It came to me in a dream. I was explaining the “add-subtract-change” problem solving technique to somebody. I had never heard of it before, but while awake I had been working on a book about problem solving. This new technique turned out to be a very useful technique when I tried it. It is an idea that has undoubtedly been thought of by others, but it was unknown to me until that moment.

I have had this happen before. I have had story ideas come to me in a dream, and solutions to problems. When I was younger, I even invented a way to sail my sled on the Lake Michigan ice in my dream. I tried it and it worked.

Maybe you have solved problems and had new ideas in your dreams as well. There is no doubt that it can happen, but how do we make it more likely, and more common? Try the following.

Getting Ideas In A Dream

- Think about it a lot. If a period of intense mental work on a problem precedes sleep, the subconscious mind has been “instructed” that this is important, and will continue to work on the problem during sleep.

- Write the problem down, and what qualities the solution may have, just before going to sleep.

- Practice with simple problems. See if you can get yourself to imagine a new kind of furniture, or a new poem in a dream.

- Keep paper and pen by the side of the bed. Write down any ideas you have when you wake up. The process encourages your mind to have even more ideas. A tape recorder is even better, because you can use it without a light and quickly go back to sleep.

- If you wake up without an alarm, you are more likely to remember your dreams. If you need an alarm for work, try problem solving in dreams over the weekend.

- As soon as you wake up, quickly review any dreams you can recall. This “sets” them in your mind before you can forget them. Then you can think back on them later, to see if there is anything useful there.

- If you don’t need sound sleep, try sleeping on the floor or in another slightly uncomfortable way. The repeated waking up and going back to sleep gives you more opportunities to remember dreams. I took notes on nine dreams one night in this way, and had two good ideas from them.

You can get good ideas in a dream. You can also have good ideas and solutions to problems come to you the next morning after you wake up. Review the problem mentally in the morning to encourage this latter process.

Are these scientifically “proven” techniques. No, and it is difficult to measure the “value” of an idea scientifically. What counts as an idea, if you are trying to measure the frequency when using these little tricks? Scientific proof in this area is difficult for now, but people have had productive dreams for thousands of years, and there is nothing harmful in trying to find an answer in a dream. Why not give it a try?

Creative problem solving is about finding the solutions that might normally get missed. Why are they overlooked? Often it is because we are trapped into a certain approach by the assumptions we are making. When we challenge these “hidden” assumptions, we find that there are many creative solutions that never occurred to us before.

An example will help here, but first a question: Have you ever been in Los Angeles traffic? I have been in bumper-to-bumper traffic there, trying to get to the airport at 10:30 at night. If you have had a similar experience, you can understand the following problem.

Joe had an audition for a movie role at eight the next morning in Hollywood, and he lived on the other side of the city. The news of the audition came late, and now – at one in the morning – it occurred to him that he had a problem. It could take as much as four hours to get through the morning traffic, plus he needed some time to shower and get ready. This meant getting up by a little after three that morning.

Two hours of sleep, followed by hours on the freeway. It seemed that this might affect his performance, and this would be his first important role if he got it. His mind started scrambling for solutions. Would taking the bus be faster than driving his van? But he didn’t know the bus schedules, and it was too late to learn. He took out a map of the city and started looking for a better way. There might have been one, but it seemed dangerous to guess about routes he wasn’t familiar with.

Then he remembered the creative problem solving techniques his friend Steve had told him about. He decided to quickly do the assumption-challenging exercise. He took out a pen and piece of paper and wrote: “I need to drive there,” and “I have to take the freeways.” Quickly challenging each of these, he had a few ideas, but nothing that seemed to help much.

Then, when he wrote down the assumption, “I need to leave early in the morning,” and “I have to deal with heavy traffic.” Upon asking if these two assumptions were true, the idea hit him. What if he didn’t have to deal with heavy traffic? What if he didn’t leave early in the morning, but now?

Quickly he showered, prepared himself, and drove to the audition, arriving by 2:30 a.m. because the traffic was always lighter in the middle of the night. He parked his van in a dark corner of the parking lot, crawled into the back, and set his watch-alarm for 7:40 a.m. He got five hours of sleep instead of two, and freshened up in the bathroom just before the audition.

The Problem Solving Technique

The essence of this technique, as you can see in the story, is to identify all the assumptions that are already being made, and ask if they have to be true. Making a list on paper is a good idea. Otherwise you’ll tend to forget some of them. List them, and challenge them, looking for alternative approaches – that’s about it.

Suppose you start by writing down a problem like “Generating more income with our business.” The immediate and obvious assumption is in the formulation of the problem itself. Do you really want more income, or just more profits? After all, some companies have millions in income with no profits.

Having challenged the idea, you now can ask the obvious questions, like, “If we don’t increase income, how would we increase profits?” This might lead to many ideas on ways to reduce your expenses, or to pay less in taxes. No, lets say you were assuming that the business needed more income – or profits. You challenge this and realize that you actually want more for yourself. This might lead to the idea of borrowing money to buy out a partner, resulting in more of the existing profits going to you.

