Two men were camping in the wilderness when they were awakened one morn-
ing by a large bear rummaging through their food supply. The bear noticed the
men and started lumbering toward them.
The men still were in their sleeping bags and didn’t have time to put on their
boots, so they picked up their boots and began running away from the bear. The
terrain was very rough, however, and they couldn’t make much progress. The
bear was gaining on them.
Suddenly, one of the men sat down and began pulling on his boots. His friend
couldn’t believe what he was seeing and said, “Are you nuts? Can’t you see that
the bear is almost here? Let’s go!”
The man on the ground continued putting on his boots. As he did this, he
looked up at the other man and said, “Well, Charlie, the way I look at it, I don’t
have to outrun the bear—I only have to outrun you!”And so, another problem is resolved by testing assumptions. In this case, both men
originally assumed the problem was how to outrun the bear. When one of the men tested
this assumption, a creative solution popped out. This single act provided that man with
one critical extra option. His spontaneous creative thinking enabled him to gain an edge
over his “competitor.”How to Test Assumptions
In most organizations, this may all sound familiar. Sometimes all it takes is one extra
option to give us an edge over our competitors or to resolve a difficult-to-solve problem.
In addition to using the activities in this book, you can get that competitive edge or solve
that problem by testing problem assumptions. Of course, you can’t test assumptions
about every problem. You can test assumptions, however, about problems of strategic
importance or problems with potentially serious consequences. The lesson, then, is: be
selective.
So how do you test assumptions? Albert Einstein provides one answer: “The impor-
tant thing is to never stop questioning.” Ask a lot of questions about whatever problem you’re
trying to resolve. The more questions you ask, the better you will understand your problems.
One way to enhance the questioning process is to use the basic journalism “five w” questions
of who, what, where, when, and why.These questions can help us seek data more efficiently.
For instance, you might ask the following questions: Who is the competition? Who are the
customers? What does our organization do? What is our mission? Where can we make
improvements? Where can we get data about our competition? When should we enter a
new market? When are our customers most likely to buy our products? Why do people
buy our products? Why do we want to enter a new market?
Ask lots of questions and you’ll understand your organization and its environment
better. If you have a better understanding, you’ll get more creative insights on how to
improve it. It’s as simple as that.14 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving
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