BEHAVIORAL FOUNDATIONS OF EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
Problems. They are ubiquitous. They are challenging. Many lack solutions. But they are also a fascinating phenomenon. Life would be empty without our trying to meet needs and wants.
We have some solutions that sometimes, in the hands of someone, in some situations, somehow work. But many times the available solutions do not work and we have to struggle to come up with new solutions.
We have to become more effective. We can not simply rely on learned solutions whose effects have (sometimes) demonstrated effectiveness. Effects of what we now know how to do do not solve the general problem underlying problem solving – which is that we lack the behavioral foundations that could guide us toward solving any problem for the first time.
Effectiveness: “How to?” But “How to?” is not the biggest question here. The biggest question is HOW do we (more appropriately: how should we) go about thinking about “How to?” There are a multitude of how-to particulars, how to do this, how to do that. Are there any general principles that touch on HOW?
Is there a way to think about problem solving, to ask questions about it, which applies before the fact in generalities, so that we can be more inventive and thereby more effective, with respect to our yet unsolved problems?
Yes. And this way will help shed light on why and how it is that available solutions are often only “sometimes” solutions. So then instead of merely raising criticisms of ineffective solutions, we can use the theoretical and methodological framework (behavioral foundations) to analyze where we were frustrated or went wrong … and try again.
We can also set aside – or at least temper the use of – habitual ways of thinking that have become barriers to our progress in problem solving. For all their productivity, some of it prodigious, these ways bar our path to a full and accurate understanding of the Nature of Things. And they stand in the way of self-realization, which is a key to solving many of our yet unsolved problems.
We want to be of consequence, not just in consequence. We want to be of consequence in what we do, not just of consequence to others. To develop our consequentiality, we must respect the fact of consequentiality as such.
Consequentiality per se is a persisting, general quality of the Nature of Things. It is a fact of life. And of living. Consequentiality manifests itself in behavior, in processes of change. We want to concern ourselves not just with difference makers and differences made, but with difference making too (for problem solving, of course).
The behavioral foundations introduced here aim to help us make the most of possibility in this World of Possibility. In doing so their principles lay the groundwork for uniting the efforts of humanism, art and science.
This website would not be possible without the support and help of Jim Boggs (see: https://effectivearts.com/). Years of conversation with him have yielded substance and direction for this undertaking, this in addition to his technical prowess in website design. Haksoo Kim, Sogang University, has also been very instrumental in furthering this effort. So too have many years of interaction with graduate students and colleagues left their helpful marks.
We have some solutions that sometimes, in the hands of someone, in some situations, somehow work. But many times the available solutions do not work and we have to struggle to come up with new solutions.
We have to become more effective. We can not simply rely on learned solutions whose effects have (sometimes) demonstrated effectiveness. Effects of what we now know how to do do not solve the general problem underlying problem solving – which is that we lack the behavioral foundations that could guide us toward solving any problem for the first time.
Effectiveness: “How to?” But “How to?” is not the biggest question here. The biggest question is HOW do we (more appropriately: how should we) go about thinking about “How to?” There are a multitude of how-to particulars, how to do this, how to do that. Are there any general principles that touch on HOW?
Is there a way to think about problem solving, to ask questions about it, which applies before the fact in generalities, so that we can be more inventive and thereby more effective, with respect to our yet unsolved problems?
Yes. And this way will help shed light on why and how it is that available solutions are often only “sometimes” solutions. So then instead of merely raising criticisms of ineffective solutions, we can use the theoretical and methodological framework (behavioral foundations) to analyze where we were frustrated or went wrong … and try again.
We can also set aside – or at least temper the use of – habitual ways of thinking that have become barriers to our progress in problem solving. For all their productivity, some of it prodigious, these ways bar our path to a full and accurate understanding of the Nature of Things. And they stand in the way of self-realization, which is a key to solving many of our yet unsolved problems.
We want to be of consequence, not just in consequence. We want to be of consequence in what we do, not just of consequence to others. To develop our consequentiality, we must respect the fact of consequentiality as such.
Consequentiality per se is a persisting, general quality of the Nature of Things. It is a fact of life. And of living. Consequentiality manifests itself in behavior, in processes of change. We want to concern ourselves not just with difference makers and differences made, but with difference making too (for problem solving, of course).
The behavioral foundations introduced here aim to help us make the most of possibility in this World of Possibility. In doing so their principles lay the groundwork for uniting the efforts of humanism, art and science.
This website would not be possible without the support and help of Jim Boggs (see: https://effectivearts.com/). Years of conversation with him have yielded substance and direction for this undertaking, this in addition to his technical prowess in website design. Haksoo Kim, Sogang University, has also been very instrumental in furthering this effort. So too have many years of interaction with graduate students and colleagues left their helpful marks.
Professor Richard F. Carter has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of the field of communication, and has done more for my own scholarly thinking than anyone I’ve ever met. He has a fierce and relentless commitment to making a difference with others’ difference-making, and he is continually questioning (questions, always questions!) and challenging current norms and assumptions. His rigor is total, while still allowing space for the state of relative infancy of behavioral science (the “harder science”).
This website is a way to get his unpublished works into the hands of other difference-makers.
Dr. Jim Boggs, CEO EffectiveArts, Inc.
PLEASE NOTE: Professor Carter has requested that this website does not generate email for him to have to deal with. He is currently hard at work on his latest research and wishes not to be distracted. Please accept this content as his sole (and huge) contribution.
However, if you still want to send a note, please click the 'send email' button below to directly send from your email client. As mentioned above, this website is really meant as a read-only device so there are no promises that messages will be answered. Sorry!