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There’s No Room for Guessing in Sales

Thursday, August 19th, 2010 by Clark

My goal as a sales professional is to ensure the following three things happen with each of my clients on every project or job we do for them:

  1. Help my clients be successful
  2. Provide them with a solution that exactly meets their needs
  3. Make sure there are “no surprises” at the end of the project

Open and honest communication between me and my clients is the most important thing required to ensure each of these three things happen.

Over the past 3-4 years I have been following a sales process developed by Mahan Khalsa, who is a very successful sales consultant and has developed proven techniques that allow sales professionals to meet these three goals outlined above.  The whole premise behind the success of Mahan’s techniques is “No Guessing.”

Clients naturally want to be successful.  So in order for me to help them accomplish whatever it is they think they need to accomplish to be successful, I need to know a lot about their issues and results they are hoping to solve or realize by hiring my company.  That way my company can come up with whatever it is that may help them succeed.

In most initial sales calls, sales people want to brag about how great their company or products are because they generally have limited amount of time to be in front of the customer to try and convince them that what they have or do is better than everyone else in the world.

I go into sales calls with potential and or existing clients, with a totally different mindset.  Number one, I assume that they already know enough about my company to even get a face to face meeting in the first place.  So spending time over selling myself and my company is a waste of time.  After all, they just want to know how much, how long it will take and how much they will make if they spend money with my company, right?

So what I focus on is right out of the Mahan “No Guessing” training.  I never assume I know what the client’s needs are, and I never assume I have a solution that will exactly meet their needs until I’ve asked the customer a pile of questions.  Each question I ask is centered around finding out what issues they hope to solve or what results they hope to be able to realize.  Through this question and answer process with the customer, we eliminate incorrect assumptions or guessing and actually find out from the customer themselves what exactly they are dealing with.  You can also ask the customer what they have too little of or not enough of.

The more we know about a client’s needs the better chance we have of providing a solution that exactly meets their needs.  If the client seems hesitant to provide you with information specific to their needs or issues, you can easily stop and let them know that all you are trying to do is find a way to help them be successful, provide a solution that exactly meets their needs and ensure that there are no surprises down the road if they choose to move forward with your company.

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Knowing When to Cross Train

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 by Brad

Setpoint is a small business that is agile and can adjust as quickly as the management team can move. There are not committees, boards, and endless studies that have to be approved before decisions can be made. Layers of management don’t exist in our company and overlapping job functions don’t happen very often. Everyone wears multiple hats, but in most job functions, we are only one layer deep. If that person is out of the office that job doesn’t get done.

In most cases this is ok, because it is only for a day or two. But what happens when it is a longer period that the person is unable to be at work. If it is a critical function, it can be disastrous; business can grind to a halt very quickly.

At Setpoint we decided to implement a very simple form of cross training to account for those events. We asked ourselves this question – If the person that is responsible that job were gone for two weeks, what impact would this have on the company? We then grouped those job functions or key processes into one of three buckets:

  • We would be OK
  • We would be OK as long as nothing broke
  • We have to have that job done virtually every day

We would be OK

In this category go jobs or functions that are important to the company, don’t necessarily have critical things that need to be done on a daily basis. One job that we put in this category is the management of our website. If we had to leave it alone for a couple of weeks, we would be ok.

We would be OK - as long as nothing breaks

Identify ones that if nothing breaks, life in the company can go on, but if something goes wrong – it has to be fixed. All IT functions are group in this category. If nothing breaks, the company is fine. If something does go wrong it needs to be fixed quickly.

We have to have the job done virtually every day

Jobs that we grouped under this category are:

  • Payroll
  • Invoicing
  • Procurement
  • Accounts Payable

For the first category we have done nothing to prepare, for the second one, we are working on it and haven’t quite figured out what to do, the last category we have implemented a cross training program. We started by identifying an alternate that would learn the job and be able to do it if the primary person was not here. How much training needs to happen? Setpoints view is, who ever the alternate is, has to practice enough that they can take over the job function if needed. That doesn’t mean that they know all the esoteric details of what can happen, but generally they can handle what needs to be done.

One example, we are an open books company which means that every Monday at 1:00 PM we gather together in what we call the “huddle” and review the key numbers on a big white board. Kara is our alternate for this and once a quarter she figures out the numbers and then puts them up on the white board. If there are intricate details that need to be adjusted for that week, she doesn’t do that, but she is confident enough through practice that she can deal with 95% of what it takes do the white board for our huddle. This has come in handy more than once when the primary person is out for the day.

