One of the first things I do when I check into a hotel room is untuck the blankets on the bed.
It’s pretty uncomfortable when I put my size 16 foot (that’s 49 eu) under a tucked sheet or blanket.
I understand the reasoning. First impressions are important. When you first walk into a hotel room, you want it to look neat and pristine. Makes sense. I never questioned that.
Then…
I just checked into the third hotel in Norway and, as with the other two, the blankets are neatly folded on top of the bed.
This is a different approach that solves this problem in a unique way..
It still has that neat pristine look. In addition to this, the king and queen size beds have two separate blankets! My wife and I won’t be playing tug of war over who is taking too much of the blanket at night. Brilliant!
This reminded me of how important it is in problem solving to take a step back and think about what solutions you’re not seeing. Our minds can get stuck in patterns and constraints we do not question.
There are many techniques for unlocking new ideas is problem solving:
🔅 Question all assumptions:
How can you be sure that’s true?
What if it was not true?
🔅 Remove all constraints (not enough money, not enough time, etc), work the problem and then add the constraints back in. Often new ideas come to light this way.
🔅 Change of scenery…move a muscle…change a thought.
Step away from the problem for a while. This can be one of the more powerful ways to see and discover new insights.
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