April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties1 Contains ‘overlay’ animations: Please download and save to your hard disk, then use your F5 key to run the presentation! (Scrolling through this presentation without actually running it will SURELY be very confusing for you!) Note: The term ‘OPMS’ refers to ‘One Page Management System’ – about which more information available on request0.

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties2 Ideas & Difficulties (and how to help YOUR mind deal with them) Work in progress

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties3 By ‘ideas’, we shall generally mean ‘THINGS TO DO’ to accomplish some desired aim/objective By ‘difficulties’, we mean all difficulties, barriers, threats and weaknesses that could hinder/prevent accomplishment of your desired aims/objectives (Of course, ‘THINGS TO DO’ and DIFFICULTIES, etc are all “ideas”)

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties4 To understand how to work with ideas (THINGS TO DO; DIFFICULTIES; etc), we need to understand some characteristics of the human mind…

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties5 Some basic properties of the human mind: Most minds remember better when things are written down. (*Conditions apply!!*) The human mind has poor ‘ability’ to remember large amounts of information (which the computer does very well indeed) The human mind has excellent *potential* ability to seek and discover useful and usable patterns in certain types of information presented to it – in particular, linkages between different factors and the like. (Computers are only now beginning to develop these kinds of skills).

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties6 Difficulties and how to overcome them… Handling ideas… Much of what follows is entirely ‘obvious’ – but still somehow we do not work in a way to ensure that we use the properties of brain and mind to best effect for our purposes~ This presents the ‘generic process’ showing the connection between ‘things to do’ and ‘difficulties’, etc. For how some specific difficulties in a real instance were tackled, see our presentation on “Overcoming Difficulties”.

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties7 For instance, just think of or WRITE down ANY difficulty on any issue in which you have real interest… Here’s some evidence that your mind has inherent capabilities that could be used to help overcome difficulties… …and your mind will of itself – almost automatically – think of one or more ways to overcome that difficulty!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties8 Means to overcome difficulty! Difficulty Check out the sketch below describing this feature of the human mind: OPMS contains a very specific set of procedures to ensure that ‘ways to overcome DIFFICULTIES/ BARRIERS/ WEAKNESSES, etc’ are automatically integrated into the Action Planning developed to accomplish the Mission! The OPMS process enables systematic capture and crystallization of all the ideas to overcome difficulties that your mind naturally generates!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties9 Of course, we do also have the ‘reverse’ happening, so to speak: If one mind provides what appears to be a “good idea”… … other minds will – almost automatically - suggest one or more difficulties to show why that idea does not work! Illustrated in graphical picture, next slide…

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties10 Difficulties hindering/ preventing that idea! Good Idea Check out this dyad describing this characteristic in the way minds interact: Again, the OPMS process is most useful to help us handle this characteristic of human minds: it helps us find more ideas to help overcome those difficulties – see next slide…

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties11 Difficulties hindering/ preventing that idea! Good Idea “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to overcome these difficulties? OPMS helps you create an Action Plan to overcome those difficulties!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties12 Using these concepts (integrated with OPMS proper), a great many difficulties confronted can be systematically overcome: No guarantee that you will be able to overcome ALL difficulties – but you don’t really need to overcome all difficulties… One needs to discipline oneself to write down systematically the ideas one’s mind ALWAYS generates. (This is quite difficult to do!) OPMS is a ‘system’ to help you handle ideas of all kinds most effectively… Just ensure that you list your difficulty…and everything else will surely follow – i.e. your mind will find ways to get over almost every difficulty!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties13 What to do with Ideas and Difficulties! 1.LIST THEM – in two or more different dimensions – in ‘THINGS TO DO’ & in ‘BARRIERS/ DIFFICULTIES/THREATS/ WEAKNESSES 2.ORGANISE THEM, in ‘contribution order’ i.e. how do the various THINGS TO DO “contribute to” each other – and how do the BARRIERS (etc) “aggravate” each other? 3.You need to find out specifically how the BARRIERS (etc) prevent accomplishment of the THINGS TO DO 4.Think of any other THINGS TO DO that could help you overcome the BARRIERS/DIFFICULTIES/ THREATS & WEAKNESSES confronted… it becomes an iterative process The OPMS process helps you do all of the above in a very systematic way! You can do this in any scribble pad or note book or computer (word processor or spreadsheet program) – or you could use the OPMS prototype software to help you minimize filing and other such issues This involves some modeling for which you could use the OPMS software – or you could learn to do this modeling without benefit of software…(It’s not difficult!)

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties14 How to find out what are the available ideas, what are the difficulties… Ask an appropriate ‘Trigger Question’ of the people involved: “What, in your opinion, are the THINGS TO DO to …?” “What, in your opinion, are the DIFFICULTIES / BARRIERS / THREATS that may hinder / prevent you from ….?” ‘What, in your opinion, are the WEAKNESSES that may hinder/ prevent you from …?”

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties15 How to LIST ideas and difficulties: Use the OPMS software (or any other means) to list down the ideas and difficulties that come to mind as you look at those trigger questions… It’s most important to record your ideas as your mind generates them…

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties16 As you list the various ‘elements’ that are relevant to your Mission, you need to find just how you can actually ACT on those of the THINGS TO DO that are current and relevant at that point of time. OPMS has a simple strategy to help ensure you never get overwhelmed by the many THINGS TO DO that your mind will generate – you will always be able to find just the few actions that would be most useful and relevant to do at that point of time! Check out our presentations showing the OPMS in detail!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties17 Let’s recap… The moment a mind thinks of any particular THING TO DO, it (or another mind) will automatically think of some DIFFICULTY/BARRIER/THREAT or WEAKNESS that will hinder or prevent accomplishment of that THING TO DO! Conversely, the moment any mind thinks of a DIFFICULTY/ BARRIER/ THREAT or WEAKNESS of any kind, the mind will immediately discover some THING(S) TO DO to overcome the DIFFICULTY/ BARRIER/ THREAT or WEAKNESS!! The above are universal characteristics of the human mind… of course, one has to record those ideas as they come up in the mind, before they disappear! Many of these difficulties, barriers, etc, can be overcome…but often we fail to list them and work effectively to overcome them… We simply do not make effective Action Plans of how to ensure we do those THINGS TO DO that our minds think of (which could help us to overcome the difficulties we confront)… The OPMS process enables you to turn these difficulties, etc into practical things to do to accomplish your Mission!

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties18 Information about John Warfield’s books, papers, etc: and see also the ‘John Warfield Collection’ maintained at the library of George Mason University The OPMS is based on the seminal contributions to systems science by Professor John N. Warfield.

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties19 G.S. Chandy (Intelligent Systems for U and Me, Bangalore, India) Camp - Mumbai: Consultant Sahi Oretrans Pvt Ltd 30, Western India House, 3 rd Floor Sir P.M. Road, Fort Mumbai – India Tel.: (Direct): ; (Board line): For more information about OPMS, contact:

April 2009GSC - ideas, difficulties20 Thank you!