So What?

Today I attended a seminar called "Breaking the Barriers" run by mathematician Daniel Goldman. He started with a few ice breakers that were focused on the topic of the day...that was to think outside the box. To think about and approach problems in different ways in order to find different solutions.

We were first asked to multiply one of our organs by however many we wanted and explain the use of our new additions to the group. Individuals came up with similar organs but with different uses. It was really interesting to hear peoples different ideas. One person wanted to add an ear to their stomach in order to listen more to what they thought on the inside and not on the out. Another was a chef and wanted to have more hands to be more efficient.

The activity stimulated my mind and encouraged me to see things from different perspectives.

Throughout the day we explored approaches to finding solutions to problems. It became clear that the more specific the problem was the better the solutions we could make. This demonstrated systematic inventive thinking.

One method Daniel introduced was his 'game theory' approach. This is an upward thinking approach towards problem solving. It encouraged us to identify a problem and after doing so ask the question "so what?" With our answer we were then told to again ask the question "so what?", and so on and so forth. In doing so we were able to identify that the initial problem was not in fact the real problem. Instead it allowed us to identify where the real problem lay and who this was associated with. Our solutions were then tailored to the needs and interests of these people.

A very interesting and stimulating approach to problem solving.