The role of leverage points in option generation

Abstract

Existing models of problem solving address option generation through the use of problem spaces, which are combinatorial elaborations of all possibilities, thereby reducing problem solving to the activity of searching through the problem space. We suggest an alternate view of option generation in which courses of action are constructed from leverage points. We hypothesize that people can use their experience to identify leverage points, which are opportunities for making critical changes at relatively low effort. In this view, option generation is a constructive activity using the leverage points to structure the course of action.