How to achieve next level solutions
Below you will find four questions to achieve next level solutions for complex problems involving many people. Together, the answers to these questions make up the solution to the problem. If your answers can still be refuted, you have to look more at the total system and the problem. Or in other words, look at it as an outsider, as is customary in systems thinking. For this you can make use of the guidelines at the bottom of the page. You can even come to a much better solution by looking at the problem much more as an outsider with the use of Next Level Learning. Next Level Learning, the 4th generation system thinking has been developed on the basis of the four insights described on the page "Why". Next Level Learning is easily achieved by doing a number of exercises with an anination tool. This tool and exercises are freely available at www.nextlevellearningtool.com
Four questions to achieve a next level solution
Four answers to the four questions below make up the solution to a complex problem. By using Next Level Learning for answering the questions you will achieve next level solutions.
1) What is the actual cause?
As an outsider, what actual cause of the complex problem do you see?
See also insight 3 on the why page
2) What can administrators do?
What do you see that administrators could do to move towards a solution?
See also insight 1 on the why page.
3) How is the transition going to happen?
As an outsider, what possible transitions do you see that lead to a solution to the problem?
See also insight 2 on the why page.
4) What is the effect on the world?
What effect on the world do you see as an outsider when the transition to the solution you envision has been completed?
See also insight 4 on the why page.
Guidelines for observing as an Outsider
Below you will find a number of guidelines for formulating answers from the perspective of an outsider, or in short, to observe as an outsider. These guidelines lead to better solutions and, in combination with Next Level Learning, to next level solutions.
- What you say is not related to your perception of things:
Don’t: “I think this is a nice/good/interesting/pretty proposal”
Do: “In this proposal it is said that trees are green. I see that trees can also have a color other than green, such as a brown trunk and brown/yellow/red leaves”
- What you say should be visible to everyone:
Don’t: “I think it's going to rain”.
Do: “I see that there are clouds in increasing proportion”
- What you say should correspond to the actual cause-and-effect relationship:
Don’t: “I heard a computer say to me that he felt rejected but that is not possible because I looked at the computer at the time”
Do: “I heard a computer say that the computer felt rejected. That corresponds to the way I see that computers can be programmed”