A few weeks back, my son played a computer game that he really loved and set his mind on finding a way to get it. This seemed like a good learning lesson. The game retails for $30, but he was able to find a used one on eBay for $12 including shipping. So, he got to work, saved up his money and was able to pay for it. That marked the beginning of a wild adventure.
The problem is that this game is fairly taxing on computer graphics, so it wouldn’t run in a VM on his iMac. Of course, we tried and received some nasty errors, so we thought we could easily install Boot Camp and run the program natively in Windows. Not so fast. Something caused the keyboard to be too fancy for the base Windows installer to find it. We had three options facing us: 1) buy the new version of the game that runs natively in MacOS, 2) dig deep, prepare for an epic battle and vow to solve it no matter what and 3) give up. Option 1 was far too easy. Option 3 wasn’t really an option at all. Option 2 it was. Solve it we will.
While talking about problem solving might seem obvious and a tired concept, it’s the one thing we all use every day. Here’s my approach to high performance problem solving:
Step 1: Mental Conditioning – Get your head straight and make the decision that you will solve the problem. If your heart isn’t in it, stop here.
Step 2: Issue Isolation - Not just problem identification… Start by identifying the problem, then isolate the root cause(s) of the issue. Write down the issue(s) and define your success criteria.
Step 3: Research – It’s unbelievable how quickly we can now access vast quantities of good (and bad) information. Start with basic search engines and look for a trend. Don’t just believe the first person that says they found a fix.
Step 4: Establish Ground Zero – Capture the beginning state (photos, diagrams, documentation, backups, more backups). Make sure you can get back to your control case when your first few fixes cause more problems.
Step 5: Plan of Attack – Write down the steps you are about to take. Pick a technique that fits your problem.
Step 6: Execute – Go for it! Cast aside fear and make it happen. Be aware of everything that is going on. It might be a very subtle clue that provides direction to the final solution.
Step 7: Analyze Results – Look back over what you observed, document your findings and determine if the outcome was a success.
Step 8: Rinse and Repeat 5-7 Until Solved
Step 9: Celebrate – Take a moment to kick back and relish the satisfaction of a job well done. Tell the world about it. Post your solution to the community. Give credit where credit is due.
Step 10: Recap – Look back over your logs and commit your findings to long-term memory. You may or may not encounter the same problem again, but you will most likely have to apply what you learned again in the future.
As I sit, my son is enjoying his new game. It took six iterations, but we got it. The final answer came from some obscure online forum where someone described a process that we slightly modified and it worked. After iteration five, we were a little perplexed and took some time to pray for direction. Sometimes the answers comes quickly, but the ones you remember and enjoy the most put up a good fight.
Tags: Creative Technologist, Problem Solving, Randy Arrowood
