Do You Ask Right Questions?

Questioning is an art!
Questions decide answers!
Right questions may get right answers!
Wrong questions may get wrong answers!

Questions decide desired outcomes and at times cause them too!
Questions make or break relationships! 
Right questions build relationships! Wrong ones break them!!

Other day we decided to take an earlier show of newly released film "Krrishh-3". Our maid was late to work. Wishing to reorganise her work my wife called her up to ensure that she arrives early enough before we depart for the show.

Which one of the following questions would have been right to choose from? Reason it out why?

1/ What time are you reaching? Or,
2/ Are you coming to work?

You will be benefited if you stretch your intellect before answering.

Think it out before reading next paragraph.

Taking her master for granted the second question gives maid an undesired option to say NO.
The only option first question gives her perhaps is to confirm the rescheduled time she would be reaching to work. Here there is no option for her to manipulate an undesired option to say NO.

Final outcome of course depends on prevailing demand-and-supply conditions. But by choosing the right question to ask you stand in a better position to influence the outcome in your favor.

1/ First question is of open-ended type. It could have had more than one answers of her choice such as 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. etc.
2/ Second question is of close-ended type because it has primarily limited replies: YES or NO.
3a/ First question is also a combination of leading-type and open-endeded type. Because it has a 'lead' built into it that presumes the maid is already on-way to work.
3b/ If first question's contents are modified to say "You are reaching by 2 p.m. right? it becomes a leading close-endeded type because it limits replies to YES or NO. But still it's an undesired option because she may choose NO.

In case of the situation under consideration, the open-ended question might trigger desirable answers if the contents are modified to say: I am leaving at 2 p.m. What time are you reaching?

What is the learning

It's important to know which type of question to use when?
How to frame contents of questions?
How many questions to use in what permutations and combinations thereof?

As done in Behavior Modulation Technique (BMT) or TA, answers to above questions depend upon what outcome you wish or want to articulate, not to manipulate though. At times you may have to use a checklist of questions to choose from for a given situation. Number of questions should be less (not more than a couple of them) although complicated situations may warrant more of them.

Difficult problem situations may need a judicious mix of choosing other type of questions as well alongwith the open-ended and close-ended ones. I will deal with them in other blogposts. They could be:

4/ Probing-type,
5/ Reflective-type, 
6/ Hypothetical type and even
7/ Stupid-questions (at times)

First two types, open-ended and close-ended ones, are usually useful in most situations: Be it Personal, Social or Business situations including in negotiations and also while handling customer grievances.

Primary purpose of open-ended questions is to extract information.
Primary purpose of close-ended questions is to limit alternatives.

So, think before you ask! Think of contents before you talk!!

If you don't ask right questions you do deserve a wrong or an undesired outcome!!!

Footnote
TA: Transactional Analysis

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

How do you behave when you come across security-guard of your housing society? Do you address him "Hey Watchman"?

In what manner do you speak to your driver or that of a taxi or for that matter a persuasive roadside salesman or a typical 'have-not', even a beggar?

Or, how do you behave with your subordinates for instance?

In very first encounter with them in the morning, do you nod as in expressing salutation to them? Or do you ignore their salutation if they give one?

If you've done the former, you have not-taken-them-for-granted. You have behaved as-desired like often done with external customers. Behaving other way round is like being indifferent. It's like disrespecting their self-esteem.

Indifferent behavior hurts ego and thereby breaks relationships. On the contrary a genuine smile recognizes their presence. It flashes back to you as good behavioral reflection of theirs too. It's like an adult-to-adult behavior that maintains self-esteem of both the parties as in BMT or TA language of behavior modulation.

How do you behave if others don't keep promises and instead misbehave with you repeatedly?

In spite of being in power, do you stay considerate enough say to bring facts of their misbehavior and indiscipline to their attention in a respectful manner? Do you play your role in providing justified resources if any to enable their promised performance level? 

If yes, then you have not taken them as well as yourself for granted. In inevitable cases you might have even reprimanded them for their undesirable repetitions though.

