Dear Organlearners,
Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net> writes
in reply to my questions (LO20424)
>>What makes something a problem?
>>What distinguishes the solution from the problem?
>>What is "the heart of the matter" when solving any problem?
>In quick order...
>What makes something a problem is not knowing what to do about it.
I will articulate it slightly different:
A problem is when a person knows something incompletely.
Kurt Goedel proved his famous "incompleteness theorem", namely there
are theorems in logic which logic cannot prove. Or to say it in
another way, there are problems in logic which cannot be solved by
logic so that there solution has to sought outside logic.
[Host's Note: Just a slight clarification: Goedel proved that there are
*true* theorems which cannot be proved. ...Rick]
>Distinguishing the solution from the problem is a bit trickier
>because the word solution can refer to the action taken to
>solve the problem and to the situation itself once the problem
>has been solved. In the first case, the distinction between
>problem and solution is the distinction between an analysis
>or appraisal of a situation and action aimed at changing that
>situation. In the second case, the distinction is that between
>the situation when it presents a problem and that situation
>once the problem has been solved.
See if the following is not the essence of what you have said above.
A solution is when a person knows something more completely than in
the problem itself. It menas that s solution is additional knowledge
to the knowledge on the problem.
>The "heart of the matter" when solving any problem is a grasp
>of the structure of the situation. You see, to solve a problem
>in a business or organizational setting, you must change
>something. Moreover, you must change it with a purpose or
>outcome in mind. In short, you must intervene. Change, in
>organizations, is almost always indirect; that is, you change
>something over here in order to realize some effect over there.
Yes. The following is the essence.
The heart of the matter is to let the solution evolve consistently and
coherently in terms of the problem and nothing else.
>To recap, a problem is problem because you don't know what
>to do (read that as "uncertainty regarding action"). A solution
>is a course of action intended to bring about certain effects or
>consequences. The heart of the matter is a good grasp of the
>structure of the situation in which you're going to intervene for
>the purpose of altering some aspect of it.
Fred, your recap and my essential answers to each question says about
the same thing.
Problem solving is going from a less complete knowledge of something
to a more complete knowledge of it such that the integrity of the
something is conserved.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>