Dont look for the right answer. Try this instead

Dont look for the right answer. Try this insteadDont look for the right answer. Try this insteadIn solving problems, our first instinct is to find the right answer.In boardrooms across America, executives fall over each other to be the first to deliver the correct answer to a perceived problem. Doctors assume theyve got the right diagnosis based on symptoms theyve seen in the past.Heres the problem.When we immediately launch into answer mode, we end up chasing the wrong problem. When we rush to identify solutions - when we fall in love with our diagnosis - our initial answer hides better ones lurking in plain sight. The difficulty lies, as John Maynard Keynes put it, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.This is known as the Einstellung effect. In German,einstellungmeans set and in this context, it refers to a mental set. When were familiar with a problem, and when we think we have the right answer, we stop seeing alternatives. The initial framing of the question, and the initial answer, both stick.Our education system reinforces the Einstellung effect. In schools, were taught to master problems, not to reframe them. The problems are handed to - no, forced upon - students in the form of problem sets. The schlagwort problem set makes this clear The problems have been set (einstellung) and cant be changed or questioned. A typical problem sets out allof its constraints, all of its given information, comprehensively and in advance, as high school teacher Dan Meyerexplains. The students then take the prepackaged and preapproved problem and plug it into a formula they memorized, which, in turn, spits out the right answer.We then bring this conditioning into our adult lives. We continue our search for formulas, life hacks, and right answers. We ask the same cliche questions over and over again - How do we think outside the box?- but expect different results. Over time, we become a hammer, and every problem looks like a nail.But finding the right question is often the key to finding the solution. Every answer, as Harvard business school professor Clayton Christensen puts it, has a question that retrieves it. The answer is often embedded within the question itself, so the framing of the question becomes crucial to the solution.If you define your problem as a missing hammer, theres only one possible solution finding a hammer. But if you reframe the problem as a nail thats sticking out, other solutions might work just as well.Albert Einstein reportedly said that if he had an hour to solve a problem hed spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. Theres no evidence heactually saidthis, but he did believe that the formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution.Research supports this approach. Expert physicists spend more time than novices in understanding the problem before they begin crafting solutions. The most creative species students spend more time in the prepar ation stage than their less creative counterparts. Even after spending time viewing the problem from different angles, the more creative individuals keep an open mind and stand ready to make changes to their initial definition of the problem.The next time youre tempted to engage in problem-solving, try problem finding instead. Ask yourself,Am I asking the right question?Is there a different way of framing the problem? If I changed my perspective, how would the problem change?Breakthroughs, contrary to popular wisdom, dont begin with a smart answer.They begin with a smart question.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisart iclefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.