Problem solving or decision-making is a key element for strong teams, good leadership, and for creating a great place to work; but it can be tricky. There are plenty of methods to choose from and we each have our favourites. We can make a ‘pros and cons’ list or something similar. We gather information, do our research or a market analysis, talk to others, even throw darts at a board; all sorts of things to aid our moving forward. But sometimes we get stymied. We have information to work with, but we just cannot seem to make any headway or decide which course of action to take. These can be frustrating moments.
Some time ago I watched Men In Black III (I had already watched the first two and thought, ‘why not?’). If you are not familiar with the movie series, it is about an organization that tracks and polices aliens who are living in disguise on earth. The two protagonists, agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and agent J, played by Will Smith, chase aliens around the planet trying to figure out what the latest diabolic plot is. The movies are what they are and in the third installment there is an interesting piece of dialogue that I think is worth considering.
At a key point in the movie, an earlier in time version of K and current J are stuck. They have some clue about what is going on, but they cannot piece everything together. J is agitated and, feeling that time is of the essence, wants to do something. K on the other hand declares, “we need pie”, and promptly heads off to his favourite diner much to the chagrin of J. It all seems like a waste of time but K explains, “my grand-daddy always said if you have a problem you can’t solve, it helps to get out of your head.” And as they are sitting there, eating pie, talking about whatever comes to mind, they of course stumble across the missing connections that help them to figure out what is going on. “Told you to trust the pie” jibes K.
You could chalk all of this up to a Hollywood script, but I think there is something about this that is of value. On more than one occasion I have found that when I am not making the progress I would like it helps to switch gears, do something different, move to some task that requires a different kind of thinking but gives me a chance to ‘get out of my head’. It is not a given that it will always work, but it often does. Admittedly there really isn’t a formula for this, but maybe that’s the point; maybe part of thinking creatively or outside of the box means allowing for time to ponder things more slowly or more indirectly. And I am not sure there is a specific way to implement this into your situation, but perhaps bringing a pie into the occasional meeting might be worth a try.
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Trust The Pie
Some time ago I watched Men In Black III (I had already watched the first two and thought, ‘why not?’). If you are not familiar with the movie series, it is about an organization that tracks and polices aliens who are living in disguise on earth. The two protagonists, agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and agent J, played by Will Smith, chase aliens around the planet trying to figure out what the latest diabolic plot is. The movies are what they are and in the third installment there is an interesting piece of dialogue that I think is worth considering.
At a key point in the movie, an earlier in time version of K and current J are stuck. They have some clue about what is going on, but they cannot piece everything together. J is agitated and, feeling that time is of the essence, wants to do something. K on the other hand declares, “we need pie”, and promptly heads off to his favourite diner much to the chagrin of J. It all seems like a waste of time but K explains, “my grand-daddy always said if you have a problem you can’t solve, it helps to get out of your head.” And as they are sitting there, eating pie, talking about whatever comes to mind, they of course stumble across the missing connections that help them to figure out what is going on. “Told you to trust the pie” jibes K.
You could chalk all of this up to a Hollywood script, but I think there is something about this that is of value. On more than one occasion I have found that when I am not making the progress I would like it helps to switch gears, do something different, move to some task that requires a different kind of thinking but gives me a chance to ‘get out of my head’. It is not a given that it will always work, but it often does. Admittedly there really isn’t a formula for this, but maybe that’s the point; maybe part of thinking creatively or outside of the box means allowing for time to ponder things more slowly or more indirectly. And I am not sure there is a specific way to implement this into your situation, but perhaps bringing a pie into the occasional meeting might be worth a try.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014 at 9:12 am and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.