'Great people don’t do different things but do things differently!!'
We people are caught up in a routine….we knowingly or un-knowingly have programmed our brain to think in a regular manner – That is actually a shame to our brain! The very purpose of brain is to think, taking all possibilities into consideration…but we have trained it so much that it works in a same manner even if it is struck without finding any solutions – it still tries to solve the issue or problem in a same manner – it refuses to rephrase it – or view it from other perspectives!! It has nothing to do with our brains though…we have trained it that way after all!!
I think it is here that achievers and ordinary people differ…..at least that’s what I feel! All the aptitude tests are meant for this purpose – to know if we can think from a different perspective…..but what we do is try practicing them and frame formulae and crack them….here we are not thinking but programming our brain to think in a particular way when it encounters a particular question – again the purpose is defeated…but anyway – we use aptitude tests here just for the purpose of filtering people ;-).
Talking of this reminds me of two instances I read somewhere. I am not too sure where, also I heard some prominent person speaking of these….don’t exactly know where. Anyway…I would like to share them here…they are actually very interesting! (Both these are MBA stuff…I mean practical problem solving examples in industry environment!!)
First let me talk of a costlier one! When scientists from USA were first planning to launch astronauts into Space they faced with this problem. They found that Pens wouldn’t work in space at zero gravity, as there will b problem in ink flowing down! But pens were inevitable….so they had to find some solution for this problem. So they formed a team of scientists researching on this topic and worked on finding a pen that would work there in space and so everywhere! And yes they did find a solution…a decade or so later. The amount they spent on this research was around a whooping $12 million!! But during the same period and even before this Russians were successful in sending their astronauts to space and they did not seem to suffer with this problem. What did they do about this problem -- ??
Any guesses – of course only if u did not know abt this incident before. They saw it from a different perspective….they used Pencils!! Yes – very simple indeed – but only once u know the answer!! This is the important point, we many a times fail to identify!
And the next one is also a very popular one – a case study on Japanese Management! This happened in one of the Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The problem was that, they received a complaint from a customer saying that he received an empty soap box (actually it should have contained a soap in it!!). Immediately the problem was isolated to the assembly line, which actually is responsible for this mistake to happen and a lot of effort went down in finding a solution for this problem! They were not able to find the particular reason for the problem….but they had to find a solution so that the same problem doesn’t occur again! The Engineers there worked very hard to find a solution for this problem and finally after a lot of time and effort they were able to devise an X-ray machine, which was able to do the job with proper inspection and stuff! Again like the previous case – it worked – they were successful in finding a solution – but after a lot of time and effort. And after reading the first example you would have definitely guessed there is a simpler but effective solution!
If you want to give your brain some fun….think if u can find a solution ;-)
But for those who don’t have the patience to think – this is the solution…and this came through an employee of a very small company…..he did not complicate himself with concepts of X-Rays and stuff but came out with this simple solution…..he bought an Industrial electric fan and used that instead of the X-ray machine! He pointed it to the assembly line and switched it ON…..and as each soap-box passes the fan, it simply blew out the empty box out of the line!! Simple!!
When I started to write on this topic of thinking from a different perspective – these were the ones that struck my mind immediately. So wanted to share them with you. Hope you enjoyed them….let’s try to think….let’s simplify things…..big problems do have simple solutions!!
We people are caught up in a routine….we knowingly or un-knowingly have programmed our brain to think in a regular manner – That is actually a shame to our brain! The very purpose of brain is to think, taking all possibilities into consideration…but we have trained it so much that it works in a same manner even if it is struck without finding any solutions – it still tries to solve the issue or problem in a same manner – it refuses to rephrase it – or view it from other perspectives!! It has nothing to do with our brains though…we have trained it that way after all!!
I think it is here that achievers and ordinary people differ…..at least that’s what I feel! All the aptitude tests are meant for this purpose – to know if we can think from a different perspective…..but what we do is try practicing them and frame formulae and crack them….here we are not thinking but programming our brain to think in a particular way when it encounters a particular question – again the purpose is defeated…but anyway – we use aptitude tests here just for the purpose of filtering people ;-).
Talking of this reminds me of two instances I read somewhere. I am not too sure where, also I heard some prominent person speaking of these….don’t exactly know where. Anyway…I would like to share them here…they are actually very interesting! (Both these are MBA stuff…I mean practical problem solving examples in industry environment!!)
First let me talk of a costlier one! When scientists from USA were first planning to launch astronauts into Space they faced with this problem. They found that Pens wouldn’t work in space at zero gravity, as there will b problem in ink flowing down! But pens were inevitable….so they had to find some solution for this problem. So they formed a team of scientists researching on this topic and worked on finding a pen that would work there in space and so everywhere! And yes they did find a solution…a decade or so later. The amount they spent on this research was around a whooping $12 million!! But during the same period and even before this Russians were successful in sending their astronauts to space and they did not seem to suffer with this problem. What did they do about this problem -- ??
Any guesses – of course only if u did not know abt this incident before. They saw it from a different perspective….they used Pencils!! Yes – very simple indeed – but only once u know the answer!! This is the important point, we many a times fail to identify!
And the next one is also a very popular one – a case study on Japanese Management! This happened in one of the Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The problem was that, they received a complaint from a customer saying that he received an empty soap box (actually it should have contained a soap in it!!). Immediately the problem was isolated to the assembly line, which actually is responsible for this mistake to happen and a lot of effort went down in finding a solution for this problem! They were not able to find the particular reason for the problem….but they had to find a solution so that the same problem doesn’t occur again! The Engineers there worked very hard to find a solution for this problem and finally after a lot of time and effort they were able to devise an X-ray machine, which was able to do the job with proper inspection and stuff! Again like the previous case – it worked – they were successful in finding a solution – but after a lot of time and effort. And after reading the first example you would have definitely guessed there is a simpler but effective solution!
If you want to give your brain some fun….think if u can find a solution ;-)
But for those who don’t have the patience to think – this is the solution…and this came through an employee of a very small company…..he did not complicate himself with concepts of X-Rays and stuff but came out with this simple solution…..he bought an Industrial electric fan and used that instead of the X-ray machine! He pointed it to the assembly line and switched it ON…..and as each soap-box passes the fan, it simply blew out the empty box out of the line!! Simple!!
When I started to write on this topic of thinking from a different perspective – these were the ones that struck my mind immediately. So wanted to share them with you. Hope you enjoyed them….let’s try to think….let’s simplify things…..big problems do have simple solutions!!
1 comment:
My feelings exactly...why complicate. Attack each problem with a blank sheet of paper on front...!! :)
But then...this approach depends heavily on the abilities of the person involved. Too risk prone for big insdustries...hence the masses are made to program their brains. am referring to work here...and to an extent school...
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