Article archive / November 2018
Originally published: . Volume 9, No. 11. Source pages: 2.
by Times publisher, J. Nelson If you haven't had a chance to catch the movie The Martian on Netflix, be sure and see it, especially if you're sci-fi enthusiast.
During a space mission to Mars astronaut Matt Wanley, played by Matt Damon, is separated from his team, presumed dead, and left alone on Mars with few resources. With almost no hope of surviving, it is a high-tech story of man against nature and man against himself, of courage, determination and science.
"If the oxygenator breaks down," he says, "I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the hab breaches, I'll just kind of implode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So, yeah… "
One of the fan's most popular quotes is (and Neil deGrasse Tyson really likes it too): "In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option, I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this."
Looking at the complex factors around Louisiana's health and health care issues, and the bottom rank we've had for years, suggests some concern with our problem-solving methods.
Perhaps there's an issue in the way we're going about it.
When solving problems, it is critical that you figure out what problem you are solving, so you don’t wind up working on the wrong problem or trying to solve a symptom of the real problem. This thing that happens to a lot of us –solving symptoms of problems– is so common a mistake that we have a name for it – the medical model. Much of medicine has developed excellence in treating symptoms. Another thing to remember when solving complex problems is not to allow your team to grow much larger than 5 or 6 people. Some of these task teams are loaded with twenty or more people.
If you are going to have any hope of a high-functioning team, this is critical. If you are unlucky enough to be assigned a large group and told to manage some sort of problem-solving process, and there is absolutely no way you can get out of it, then you must have a facilitator or two, and everybody must be assessed for cognitive style, conflict style, leadership style, and so on.
Avoid compromise and other shortcuts to bad decisions. Compromise has somehow gotten unwarranted positive press, probably because most people don’t know that compromise is only a bad solution in disguise. Another bad idea is majority rule voting. “The measure passed by X votes.” This means it was a poor decision to begin with, but nobody knew what else to do, they were all probably worn out, blood sugar was tanking, and it was time for lunch. Compromise and majority rule result in halfway, mediocre decisions, that only a percentage of people even like.
Perhaps one of the worse things about bad decisions is that they lull people into thinking that they actually have an adequate solution, went they don’t. People stop searching for the best ideas, or even just a better one. Some of what happened in Representative Norton's bill, seems to fit that issue.
Watney summed up a wonderful problem-solving method, at the end of the story. What to do when faced with the odds. "At some point, everything's gonna go south on you… everything's going to go south and you're going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem… and you solve the next one… and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home."
Psychology is science too, and one that has many good answers to important questions.
[Julie Nelson is a licensed psychologist, journalist, and organizational consultant, and publisher of the Times. She also holds other various positions in the community. However, her opinions here are those of her own, and do not represent any group or association. She and the Times receive no compensation other than paid advertizing. Email her at drj@drjulienelson.com, ––she welcomes feedback.]
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.