3 Steps to make any problem clearer
Ashley C Vinil
Director of Learning - Haggai International | Visually Lifting Leaders to learn, influence, and facilitate transformation with love & truth
Problems - they are everywhere, isn’t it.
Little ones, complex ones, confusing ones, elephant-size ones, deep ones…they come in all shape and sizes!
In April 2015, I was sitting with a group of managers from different geographies. I was there as a facilitator to help them solve a key problem. They had tried this earlier but could not find right-fit solutions. As one of them said, “We strained our brains in solution-finding but failed to understand the dimensions of the problem” Then the director responded, “I totally agree, which is why we are going to ‘see’ the problem and that is why we have Ashley here with us”
You can watch it here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/ashleyvinil_sketchatwork-problemsolving-problem-activity-6689115709823438848-C355
Richard Mayer, one of the influencers of the multimedia movement talks about using a multi-sensory approach - that is a combination of verbal, visual and hands-on to not just understand a problem but also to generate creative ‘right-fit’ solutions.
Keeping this in mind, we dived in as a group.
We made the problem visual, broke it into parts, addressed the relationships and impact and right before all of us the problem became clearer. We used simple picture icons, used some agreed upon symbols, framed and reframed the questions as visuals and then collaborated using post-its, laughter, discussions, mistakes and a lot of serious-fun to come up with ‘right-fit’ solutions.
These solutions were applied in each of the geographies in phases and we have great stories of the impact.
I have of-course left out the techniques of facilitation and the pictures of the visual process keeping in mind the confidentially agreement with the client.
So, let’s look at the 3 steps to make any problem clearer:
- First, Don’t just read a problem. Use a multi-sensory approach. Sketch it out or even model it out using clay or building blocks.
- Second, Break a problem to understand the elements. I love this - How do you eat an elephant - one bite at a time! So tackle the problem, one bite or one element at a time.
- Third, address the 5W2H - Who, what, when, where, why, how and how much/many and the relationship and impact.
You can watch it here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/ashleyvinil_sketchatwork-problemsolving-problem-activity-6689115709823438848-C355
Dan Roam, the popular author and visual problem-solving evangelist, says, “Any problem can be made clearer with a picture…Whoever best describes the problem, is the one most likely to solve it.”
So, make your problems clearer and you will most likely solve it and get your ‘right-fit’ solution.
What are you waiting for? Get that pen and paper and attack the problem
Ashley Vinil is on a mission to help people recall and lead with their visual superpower using simple sketching and serious storytelling.