1) Ask Compelling Questions

Use “what if?” questions to project different scenarios into the future. In A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, Roger Von Oech, says, “In the imaginative phase, you ask questions such as: What if? Why not? What rules can we break? What assumptions can we drop? How about if we looked at this backwards? Can we borrow a metaphor from another discipline? The motto of the imaginative phase is: Thinking something different.”

2) Explore Context

Many problems arise because we neglect to zoom out from the content of the problem and examine the overall context of the situation. If sales are down, instead of revisiting your sales strategy examine the context of your overall industry. Has your industry changed? Are you disconnected with your customer’s needs? Is your product becoming obsolete? Take an expansive viewpoint before narrowing in on the specific problem.

3) Seek Wisdom

In Mastering the Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success, author Andy Andrews recommends putting together a personal Board of Directors, “advisors” for various areas of your life. Asking an experienced advisor from outside your industry for their thoughts on your problem can yield insightful perspectives. Even better: Instead of asking them what they would do in your situation, ask them what question they would ask.

4) Walk Away

Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to stop trying to solve it. Walking away from the problem brings forth the Wanderer archetype and the potential for hearing the Muse’s Call. The key is knowing when to let go of trying to solve the problem.

5) Mind Map It

Mind mapping is a visually-oriented brainstorming process using free association, colors and illustrations around a central theme. Read this post for a 60 second tutorial.

6) Switch Roles

Our minds tend to get locked into old patterns, leading to what’s called “paradigm blindness.” If you have a marketing-related problem, try putting on an engineer’s hat—or even a gardener’s hat. The idea is to shift your perspective so you can approach the problem from a new angle.

7) Use the Six Thinking Hats

Speaking of hats, de Bono’s Six Hats method provides you and your team with six different perspectives to utilize when tackling a problem. It’s an ideal tool for group brainstorming and problem solving.

8 ) Generate a Plethora of Ideas

As Aaron Shields points out in Creativity in the Workplace, research suggests that the most effective way to uncover the best solution is to brainstorm as many ideas as you can in a nonjudgmental environment before evaluating them.

There are numerous pathways to get to the answer you seek. Some pathways, however, are more effective than others. The key is to experiment with various methods to uncover which ones work best for you.

Different methods will be more effective in different contexts. Here, wisdom and intuition come into play.

Related posts:

1. Stay with the Problem
2. The Creative Process Revisited
3. Relinquishing Control of the Creative Process

The key, then, is to first recognize these three decisions and then respond in the best interest of the organization.

Think back to February ‘08. Apple’s iPhone became an international sensation. Programmers, however, wanted to do more with the cool smart phone and found ways to hack the iPhone.

Since the iPhone’s release in June ‘07, Steve Jobs’s team attempted to thwart the hacking community to no avail.

Then came Jobs’s BIG decision in March ‘08. He announces a software development kit that allows programmers to create applications for the iPhone to be made available in the new iTunes AppStore. Programmers get to keep 70% of the revenue.

It’s difficult to appreciate the power of this single decision. Apple recently celebrated its 1 billionth download from the AppStore, which has over 25,000 Apps and 5,000 more added monthly.

More importantly, with the new App Mania, Apple is now well positioned for the next wave of mobile innovations while their competitors play catch-up.

Effective leaders value the power of a decision. Be deliberate and thoughtful in your decision making. Choose well.

Related posts:

1. The Secret Behind Innovation
2. What’s Your Decision-Making Lens?
3. Decision Making and Negative Emotions

In The Effective Executive, what I consider a must-read for anyone who works in any organization, Drucker highlights five habits that executives must acquire to be effective:

1. Time Consciousness: Effective executives are aware of where they spend their time. (We’ll address this more specifically in another post.)
2. Outward Contribution: Effective executives focus on outward contribution to the organization, and ultimately, the customer. They gear their efforts toward results, not work.
3. Strength-Focused Mindset: Effective executives build on their own strengths as well as the strengths of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. They do not build on weakness or start out with things they cannot do.
4. Measurable Results: Effective executives concentrate on the few critical areas where superior performance produces measurable results. (See A New Results Mindset at Work.)
5. Effective Decisions: Effective executives make effective decisions. The focus is on a small number of fundamental decisions that greatly impact the organization.

How well do you size up? Where can you improve your level of effectiveness?

Related posts:

1. Five Habits of Highly Effective Team Leaders
2. Excessive Meetings = Ineffective Organization
3. Adopt a New Results Mindset at Work

The variance in perceptual filters helps explain how two people can witness the same event and experience it differently. It also explains how two people can be given the same information and come to divergent conclusions. This variance makes most human interactions interesting—sometimes in a good way, other times in a not-so-good way.

You also have specific filters within your job. Based on past learning, training, studying, and experiencing, you have a way of evaluating and interpreting information, like an intuitive algorithm operating in your subconscious. To uncover your hidden algorithm, pay attention to the questions you ask yourself when confronted with a decision. Your pervasive internal questions are the key. The quality of your questions determine your ability to make effective decisions.

For example, if you always ask yourself, “How are we going to stay afloat?” you’re going to restrict your lens to a small puddle of options. But questions like, “How can we better serve our customers?” or “What’s our customer’s primary problem we’re trying to solve?” will lead you to an ocean of opportunity.

By becoming aware of your various business filters, you’ll be empowered to select better questions that yield superior results.

Related posts:

1. Decision Making and Negative Emotions
2. The Ultimate Business Lens
3. The Power of Decision