Planning for these events in this way makes it easier for management to sleep at night.

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Has Computer Aided Design (CAD) improved our lives?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Setpoint

We all remember how CAD would save the world and make our engineering lives more productive, error proof, and repeatable. Well the jury is in and it’s far from the end all be all.

CAD software is just one of many tools that we engineers use.  It has its value but I have found that it’s not for everything and in many cases it can hinder getting the work done.  It does not take the place of a thinking brain and sometimes it will lengthen the time line on certain projects.  When using CAD people will sometimes go into a black hole and design something that may be a bad idea to begin with, and instead of being trashed right then and work on the next iteration, there is now a beautifully articulated drawing complete in every way that is discarded and worthless. Sometimes something is designed in CAD that just needed a rough sketch.  In the past we could take paper and hand sketches over to a machine shop and work with them and get the parts more quickly than the time it takes to get a 3D model.

At one point one of our customers forced us to switch from one CAD software program to another product.  It cost us $60,000 in hardware just to make the change and we experienced a drop in performance since the engineers had to learn a new program.  The first year we looked at the mechanical engineering cogs for weldments, tools, machined parts, and sheet metal material, looked at the design and engineering hours and normalized the cost of living, cpi, and for everything we’ve bought since the conversion.  The ratio was dead steady and then there was a decline in productivity with a hard cost of $300,000 and a soft cost for training and learning of another $300,000.  Upgrading and going to new systems all the time is a complete waste of money.  If you think you’re going to be more efficient, you’re not.  The feature set increases faster than you can learn to use them and implement them.

Another time when using CAD software is inefficient is concepting.  This is the initial phase of design and it doesn’t replace a good artist or hand sketcher and a competent engineer. In concepting scale reviews aren’t important.  For example designing a car in CAD isn’t as good as building a model on the floor where several people can walk around it and look at it.  Way too many people have only one tool in their toolbox, CAD.  It replaces thinking for action and they can struggle all day drawing some image rather than going and getting a piece of wood and testing it.

What has your experience been?  Has CAD software improved your workplace?

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Discovering and Resolving Problems

Thursday, April 1st, 2010 by Setpoint

In any organization that intends to exist for an extended time period, learning is critical. Not repeating mistake allows a business increased profitability. Someone once said (I can’t remember who) something like - “the school of hard knocks is a hard school to go through, but only fools return”.

Over the years Setpoint has been, is, and will continue to be an engineering centric business. Most of the projects we build have never been built before; most are completely clean sheet designs, meaning that no one is quite sure what this machine will end up looking like. This means that there will be multiple iterations as we develop the machine. It is critical to our success that we discover our mistakes as soon as possible to reduce our costs. The table below illustrates how critical it is to discover the problems as soon as possible.

When Mistake is Discovered and Fixed

Relative Cost to Fix
Designing at the white board $1.00
Designing in CAD system $10.00
During build of machine $100.00
During debug phase $1,000.00
After installing at customer site $10,000.00

Over time we have developed some unwritten rules that we use to help us down the development path. For this blog we sat down and wrote down the ones that matter to Setpoint.  These are in no particular order:

  • Right to left thinking - What are we really trying to solve here?  What must be solved, what would be nice to solve, what doesn’t matter if it is solved? What happens if we just leave it alone?  Is it really a problem?

  • Stop to think and drive towards root cause or what really needs to be solved, it is too easy to get caught up in ‘noise’.  Always ask the five whys

  • Evaluate and Prioritize: does this need to be resolved this instant, don’t get caught up in minor issues and miss a fundamental problem - (forest for the trees). Most problems don’t have to be solved this instant – a little time and thought usually pays big dividends

  • Take a system view of problem, don’t resolve one problem and create 3 others because you isolated the problem and disconnected it from how it has to interact with the rest the system

  • Don’t get designed into a corner, you may need Plan B – in fact it usually helps to have more than one legitimate idea as you move forward. This helps avoid sticking with a solution too long that should be discarded.

  • You can’t ‘will it to work’. And ”it might work” generally means it won’t work

  • Document all important work in a simple manner…your memory’s not that great and often results in faulty assumptions that somehow get turned into facts. Always pull the data to see what is really going on. Many so called facts are generally assumptions…if in doubt, treat it as an assumption and react accordingly

  • Turn the problem objective into a math problem if possible. Typically the guy with the equation wins.  It is easy to argue about subjective ideas like – that’ll never last, that’s not strong enough, or that’ll never make cycle time. Facts should rule in those kinds of discussions

  • When debugging, only change one thing at a time if possible…seems slow but it’s much faster long term. That way you know what worked and what didn’t.

