Many ways to solve a problem
On a recent 5+ hour flight I noticed something. It wasn’t that the snacks were terrible and the drinks were slow. It was that many, many people had run into the same problem… and came up with different ways to solve it.
The problem wasn’t anything really major - they weren’t fighting with their neighbor over their armrest or realizing they lost their luggage, instead, the problem they had was “How do I prop my phone up so I can watch video on it?”.
Flashback
Growing up I remember flights having an inflight movie. The movie was projected on a single screen at the front row, and repeated on small TV’s down the aisle… and if you didn’t like the movie, tough luck. As technology progressed this eventually turned into seats having their own TVs (which was an insanely amazing upgrade!).
Now, we’ve come full circle… planes don’t have screens any more… but everyone has their phone! Unfortunately the nice people at the phone company’s don’t make it easy to watch something on your phone for a long time.. No one wants to hold it up for hours on end, leaving us with a communal problem - how do I watch something on my phone?
Many Ways
On the flight I was on I observed at least a half dozen ways to get around this issue.
A phone case with a kick-stand
Propped up against the seat in front of you (not a good idea if they decide to recline!)
In a ziplock bag hanging from the closed tray-table (I really liked that one)
Propped up against a sock (hopefully a clean one?....)
Hanging from the closed tray table by the back of a case
Wedged into the magazine holder above the tray-table
What interested me about this wasn’t what people were watching (mostly sports-ball), but rather how many solutions to the same problem I saw. Each individual approached the issue of not being able to watch their phone in a different way, and based their approach and solution on what they had available. Even though each person had a different method, each one still solved their problem.
This got me thinking about problem-solving in general. Every day we address, and overcome, challenges… and rarely is there a single way to do that. Instead, we solve problems in different ways based on our skills, knowledge, what we have available and more. There isn’t a single right answer, but instead many answers that get the job done.
This also challenged my own bias to my own solutions.. Sure, I think they’re good / correct / etc., but they’re rarely (ok, basically never!) the best possible way to do something. That doesn’t mean they’re bad since they get the job done. The danger is thinking they’re the only answer.
The path of “there’s only one answer” gives us a number of extra hurdles we have to overcome, including:
We may not have the most effective answer - Sure, using a specific tool was really useful at some other company or situation, but it may not be the best option here.
We cheat ourselves out of growth - Sticking only to what we know robs us of learning. We won’t learn how to use a new tool, or how to approach a problem in a new way. Instead, we just do what we know, which doesn’t lead to growth.
It may be more expensive in time or money - Sticking with the single answer we find may not be the fastest or cheapest way to get something done. Other tools may still get the job done while being faster, or cheaper.
How to find new answers
When I can’t come up with a solution to my problem, or if I find myself assuming whatever I come up with as being the best solution, I consciously try to break out of that thinking. This can take several forms:
Forcing myself to use a different approach
Researching other ways to solve the challenge
Talking to others about how they do it
While each of those steps comes up with (hopefully) new answers, what it’s really doing is helping me think differently, and to challenge my internal assumption that my answer is the best. I find this makes problem solving more interesting since I get to learn more ways to solve things, and many times helps me find a better answer than I could on my own.
