In my column last week, we asked "Have you ever changed venue, path or some other physical condition in order to gain a different perspective on a problem?"
"Often" and "Sometimes" were the top answers," followed by "Very often." "Seldom" or "Never" were not selected.
Next, we posed "What works best for you to break through a sticky problem?"
Responses:
> Go to sleep and the idea will come in the shower the next morning.
> Get away from the details for a while and then come back with a fresh approach - a change of scenery can help, i.e. walking outside the mill to a location out of sight of the mill - often results in approaching the problem with a new perspective.
> Draw a flow diagram, a bubble sketch, fishbone diagram or other graphic.
> A good night's sleep.
> I often have to take a break from the problem and do something totally different. I also have the morning shower breakthrough, and now that I took up running, I have mid-run epiphanies.
Finally, we asked, "In this series, I have not talked about brainstorming. Do you think brainstorming can be effective?"
"Yes, sometimes" was the top answer (60 percent), followed by "Yes, often" (40 percent). No one selected "No, never," "Yes, rarely," or "Yes, most of the time."
Take this week's quiz here.
Jim goes over the Quiz results during the Tech Center Show on Pulp & Paper Radio International every Monday.
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