  • When debugging, document a known ‘baseline’ that can be returned to when you’ve tried 4 things & you can’t get anything to work anymore, if in doubt go back to the baseline.

  • Sometimes the best way to improve the Design Factor of a system is not by increasing the capability of the system but reducing the requirement…sounds obvious but it’s not.

  • When working on timing issues never forget parallel operations are your friend…once again, not always obvious

  • Watch for unaccounted moment loading in a design.  Forces are rarely overlooked; however, moments are commonly ignored

  • Is the process defined?  Because a process has been duplicated twice in a lab doesn’t mean it can be automated

  • What’s the simplest thing that could work?

  • Given enough time and money you can solve anything, is regularly heard on the engineering and assembly floors, and it is the enemy of profitability.

  • If you had to contribute your paycheck towards it would you still solve it that way?

  • And finally - What would Steve do?

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SORT - The first “S” of the 5 S System

Monday, October 19th, 2009 by Bob

In using the Toyota Production System to improve your organization you need to integrate the 5 S processes from your desk to the production floor. The first “S” is to sort out what is and is not needed to do the required work in the work area.

Sorting the things you need to do your job on your desk, in receiving, in the production area, on the assembly floor, and any work area helps you work more efficiently and less prone to misplaced parts and tools. What do you sort? What do you need to do the job or task including tools, parts, and paperwork? If you don’t need it to do your job, it shouldn’t be in your workspace. Not only do you need to sort out what you need, but evaluating the proper quantities of each is also very important. One way to determine what you should have at your workspace is to use the 24-48 hour rule. If you are not going to need it in the next 24-48 hours, it doesn’t need to be in your workspace.

Here at Setpoint, we sort just about everything that comes in the doors, including our engineers. When parts are received a label is attached and the part is placed in a subassembly tote and the tote is placed on the projects rack. When there are enough parts for assembly to begin, the rack is moved to a specific assembly area designated to that project. The assemblers can go grab a tote and take it to their work area to begin assembly. When the assembler needs screws, wire, air hose, or a tool he can go to that rack or cabinet where everything is sorted by type and size. He takes only what he needs and continues working. When he reaches a stopping point or completes the assembly, everything is placed back in the tote and back on the rack. He then grabs the next subassembly tote and begins the build process again. At the end of the day everything is put back in its place, including totes, tools, and paperwork so it is ready to go the next day.

This sorting process has allowed us to be very efficient at building our projects. Any one assembler can go to any project and determine what can and needs to be worked on. We know where to find any tool, wire, hose, or fastener without searching the shop floor. I have worked at other companies where this sorting was “sort of” used (pun intended), and it makes for a long day when you are searching for the part or tool you need because it was not returned to its sorted place.

As I mentioned before, not only do we sort the products coming in our door, but we sort our engineers as well. Depending on our current projects, our engineers get sorted into different teams to utilize their talents and experiences. Yes, this means moving our computers and our stuff from one area to another. I have been sorted at least five times in just over three years. Sometimes this can be a pain, but this sorting helps the team’s communication and makes the design process much more efficient. It also gives us a chance to sort out the accumulation of stuff from our workstation and place it in the proper place–the garbage.

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An Interpretation from an engineer’s perspective

Monday, October 12th, 2009 by Mark

of “The Back of the Napkin” by Dan Roam

 

I am only one member in a mechanical design team of seven engineers, together we are neck deep in machine design and mechanical problem solving.  I started reading this book with hopes of picking up good ideas to apply in a group setting when we are at the whiteboard solving design issues. I have found the book to be somewhat interesting, but not enough to press my colleagues to read it.  The book has some good ideas in it, such as the SQVID method of imagining.  In summary, the SQVID method gives you five questions to ask and mentally process before drawing a picture.  These five questions are:

  • Simple or Elaborate?
  • Quality or Quantity?
  • Vision vs. Execution (do you want to depict where you’re going or how to get there?)
  • Individual attributes vs. Comparison?
  • Delta (change) or Status Quo?  (In Dan’s words: “The way things are versus the way they could be.”)

