"At some point in your life, have you ever encountered a problem?"
A pretty pointless question as the answer will always be a resounding "Yes". The next question is the interesting one and will yield varied results:
"How did you deal with it?"
I, generally, have an
ignore-it-for-a-while, to let nature take its course type of reaction. Others may call it the
ostrich-in-the-sand response. If it isn't able to be resolved on its own, then volumes of research, reading case studies, on-line help, professional consultations and anything else I can find to throw into the blender will be added to permutate a solution.
We will all have different approaches and each problem in itself will require different tactics to overcome it. It's the approach aspect that I want to narrow in on. I read an interesting article about whether the creative design process could be put down in a structured process. The study followed some ingenious people and discussed each of their methods of approaching a problem and the steps they 'followed' to see if there was some common pattern that could be written down for others to emulate and hopefully achieve similar levels of creative results. What stood out for me in that article was a line from the approach aspect, "Frame your problem differently."
This struck me as quite profound as if you take a picture frame, it actually separates the picture from its surroundings, it puts it in a different context, different to what is around the framing, it hi-lights or gives focal attention to the picture and it also gives a boundary for the picture. Although the article didn't explicitly describe the framing in such a manner, it was immediately apparent to me that this is an excellent strategy to approach problems.
Don't allow the problem to bleed into the rest of your life, give it a boundary that it can't cross. Keep it contained so it cannot affect all aspects of your life. Give it focus so that it can be addressed but not focus to be obsessed. Remember, the problem has a boundary containing it.
Separate the problem from its surroundings, approach it from completely new angles without the distractions of its surroundings. Use whatever insight or knowledge you have to look for alternative solutions. You may have an interest in nature and seen how a bird's wing is shaped and can adopt that to the problem of creating a more aerodynamic bicycle frame. You may have chemical know-how and can adopt that in your culinary hobby. I have seen liquid nitrogen being used creatively in the kitchen because of someone framing the problem differently.
Frames also come in an infinite variety of styles. This speaks to me of how you define the problem. So many times we label the problem in such a way that it seems impossible to resolve. If the frame is changed, perhaps the problem definition could be altered such that it can be addressed. A simple framing example: "I don't earn enough money! With my job, I get a salary that is the market norm and that's all, nothing else I can do!"
Re-framed: "I spend too much money based on my income! Let me review my budget and see what unnecessary expenditure I have and make some adjustments so I can save for what I really need."
If that frame doesn't work out, try different ones till you find one that better defines the problem for you so that you can resolve it. Remember, there is never just one frame that suits a picture, each adds a different aspect to the picture. A different colour may draw attention to different entities within the picture. Different frame profiles suit different style pictures. A modern metallic sharp angled frame wouldn't suit the Mona Lisa and an old ornate wooden carved frame wouldn't suit a modern pop-art type of picture.
Find the frame(s) that suits your problem. There is an art in framing, so don't settle for the first one you try, use some creativity in your approach, you may be surprised at how you end up solving your problem...
