Problem Solving With Tinderbox

Problem Solving With Tinderbox

Sunday, May 28, 2006 8:09 PM (permalink)

Tinderbox is a wonderful tool for writing, organizing information and brainstorming. I have used outliners, text files, cocktail napkins--you name it--and all have their uses. If I am really thinking in outline form (such as a presentation based around an existing report), an outliner such as OmniOutliner Pro is my tool of choice, though Tinderbox is an equally fine outliner in its own right.

My brain, however, rarely spits things out in outline form. While most of the people I work with have brains like Rolodexes, mine is more like a gigantic spinning cork ball, with thousands of yellow stickies attached to it. Ask me a question, and I spin the ball. While I might grab my mental sticky before others sift through their Rolodex, I am just as likely to come up with the capital of Micronesia as I am the right answer.

Tinderbox is awesome for organizing disconnected thoughts or complex patterns that resist simple hierarchies. It's like having a gigantic whiteboard full of Post-It notes, except they never lose their stickiness, you can find every word, and you can reuse them under multiple categories.

I use Tinderbox for problem solving because it allows for divergent and convergent thinking on the same canvas. McKinsey alumni would call this making a "logic tree"--you start with one problem or concept, then break it down into all the possible reasons or issues that comprise the problem (that's the divergent part), continuing to branch until each issue has been broken down to its core components.

Once you have done this, you can then look for ways to "close" each branch of the tree--what are the action steps to solve each problem? Often, by allowing yourself to "open up the problem" with as many little sticky notes as you want (mine are generally a lot messier than the one above) you open yourself to a greater view of the connections between the parts. You close each branch of the tree by looking for the possible causes for each of the issues on the diagram, and then look for commonalities. It is this convergent thinking stage that outliners don't handle well, but Tinderbox is fabulous at:

Often you see that even complex problems, when thoroughly broken down, can be boiled down into just a couple of central issues. The folks who live within the confines of one box or another (say, Marketing, or Sales) might only look at how to solve the problem from within their functional view. When you take the time to spread out the whole "canvas of pain" from all functions/factions, however, you might just see that everyone's problems really boil down to just two or three root causes. Then you can begin the process anew--with divergent thinking around those root causes, and convergent thinking to find commonalities in possible solutions.

Turns out, all you need is more money. Anyway, I sit through loads of strategic planning issues with my clients. "Let's think outside the box" ranks up there with "step up" and "bring something to the table" as the three most nausea-inducing business/Apprentice cliches. Let's not think outside the box. In many of the business problems I have tackled, the challenge isn't "inside the box thinking," it's a lack of thoroughly exploring all the boxes. Until you know what's really in all of them, you can't possibly think outside them.