Quotes About Problem-solving

As technology increasingly takes over knowledge-based work, the cognitive skills that are central to today's education systems will remain important; but behavioral and non-cognitive skills necessary for collaboration, innovation, and problem solving will become essential as well.

A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say 'How to Build a Boat.'

Don't find fault. Find a remedy.

Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.

Temper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.

She is increasingly of the opinion that worrying about problems doesn't help solve them, but she hasn't really found an alternative yet. Surely you can't just leave them there.

A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.

If you want your ideas to be stickier, you've got to break someone's guessing machine and then fix it.

Another variety of close-up involves going to the genba, a Japanese term meaning "the real place" or, more loosely, the place where the action happens. Japanese detectives, for instance, call the crime scene the genba. In a manufacturing firm, the genba would be the factory floor, and for a retailing company it would be the store. Practitioners of Total Quality Management encourage leaders to "go to the genba" to understand problems.

has a problem focus when he needs a solution focus. If you are a manager, ask yourself: "What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

Seeking out one more option. Finding someone else who's solved our problem. Asking, "What would have to be true for you to be right?" Ooching as a way to dampen politics. Making big decisions based on core priorities. Running premortems and preparades. Laying down tripwires. Using these techniques will improve the results of your group decisions.

Our Rider has a problem focus when he needs a solution focus. If you are a manager, ask yourself: "What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

When the Rider analyzes a problem, he seeks a solution that befits the scale of it. If the Rider spots a hole, he wants to fill it, and if he's got a round hole with a 24-inch diameter, he's gonna go looking for a 24-inch peg. But that mental model is wrong.

It's an ingenious tactic. What the therapist is trying to demonstrate, in a subtle way, is that the client is capable of solving her own problem.

Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades. And

as soon as people know what the intent is they begin generating their own solutions.

Solutions-focused therapists use a common set of techniques for discovering potential solutions.

What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?

When you use analogies—when you find someone who has solved your problem—you can take your pick from the world's buffet of solutions. But when you don't bother to look, you've got to cook up the answer yourself. Every time. That may be possible, but it's not wise, and it certainly ain't speedy. DUNBAR

The rule for effective governance is simple. It is one Ronald Reagan knew by heart. And one that he successfully employed with Social Security and the Cold War. When there is a problem, you fix it. That is the job you have been sent to do and you cannot wait for someone else to do it for you.

Thanks," said Walter. "My dad's an engineer. He knows how to take wacky ideas and actually make them work.

Programming isn't about what you know; it's about what you can figure out.

So from here on out, we need to find a way to fight the killer with brains, not brawn. Attack this problem like scientists, not... Dirty Harry.

Necessity is the motherfucker of invention.