taken from " newsletter of Life Coach Lab.
Overcoming Obstacles changing perspective
(from "The lateral thinking", E. De Bono) : Molti anni fa, ai tempi in cui un debitore insolvente poteva essere gettato in prigione, un mercante di Londra si trovò, per sua sfortuna, ad avere un grosso debito con un usuraio. L'usuraio, che era vecchio e brutto, si invaghì della bella e giovanissima figlia del mercante, e propose un affare. Disse che avrebbe condonato il debito se avesse avuto in cambio la ragazza.
Il mercante e sua figlia rimasero inorriditi della proposta. Perciò l'astuto usuraio propose di lasciar decidere alla Provvidenza. Disse che avrebbe messo in una borsa vuota due sassolini, uno bianco e uno nero, che poi la fanciulla avrebbe dovuto estrarne uno. Se fosse uscito il sassolino nero, sarebbe diventata his wife and his father's debt would be forgiven. If the girl had instead extracted the white one, would stay with his father and even then the debt would be reinstated. But if she refused to extraction, his father would be thrown in jail and she would die of starvation.
The merchant, though reluctantly, ended up agreeing. At that time they were on a gravel path in the garden of the merchant and the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. While he chose them, the eyes of the girl, made more acute by the terror, they noticed that he took two pebbles in the bag and put blacks. Then he invited the girl to take out usurious the stone that was to decide his fate and that of his father ...
I Imagine to be in that driveway, facing the choice of pebble, what can we do? What might advise this girl?
Probably most of us could refuse to remove the stone face of injustice or protest and try to expose the hoax, or even be forced to remove a pebble from the bag, sacrificing himself for his father.
In this way, but we could not overcome the obstacle if the girl fails to draw the pebble in her father would prigione, nel caso contrario dovrebbe sposare l’usuraio.
Come si conclude l’aneddoto?
...La ragazza introdusse la mano nella borsa ed estrasse un sassolino, ma senza neppur guardarlo se lo lasciò sfuggire di mano facendolo cadere sugli altri sassolini del vialetto, fra i quali si confuse. «Oh, che sbadata!» esclamò. «Ma non vi preoccupate: se guardate nella borsa potrete immediatamente dedurre, dal colore del sassolino rimasto, il colore dell'altro.»
Naturalmente, poiché quello rimasto era nero, si dovette presumere che ella avesse estratto il sassolino bianco, dato that the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty. In this way, the girl managed to resolve itself very advantageously to a situation that seemed hopeless. The girl, in fact, survived in a much more brilliant than they would have succeeded if the money lender had been honest and had put a pebble in the bag a black and white, because in that case would have had only fifty percent odds in his favor. The trick I came up with the security offered instead to stay with his father and gain the forgiveness of debt.
But how can we change the perspective of dealing with a problem? Some tips:
1. CREATING ALTERNATIVE Instead of selecting existing ones: let us remember that there are many roads, many alternatives to be considered and above all to be built: not always rely on what appears to be the best solution is an effective move. Seek different points of view from which to observe the situation and create new ones may open the way to unexpected solutions.
2. Do not be afraid of mistakes: the wrong path if we grant this helps to reach the right solution, there are times when you must fail to realize that the idea was right beside us.
3. LEAVE MODELS, CATEGORIES, LABELS: exploring the context, the possibility even more remote, less obvious, helps us to decode our preconceptions, to free ourselves from certain shots where to look for solutions. Crossing this boundary will open a new crossroads of routes to go!
4. PRACTICAL TOOLS TO USE: use simple tools such as compass, as the PMI (E. De Bono), and every time we have a problem can be divided into three parts a sheet, listing the more, the less and interesting (positive points, negative and interesting ) and figure out which way to tip the balance ... It sounds simple, but usually happen to search for reasons to support their choice, and not to analyze the situation and then decide take that road ...
5. Increase the possibilities of solution instead will settle for a POOR SOLUTION: At the end you must make a decision, right or wrong ... remember the fable of the donkey? A donkey that had both hunger thirst had to choose between a bucket of water and hay. But after days of indecision, the donkey died, unable to decide. If we are faced with two equally valid alternatives, let us focus on the negatives or weaknesses of each option, experiment, and finally making a decision. How could we have both water and hay?
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