December, 2021

Picture a tree. From the trunk there are big branches going up the tree. These big branches have many smaller branches. These smaller branches have even more small branches. And so on. Think about these branches as problems and solutions. The furter you go out a branch, the deeper entrenched you are in the original problem: the big branch.

When you start solving a problem, are you just following the smaller and smaller branch? Or do you step back and take a look at the whole tree and see if there is another branch you should be following?

Solving a problem is best solved by looking at the whole tree. We need to question the original problem, question the assumptions, question the solution. Question the entire proposition.

Elon Musk knows this. He says the biggest problem with smart engineers is that they optimize something that shouldn’t exist in the first place. And Elon Musk is the guy that stepped back and looked at the space-industry, then rethought how to do things. He didn’t just optimize the existing rocket. Now SpaceX is years ahead of every pre-existing space-entity.

Questioning the assumptions gives you enourmous leverage. You can choose to solve a number of different problems that indirectly or directly affects the original problem. Or you can choose to do things in an entirely new way, that may render your original problem obsolete. Or you can choose to solve the original problem if you so wish. But by having questioned, you’ll have a much better understanding of the context.

Nick Kokonas loves asking “stupid” questions, to question the fundamental beliefs around the way things are done. By doing so he has create some of the best restaurants in the US, and has completely changed how the restaurant industry does booking.

Notice we are not talking about finding the “root problem” or asking “the five why’s”. This is a much more creative task. It goes beyond these techniques.

So to see the whole tree, to solve problems better, ask questions.

Here’s a couple of questions you can use to see the whole tree and find the right branch to pick:

• Should it be solved in the first place?
• Is there another problem I can solve that solves this and a bunch of other problems at the same time?
• Can I do things differently so that this no longer becomes a problem?
• Is this really the best way of doing this?

• What really is the goal here?

• Now why stop at the tree? How about looking at the forest? The ecosystem? The area? The country? The planet? I see no reason to stop at the tree, so keep going!