When Solving Problems, Think About What You Could Do, Not What You Should Do

Many employers could better address challenges by considering what they could do rather than what they should do, writes Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino in the Harvard Business Review . She describes an experiment in which she gave participants ethical challenges where there seemed to be no good choice, and determined that those who were asked what they could do produced more creative solutions than those asked what they should do. "Approaching problems with a 'should' mindset gets us stuck on the trade-off the choice entails and narrows our thinking on one answer, the one that seems most obvious," Gino says. "But when we think in terms of 'could,' we stay open-minded and the trade-offs involved inspire us to come up with creative solutions." Gino also notes maverick or "rebel" employees often tend to disagree, "but some tension is a positive thing, because it can help get people to move past should to could. When we experience conflict, research finds, we generate more original solutions than when we are in a more cooperative mood. When there is tension, we also tend to scrutinize options and deeply explore alternatives, which leads to novel insights." Gino cites research that found when people are asked to meet two seemingly clashing goals, their ideas are more innovative.