Tree of knowledge

Here are some tips I took with me from a recent 2-day training called “Problem solving and creativity”. For many of you they might seem as old as the hills or even obsolete but some might use them as a crutch for getting out of the many culs-de-sac we face in our professional and private lives.

1. Define your problem properly before solving it

What is your problem exactly? What is your goal? What exactly should happen? Or what shouldn’t? This might seem obvious but bad definitions of a problem often lead to misunderstandings. People offer seemingly illogical solutions for a problem just because they see the problem differently. A fellow participant suddenly realized where that “strange” proposal expressed by her husband for the renovation of their house came from – he probably just had a slightly different objective in mind…

2. Dig for the causes

Don’t rush to find the solution immediately but first try to gather more information and find out what the cause was/is, go back to the roots (well, maybe not if your problem is spinach in your teeth and you just want to remove it quickly….).  Ask why it happened/ happens and when you’ve got the answer ask “why” again. Go back little by little and make sure you have enough facts and don’t assume anything. Now, of course, the mother of a murderer is not guilty for the murder… use common sense. One of the tools you can grab for help is this fishermen’s friend — Ishikawa diagrams.

 3. Map the mind

A mind map resembles a tree – take a sheet  of paper (the bigger, the better), write the problem, concept, keyword etc. in the middle and then start drawing branches, following your associations – the merrier, the better, so use colours, symbols etc. The add smaller branches to the bigger ones. Your brain will understand this better than linear notes. The good thing about this is that a tree can always grow, new branches are spreading, but you still see a tree – the whole picture.

You can draw them manually or use appropriate software. Or even an iPhone app.

By the way, when drawing mind-maps, the 5W+H method used by many journalists can be helpful. Just ask these questions: What? Why? When? Where? Who? How?

4. Buy 6 hats

 You don’t really have to wear them…

The principle is to look at a thing from different perspectives but systematically and subsequently. In the end everybody knows how the cow looks from all sides – it’s not only horns or a tail.

The white hat is responsible for gathering the facts, the red – for measuring emotions/gut reactions, the yellow – for identifying the benefits of a solution, the black (should be always used after the yellow) — for the negative points, the green one – for creativity, the blue one is worn by the moderator.

 By the way, Boeing Toronto avoided a strike thanks to the use of the method during the negotiations.

5. Use random objects/words to find new ideas

Imagine your task is to improve a flower pot or a garbage bin, for instance. And you are stuck, don’t know where to start. One of the options to get your ideas flowing is to choose a random object or word and use it as a creativity vehicle. So, you take, for example, butterfly. Now – write down 3 characteristics of a butterfly or associations you have with it. Got it? Now see how you can draw parallels and do something differently, inspired by what you just wrote down.

Good luck!

Standstill...

This week started with a huge system failure. The first thing we noticed was that “Outlook” was not responding anymore. It left – for half a day as we discovered later – with no mention of when it would come back, and we couldn’t write e-mails to each other anymore.

It became a day of actual communication in the Web Communications unit. Our so loved synopses were brought around by helpful colleagues who had printed out several copies. Instructions were given orally and I must say – it was very pleasant to see a friendly face leaning on the doorframe of my office at regular intervals. Besides, this sudden movement was also a useful exercise for our stiff backs.  Conclusion – probably we should do this more often to change the routine.

We also couldn’t publish any articles for long time that day. Our impressive publishing machine, alias IM-Press (what an IM-Posing and IM-Portant name!), had taken an extra holiday… He – I somehow assume IM-Press is a “he” although you could draw parallels with “empress” and “princess”- obviously thought: “if “Outlook” can do it, I can as well”, although his working regime is actually much lighter.

IM-Press is one of those friends you can’t really rely on. Like a cat. Sometimes it decides to play little games with us during the plenary session – the busiest time for the Parliament and its communication teams. Of course, there’s a lot of work on his shoulders during the peak hours – everybody wants to publish something and that in 22 languages… but then IM-Press just says: “Nope, not with me…” and goes for a cigarette – or wherever, nobody really knows. This behaviour makes us incandescent.

That day he was in a particularly funny mood. He came back together with “Outlook” and then, sometime later, I realized that there were no articles at all on my page anymore. Yes, of course, then I had to play with him a little bit, talk softly, and… yes, finally it worked out.

We should have somebody here with the job description: “IM-Press whisperer”. Or we should be clear enough and express to IM-Press that he needs to impress, or he will be EX-Press!

Well, this is just for you to know. If you sometimes don’t find the long awaited articles on our website for some time and in none of the offered languages – think of our “enfant terrible” and have compassion with us.

Back to normality… until next time?

Looking for new ways...

Ok, so we won’t eat grapes as they do it in Spain or purify the home as they do it in Scotland.  Perhaps we’ll have a video message from Barack Obama fresh on the footsteps of the message Hillary Clinton delivered in person a few weeks ago.

“New year” in the Parliament’s hemicycle Chamber will mean new resolutions and new faces to become familiar with.

Of course, for many MEPs it will be “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day; I will be with you again…” (U2). But for those new faces in the Parliament we need new faces to elect them — that’s why we are determined to conquer Facebook. And MySpace, Flickr and Youtube.

According to a study of the Nielsen Company members of such social networks and blogs have become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. Ok, we are not the only ones to realise their potential but we are the first public institution of this scale that does it.

But what should be the pre-New-Year’s message? As we see from implementing New Year’s resolutions and previous election campaigns formulating duties and obligations doesn’t really help. We have to encourage, make it easy and fun – be pals, find common language (their language) and show the choices.

The problem is, we are an institution and not politicians, so we have to be neutral and objective, otherwise we’ll be in trouble.

Besides, it’s not a new product we have to convince them of. No, it’s 30 years old! Many of those who spend a big part of their lives on Facebook and MySpace weren’t even born then. So it’s difficult. I guess I’ll have to ask my sister’s advice -  she is going to turn 18 next month.

On the other hand, if they buy it, it will themselves who will get the benefits. Let’s just hope that the political groups and parties enter the game too and make people’s decision easier with clearly formulated objectives. We can talk about choices as much as we want but it is up to the people to make the final choice!