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Even before I
reached for my keys I knew there was something different about the
gate. This is all I need. I had just returned from McKenna
Breen’s NLP Master Practitioner in London and it was nearly
midnight. I was cold, wet and looking forward to being inside. My
flat is above an estate agent in the city centre and there is a
deadlocked gate at the foot of the stairwell. The shiny glean of a
new lock on the gate was confirmed when my key didn’t open it. The
old lock was worn, temperamental and obviously been changed while I
was away.
| I was stuck.
Now what do I do?
It didn’t
take long for me to run out of options. I stopped. Shrugged.
Then, more of out desperation than anything else asked myself
a completely different question. It seemed somewhat frivolous
but that was all it took. Moments later I was in with the gate
locked behind me. As I walked up the stairs to my flat I
laughed at how easy it had been. |
 | Being stuck in a problem could be compared to being
baffled at magic trick or illusion. Some people don’t want to know
how the trick is done because it takes away their wonder at the
magic. However, if you have ever found out how some of these tricks
are performed then this could prove to be a useful resource
elsewhere. We do not want to diminish the magic but create more in
another context. If you have insights into the thinking that creates
‘magic’, what would it be like if you started looking at problems as
if they were illusions?
At the beginning of the 20th
Century Harry Houdini captured the imagination of the western world
by performing seemingly impossible feats wherever he went. As well
as creating and performing escapes on stage, and taking on all
manner of challenges, he also broke out of prison cells all over the
United States and Europe. He summed up his career by saying ‘I do
tricks no one can explain.’
Houdini was one of the most creative and
innovative thinkers of the last century and the ideal inspiration
for a creative approach to creative thinking. Also, insights into
his methods might give us some new ways to approach problem solving.
‘Thinking out of the box’ takes on a whole new meaning when the box
has just been nailed shut, dropped in a river and is filling up with
icy water.
The notion of
THINKING OUT OF THE BOX as a metaphor for problem solving has been
around for some time. It appears to originate in relation to what is
known as the “9 dot” problem. Nine dots are drawn in a 3 by 3 square
and the problem is – how can you draw a straight line through each
of the dots using only 4 straight lines without removing your pen
from the page. Most people struggle with the problem because they
try to work within the box formed by the dots. The solution involves
extending some of the lines outside of ‘the box’ hence the
expression.
As popular as ‘Thinking out of the box’ is, in
terms of actually generating solutions, knowing that there is a
‘box’ is not enough and just telling someone to think out of the box
is seldom any help.
Everyone brings to their problems their own set
of limitations and resources. There are those elements that are
withing their control and that are relevant tot he solution that
they haven't accessed yet because of self-imposed restraints. We can
describe their 'box' as being made up from the beilefs, education,
professiona nd sisciple, which preclude them from considering otehr
possibilities. In some instances solutions are found by someone
else, who has already seen the soltion in another context. They have
other boxes to think in.
THE HOUDINI PRINCIPLETM is a result of applying principles
from Michael Breen’s NLP Business Master Practitioner training to
create something new. I started out by making the decision that I
was going to create something without really knowing what it might
be. When I looked for potential resources I just sorted for the
things that I thought were ‘cool’, then applied a simple ‘modelling’
strategy and The Houdini Principle was one of the results.
THE HOUDINI PRINCIPLETM is based on the thinking behind the
escapes and illusions of Harry Houdini and uses these as the basis
for Problem Solving, Creativity and Taking on a Challenge.
The basic premise behind the approach to
problem solving is that it provides insights into the ‘impossible’.
With this ‘inside’ knowledge you can review the magic trick that
baffled you and discover what kind of questions you would have had
to ask yourself to see through the illusion. These types of
questions have value in that they provoke your thinking in new
directions. You also have a way to point someone else beyond the
current limitations of their thinking so that they remember,
discover or learn that there is something they can do that will make
a difference. We are using the benefits of hindsight in one context
to feed forward into another.
When you know The Houdini PrincipleTM of problem solving and are facing an
‘impossible’ situation, you only really need ask yourself one
question. The same question I asked when standing outside the locked
gate – ‘What would Houdini have done?’
Copyright Tim Kenning
2003
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For more information on
The Houdini Principle™ see
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This article was originally posted
on www.mbnlp.com
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