Source: Martin Roberts

This pattern helps you find your way out of a problem that you are stuck in. It addresses our tendency to define a problem in a way that makes it seem impossible to solve. When you approach any technique of problem solving, be sure to experience a resourceful state of mind. The best techniques for problem solving will not do much good if you aren’t “in the mood” to find solutions or if you’re operating under stress. Physical distance, when appropriate, can also help to quiet the mind and put you in a state of creative flow.

Step 1: Use meta-model distinctions to analyze the problem. #

Think about how you have defined your problem. How would you succinctly state the nature of your problem? Look for well-formedness violations in this definition. These include vagueness, over-generalization, and distortions of meaning, causation, and presumption. Look for ways that you define the problem as being outside of your control or as being like a thing instead of a process. What happens when you take the problem and treat it like a verb? For example, “How do you deal with social anxiety yourself?”

Step 2: Investigate the problem’s ecology. #

Look at the ways the problem can serve you. You are looking for things that may perpetuate the problem because they act as incentives. For example, social anxiety can cause you to reduce demands on yourself. Seeing how this happens can help you turn your attention to the problems that would make it difficult for you to tolerate those demands. With this expanded awareness, you can brainstorm solutions and get help.

Step 3: Look for dysfunctional presuppositions that you have unconsciously embedded in the problem as you have defined it. #

Do your presuppositions make the problem somehow impossible to solve? Do they set up a condition for solving the problem that requires an uncooperative person to cooperate with you?  Notice how these presuppositions are arbitrary and unnecessary. Challenge them.

Step 4: Generate “what if” scenarios in order to come up with new problem formulations. #

Since this is brainstorming, go for quantity rather than quality. Use this as an opportunity to “massage” the boundaries that your mind has created. For example, “How would I think of this problem if I had amazingly high self-esteem?”  “What if I was a highly aggressive person?” “What if I had all the compassion, wisdom, and universal connectedness of a saint or Buddha?” Look at the problem in these scenarios, and see how it seems different.

Step 5: Test. #

In the coming days, see what new resources and solutions come to mind regarding this problem. Watch for new behaviors and feelings. Has this exercise led to you being more flexible in your thinking and behavior in some ways?