Former is like 'selling' instead of 'yelling' at them for their undesired behavior while the latter being 'telling'.

If you are not in power what do you do to reprimand their repeated misbehavior?

Such people may not be worthy of attention. Nor are they worthy of your fellowship except that to get job done with Krishna-tactics. Until the first opportunity comes your way to exit relationship it might be a good idea to make a little compromise while keeping them at arm's length. Having got one if it's not availed of then you do deserve to be taken-for-granted.

Aren't the same rules applicable back home?

Yes very much but with an extra care else you may not get food.

Recognition, review, resources, reward and reprimand (5-R) rules are applicable at home as well as at work. Wisdom will help you evolve which ones with what mix and how much dose to administer, when and where.

Those who don't apply a judicious mix of 5-R rules with wisdom (with weightage primarily in the corresponding order) do deservedly get taken-for-granted repeatedly be it at home or outside at work. In Indian scriptures this is advised as Sama-Daama-Dandaa-Bheda technique to get the needed done!

Footnotes :
BMT: Behavior Modulation Technique
TA: Transactional Analysis

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 
Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 
A Ride To Hell
Make checklists your friends 
Drove To Hell ... Almost !
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!
Will It Work Here? 
Some Moron ! Some Great !!!
That's How Morons Work ... WASTES
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?
That's how some business partnerships work
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
Beware Of Political-Presentations
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands

Will It Work Here?

Other day there was a friendly debate on whether mobile-money service will work in Indian demographics. Although I knew it was offered in India, some apprehensions such as ease of transactions, security, cost of service, etc. kept me away from it. 

One of the debating friends working with a phone-company demonstrated a transaction including registration process within a minute. That's the time I could experience relative ease of accessing it. I could unearth a few difficulties in the process though. But I was surprised why phone companies were yet to speedily target the middle and high income group segment of the market inter-alia which is more likely to adopt it speedily than the mass-market.

If it was "successful across Africa" (as quoted by one of them) with it's inherent diversities and difficulties, then a modified business model should work in India too, I said. It might call for adopting it and differentiating it for the segments within target markets. The marketing-mix strategies may vary depending upon the segments: Demographic, Geographic, Behavioural, Psychographic, etc. Selling would take place as a sequel anyway. 

In fact such a service is a boon to any developing country provided the service is localized, made easier and faster and at the same time needing lesser efforts-n-resources; in short if it was made leaner.

Demonstration to me for instance was done on an Android device. How could it be made user-friendly and agile for various devices with differing features and technologies?

Steps performed were displayed in English language. It called for memorizing a password too. How could it be made easier for the entire spectrum of demographics covering various levels of literacy (using fingerprint lock for instance instead of password), levels of income, population, etc? How could it be made easily accessible to geographical markets?

Based on voice of the target market such as above, 'push'-type personal-marketing like that done to tackle apprehensions of a typical prospective customer like me should have been in place. It is necessary at least until a product & process of using it and educating the customer is made simpler and leaner. Ultimate goal should be to create a 'pull' for the offer for enhanced sale.

Differentiating the offer by bundling it could be an added advantage such as that done innovatively by organisers of a music programme that actually prompted me to write this blogpost. One highlight boasted of in it's advt was: "Mr Tom, Dick and Harry coming together for the FIRST-TIME". The concert was at an inaccessible venue located far from city. So the second differentiation it highlighted was, "Bus service available after the concert".

Dynamics of the 'mobile-money' and the 'music concert' as offerings do differ. But the point worth learning therefrom as denominator for any offering in general is the meticulous removal of hurdles  specific to differentiate it, to reach it to and to grab a particular target market with a sense-of-urgency. One may be able source a lot many innovations to do so if internal stakeholders in particular are engaged in the focused thought process. It should be done ethically though *unlike the concert organisers. Only then it's more likely to work sustainably!

