I think, therefor I am....

Huh?  Occasionally, I am inspired to simply write about a higher level concept because, well, its a higher level concept.

This past week, I have found myself on numerous occasions asking why we do something the way we do.  Sometimes, this elicits a response like "well, that's how we do it" or "that is the way I was showed"...or some other similar response.  That is fine.  We need to be able to take orders, march to the step, execute the game plan, implement....etc.

But

Sometimes, we need to question the process, reach to a higher plane of understanding.  This is what is called the conceptual plane.   This is the place where we "think" about things.  Like how something is working, why it works that way and perhaps most importantly, is there a better way to think about it?  We also refer to this in the programming world as grokking something.  That is when you really get your head around an idea, fully, understanding it from many angles.  Does this ever really happen?

I often think of the example in my mind of two types of people.  The first can follow a plan to the t.  I mean they can really implement a plan.  More specifically, they can burn through a well defined plan with great attention to detail.  This is a very useful skill.  Then there is the person who can not follow the plan as quickly or perhaps does not have the immediate answer to a question.  But given opportunity, they can  conceptualize the problem and eventually solve it.

Often in business and in life, there is no concrete detailed plan to follow!  Yes there is a plan, sometimes, and that plan has been forged by many capable people who came before you.  But, that does not mean you should not conceptualize the plan or problem.  If we only ever followed the plan in front of us, where would the innovation come from?

I think back to a couple times when I interviewed for software development or programming jobs.  In each of these cases, I was given a test with a time limit.  Solve these problems or answer these question in xx minutes... tick, tick, tick.  Well, not my strength.  I tried, but did not do too well and was never offered a job.

In the jobs I have held, including the one I have now, the interview was more like, show me what you know, or show me what you can do or what would you do in this scenario or that.  I am much better or at least more comfortable in the conceptual realm.

People who write and write well are very conceptual.  A nice gift.  A well written blog with many posts over the years is as much better selling point than a test administered in a set time.  IMHO.

One of my colleagues from years ago gave me a nice complement one day when he said "you have better conceptual skill than anyone down programmers row", that was when we employed 8-10 programmers, some of which knew their code well and could program their way around very well.  Some of them were *better programmers than me, they could implement more quickly and by a set of rules of that language, but would struggle when questions or requirements were not so black and white nor could be described by a know set of parameters. 

Don't get me wrong, detail and implementation are important skills, but the more important skill is to be able to understand why you are doing something.  A deeper understanding of something allows you to see different solutions, different ways of solving a problem.  In this era of standards, assessment, and teaching to the tests, its becoming more obvious than ever that students graduating are lacking that higher level conceptual skill, ah, but I digress....

On three specific occasions this week, I have taken a *problem and solved it.  In each case, there were not well defined parameters around the problem.  I had to approach the problem from the conceptual realm.  Many times, in this realm, the answer is not immediately seen.  I have to spend time coming into and out of the realm, sometimes many times, before the light comes on.  I can usually feel this....I can tell that a better solution is there and that I have not yet found it....

The moral of the story?

Be a thinker in the higher conceptual realm.  It is here where innovation and process improvements happen.  If we never do this, how can anything ever improve?