GRASP The Solution

How to Find the Best Answers to Everyday Challenges

Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5

In his far-reaching and engaging book GRASP The Solution: How to Find the Best Answers to Everyday Challenges, Chris Griffiths states that the same basic knowledge and information is available to just about everyone, so the individual who wants to excel needs to use that information in a creative and innovative way. His “GRASP The Solution System” is designed to teach people how to do just that.

Griffiths begins by explaining that GRASP is an acronym for five modes of thinking: Generative, Reactive, Analytical, Selective, and Proactive. The author combines his explanation of GRASP with something he calls “The Solution Finder,” a proactive strategy that is a basis for creative thinking. The Solution Finder includes the application of a technique called “Mind Mapping” that teaches the reader how to both improve note-taking and look at information as a whole in graphic form.

While his terms and overall concept may at first seem perplexing or even intimidating, Griffiths does a skillful job of both explaining his process and walking the reader through its use in a way that’s easy to understand. The text is enhanced with color subheads, highlight boxes, and key words in color type to aid in comprehension. Relevant photos and illustrations, along with the colorful “mind maps” that accompany each chapter, make for a book that is as visually pleasing as it is intriguing.

Griffiths, who previously wrote the Amazon bestseller, Mind Maps for Business, is at his best in describing precisely how to create a mind map. He carefully lays out step-by-step instructions and color illustrations that depict the sequential creation of a mind map. This is important, because the reader is not only learning a new technique but also adapting to a new way of thinking.

Beyond the basics of the author’s system are such mind-expanding techniques as “metaphoric stimulation,” “thought experiments,” “change your point of reference,” and “reverse the challenge.” Each technique is explained in meticulous detail.

Griffiths lobbies for bold, innovative thinking, and he provides a practical guide designed to teach readers how to think in a new and different way. With GRASP The Solution, he presents a comprehensive system that is likely to expand every reader’s perspective on creativity and provide them with a method for solving challenging problems.

Reviewed by Barry Silverstein

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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