Yes!
The scientific method is an solution-strategy for business problems. The essence of the scientific method is ‘trial and error’. Sounds like the way you solve problems in your business, right? The scientific method was designed for regulating the trial and error process.
The basic pattern of the scientific method is
- Formulate a hypothesis
- Test the hypothesis through experimentation
- Compare the expected result with the hypothesis
Even though the scientific method is used for solving problems in the physical sciences, this pattern applies directly to business problems.
So, how do you become more scientific about the way your run your business? Be more like a scientist! Get yourself a lab book – a composition book or a spiral notebook from your favorite office supply store. Take notes about how you solve problems in your business. Scientists take notes about what they do and why they are doing it. Date all of your notes so that you can return to your thoughts at a particular point in time in the future. Do you remember how and why you did what you did to solve a problem a year ago? You do if you wrote it down! Remembering what you did is as simple as getting out your notes and reading them. You want to be able to repeat successful strategies, and to avoid failed strategies. Operating your solution-strategy like a scientist will improve your business memory. When you use successful solution-strategies, your business will succeed.
So how do you look at a business problem through the eyes of a scientist?
You formulate a hypothesis by stating the problem you want to solve, and then you list out the steps that you will take to solve it. Basically, formulating a hypothesis is documenting your plan to bring about a desired result. It is important to write out your plan in your lab book. You will refer back to it later, so take notes as you go.
You test your hypothesis through experimentation when you execute your plan. As you perform each of the tasks in your plan, take notes about the details. Record your thoughts about each element of your plan. Again, these details will be important when you evaluate the success of your solution-strategy.
You compare the expected result with the actual result when you are at the end of the ‘experiment’, when your plan has been executed. How did you do? Did you achieve your desired result? If you did, did you follow the steps you originally planned? Are there some of the steps that you would change if you face the same problem again? Did your plan change once you exposed it to the real world?
If you organize your solution-strategy for business problems using the scientific method, you will be a better problem solver. You will become more consistent with your approach to solving problems, and the results of your efforts will become more predictable. As you become more systematic with your use of this solution-strategy, your confidence will increase. You will engage bigger problems and you will be more successful in your efforts.
Frame of Reference is committed to advancing the use of solution-strategies to solve problems.
©2009, Chris Fillebrown, All Rights Reserved
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy
by Michael Polanyi
Related posts:
- A Solution-Strategy Approach To Solving Problems
- Always Look For Bigger Problems To Solve
- Brainstorm Your Problems Into Solution
- Directions In Solution-Strategies
- New Approaches to Problems
- Solution-Strategies In The Classroom
- More Than One Solution-Strategy
- Genrich Altshuller Teaches TRIZ
- Thought Leadership
- TRIZ – An Introduction
{ 1 trackback }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I completely agree. Too often, in order to solve a problem, we just start throwing things at it haphazardly until, hopefully, something sticks. There is a better way. It is a practice called “design of experiment (DOE)” defined as :
“The complete sequence of steps taken ahead of time to ensure that the appropriate data will be obtained, which will permit an objective analysis and will lead to valid inferences regarding the stated problem.”
In other words, don’t just come up with an idea and a way to test it, come up also with ways to make certain you are testing the right thing and getting reliable answers that confirm your result. Write it down, examine it, examine any literature related to it or to how attempts to solve it have been made in the past.
The guys who finally created the metal amalgam used in artificial joints did this very thing. Up until they took information and experiments that previously said it can’t be done, everyone (but them) was convinced it couldn’t be done. In fact, their boss wouldn’t even fund the project past some supplies and they had to do it on their own time. Within a week, they had done what couldn’t be done because they applied this stringent practice to their work, ensuring better accuracy and precision for the outcome.
Looking forward to your next post.