.
To get you started here are some views for Simple and Complex problems:
We are all facing problem of various complexity in our day-to-day tasks, and we need to ensure we are appropriately addressing them.
So I will leave you today with an exercise Daniel Kahneman shared in his book to help you engage our system 2 brain.
It’s great to do before you start to assess a problem for solving.
To start, make up several strings of 4 digits, all different, and write each string on an index card.
Place a blank card on top of the deck.
The task you will perform is called Add-1. Here is how it goes:
Start beating a steady rhythm.
Remove the blank card and read the four digits aloud.
Replace the card, wait for two beats, then report a string in which each of the original digits is incremented by 1.
So, if the digits on the card are 5294, the correct response is 6305. Keeping the rhythm is important.
Few people can cope with more than four digits in the Add-1 task.
• Beat 1: Uncover card
• Beat 2: Read aloud first digit
• Beat 3: Read aloud second digit
• Beat 4: Read aloud third digit
• Beat 5: Read aloud fourth digit
• Beat 6: Wait + cover card
• Beat 7: Wait
• Beat 8: Say first digit + 1
• Beat 9: Say second digit + 1
• Beat 10: Say third digit + 1
• Beat 11: Say fourth digit + 1
Good Luck and happy problem-solving…
Until next time...
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