Footnote: *Usually very few customers read between the lines and fewer still catch the 'catch' if any. Knowing such a consumer behaviour unethical organisers capitalise on getting some audience that doesn't bother to read. For instance in case of the concert some do tend to attend for the novelty effect of "FIRST-TIME" without realising that it was of 'unknown' artistes Toms and Harrys. Some also miss checking whether the bus service was free or came with an *asterisk. The organisers in this case seemed sure of getting some such audience.

Here are a couple of mobile-money services in India: Airtel's Airtel-Money and Vodafone's M-Pesa.

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

"WOW! What a lovely experience Singapore was!"

A friend of mine exclaimed, sheddig cigarette-ash in a corner while stamping a ticket coupan on railway platform. He had just returned having enjoyed a 10-day sojourn in there. The ash that he shed fell on an automatic ticket vending machine (ATVM).

Everything so neat and clean there!
Everything in working condition! 

Responding to a customer so quickly, with smile and with such a respect! And back here nothing works!: He continued.

Things do work here! I corrected him pointing towards the stamp-pad he was using to ink his ticket. Things do work here but (I smiled saying) on bypass-surgeries:

1/ Stamp-ink-pad as a bypass for vending machines (jammed due to dust),
2/ Long queue on window counter due to "staff shortage" (read "absenteeism")
3/ High-technology ATM "out of service" due to "breakdown" or "stockout of currency notes",
4/ Half the toll-tax lanes blocked due to equipment on Toll-booths "out of order",
5/ Traffic jam on a flyover, half of it's width being full of potholes,
6/ Fyover over-the-flyover in order to bypass chaotic traffic underneath it,
7/ 'Diversion' because half  the road bottlenecked by garbage and vendors,
8/ Garbage not picked up because disposal-van broken down.

The list of bypass-surgeries is endless.

By the way can you tell me top reasons (rather root-causes) of  "breakdowns" of equipment in particular such as vending machine, I asked him. 

Key to the "WOW experience" that you 'told' me about is in there my friend, I told him. 

He looked at me sarcastically hinting "not to be professor-like". I can afford to be one here in blogpost, at least for the sake of waste-elimination whatever may be it's worth in reducing global warming. Hope he reads this sometime.

A couple of top order root-causes of typical "breakdowns" that lead to loss of desired performance are:

1/ Dust and Dirt (due to littering like by my friend who might have behaved well in Singapore)
2/ Loose connections in equipment
3/ Casual attitude towards both the above (lack of maintenance, littering, etc) because apparently the causes don't look dangerous

Same logic of root-causes can be extended to the breakdown of health also. 

Actually his comments on Singapore were in praise of "the 'lovely' culture there" i.e. their attitude of prevention of such root-causes with a sense of proactive urgency. South Asian countries including South Korea, Singapore, etc. were one of the firsts to have learnt this from Japanese Kaizen culture. 

What is culture?

Culture is a sum total of behaviors (such as follows) as reflection of attitudes, beliefs and values in every walk of life, moment-in-moment-out.

Shedding cigarette-ash in an ash tray or a dust bin, for instance, is a desired behavior unlike the one exhibited by my friend. 
Not smoking in a public place is a desired behavior. 

Being wasteful at the cost of life, abandoning smoking itself is a desired behavior.

Being frugal on any kind of waste be at personal level, in society or at work.

Sum total of such desired behaviors 'results' into "WOW what a lovely experience" kind of impression of good culture. 

How does one get desired culture?

Getting desired culture is about getting desired behaviors.

Most difficult approach is to 'tell' others to 'behave'. Easiest way out is to get it from 'self'. Then 'recognise' the 'self' for having done it in order to stay motivated. Then find 'others' who do it and recognise them.

This is 'selling' approach to get the desired behaviors.

How does one do this professionally if in position-of-power to do so?

