In my Switch Thinking courses and workshops I often ask the group, team or participants for a real problem to work on.
I do this so the material is more relevant and practical.
And the new concept cannot be so easily dismissed.
Some of these problems I have outlined below:
– How to attract staff back to the office?
– Should I buy a new, expensive coat?
– How to decrease the accidents with the new light rail?
– How to get kids to go to sleep on time?
– Should I buy a new car?
– How to retain our staff when they are being offered more money? (Not for profit Org.)
– What can we do in the next 90 days to lower emissions?
– How to engage more students and parents in STEM subjects at school?
Some notes on the Problems:
As you can see the list of problems is broad – from personal to business oriented.
And from small to more complex.
In all cases the Switch Thinking tool kit has helped the participants to think differently about the challenge at hand.
In fact, people are often surprised at what ideas and possible solutions they can create in such a small amount of time (I usually give groups 10 -15 minutes).
In fact, one not-for-profit group said that they had covered more ground in the 20 minute session I ran for them than they had in the previous 12 months.
This is because rather than thinking longer and harder (but in the same way) they had switched to thinking differently.
By doing so, you can see new possibilities and opportunities – almost immediately.
The other key to problem solving using switch thinking is when you switch your thinking everyone in the group or team is at the same starting line.
For example, if I suggest how might a clown view this challenge then everyone’s ideas are equally valid, there is no expert in the room which can lead to a greater openness in the group.