Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving

Recently our faculty Dr. Prasad took us to the teacher’s terrace where a strange looking assembly was hanging. And we were supposed to identify the problem and solve it. This was a million dollar question for us. In any organization, a manager is very important in such situation, to identify the problem and solve it. This assembly is shown below:

Problem: Here we are supposed to remove the ring from the toy.

Now to solve this problem we need to follow the following steps:

• Raise the ring as high as it would go and hold it there.
• Move one of the wooden squares to the other side by passing it through the slit in the top part.
• Bring both the squares together by moving the thread.
• One of the balls will still remain stuck after its square block is taken to other side.
• Lower the ring, tilt it and remove through the slit and the ball.

As mentioned above this solution looks very easy. But some people thought to remove the ropes around the wooden block, then to remove the block and thereby to remove the ring.

Now to put the ring back into the assembly, we need to follow the following steps:

• Pass the ball through the ring.
• Tilt the ring and pass it through the slit.
• Pull the ring up above the slit.
• Remove the wooden plank, hanging on the same side of the other one but not having a ball along with it, through the slit.
• Let go of the ring.

This will put the ring back into the assembly as it was at the start of exercise. So we can see that the solution of the problem is always simple. We just have to identify the simpler way to solve it. It’s we who can make it simpler or complicated. So we can conclude that, being a superb solver is not sufficient. You have to be an incredible identifier as well.