1/ Decide not more than a couple of strategic goals for "WOW experience": Choose one of the top priority apex goals to delight stakeholders and focus on it.
2/ Break the apex goal down into smaller ones
3/ Identify behaviors complementary to the smaller goals
4/ Remove hindrances (3D: Dirty-Danger-Difficult situations) in performing processes to achieve the goals and remove wastes to make the processes lean

5/ Demonstrate leadership by performing such behaviors yourself

6/ Lay a platform and use it at regular frequency to recognise desired behaviors and to punish undesired behaviors particularly if repeated intentionally
7/ Make corrections to improve the above process (steps) on-goingly.

In short,

1/ Set a behavior goal and focus on it!
2/ Behave it rather than preaching it!
3/ Lay a platform to recognise the desired behavior although it's outcome (of the desired behavior) may not be as desired. You may have to reprimand or punish an undesired behavior though!

4/ Enjoy the resultant improvement in culture although it may not be a WOW one! 

5/ Move on to the next priority goal

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Winning 2-Minutes To Customer

Just read in Loksatta about one Mr Chitale receiving compensation of Rupees 7250 directly transferred to his bank account y British Airways for wheel of his bag getting damaged in handling. Airlines' response was smooth and speedy he said. Airlines had tried to repair the bag through their supply-chain partner but in vain.

In 1997, I was in NewYork on a group-study-exchange mission organised by Rotary International. While traveling from NewYork to Orlando, inadvertently my bag reached to Chicago. I complained to the airlines office at the airport. They promptly sanctioned 100 Dollars to me against the bills for essentials like overnight clothes, toothpaste, etc. Being around Disneyland I was happy to buy a couple Mickey-Mouse brand clothes at the airport.

Next day morning I got a 'good-morning' call from reception desk saying my bag was already in the hotel lobby safe and sound. Not much trouble for me although the airlines did have an opportunity to eliminate the error in baggage handling.

In a stark contrast to such delightful experiences, in 1981 I had to run from pillar to post knocking doors and windows in vain for a broken bag and its damaged contents due to erroneous handling by Air-India. Since then I avoid flying on it: a customer-quit as they say.

I remember that painful experience even after decades.

What is the learning?

There might be some chance of a person forgetting a good experience but hardly any chance of a customer forgetting bad experience from a supplier.

In case of one airline it was about 'sensitivity' to customer complaint while dealing it with a 'sense-of-urgency'. In case of other airline it was about 'indifference' to customer.

Now a days the sensitivity has acquired some strategy and structure to respond to customer complaints as a part of excellence-journey of companies. 

A Structure To Respond To Customer

I had introduced a 2-2-2-2©structure in terms of a model to respond to any stakeholder in general and to customer in particular. It was first introduced in a Cummins group company: Fleetguard Filters Limited Pune.

It was later on institutionalised in Cummins group worldwide.

In the context of a customer complaint, the 2-2-2-2© model might mean 2-Minutes, 2-Hours, 2-Days, 2-Weeks time-bound response to  customer for a given level of performance strived for. The response is supposed to eliminate root cause/s of the abnormality within 2-Weeks rather than stopping at first-aid treatment that anyway must be given within 2-Minutes. A powerful review mechanism driven by CEO (with an escalation matrix that an aggrieved customer can access in case of non-compliance) is an integral part of the structured process in order to ensure the timeline and quality of it's compliance. 

In the context of various other business situations, the timeline may be different and must evolve. For instance for an emergency/crisis having high impact, it could mean 2-Seconds, 2-Minutes, 2-Hours, 2-Days.

There is an empowerment mechanism built into the structure. Timeline-based visible dimensions as above are the generic ones. Company specific visible dimensions may be some sanction limits such as 100 Dollars compensation or a freedom to handover gift for the hassles or the efforts taken by the customer to complain and so on.

More important are the invisible dimensions that result into the culture reflected in terms of the spirit, the body-language, the humbleness, the humility such as that I had experienced while the airline employees responded to the complaint in making it hassle-free and speedy. 

There is tremendous scope and choice for innovations in both in order to delight customer with differentiation. The invisible ones in particular are difficult to emulate. That's where lies the competitive advantage.

