By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here are a few ideas to sharpen your problem-solving skills:

Eager to show off his newly learned arithmetic skills, the first grader stood up and blurted out the answer: “Four!” The teacher had just posed this question: “If there were five birds in a tree and you shot one of them with your slingshot, how many birds would be left? Proud of getting the answer first, the boy sat back down. And thought. A few seconds later, he stood back up, and blurted out a correction: “None!”

In those few seconds of second thought, the young boy demonstrated that he could think strategically. He could define, align and evaluate the factors — as well as the facts. In those few seconds of second thought, the young boy discerned the context as much as the content of the problem. And in those few seconds of second thought, the young boy grasped the consequence of his decision: all the birds would be scared off by a single shot.

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