Want to solve your problems? Read this before you begin...

From the diamond desk of
I. C. Clinton

A cure for poverty of the mind and the pocket

Subject: What successful people
do that you too should start doing

Knowing the problem is half the cure, discovering the 4WH of a problem is 75% its solution.

My former neighbor’s sister is a nurse and so is his wife. Sometime ago, when we lived in the same building, the sister came from another city for a long vacation and stayed with his wife and him in the same apartment. At this time I had large rice and beniseed (sesame indicum) farms, and it was harvest time, and because my farmhands (including the supervisors) were engaging in sharp practices, he loaned me his sister to help out in the farm and keep my workers in check for the entire period of the harvest. The harvest spanned a period of about one month; and a few days afterwards, the young lady started experiencing body itching. Being a nurse herself and staying with another who is a nurse, they both decided they knew the solution to her condition and, acting on that conclusion, went on to purchase drugs which she started taking. Unfortunately, one week past, the itching instead of relieving her, was getting worse. It was during this time they informed me about her struggle with body itching. My first reaction was, “How the hell could a knowledgeable nurse as you attempt to treat body itching without proper diagnosis?” I advised she went for a test first. The microfilaria test report said nothing’s wrong. I wouldn’t have that, because she was still suffering from terrible body itching. So, while I am neither a physician nor pharmacist, I asked her to sit down and answer some questions. The following were my questions:

· 1. During the time you were going to the farm with me, were you at any time bitten by an insect or anything of that nature?

· 2. While in your former city, did you at any time experience body itching?

· 3. The soap and cream you use now, are they different from what you are used to?

· 4. Are you eating any type of food or fruit different from what you are used to since you arrived here?

· 5. When was the first time you noticed this itching: day, time, and all that?

· 6. Does the itching occur on a particular part or all over your body?

· 7. When the itching starts and you scratch, do you get blisters, swells, redness or any other visible signs on your body?

· 8. How does the itching start; can you describe exactly how it begins and how it behaves?

· 9. Can you cast your mind back to all the different times when the itching started and compute in your mind the periods, times, and places when it occurred the most – when does it occur the most?

To all the Yes or No questions, she answered no. Although she explained that she had started using a particular medicated soap few days after her arrival in the current city, she had stopped using the soap when the doctor at her sister’s hospital who recommended one of the drugs she had been taking told her to stop using the soap, because he assumed she might be allergic to it. By the way, I should have told you that they had actually purchased the second round of drugs after consulting a doctor who didn’t think conducting a test before treatment’s all that important for a condition he considered too minor for such a waste of money and time (since he must have wrongly believed he’s used to such cases enough to know the cause without a laboratory test). This was way before I was informed of her condition. Interestingly, her answers to my last two questions provided viable insight into the possible cause of her condition: The itching often started or increased during or immediately after shower most of the times. And? After further investigation and subsequent tests, the source of her trouble and worry was discovered to be water. And once the discovery was made and steps were taken in the right direction? Itching was gone and the young lady was free and fine again.

Lesson

No matter how old you are, how professional you are, or how wise you think you are, never attempt to solve a problem without first asking the right questions and providing or receiving the right answers. You must seek to understand the problem in its entirety, analyse it and its possible cause or causes before attempting to proffer solution. You can learn from successful weightlifters who before attempting to lift a weight always first size it up with their eyes making sure they can see clearly its position and, once sure, balance themselves in the right position, grab firm hold of the weight on the right spot before attempting to lift it. I think this principle is equally practiced by all athletes and sportsmen. I practiced a little sport in my elementary school days, and I recall our Games Master would always command us in military-like manner saying, “If you miss the ball, don’t miss the leg!” Although at the time I would have thought he only meant we should endeavour to tackle our opponent to the ground if he dribbled past us and moved forward with the ball, now I understand better – I understand that beyond whatever we must have thought he meant, he more than anything else meant that we should never take our eyes off the ball; and that if for any reason we missed the position of the ball at any time, we should never lose sight of the leg of the opponent with the ball. If we know where the ball is, we would know how to run after it and possess it, and if we know where the leg of our opponent is and how he is handling the ball and what direction he is going with it, we would know how to mark him and stop him and take the ball from him. That’s exactly what my Games Master was trying to teach us – the right tactics to tackle a problem: To keep our eyes on it, identify its position and direction, analyse everything about it before attempting to solve it. The same tactics is exactly what I am trying to teach you here.

4WH – the easiest and best problem solving formula

4WH or WWWW—H (WWWW extension H) is my personal invention coined as an acronym for “What, Why, Where, When, How.” This is the best information bank to consult before the World Wide Web when you want to solve a problem. Before you take the dot com route, you should first of all travel the 4WH lane, because it is the most basic resource locator for problem solving. Long before the emergence of Google, I want to believe that the best brained of our forefathers used 4WH. In fact, all inventors use it. All solution providers use it. Even Larry Page and his Google co-travellers used it to arrive at Google.

Is there a problem? Ask:

1) What – What is the problem/the nature of the problem/what caused the problem

2) Why – Why is it a problem/why do I have the problem

3) Where – Where exactly is the problem or where does the problem lie

4) When – When did the problem start

5) How – How did the problem start or how did the problem come about

Before proceeding to the “How” of the solution – that is, before asking “How can this problem be solved,” you must first provide accurate answers to the 4WH of the problem. The quality of answers to 4WH questions of the problem will determine the quality of the HoS (“How” of the Solution).

Here is how it works:

WRA to 4WH = WRHS; & WRA to 4WH + WRHS = PR

RA to 4WH = RHS; & RA to 4WH + RHS = PS

Let me explain.

ABBREVIATION MEANING

4WH What, Why, Where, When, How

HoS How of the Solution

RA Right Answer

RHS Right “how” to solve (problem)

WRA Wrong Answer

WRHS Wrong “how” to solve (problem)

PR Problem remains

PS Problem solved

& And

If you can trace the origin of your problem, if you can provide accurate answers to the 4WH questions, you will arrive at the right “How to” of the problem’s solution. And once you can get the right “How to” solve the problem, your problem is as good as solved. Some people would say that a monkey is smart only because trees are in the bush mostly close to each other. Asking the 4WH questions and providing accurate answers before attempting to proffer solution to your problem(s) is like planting trees close to each other, in which case a monkey becomes smart; and you are brainier and smarter than a monkey and therefore will be able to solve your problem(s) faster than a monkey would jump from one tree to another in any problematic situation. With the 4WH formula now explained, it makes sense to say,

Knowing the problem is half the cure, discovering the 4WH of a problem is 75% its solution!

Try it now and report back your experience.