A Solutions Framework Built for Iteration

When talking about problem solving at it’s core you come to a few conclusions about how to approach problem solving in a repeatable way. When confronted with a problem in everyday life it can be very exhaustive to try and come up with a solution out of the blue. Through the years I have noticed myself struggle unnecessarily with problems on an emotional level. What I have come to accept is that problems are simply an aspect of life which then allowed me to think about general approaches that could be used to tackle problems as they show up in life.

For starters you only know what you know and have to start considering your options right out of the gate even if you lack the information to make a good decision it is useful to find your bearings by understanding some of your options. It is also important to note the urgency of this problem and how quickly you need to make a decision. Understanding these points allows you to start to break down your problem and set a time frame for when you need to implement a solution by.

For many basic daily problems you are probably done after these initial problem solving steps. Once you start working on bigger problems though this is really only your starting point and where the real work begins. Once you implement your solution you need to keep track of the problem and just observe if your solution is having the intended effect. Another important aspect of this that cannot be overlooked is externalities. Sometimes a solution that you implement works as expected for your narrowly defined problem but has unintended effects.

This is where the iteration comes into play and can allow you to see how your solution is working and where there is room for improvement. It is really important that as a society we start to consider how our decisions impact things at multiple levels such as your community or the environment. Really the goal of this is to develop a system that comes to the best solution quickly but considers wider impacts and expects the need for iteration as the problem is better understood. I hope this can help you think through problems more thoroughly as they show up in your life and please let me know if you have any ideas to expand on such a system!