Succeed in Business by Solving Puzzles

by Bethany Therriault

One of the biggest catch phrases in recent professional jargon is "Think outside the box." Creative thinking is at a premium in today's business world - but what does "thinking outside the box" really mean? In most cases people who think "outside the box" are people who can approach a problem from an original point of view, people who can think of multiple solutions - that is, creative people.

So, logically, people who think creatively are at an advantage in the professional arena. Therefore, it follows that a well-honed creative mind is an asset, even a necessity, in today's society. But how does one develop such creativity? How does one go about becoming an "out of the box" thinker?

Oddly enough, the answer may lie in puzzles, or, to be more specific, in situation puzzles. There are many forms of puzzles that can help boost creativity, but situation puzzles are perhaps best suited to enhancing problem-solving skills. What are situation puzzles? Situation puzzles, often called lateral-thinking puzzles, are most commonly presented as mysteries. The puzzle will describe a situation, and the solution is found in determining how that situation came to be. These puzzles can range in difficulty, from those suitable for children to those worthy of Sherlock Holmes. The following is a good example of a situation puzzle:

A man fell asleep while reading a book. Although he slept for many hours, when he woke, he noticed that the sun had hardly moved in the sky. How did this happen?

First, it is important to note that many puzzle creators add unnecessary information to their puzzles. This often serves to disguise what is relevant. In this puzzle, the fact that the man was reading a book serves no purpose. However, clearly, if he slept for a long time, the sun ought to have moved in the sky. Why didn't it? Well, one might ask, where was the man when he fell asleep? This is a key step, because the answer reveals the solution to the problem. The man fell asleep on a plane that was going from London to Los Angeles. So, when he left London, it was about noon. He slept for 11 hours, and awoke to find himself in Los Angeles at about 3:00 PM, local time, with the sun still high in the sky.

Sometimes, seemingly irrelevant information can be the key to solving a situation puzzle. For example:

A woman in a cast stepped out of a car in front of a building and was immediately surrounded by flashing lights and screams. What was going on?

In this puzzle, the key is not in figuring out what the flashing lights and screams were, although you could solve it that way. The key is that the woman was "in a cast." She was not injured or sick - she was in a movie cast. She was attending the premiere of her movie, where she signed autographs for screaming fans and posed for pictures taken by members of the press.

The key to all situation puzzles is to think about them creatively. In many cases, these puzzles rely on providing only small clues and forcing the reader to fit those clues into possible situations. There are a number of party games designed for multiple players in which one person is given the solution to a situation puzzle and the rest of the players must ask yes or no questions to reach the solution - this may remind you of the "20 questions" game that you may have played as a child. Situation puzzles are simply an extension of that children's game - instead of discovering the identity of a thing, you must delve into the more complex question of discovering the origin of a situation.

The GrandMatrix forums provide any number of examples of situation puzzles - some of which are relatively easy, like the puzzles above, and some of which took forum members months to solve! For instance, can you think of a situation in which 2 + 2 = 3? No? The answer can be found in the GrandMatrix forums.

Happy sleuthing!