Dan is not simply suggesting “a few good ideas” in The Back of the Napkin. He has created a text book to guide you into learning a powerful and disciplined approach to visual problem solving that works well for Dan. Trying these ideas once isn’t difficult.  To implement these into your person, make them habit, and integrate them into your mental framework, and restructure your ability to solve problems may take years of self discipline. For example, the <6><6> rule: “For every one of the six ways of seeing, there is one corresponding way of showing. For each one of these six ways of showing, there is a single visual framework that serves as a starting point.” Email me when you’ve managed to get a good grip on that one.  Next, consider Dan’s Four Cardinal Rules for Better Looking:

  1. Collect everything you can
  2. Lay it all out where you can look at it
  3. Establish fundamental coordinates
  4. practice visual triage

These four things make perfect sense, but memorizing them in one day is not enough.  Carrying around index cards with notes to remind you how to do it is impractical.  The challenge of rebuilding your mental stairways to solve problems, to restructure your thought process and become fluid at this can be the challenge of a lifetime. The truth is, you probably already do these four things and just don’t realize it because it happens so fast.  But Dan did an excellent job of capturing this process on paper where you can read the steps and do a self evaluation.

Many times as I have pondered Dan’s ideas, the recurring message I get is - in summary: “You don’t think very efficiently, try my way, it’s better.”  If you consider yourself an efficient thinker, this book will make you reconsider because Dan illustrates how his methods can be applied universally.  The book is not compelling to the merely curious, there is nothing ground-breaking for the visual thinker, and the ideas are not easily accessible in many ways to the analytical thinker.  For example, the Bird Dog Drill on page 75.  If any analytical person makes it to page 75 of Dan’s book, they will find this drill to be a tall challenge because it’s an exercise in endurance and continuity of visual thinking.  That being said, I am about 75% through the book and still not sure if I have already passed the “meat & potatoes” of Dan Roams’ core message.  If I did . . . what was it? 

It’s almost like Dan is telling me: “This is so easy, if you could just be cleverer by using a bit of visual ingenuity, you could draw a picture and this complex problem would suddenly become clear.” Or “Why are you making this problem so difficult, just draw an efficient, well conceived, simple yet calculated, and well diagrammed picture.”  . . .  My thoughts exactly, “do what?”

To be honest, I don’t know if I will finish it anytime soon.  Not that the book isn’t good, it’s just not groundbreaking and easily applied. But it’s interesting if you are a visual thinker.  In reading this book I feel like I am being told that to be a good problem solver I must remove my old problem solving tool belt and strap on a new one that only has a single marker in it with instructions that simply say, “Think differently, and draw more efficiently.”

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Deciding on the Direction for your Company

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 by Brad

Companies that remain static and don’t evolve will eventually lose their profit margins and sink into oblivion. At Setpoint, as we try and adapt to the changing landscape I have noticed several things in dealing with deciding our company’s direction.

First, change is hard. It is much easier to continue doing what has been done in the past, even if it is not getting the results it used to, and rarely have I seen an idea that just works right out of the gate.

You can’t do everything, and if you try to, it will result in spreading your resources (money, time, people) so thin that you cannot be successful at anything. One of the hardest things is, deciding what not to do. It is difficult because you tend think that you are potentially leaving money on the table, and you may be – but you are doing it to pursue a better idea with more potential.

We have found that some feel more passionately about an idea than others, so we have developed a rule that is simply “whoever has passion about an idea gets less than 50% of the vote”. This helps us make more objective decisions. Key message is, don’t be so in love with a strategy or idea that you can’t dispose of it when all the facts point that way.

You never have perfect information before a decision needs to be made. As a result, assumptions are made in order to make progress. The problem is, unless those assumptions are tracked and noted they tend to become facts over time, and often those assumptions are wrong. You have to revisit assumptions to validate, modify, or eliminate them to reflect new information you now have. Not doing so can lead to less than desirable outcomes.

At Setpoint we try and follow the philosophy of “fail faster”. In other words, if something is not going to work the sooner you identify it the cheaper it is for the company in terms of money, time, and people. Most ideas can be validated or eliminated without much cost or time if the key issues have been correctly identified. The few key remaining ideas can then claim your valuable resources.

The shorter iteration cycles the better; the clearer the objectives, the easier it will be to identify the key issues that need to be proved out in order to validate the direction.

These are some of the techniques we are using at Setpoint to decide our companies direction.

This process is an ongoing part of a healthy company’s life. So get on with it.

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Machine Assembly - What Works Best

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 by Ken

After working in a shop for over 30 years, I have found that following a process when it comes to assembling a machine works the best. 