If such a structure is implemented effectively, the customer becomes supplier's advocate and it's rewarding in long run as well as in terms of short term sales and numbers. Such an advocate is much more effective than even a highly paid marketing manager.

A prospective customer is likely to believe and act more often if recommendation comes from the horse's mouth: The Word-Of-Mouth!

That's How Morons Work

Calendar showed bank-holiday for Mohharrum marked on Thursday 14th.
Last minute it was changed to Friday 15th.
So Sachin Tendulkar got more spectators on idiot-boxes for his career's last cricket test-match.
Wankhede stadium housed-full for the match that had begun on 14th.

No doubt I am his fan but had many other priorities.
My schedule of submitting a renewal application for instance on Friday 15th had anyway got upset due to last minute announcement of change in holiday.

That was generation of a waste due to 'waste in planning' as above!

Their website was working with interruptions so somehow the least I could do was to download the form. While Sachin stepped on field, early in the morning I rushed to the authority's office to 'field' them. Luckily there was no queue perhaps because public had queued to watch Sachin bat.

Without even looking at the form, expression-less staff on counter repelled me saying: "We don't accept renewal forms on Saturdays".

He didn't bother about my request to "at least verify the application form for mistakes and inadequacy in attachments, if any."

That was a 'waste in manpower and energy' of the office facilities!

So I had to schedule a leave from work on Monday additionally with a provision for revisit again in case of any inadvertent gaps in the form.

That was a 'waste in mandays and fuel'!

Some questions arose in my mind... Likely in yours too!  

Why was it not possible for the authority to declare on their website 'what activities they perform (or don't) on what day of the week'?

That was a 'waste by not using technology' although installed!

In absence of transparency of such information for customer, why was it not possible for them to verify and accept the form on Saturday itself. It was just a matter of filing it overnight until Monday for onward processing. Their staff was sitting on the counter anyway.

Why should the customer be made to suffer!

'Waste in manpower' due to inadequate methods as above!

What's the learning?

Rather than any new learning, the episode reconfirms the way morons work and the way they run their business processes. 

That's how 'man' (ab)uses 'power' in inefficient and ineffective sectors and makes customer powerless.

I know the situation is too small an experience than large scale disgusting experiences most of us might have had.

The purpose of bringing it up here is to draw parallels from among such experiences, be it in private or public sector, manufacturing or services industry. The real value-adding time in most of the processes is hardly five percent. For instance, the 'renewal' in above case doesn't involve more than a few seconds for 'a check' of past records on the computer (provided it's working) and then signature by the verifier and his boss. But in reality it takes much more, just as it takes twenty minutes at times on a fuel pump while filling operation itself doesn't take more than a minute.

Hopefully an awareness on the wastage as follows and inefficiencies thereby that such practices breed might help begin reducing them to make processes leaner.

Waste in planning, design, etc.! 

Waste in methods! 

Wasted manpower and energy of the office facilities!

Wasted mandays and fuel!

Wasted technology!

Wasted resources in general (material, space, machines, etc.)!

Gravity of such inefficient and ineffective work-culture can be judged by estimating the costs (direct, indirect, tangible as well as intangible) that the corresponding stakeholders have to bear as a result of such wastes. 

An eye opener for their leadership to begin their journey towards a Zero-waste Leaner company!

I think title of this post should have been: That's How Morons Generate Waste! 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Customer or Custo-Mer?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value?  
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Fearful Death-Of-Birth !

Imagine anxiety and fear of a typical interviewee:

Sir, what's my profile and what will be my pay?
I am employing you 'To Borrow My Worries' and your annual-pay will be 'A Lakh of Dollars' dear: replies the businessman.
The Interviewee: But how can a small business afford such a pay package?
The Businessman: That's your first worry!

