One Way To Seek Solutions – Please Discuss – Please Share Your Ideas – The Future Of All Life On The Planet May Be At Stake

First Draft written January 7, 2023.

There are many ways to seek solutions. What is presented here is a description of what has worked for me. I was involved in successful solution seeking think tanks and project teams which succeeded in researching, brainstorming, designing, implementing, self criticizing, adapting, and improving complex solution seeking tools that many of the top experts in the fields said were not possible. The challenges we face in today’s world is somewhat different and much more important and challenging. What I did in the past might (or might not) work here. I present it as my best attempt to try to discuss and understand how ideas of this nature might contribute to this SolutionSeeking.Substack.com think tank project. As always on this Substack, please read with an open mind, be respectful, offer comments, suggestions, criticisms, corrections, discussions, etc. My hope is that those discussions will allow us to discover improvements that will help us succeed in saving the planet together, as equals.

STAGES OF SOLUTION SEEKING

Initially, a need for solution seeking had to be identified. Resources were allocated. The preliminary initial goals were defined. Teams to investigate were formed. All ideas done in good faith were presented. Risk taking was celebrated, reinforced, and not ridiculed or punished. Diversity was honored. All were treated with respect. The alternatives were evaluated and refined into smaller sub project with assigned teams and goals. Some of the groups grew too large so smaller groups working on different aspects were created.

After the initial stage discussed above, one dedicated team was formed. Some others still participated in meaningful ways but were not focused on solution seeking. This small team was objective and open minded. It treated all possible models, ways of engaging, and goals as probabilities, and was never certain that any one way was superior to the others. It created goals, but was able to adapt and change those goals as new information came in. No idea was dismissed outright as long as it was respectfully shared in good faith. It kept looking for what it missed, what it got wrong, and did not allow ego to play a role. It was thankful for those who respectfully pointed out its errors and flaws. It got results, and subjected those results to constructive criticism. It continued to research, accept respectful constructive criticism, adapt, and improve. With open minds. It honored all participants, got to know all participants, and treated them humanely with respect and compassion.

Then the company almost went bankrupt. The project’s funding and management support was almost completely cut, but eventually cut so severely that the project almost disbanded. The deterioration of the entire process was painfully evident. Some went on as best they could. Others went elsewhere. Many no longer seek solutions and are conducting their lives in completely different ways. So far, as today, January 7, 2023, none of my previous colleagues have joined this Solution Seeking as far as I know. People have changed. Mose of my previous friends, who decades ago would have been dedicated to solution seeking on or before March 2020 if anything similar had occurred, now have better things to do, and most firmly believe the mainstream narratives and avoid conspiracy theorists.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY

Some of the teams were engineering/programming experts. But many of the best ideas came from a diverse range of people. The most useful and innovative ideas came from people who had never heard of any of the topics before. There were some situations where teams of expert specialists were best, but the overall project benefitted from the inputs of a wide range of diverse participants. At this stage it is not clear how this SolutionSeeking@Substack.com will work out, and it might be possible that this splits into other teams who will work somewhat independently and share.

TEAM SIZE AND COMMUNICATION METHODS

In many ways the best method of communication was face to face discussions in conference rooms. We flew across the country often to do this. That option is not available here. What I we are attempting here, in Substack, is an experiment. Substack was not designed for this kind of think tank sharing, but, so far, it is the best free platform I know of where this can be attempted, so we are here doing our best.

As I write this now, January 7, 2023, there are 37 subscribers to this Substack. I know little or nothing about most of them and hope they will introduce themselves. That can be done in a later post.

Without knowing it, the successful engineering solution seeking teams I participated in practiced something like “Empathic Transactional Communication Techniques”. Please feel free to do your own research, share, etc. I will attempt a summary now. Each person is invited to share their ideas. When one person is sharing, the others respectfully attempt to understand all possible aspects of what the sharer is communicating. What the sharer (sender) is feeling, why it is important to them, etc. They are not interrupted, but, rather, asked questions that do not attempt to do anything but more fully understand what they are trying to communicate. No attempts to persuade them occur at this stage. Only after both are sure that both the sender and receiver fully understand the sender’s message does constructive criticism start. This technique is extremely helpful in problem resolving and is used widely with success. I now believe that we were doing this in the best stages of our solution seeking years ago, and it helped to turn adversaries into deep friends, while increasing respect and compassionate understanding. For me, this old book adequately explains the process, and those who use these techniques report significant improvements in all their relationships. https://www.amazon.com/Talking-That-People-Will-Listen/dp/0671761552 Can something like this be done here? If not, what could be done here? Please share your ideas.

MINDSET OF PARTICIPANTS - OBJECTIVE OPEN MINDS, EVERYTHING IS A PROBABILITY, DIFFERENT VIEWS SHOULD ALL BE CONSIDERED, THE BEST THING ANYBODY CAN DO IS OFFER CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND CORRECTIONS, LEAVE EGO AT THE DOOR

Below is a summary of what mindset worked best. It is not clear what will work here. We are all new to this and learning as we proceed.

Everything was treated as a learning opportunity and probability. We assumed nothing was certain and discussed everything with an open mind. Some of the brainstormed ideas were laughable, but we laughed at the ideas, and celebrated the person with the courage and intelligence to present innovative suggestions. We even had contests where the most insane ideas were presented. Of course most of these ideas were easily easily rejected for better ideas. But, by doing this, we ensured that we had considered every possibility to the greatest of our abilities. And, we actually succeeded in implementing some of the most insane ideas that came out of this. It was fun. Egos were left at the door and the initial mistrust and animosities changed into friendships.

We did something like simple Bayesian Probability Analysis as follows. Almost everybody used to do this all the time. Nowadays not so much, unfortunately. It is simple. We assigned probabilities to things. 0-100%. How likely is something to be true. Nothing was ever 0 or 100%. By doing that, we enhanced and optimized the process. We also improved our ability to understand the wide range of possible explanations of what is happening in the world.

Of course we did other things too, and we may do them here. But, for now, at this initial brainstorming, idea generating stage, this is probably more than adequate.

Please offer your comments and insights. My hope is that the team we are building here can understand a wide range of perspectives, discuss them, learn from the discussion, be open to new information and ideas, adapt, and improve, while leaving ego at the door. We will hopefully leave no relevant idea undiscussed.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions.