PROBLEMS, PICTURES & PROCESS
HOW THE SOLUTION MACHINE
WORKS JUST LIKE YOUR BRAIN
Many people are interested in creative problem solving, new methodologies
and increasing their understanding of the creative process in general.
After hearing about the experiences of many Solution Machine users, we have
developed a tenative model about what is causing it's success. The model
can be summed up in three themes: Problem Formulation, Pictorial Method
and Problem Solving Process.
A. HOW THE BRAIN'S CREATIVE PROCESS WORKS
One critical thing to realize is that The Solution Machine is NOT A BRAINSTORMING
method. It does not throw up any and all ideas to see what sticks. It does
not carefully craft tigger things that relate to your problem. It does exactly
the opposite. It makes your mind focus on the problem in a similar way to
the way the brain actually works. The reasons why The Solution Machine works
this way are because of an understanding of the brain.
Let's begin by looking at how the brain works in solving a problem creatively.
If you think back to the story of Archimedes who was trying to solve the
problem of finding the volume of a crown of gold, you can see his interesting
mental process. Later on in the day when Archimedes was taking a bath, he
noticed that the water rose when he entered the bath. His body was displacing
the same amount of water as his volume. Then he made the connection between
the volume of his body and the volume of the crown and went screaming through
the streets saying, "Eureaka".
Now what exactly was happening here?
FIRST Achimedes looked at the crown problem, it then went into his
memory and he went off to take a bath. The first thing to realize is that
when he left the problem it was in his memory. Now recent brain research
has shown that the memory of something is not an exact replica, like a camera,
instead key elements are stored and the rest of the it merely sort of adlibbed
when you recall someting. Think of a time last year when you went on vacation.
Notice how key events come to mind almost instantly and then some kind of
picture develops, but the details of the picture are not the exact replca
of the vacation. That discrepancy between the memory and the event creates
some "wiggle' room when you solve a problem creatively. The Solution
Machine asks you to leave the problem and go through a fantasy in order
to give you some wiggle room.
SECOND there was a shift in problem solving to the visual side of
his brain. The problem could not have been solved mathematically with the
tools they had at the time. When the mind compared the bathwater to the
crown, it was a visual connection, not a logical deduction. If you think
back to when you had a Creative idea, wasn't it like a vivid picture of
the solution? The reason the Solution Machine uses a visual fantasy is to
stimulate the visual side of the mind which encourages the type of visual
connection that the mind does naturally
THIRD, There was a shift to an action orientation. The solution to
the problem of finding out the volume was something to be done, not something
to be considered just abstractly. This change to an action orientation is
critical to creative problem solving. It focuses attention on doing something
and thus opens the door to considering other ways of doing something, one
of which might be useful in solving your problem. The Solution Machine makes
you state the problem in action terms with the four part problem definition
FOURTH, There was a visual emtoional connection between the action
of getting into the bath, and the action of finding the volume of the crown,
it was accompanied by a EUREAKA! Recent brain research has shown that the
visual centers of the brain are activated when creative problem solving
occurs. The exact mechanism for this is still under investigation but we
do know that the connection is not just a situational memory with no emotion
coming into play. The connection must be one that has emotion connected
to it. If you think back this is remarkable. How did a simple crown problem
generate an emotional "EUREAKA" experience? The problem here is
that before you get the Eureaka experience everything seems rather glum.
When the solution machine askes you to compare the fantasy and the problem
elements it feels odd or strange it will seems as though you are fighting
yourself and the connections you make not relevant until you find one that
works.
The Solution Machine soimulates the exact same brain principles and the
exactly same process as Archimedes went through and others have reported.
The only difference is that you don't have to actually take a bath to get
some new idea. Recent brain reserach found a cluster of cells know as Mirror
Neurons. They have this property of attaching emotions tow hen people are
merely looking at somthing. They have been known to be responsible for Empathy
as people see something, they feel it just like they were there. The Solution
Machine's fantasy situation can create has real an experience as acutally
doing something and the "Mirror Neurons" in the brain may not
know the difference. Thus the way the fantasy character solved his problem
could be directly applied to solving your problem, but there is one important
difference.