Imagine anxiety of a typical mother of a patient when Doctor asks:

Which news would you like to hear first, I have a bad news and a very-bad news for you? 
Patient asks for bad news first.
Doctor says: Your lab-test results show you have 24 hours to live.
Patient: Only 24 Hours! Oh My God!! Can there be any worse news than this?
Doctor: The very-bad news is I've been trying to reach you since yesterday.

Jokes apart. 
Fear has power to pull one down from all the previous achieved happiness and achieved goals in one shot.

At spiritual level as Saint Gondavlekar Guruji says, anxiety and worry is like termites. One can't see it eat anything.

Termites are evident only in the form of a destroyed book or cloth. Similarly, effect of anxiety and fear can be seen only in the form of destroyed faith and confidence in one's own self and thereby in terms of an undeserved outcome or a failure.

In fact if studied scientifically as well as spiritually, in longer run
- the so-called failure as also success turns out to be relative, and then,
- one accepts 'whatever happens, happens for good' at the end of putting in best efforts.

In longer run many 'windows-&-doors' of opportunities do open unless one succumbs to termites of anxiety and fear in the interim.

Hence not allowing fear to be in the vicinity should be one of the most important goals, in fact should be a top order of goal of everyone.

And so far, that was about managing fear for material goals.

Ultimate, the choicest of all goals, is to manage mother-of-all-the-fears: The Fear-of-Death.

It's about empowering one's own 'self'.

It's about training one's own 'self' on domain knowledge of a beautiful spiritual thought reflected in various versions of a poem that I came across sometime somewhere:

Looking at the horizon, someone by the side of the sea exclaims, "Oh, the Ship is gone !" just while on the other side of the horizon someone rejoices, "Wow, the Ship has arrived !"

That's where it's the 'Death of the concept of birth' and vice versa.

That inspires me to give a little poetic touch-n-tip:

Life-Boat for Fear-of-Death !

Why do you cry "Oh, S/he is gone !"
Let someone rejoice, "Wow, S/he is born !"
On the day this thought is borne !
Fear is gone with a gift of New Dawn !!

In A Big-Problem?: Wear Hats To Solve It !!

Life is about tackling gaps! Gaps among:

1/ what we 'want' (i.e. what we desire to have),
2/ what we 'need' (i.e. what we need to survive) and
3/ what we 'have' (i.e. our current situation).

These gaps are referred to as problems in day to day language. Gaps may be in terms of physical, mental, financial, social or spiritual health, both at individual & societal level.

So life is about overcoming various hurdles or problem-situations in order to bridge gaps at individual & societal level. In positive sense, life is about opportunities to add value to self & society while tackling problematic situations.

This post is an extension of my blog-post titled In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! In that post, I dwelled upon the fact that 'dwelling' provides 'adult-in-you' to 'respect' others like 'adults'. It provides an opportunity to look at a given problematic situation in totality. It allows asking 'what-when-where-who-why-how' questions to it's components without a bias.

This ability is particularly important in order to solve chronic problems as well as crises and larger issues.

Sometimes acknowledging a problem as a problem itself is a problem as in P.J. (Poor Joke) in punchline of this blog where Mr Foolhardy falls again-and-again at same place! Like Foolhardy, some do 'love falling' and getting 'cured again-n-again' rather than taking preventive 'care'. Some hardly go beyond first-aid attitude during entire lifetime. 

Why is this so? What should the case really be?

One reason may be lack of respecting discipline: the undesirable habit nurtured by both, one's own parent-ego and child-ego. Other one may be lack of training  the adult-ego to solve complicated problems.

One way to overcome the former reason is instituting strict disciplinary measures as a stick on undesired behavior of parent-and-child-ego. The other way may be to install measures for attitudinal change so that adult-ego takes active charge of the situation to steer it to a desired one.

This blog-post is about tackling the latter i.e. training mind (the adult-ego) on importance of 'dwelling meaningfully' in order to improve effectiveness of problem solving.

Problem Solving Steps

Problems can be categorized in four quadrants based on combination of:

1/ ease or difficulty level of identifying them and/or their causes and
2/ ease or difficulty in finding and/or implementing countermeasures on them.