This kind of problem solving is so powerful and creative because it gets you “out of the box.” The box is the usual way of looking at things. Challenge assumptions, though, and you get a look beyond the normal. You often get to a deeper or more fundamental problem, as when a man who thinks he needs a better apartment to rent challenges the idea and ends up investing in a new home. This is a problem solving technique for real life.

Problem solving games are a great idea when you want brain exercise and fun, and some of the best problem solving games can be played as a group. The added element of competition and “showing off” can stimulate some truly creative ideas. These games are especially good for long trips in a car, or for bored kids trapped inside by bad weather.

Best Ideas Game

This game uses a problem solving technique called “random presentation,” and might even lead to some good money-making ideas. First, have someone look out the window or around the room and choose any object at random. Don’t put any restrictions on this. It can be a rock on the side of the road, a stick laying in the yard, a truck, or anything at all.

Now everyone in the car or room can try to come up with the best way to make money with the chosen object. A street sign becomes a place to advertise, and trees are to be sold door-to-door. A truck can be used in a hundred ways to make money, but look for the best new way for the sake of the game maybe a traveling grocery store?

There is no winner or loser in this game. It is just an opportunity to let your imagination run wild, and to exercise your creativity. You may get a few laughs out of it too.

Concept Combination Game

Another good problem solving game for a group involves using a specific creative thinking technique, called “concept combination.” You basically take two concepts or objects and combine them in some novel way. As a group game, the point is just to see who has the best ideas.

What can you come up with from the combination of a chair and a microwave? Perhaps an easy-chair that has a cooler and microwave and television built in. Or microwaveable “couch potatoes” – a potato snack in the shape of a couch.

Change Of Perspective Game

You can also try the “change of perspective” technique for problem solving games. One way is to just take a topic ranging from morality to having a job or anything else, and see who can come up with the most unique (and perhaps coherent) new perspective? Could there be a world where there were no jobs? What would morality be to a virus if it had consciousness?

Once again, there are no losers in this game, or any of these types of games. It is just a chance to get creative and work that mind power. You could vote on the best idea if you want some sort of score keeping, but either way you’ll enjoy these problem solving games.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could solve problems more easily? You can. Problems you have at home, or problems from science, work, or business – you can use special techniques to help you find solutions to all of them. The following is one of the best.

A Problem Solving Story

I had written an ebook on buying cheap homes, based on our experience buying a house for $17,500. I tried to sell it without much luck. I lowered the price to seven dollars, and it still wasn’t selling well. At least I was getting no returns on the ones that sold, so I knew the readers were satisfied with it.

I had previously sold ebooks and given them away. Free ebooks are a way to generate interest in and traffic to websites. Both selling and giving away information are workable business models. Then I realized that I was assuming I had to do one or the other. It seemed like a valid assumption, but when I questioned it, I came up with a new way to solve the problem.

I gave the book away AND sold it. I left the sales page in place, but gave visitors the option to get the book free as well. They just subscribed, and then received a chapter every few days by email. It took over three months to get the whole book this way, and of course I reminded them that they could go buy it right away at any time.

Sales picked up. Nothing spectacular, but I was selling more than before. Apparently many readers like what they saw, and didn’t want to wait to get the rest. I have since used this new model for other ebooks with some success.

Solve Problems By Questioning Assumptions

The hardest part about questioning assumptions is identifying all the assumptions that we so easily and subtly make. Learn to do this, though, and you’ll have some truly creative ideas and effective solutions.

Start with pen and paper, and write a list of assumptions you are making about the situation or problem. Write down even the most obvious “truths.” Once done, begin questioning each item on the list.

Suppose a man is always arguing with someone at work, and he wants to restore peace in the office. On his list of assumptions, he might write, “I need to have a better relationship with this fellow employee,” and “We need to change our behavior.” Questioning these assumptions, he might realize that he can change his own behavior, and that will be enough, or that he really doesn’t need a better relationship. Maybe he can just stay away from this other employee.

Suppose you are a bicycle manufacturer, and you want to produce a new type of bicycle. Your assumptions may include that bicycles need wheels and that they have to be made of metal. Challenge the first, and you might imagine a “bike” with skis that hydroplanes on water when you pedal fast enough. Challenge the second assumption and you find that there are advantages to using fiberglass or plastic instead of metal.

Then you might ask “Do we really need a new product?” Maybe there is more money to be made marketing existing products in new ways. That would save the cost of retooling. Notice that this directly challenges the problem itself. Challenging the primary assumption, or the definition of the problem, can often yield the most creative and useful ways to solve problems.

Systematically questioning assumptions is just one technique. There are dozens more you can use. Make it a habit to use several of them, and soon you’ll be able to solve problems more easily and creatively.