Looking for solutions is like looking for Easter eggs

The goldent egg.

The kids are all looking for eggs as hard as they can.  They look under and around the furniture.  They find  a few eggs. They look in one room and then move to the next.  They find a few more eggs. They look where others have looked.  They find even more eggs,  but they don’t find the prize egg.  They keep looking.  Then they  gets some hints. They look harder.  Finally, someone finds the Golden Egg.

Watching the kids hunt Easter eggs at grandmother’s reminded me of how we look for solutions to problems. We look hard. We look in the palces were we have looked before. We often look here and look there, but we don’t find the prize solution.

One of the reason it takes the kids so long to find the golden egg is becuase they don’t have a systematic plan to look for eggs.  We do the same in problem solving.  We jump from idea to idea but we don’t do a systematic analysis of the problem and the availble solutions.

Another reason the kids have a hard time finding that money egg is that they don’t look well where they do look.  I don’t know how many times I have seen one kid look then a second kid look in the same place and find  an egg.  We often do the same thing.  The solutions are often in the places we look but we don’t  find them.  When we look we need to look well.  We need to look at all facets of a solution and evaluate how minor changes to an idea can make a big difference in how a solution works.

Often the kids don’t see what is right in front of their face.  Today, one of  the kids picked up a item that had an egg taped to the back.  He didn’t even see it.  He was holding it in his hand.  Sometimes the solution is obvious but we just don’t notice it.  We need to pay attention to what is easily available.  Sometimes the solution will be there.

Finally, we often just need to take a step back.  Today the kids were all crowed in close digging through the cabinets.  There was a prize egg close.  One of the kids couldn’t squeeze in.  He just stepped back and used his eyes to look.  Then he ran around, reached over the counter, and picked up the container that had the prize egg in it.  We sometimes need to step back and try a different approach or get a new perspective.  This may give us a chance to find a great solution.

Our kids have looked for eggs their whole life.  They have gotten better at it.  They have actually learned to be more systematic, to look better where they do look to find the obvious eggs and to step back and get new perspective.

If you are looking for solutions practice helps, but so can some of the lesson learned form looking for the golden egg.

Related posts:

1. There is a Checklist for that – Checklist Manifesto
2. Four steps to solve a problem