Difficult-Difficult-type problems in particular need to be resolved step-by-step by breaking them down into smaller stones so that prioritized one can be taken one at a time. It's like breaking a mountain over a period of time in steps of blasts in a typical mine and thereafter hammering the larger (post-blast) rocks into smaller stones with an objective of making them worthy of utility.

Need for undertaking logical steps with equanimity gets enhanced with rising level of difficulty to identify the problems and/or to resolve them.

 7-steps in the Plan-Do-Check-Act Improvement (Kaizen) Cycle are:

Plan Step-1: Define a problem or a goal to create an innovative utility-value

Plan Step-2: Observe gaps in the current situation with reference to the goal (This is done after the first-aid solution is put in place)

Plan Step-3: Analyse and find root-causes of the gaps

Plan Step-4: Plan countermeasures to prevent occurrence and recurrence of causes

Do Step-5: Implement countermeasures

Check Step-6: Study effect of the countermeasures 

Act Step-7: 7a/ Standardize so that favorable effects are sustained 

Step-7b: Rotate the above steps: 1/ until favorable effects are achieved in case of unfavorable effects, 2/ to attain higher levels in case of favorable effects, 3/ to take a new improvement goal

''Dwelling'' on a predefined agenda in each problem-solving-step allows flow of unbiased creative thoughts useful for complicated problem solving. It allows 'brain-writing' those. It involves 'speaking-to-self' by asking 'why-why & what-where-who-when-why-how' kind of questions and 'writing' the evolved thoughts. 

This is contrary to 'speaking-to-others' as in brain-storming. Such a 'don't-speak' rule wearing a pink-hat virtually to represent that the problem-solver is in 'dwelling-mode' allows flow of 'wild-thoughts' that otherwise may get killed as in brain-storming.

I have added the Pink-Hat as the 7th-Hat to Edward De Bono's idea of 6-Hats: White, Red, Green, Black, Yellow And Blue, each with a purpose.

The Pink-Hat as a common one represents 'brain-writing' activity as above in each of the 7-steps that I have connected to an appropriate hat each. Pink-Hat is used in combination with each of Bono's 6- hats primary to a corresponding step. Each hat forces adult-ego to focus primarily on the agenda predefined for that particular hat and that particular step.

In step-1, Pink-Hat begins with taking ('brain-writing') inventory of problems. Then a priority problem is picked up to solve. As stated earlier, Pink-Hat is used in each step in combination with corresponding hat of that step to 'brain-write'.

In step-2, White-Hat is used to find factual gaps in an unbiased manner.

In step-3, Red-Hat is used to find root-causes of the gaps without keeping any emotional attachment to the problem. 

In step-4, Green-Hat is used to find alternative ideas (innovative countermeasures) to arrest root-causes.

In step-5, Black-Hat is used to critically assess risk while innovatively implementing ideas (countermeasures) .

In step-6, Yellow-Hat is used to assess benefits of the countermeasures taken.

In step-7, Blue-Hat is used to take an overview in an unbiased manner.

Going back to the earlier blog-post, the problem therein that of locked-door not opening was Easy-Easy-type. However applying structured steps as above could have yielded additional opportunities as follows over and above the first-aid solution that 'clicked' then:

1/ Create a 'how-to' operating-procedure for odd-season working of equipment,
2/ Create a 'checklist' to prevent abnormal behavior of equipment in odd-season,
3/ Create an innovative-design or material for the door and lock capable of handling abnormal conditions.

So one can imagine the potential and impact of application of hats in structured steps in case of  Easy-Difficult-type, Difficult-Easy-type and in particular that of Difficult-Difficult-type chronic and complicated crises situations.

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
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Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
When Safety Becomes Sorry 
Drove To Hell ... Almost !  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!
Part-1
In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it! Part-2
How To Make A Difference
Big-Be Or Bug-Be !
Make checklists your friends
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis
That's How Morons Work
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Waste-to-eat-sea-to-drink