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Using Solution Fluency to Solve a Problem

Unemployment between the ages of 15 and 24 has reached a staggering 71 million (ILO, 2016). Solution fluency is a guided problem solving framework that consists of six D’s. I'm going to use 'solution fluency' to solve this problem in my area.

I live in Plumstead. Many people come to my front door, ring the door bell and ask for food, money or a job. When you walk down to the main street you see people on the side of the road begging, houses that haven't been maintained and there is lots of litter. This causes many problems like crime and pollution. I'm going to use the 6 D's to help solve this problem.

The 6 D's:

Define - Before we start the solution fluency process we need to be able to define and clearly understand the problem.

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Plumstead is full of litter, has unsustained houses and hosts many homeless people.

Discover - Its important to figure out how this happened, what events let up to this problem and what could of been done differently to avoid the problem.

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Plumstead has shoddy flats on Gabriel road which are very low cost. It hosts gangsters and unemployed individuals. Next to that is an array of junk food stores and privately owned 'Indian shops' where beggars spend most of their time. The junk food resulted in unhealthy lifestyles, depression and pollution of the environment. The people in the flats kept losing money to crime and debt resulting in the houses decaying and becoming unsustainable. The area hasn't had the time and care it needs for recovery.

Dream - Here you see the problem solved and would possible solutions are available.

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I can see my area being fixed up simply by organizing groups of people to rid the streets of litter and creating more plant life. These people could be the homeless people in need of money. I can see these homeless people going to a rehabilitation centers and finding jobs. I can see more police engagement with the area to make it a safer place.

Design - This is a process whereby you make the dream a reality, you imagine the dream and figure the steps to get there.

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Start a campaign to fix up the area. The campaign starts off by finding people in the area and supplying them with jobs. These jobs including picking up litter and planting/installing plant life. Once that is complete, make healthy food an easy and affordable option by supplying people with the necessary cooking equipment and ingredients from local suppliers.It's important to show these people where the local suppliers are and create a good relationship between them. So now the area is clean, plants are growing, locals are becoming entrepreneurs and creating jobs. Next we need to get the 'high-need' individuals to a place that can help and teach them necessary life skills. Finally I need to start a private security organisation or improve the neighborhood watch system, to make sure they are always eyes on the streets. The major benefit of all this is teamwork is: all the Plumstead citizens working together to make the place better (even a little bit better is extremely effective), it helps build relationships and gives everyone a chance to express their needs and opinions. Helping everyone else define the problem puts them 1 step closer to finding a solution.

Deliver - They're 2 factors to deliver, produce and publish. Produce the plan of how you intend to deliver the design and publish it, to get it into action.

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My produce needs to consist of a budget, where I'm going to get funding, who is going help me and what areas in Plumstead are we going to target first. My publish will put the design and plan into action, to make Plumstead a better area.

Debrief - Look at your process and find areas where you could improve or make the it better for next time.

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Maybe I could implement team building exercises, promote the process on social media to get more people involved or find ways to make the process quicker so I can implement it in more areas.

References:

Anon. 2013. Solution Fluency. Global Digital Citizenship Foundation. [online]. Available at: https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/21st-century-fluencies/solution-fluency [Accessed 27 April 2017].

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