Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Snow White's Problem, defined

OK, better. The answer to the definition of Snow White’s problem is, Snow White needs to decide what she is going to do. It could be stated different ways for example.

1. Snow White needs to decide what she is going to do.

2. Snow White needs to determine the best action to take.

3. Snow White needs to figure out where to go from here.

4. Snow White needs to make the most (good) out of a bad situation.

There are not doubt many more statements that would fit the problem but these are examples. Thus when trying to define a social problem the first words need to be something like Snow White needs to… Then a word like Decide, Determine, Figure Out or Make the Most, needs to be inserted. These are Solution Oriented Words and open the vista to a range of discreetly different courses of action. Finally there needs to be a word which is a variation of “Good.” In problem solving “Good” has a specific definition I will get to later.

Here are some of the possibilities I received as to what Snow White’s problem was.

A. She didn’t listen to her mother. (Fact)

B. She acted impulsively without thinking. (Assumption)

C. She caused turmoil in the lives of those around her. (Assumption)

D. She was only thinking about herself. (Assumption)

E. She was carrying concealed. (Fact)

F. She needs to find her way out of the forest. (Course of Action)

The lesson to be learned is don’t define problems in terms of facts, assumptions or courses of action. Define a problem in terms of a solution. Not a solution that has already been overtaken by events, but rather a solution that deals with the issue at hand.

I need to pause once more, but please take a moment and go to finnley, now with wings (52) and read her poem, “The Housekeeper.“ From the overview it is easy to see what the problem is but from their individual prospective it was perhaps not self evident…that however is an “assumption."
I will refer to finnley's poem in future blogs.