First, it always helps to sit down with the designer and find out what kind of things to watch for, such as customer constraints or hazardous locations etc.  It is a must to have a complete print package before you start to assemble.  You need to look it over to find the best place to start. 

Subassemblies can be built and then installed on the machine later when the longer lead time items come in.  Most of the time the parts that come in first will be electrical and small parts for subassemblies; this allows you to assemble and wire without having the rest of the machine.

Next, look for assembles that can be built that won’t have to be disassembled in order to install on the machine.  This will help cut down on the time spent on assembly.  I also recommend you build the subassemblies with wire labels and air lines marked for faster install.  You can adjust slides and set sensors on the bench to save even more time.

Once you have the machine base and table top, look for the best way to route the wires and air-lines and drill holes for tie wrap bases or other mounting plates.  Then start installing the subassemblies at the center and work your way out, be sure to tighten all fasteners and check the fit of moving parts.

When all the subassemblies are installed with sensors and air lines ran, it’s time to do the I.O. check out manually then check them through the P.L.C.  Once I.O. is complete you can start to de-bug and run the machine.

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Outsourcing IT Management

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 by Setpoint

Information Technology (IT) has become a necessary component of today’s business culture.  If you own a business with more than 5 employees, it almost becomes a necessity.   In some form or fashion, you’re going to have to come up with a game plan to maintain and replace your current systems.  What works best?  Let’s talk about that.

If you’re a business with less than 100 computer using employees, you may find a lean philosophy will maximize IT efficiency as well as effectiveness.   Why?  Here are several reasons.

  1. Computer usage has become a common part of American culture.  Almost all sectors of professional life involve the use of a computer. When it comes to small IT tasks, just about any computer hobbyist at a company could manage and maintain software and hardware inventory, the ability to change a forgotten password, and add a printer to a workstation.  Depending on time availability of that employee, he or she could also handle email accounts and basic web site changes.
  2. Microsoft Windows is very stable.  I know, I know… you’ll always have a small percentage of PCs that will tend to crash.   This is more about the law of averages than the quality of Windows.  Generally speaking, a well made, properly installed Windows XP or Vista (and soon to be Windows 7) PC with up to date antivirus and antispyware software will be very solid.  The small stuff is usually easy to fix but what happens when you get a virus or spyware on your computer?  That’s when you need an IT professional.
  3. Difficult server, router, and security tasks are infrequent.   Don’t get me wrong, the need for expert IT professionals is still necessary and vital to the health of any business, but in order for an IT person to be proficient and up to date requires both constant training as well as exposure to these types of problems.
  4. Attrition of employees.  Generally speaking, good employees tend to be here today, gone tomorrow.  Just about every employee is looking to increase his or her leverage in the current job market.   Hey, if you could get a better paying job, with more benefits, and a better boss – wouldn’t you leave?  Of course you would.   Well paid professionals that outsource (in my experience) tend to stick around for much longer periods of time.
  5. The high cost of professional training and equipment.  Training and professional trouble shooting equipment range in the thousands.
  6. Managing and providing HR benefits.

 

What then do businesses need to outsource?

  1. File, print, email, web, and SQL server installation and maintenance
  2. Routers and firewalls
  3. Security implementation policies and procedures
  4. Remote computing access
  5. Budget planning and new business solutions
  6. Workstation hardware and software policies

 

After owning my own IT Company for 11+ years now, I have found that companies that outsource their top level IT needs save money.

