Proven Problem Solving Methods Few People Know
If you have ever read any self-help book, attended a company-sponsored team-building seminar, or watched Oprah, then you’ve probably heard about “thinking outside the box”.
This is a saying used to inspire people to create unconventional solutions to everyday issues, and it may not be as simple as it seems.
In order to think outside the box, you have to exercise some creativity. This should be easy since practically all people have been given some capacity for creative thinking. However, inspiring creativity in the midst of a crisis can be quite a challenge, even for the most creative individual.
Going Outside Your Comfort Zone
In the process of living your life, you have established invisible boundaries that define what is called your comfort zone. This is the environment where you are most at ease and everything is familiar to you.
But some problems require solutions that are outside your comfort zone. In order to solve these problems, you will have to take a step towards the unknown and be willing to discover new ways to solve these new problems.
Taking the first step outside your comfort zone may be rather difficult. This is understandable, considering that for our entire lives, we have been told how to behave and what to say in certain situations.
This training greatly limits our ability to think creatively and come up with unique solutions to problems. The truth is that there are hundreds of solutions to any given problem and all you need to do is expand your comfort zone to find these solutions.
Another obstacle to thinking creatively is the negative reaction that you might elicit from other people. You may be perceived as eccentric or weird for having ideas that are different from everyone else’s.
In our society where conformity is a strong driving factor, the idea of standing out amidst this kind of negative response can definitely make people reluctant to start thinking outside the box.
There is another way of thinking about this however. Consider the great inventors of our time, like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.
They had brilliant and unconventional ideas and their peers probably thought of them as eccentric and weird as well. But just look at what their ideas have evolved into today!
In order to come up with a great idea, just like these famous inventors did years ago, you don’t necessary need to have an advanced university degree or years of experience.
Most of the time, all you need to do is look at things from a different perspective and the solution will magically pop out.
Elements of Creative Thinking
Some people are naturally more inclined to thinking outside the box than others. If you want to improve your capability for creative thinking, here are a few skills that you may want to work on:
- Looking at situations from multiple angles.
- Having intellectual discussions with yourself and with other people.
- Coming up with unconventional ways of accomplishing tasks.
- Making improvements on existing solutions.
- Learning to listen to suggestions from others.
Stepping outside your comfort zone will definitely not be easy the first time that you do it. The trick is being able to identify when an idea can work, and taking the necessary steps to turn it into a solution.
Once you master this skill, you will be amazed at how easy it is to solve any problem that comes your way.