Problems and opportunities are a bit like onions. They come in layers. There are always broader or more narrowly focused problems than the one you are working on.

Take hospital patient satisfaction (HCAHPS) scores for example. Working to improve these scores is part of the broader opportunities to do things to enhance the patient experience of care, generate more word-of-mouth marketing for the organization, maximize revenues, and so on. Further, we might want to focus more narrowly on just one or two of the subdomains of HCAHPS.

As with most things associated with creative thinking, there is no right or best level at which to address the issue, but thinking about the variety of levels might give you insight that stimulates your imagination.

Exercise

• For more flexibility, consider writing each statement on adhesive notes so you can easily arrange and edit them.
• Though not strictly necessary, you may also find it helpful to arrange the various statements in some form of progression; such as large to small, long range to short range, major to minor, noble to crass, etc. The specific criteria are not so important; just pick something that seems relevant to your situation.