When you, after going through the fantasy, attempt to link it to your problem,
you have changed. Your brain cells are different. You are thinking, "Out
Of The Box", in fact you are solving a different problem. You are solving
a linking problem, not the orginal Creative problem that kept your thinking
in the box.
Here are exactly the detailed differences in The Solution Machine approach
that help make this happen
B. DIFFERENCES IN THE PROBLEM FORMULATION
The Solution Machine asks a person to state a problem in a very structured
way. This formalized statement contributes a great deal to the efficiency
of the method.
- The problem is stated simply and in a single sentence.
- The problem is stated in an action format.
- The problem is stated with a constraint to be overcome.
- The final problem statement is selected from several alternatives.
(Ususally the first statement is rarely chosen.)
Much time is often wasted in problem solving sessions, defining the exact
nature of the problem. In certain technical areas, this definition phase
is seen as critical. Often the problem definition merely results in a further
hardening of the mindset. The compact form of The Solution Machine's problem
statement is one of the first things mentioned that gets things moving.
The action format, after an initial period of adjustment, also tends to
aid the probability of solution. Once people realize that the action format
gets some momentum going they rapidly decide that stating the problem this
way is helpful.
Stating a key constraint also is mentioned as a plus. Stating the problem
as overcoming a constraint makes it seem easier to do. It also begins to
change the mindset and make the problem appear as one of degree rather than
something completely far out.
The fact that the individual or group is asked to state the problem several
ways first and then select tends to open people up. When they see many different
formulations, the earlier ones, tend to reflect the pre-solution bias and
are not chosen.
C. DIFFERENCES CAUSED BY USING A VISUAL, PICTORIAL METHOD
Using the fantasy situation as a departure point for creative problem solving
was mentioned by many people, as the singular most powerful element in the
solution machine. Some of the reasons that this is so were:
- Brings images, rather than just words, to bare on the problem.
- Greatly takes people away from the mindset of the problem.
- Changes the task of problem solving to one of linking
- Stimulates an action orientation
Using an image as a starting point, is much richer than simple trigger words
or even brainstorming. The iamge draws from a larger stockpile of associations
and comes up with many more ideas.
The task of embellishing the far-out image, and then the task of exploring
the list of Connect-A-Phors © takes group far away from the intital
problem and it's associated mindset.
The individual or group find themselves solving a different problem which
makes it easier to come up with new solutions. They are now trying to come
up with an idea that the far-out linkage might suggest. This is a different
problem from the original description and thus has fewer old associations
attached to it.
An interesting research finding occured when we have added multi-media cartoons
instead of just word sentences. The performance on the task suffered. Rather
than the pictures improving the score, it seemed that they paradoxically
made it more difficult.
The reason is that the pictures, took away from the images in the participant's
mind. When people had to build their own images they worked harder and had
many more associations to bring to the problem.
D. DIFFERENCES IN THE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS
Much has been written about excursion vs. focus as the two major processes
that occur in creative problem solving. Remember brainstorming develops
all kinds a ideas but does not stimulate the brain to focus on a productive
one. The solution machine carefully manages excursion and focus at each
point.
Rather than a period of extensive excursion, the time that is spent in this
process is under five minutes. The entire solution machine problem solving
methodology takes about fifteen minutes for most people to go through once
they are familiar with the process.
This compresssed, focused method of using excersion and focus is another
of the reasons why people have found the solution machine useful.
E. CONCLUSION or BEGINNING
The above short briefing was developed to give you a look at some of the
more general issues in creative problem solving and make you aware of what
is present in the solution machine process that results in superior problem
solving. We hope it gives you are starting point for your own thinking and
reinforces those elements in other systems that work in a similar way.
The Solution Machine Mirrors exactly the way your brain works when it solves
a problem creatively. The creation of the fantasy situation allows you bot
get "out Of The Box" and at the same time changes the problem
to be solved. This is exactly what happens in the real world. Good Luck
A COMPLETE, TESTED, EASY - TO - USE,
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS
FOR YOUR BUSINESS OR HOME
THE SOLUTION MACHINE .... SO SIMPLE IT WORKS !
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