Bulletproof Problem Solving

Chapter FourBuild a Great Workplan and Team Processes

Solving some problems is easy. All you need is a piece of paper or a whiteboard, a calculator, and an Internet connection to get data or access expert opinion. The Where‐to‐Live problem we presented in Chapter 1 is pretty much like this. You have a family meeting to talk about what characteristics in a town are important to each family member, you agree on some rough weightings (Is trail running availability more important than access to fly fishing? What about the commute to work?), you go online to figure out what data is available that correlates reasonably well with those variables, you normalize the data to a 1–100 scale, pop it in a spreadsheet, and see what comes out. It is an important decision, to be sure, but not a very complicated one to think through logically.

But even reasonably straightforward personal‐level projects can get complicated quickly. Look at Rob's Should‐I‐Put‐Solar‐on‐My‐Roof logic tree and analysis. He had to calculate the potential value of the cost savings compared to the utility's rates and the investment required; he had to project whether the feed‐in tariff (what the utility would pay him for excess power) would change and whether solar panels would continue to get cheaper; and he had to estimate his own carbon footprint to calculate whether this investment would substantially decrease his ...