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10 Ways to Creativity

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 by Mark

The Mechanical Engineer’s Perspective

  1. Music:  Certain types of music may be used to create a desired mood such as hard rock in a fabrication shop, jazz in the elevator, Kenny G at the grocery store, or Vivaldi playing low in a restaurant.  If there is a genre of music that provokes your spontaneous side, getting into that mood might help boost your creativity.
  2. Change of view:  When we have become numb to our daily routine and surroundings our senses tend to be in a lesser state of awareness.  Changing the physical location of your work space can be an effective way to awaken the sleeping sense of creativity.
  3. Strange Things:  Ambiance, tone, mood, and setting all play a role in your creativity.  Is there something that you can place in your work space that will help heighten your senses and capture your interest?  A Venus Fly Trap?  A clay sculpture?  A 1969 Camaro?  Make your work space someplace that calls to your creative side and beckons for the genius and artist in you to step forward.
  4. Retreat:  If you have been concentrating intently on one issue for too long and keep hitting dead ends, break away from it and “sharpen your blade”.   Is there grass outside that might allow you a brief escape and feel sunshine while you clear your head?  Investing 5 minutes in clearing your head and taking a step back to re-evaluate the problem will be more productive than 30 minutes of spinning your wheels without progress.
  5. On Your Feet:  At Setpoint we have a saying: “To the Whiteboard!!” We find it most effective to communicate our design ideas to each other by gathering around a whiteboard and letting these ideas come to life in sketches, diagrams, and pictures.  While we’re on our feet gathered around a whiteboard ideas are communicated effectively and develop quickly.  This is a great way to help others “see what you are thinking.”  Thinking on your feet in front of a whiteboard can be engaging and allows you to focus your thoughts in a visual and creative way.
  6. Confidence Builders:   It may sound cliché, but there is profound truth in accomplishing something because you “think you can.”  Sometimes when we’re up against a mental block, we just need something to push us forward.  Accomplishing a small task that you know you can do well is one way to achieve that needed boost.  Maybe it’s repairing an engine, fixing something around the house, or building something out of wood.  When you have completed this task - revel in the accomplishment.  Indulge in the reward of knowing you finished this task with perfection, review how you thought of every angle and went the extra mile.
  7. Good Meeting Management:  In the context of a brainstorm meeting, inspiring creativity can depend on the meeting manager among other things.  A good manager can keep a meeting focused on the subject.  A better manager can maintain meeting direction in a manner that the discussion flows freely while generating ideas from the team.  The best manager is decisive and can lead the team into creativity by giving clear guidelines and hearing ALL ideas, allowing expansion on different perspectives, encouraging positive objectivity, does not allow negative commentary on any idea, all while holding the meeting focus and reading the body language of participants to know when it’s time to “move on.”  A productive meeting has a clearly defined objective and end result.
  8. Dealing with Stress:  Stress chokes creativity unless it can be compartmentalized and channeled.  Defining the problem and knowing what the next step is to solving it will give you instant results for reducing your stress level and allowing your creative side to flourish.  Try the following exercise:  Take two minutes to write down all the tasks you are keeping a mental list of, beginning with those that cause you the most stress.  Completely drain onto paper that mental list you are packing around, exhaust every last item.  Including work related items, things from home, and anything else that’s on your mind - one big list.  This should be fast and informal, just find a pencil & paper and start scrawling away.  Next, categorize the items into two separate lists, either “Work” related, or “Personal.”  Finally, prioritize each item in each list in numerical order of what needs to be finished immediately and what can wait.  Having this list in front of you is very empowering, it will help you compare importance of all your tasks and will cause you to re-evaluate your stress level.  All you need to determine is what the next step is for each item.  Don’t solve the entire issue – ONLY THE NEXT STEP. Be realistic, maybe it’s a phone call, a trip to the store, or composing an email.  In some cases you may be able to completely eliminate tasks altogether.  Knowing you have a plan to take action on these items will tremendously relieve your burden.
  9. Use the “Other side”:  Do you dominantly use the right side of your brain or the left?  We tend to approach problem solving in the same way every time.  What if you could teach yourself to approach a problem from a different angle?  There is rarely only one perfect solution for a problem.  Then it follows there are endless ways to arrive at one of the many solutions that will work.  Try some exercises that will get the other half of your brain involved.  The left side of the brain is used for thinking analytically and logically.  We also use it for reading, writing, arithmetic, and understanding symbolism.  The right side of the brain is used for spatial reasoning, visual thinking, and intuition. The right side can deal with complexity, ambiguity, and paradox while the left side looks at sequences, patterns, and lists.  The left side of the brain looks at parts while the right side looks at the whole.  Sometimes, we use the excuse: “My mind doesn’t work that way.”  Therein lies the problem.  Why not train it to work that way and see what you are capable of when you tap into that reservoir of creativity hidden in “the other side.”  (Reference:     http://www.funderstanding.com/content/right-brain-vs-left-brain)
  10. Defining the Problem:  Moving forward with an idea without stopping to question all of the underlying assumptions can be risky.  Understanding the problem from multiple perspectives sheds new light on the solution.  For example, if I were redesigning a dishwasher I would want the insights of several disciplines including: Electrician who has to wire it, maintenance guy who has to install it, maybe even the teenager who would use it.  I would also seek out the Chemical engineer’s input on corrosion resistance, the mechanical engineer’s input on motors and wear.  I would also consider the programmer’s input on failure modes and troubleshooting. What about a blind person’s perspective?  A really short or tall person?    The point is – by thoroughly identifying all of the key issues surrounding a problem you have already developed a significant portion of the solution.

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