TO put it in another way, can we solve problems by sleeping on it? I used to hear it from my boss decades back when we could not decide on important matters. Or, when he was in a hurry to catch an appointment elsewhere. This meant adjourning a late afternoon meeting so we could clock out and go home right away. The following morning, who among us had the best solution?
Nobody! We kept on thinking until we paralyzed ourselves to a near-death experience until we were forced to make an imperfect decision. But that’s the key. An imperfect decision is better than a perfect indecision. With that, the lesson that I learned was sweet and easy to understand.
We can’t solve a problem without a tool, a framework, or a standard.
Somehow, anyone can start with some basic problem-solving tools or whatever is comfortable to use. In my case, I prefer kaizen as it forces me to think of low-cost and practical solutions, not expensive ones where we are constrained to spend money.
I tested it hundreds of times when I was working on several projects one week before its deadline. I would sleep my way through it. I asked myself: “Can I improve my ideas when I’m half-asleep?” Or, to be exact, without doing anything.
Kate Rodriguez, writing for Inc.com says there’s a science-backed way of solving problems when you’re half-asleep. “It’s called riding the theta brain waves. No, this isn’t about self-hypnosis or Zen meditation: It’s pure science, and it works.”
Theta waves are electrical pulses that are produced by the brain. It happens all the time when you’re “lightly sleeping, dreaming, or in a state of deep relaxation.” In addition to that, I get many ideas when I’m doing my morning walk in the neighborhood.
Tabula rasa
When I walk without worries, I begin to realize that I can easily create a blank slate for myself. Having a blank slate or a clear mind is called tabula rasa in Latin. It’s like cleaning all the spam emails in our heads, resulting in an objective mindset free from all types of biases. However, it’s temporary.
The sooner I meet a familiar face on the street, all of my fresh ideas can evaporate. That’s why I wear dark-colored sunglasses as one reason to ignore people. If I can’t have my way, I need to be ready with a recording app on my mobile phone to capture those fleeting ideas. It’s only a matter of seconds and those ideas would be gone if I’m not alert.
This experiment and my other half-sleep routine taught me many things.
If my creative juice is hard to come by, I would stop right away and go to sleep. If not, take my mind off what I’m doing by taking an afternoon walk, depending on the kind of weather. You can imagine the immediate relief. It’s like having an energy boost from a bubbly classic, cold Coke in the can.
This enables me to make a renewed sense of purpose even when writing an article like this one. The amount of renewal depended on the type of words, the length of the article, and the scrambled sentences that were created for some irrational reason. The most important of all is to make a clear distinction between what is readable and understandable.
Disruption
It’s essential to remove our bias to almost anything. As I said before, the first answer that comes to our mind is wrong. It’s the best way to control our bias. But that doesn’t mean we should eliminate them all. The trick, for us problem solvers, is how to disrupt ourselves with unusual things.
Take a good example from the popular movie “Ocean’s Eleven.” Newly-paroled Danny Ocean, the head of casino robbers used a simple strategy in robbing a casino with millions of dollars. They disrupted and distracted the management team of Terry Benedict, the casino owner, so they could penetrate the casino’s operations, security, and the most important thing of all — the vaults.
The disruption continued until Benedict realized that the robbery was pre-staged. His problem is compounded when he calls the SWAT team, who were the robbers walking out of the casino in their full SWAT gear with each one carrying large bags full of money.
Disruption and distraction are not necessarily bad for us. We need them from time to time, to clear our minds from biases and prejudices. And, also to entertain us. But that’s only possible if we’re trying to solve problems without doing anything.
Rey Elbo is a consultant on human resources and total quality management. Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or email [email protected] or via https://reyelbo.com
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