I just started reading a Dutch book about Design Thinking (as far as I know the only book in Dutch), "Design Thinking: Radicaal veranderen in kleine stappen" (in English: Radical change in small steps) by Guido Stompff. He starts with explaining different approaches to tackling a problem, which I found so interesting that I thought to share it here. It's only Chapter 1 of the book, so that sounds promising!
The three problem-solving styles Stompff describes are: analytic, decision making and design. The first is what most of us learn at school: study all aspects of the problem in depth, to get a good understanding of what it is or what's behind it and collect as much information as you can related to the problem. This style focuses on the problem. Decision making is used when there is ambiguity and disagreement about what is important. For example, when a new highway is planned, car drivers will be happy but environmentalists will point at the loss of nature. The third style is aimed at creating and testing solutions. This is your best method when there are no options available. Something new has to be created. Collecting more information about the problem, is not going to create a solution in this case.
Take, for example, the building of your new house. An architect will listen to your wishes and requirements, but she won't do a thorough analysis of the problem. Nor will she select from a catalogue with predesigned houses. She will create something new, first in drawings, then a mock-up and get your feedback every round.
This third style of problem solving is not known to the large group of non-designers, but it's helpful to learn more about it for looking at problems that have no solution.
As I said, it's just the first chapter of the book I'm reading now, so I'll probably will come back to this book later on.
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