When you are solving problems, do you take the time to really think about your thoughts and ideas? The assumptions you are making about the important aspects of the problem?
Do you know whether you are basing decisions on fact or fiction?
How do you find out?
You can search the internet. You can talk to those around you.
We live in a wonderful age of technology and connectedness which, for all the potential negatives associated with it, gives us access to the vast and amazing knowledge of the entire world. There is not much we cannot find out today by surfing the internet. Google the basic premises of your assumptions and see what you find.
People often have faulty memories or believe what makes their lives the easiest. They like to operate in safe and comfortable bubbles of consistency, whether or not the assumption they operate in are fact or fiction. Talk to team members and those involved about the major issues. Do they believe the assumptions are hard and fast truths? Or do they understand that some are fiction? Asking basic questions such as “Why do you believe this?” or “Where did this come from?” can begin to bring to light fictions previously perceived to be facts.
Take those big issues and aspects of your problem and find out what is really fact and what is just fiction. It could be the fiction of someone’s opinion. It could be the fiction of a rumor run rampant. It could be the fiction of stories misunderstood. It could simply be the fiction of “we have always done things this way” or “that is just how it is done here”.
Taking time to do this when you are in the middle of a problem and struggling through the details will give you a better understanding of where you are at and where you need to go.