The Executive Step

Gathering

What’s been on your mind lately?

What’s a brief history?

Who’s involved?

What’s relevant, What matters?

Imagine it is a year from now.
If you could wave a magic wand and achieve anything
or be on your way to achieving whatever you want, what would it be?

These types of open ended questions deliberately seek to gather information. CPS always begins with the metacognitive process of Assessing the Situation. Diagnostic thinking externally identifies and maps problems in a neutral environment. In doing this, an understanding of what might be the problem/s and where the problem owner is in the problem can emerge.

Taking time to find the problem saves time, reduces stress, and improves outcome.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” - Albert Einstein

Effective diagnosis is at the heart of good problem solving and having good information is key for clear diagnosis. Diagnosing problems has two purposes. First, gathering a wide range of data clarifies what is relevant to the challenge. Second, it makes sense to take the time to determine if CPS necessary, and if so, determine where to begin in the challenge. After all, not all problems are complex…

Here’s a tip, if it’s not 1+1 and obviously linear or sequential, chances are the problem is complex. Complex problems have more than one entry point, can be understood and processed any number of ways and could have any number of outcomes. Put simply, complex problems are ambiguous.

Gathering begins as a divergent process. It is unique in that gathering hard data and data from the five senses are all valid and contributory to the problem finding process. Facts, information, descriptions, as well as intuitive sources, hunches and emotions are all equally contributory data.

Diagnostic thinking draws on the affective skill of Mindfulness; it is in reflection, awareness and becoming present to the situation that understanding and realizations can emerge. In using feelings as a source of data, we tap into intuitive knowledge and sense of the situation as guiding resources. Because creativity starts with the individual, self awareness and becoming present with one’s self allows pathways for underststanding, for exploration and for decision making to move forward in any direction

Creative Problem Solving relies equally on data points from the head and heart. And so we problem find from two angles. Tap into the head- does this make sense? Tap into the heart- do I feel this is important to the gathering process? It is the very range and variety of data that provides a divergent pool from which choices, decisions, and actions for next steps are made. To make decisions from a wide range of data, Mindfulness has an important role in this executive step of Creative Problem Solving. Becoming present to the situation means a self awareness in contemplating the generation of data.

Diagnosis for CPS is rather like a visit to a medical doctor who needs symptomatic diagnosis before prescribing any treatment. Unlike a medical doctor, however, diagnosis in CPS draws both on symptomatic information and the affective skills of Mindfulness in making a diagnosis.

With rich data from the head and the heart, a leader may be able to quickly prioritize the challenge and determine where to start in a process of Creative Problem Solving.

#creaetiveleadership

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