I love problems solving. It was my favorite thing to learn and work on early in my career and still is today. Something about the feeling and sense of accomplishment whenever you are able to wrestle a problem into submission and eliminate it from recurring. Most of my books and work I do for clients involves problem solving in some form or other. Everything is problem solving in a general sense. We get tired we sleep. We get hungry and we eat. Some problems in life are harder than others. Defective products, processes out of control, poor productivity, failure to deliver on time, or safety accidents. These types of problems require specific thinking skills and methods in order to solve the problem. I like various forms of problems solving. The older I get the more I gravitate towards creative thinking routines. However the first ones I learned in Toyota regarding root cause analysis have stuck with me my entire life and helped me through many difficult problems with clients and in my own personal work. There are so many great problem solving techniques and teachers throughout history that it is not fair to even attempt to name them all. However in the spirit of recognition here are my top ten favorite quotes of all time! I am sure it will change in a week or so but this is a good start.