The book Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko is one of those business books that is so full of great ideas, you feel like taking action on many of them as soon as you read them. One of them is called “Phoenix.”
Say you have a problem, a really serious problem within the organization. What to do? How to approach it? According to Michalko, The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed a series of questions designed to drill down into problems, in part to make sure that a problem is looked at from many different angles. The list of questions presented here should not be viewed as “the last word,” but rather “yours to improve.”
Getting you mind wrapped around this technique may be more effective if you consider for a moment a problem – a tough one – that you face. Write it down so that it is clear what exactly you are saying the problem is, not something vague. Now, answer these questions about the problem:
The Phoenix Checklist
1. Why is it necessary to solve the problem?
2. What benefits will you receive by solving the problem?
3. What is the unknown?
4. What is it you don’t yet understand?
5. What is the information you have?
6. What isn’t the problem?
7. Is the information sufficient? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
8. Should you draw a diagram of the problem? A figure?
9. Where are the boundaries of the problem?
10. Can you separate the various parts of the problem? Can you write them down? What are the relationships of the parts of the problem? What are the constants of the problem?
11. Have you seen this problem before?
12. Have you seen this problem in a slightly different form? Do you know a related problem?
13. Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown
14. Suppose you find a problem related to yours that has already been solved. Can you use it? Can you use its method?
15. Can you restate your problem? How many different ways can you restate it? More general? More specific? Can the rules be changed?
16. What are the best, worst and most probable cases you can imagine?
Presumably your brain has been exercised by this process, but I think this approach works even better when done by a team. The idea is to harass the problem so much, that it “gives up its secrets” and becomes easier to deal with. In a group setting you could write the answers on big sheets of white paper and attach them to the walls as you work through the questions. This way people looking around the room could continue to keep coming back to what has already been said, letting the information soak in by repetition. Seeing different aspects of the problem side by side may cause a flash of insight or realization.
Now that the problem has been identified, how about a plan to deal with it? Here is another set of questions designed to uncover the solution or solutions:
The Plan
1. Can you solve the whole problem? Part of the problem?
2. What would you like the resolution to be? Can you picture it?
3. How much of the unknown can you determine?
4. Can you derive something useful from the information you have?
5. Have you used all the information?
6. Can you separate the steps in the problem-solving process? Can you determine the correctness of each step?
7. What creative thinking techniques can you use to generate ideas? How many different techniques?
8. Can you see the result? How many different kinds of results can you see?
9. How many different ways have you tried to solve the problem?
10. What have others done?
11. Can you intuit the solution? Can you check the result?
12. What should be done? How should it be done?
13. Where should it be done?
14. When should it be done?
15. Who should do it?
16. What do you need to do at this time?
17. Who will be responsible for what?
18. Can you use this problem to solve some other problem?
19. What is the unique set of qualities that makes this problem what it is and none other?
20. What milestones can best mark your progress?
21. How will you know when you are successful?
As with so many things, the time and effort invested in the process will have a lot to do with the value derived. But it seems like a good methodical approach to solving problems. Asking good questions, and constantly striving for better questions, seems an unbeatable approach to dealing with problems as opposed to living with them.
