Considering that all of us spend most of our days solving problems, it's both surprising and disappointing that problem solving is not a fundamental part of any educational system. Rather, we are left to find out about it by ourself. I've been interested in problem solving for the previous fifteen years; here are a few items that I have learned.
Problem solving is about bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be. In that sense, it integrates decision making, which can be just 1 step in that process (identifying just how to close that gap). There are many ways to cut the problem solving process into bits. This is one, split in four steps:
Define the problem
Diagnose the issue
Look for solutions
Execute (convince & execute )
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There are actually only two sorts of issues you need to think about: answering"why" questions and answering"how" questions. In an entire problem-solving process, you want to answer both types since you follow the four steps above. Let me explain:
First, define the issue : this is, be certain that you are focusing on the unique real issue. Not one of its symptoms or a real difficulty but a less-critical or urgent one. Think of it this way: in any problem-solving endeavor, you set to reply only one crucial question. Your first task is to ensure that you identify that key question with no uncertainty. Easy enough? Maybe, but see: I have coached hundreds of professionals to solve business and organizational issues.
We all start the attempt understanding that we know what the true problem is. However, it usually only takes a short talk with a couple of trained outsiders to recognize that we were wrong. So ensure you absolutely know what you are focusing on. A good way that will assist you identify your issue is to outline it in a problem identification card: there you'll catch both the introductory flow (more on that below) and also the context of the problem, including the major stakeholders and decision makers in addition to the out-of-scope components.
Second, know the root causes of your issue: that's, ask"why". In some cases, the answer to a"why" question is obvious-as in,"why do you want to get rid of your cancer?" -but these cases are amazingly infrequent. Just like with the problem identification measure, most of the time we're pretty confident that we understand why we are facing a problem but probing further into it usually is eye opening.
If you jump straight into searching for solutions-that is, answering a"how" question-without first understanding the"why", you might spend precious efforts in identifying solutions that aren't really relevant to what you're setting yourself to do. So make sure that you ask how only in the event that you understand why. A fantastic tool to organize your root cause analysis is an issue tree: a close relative of the better-known conclusion tree.
Among the ideas essential to creating issue trees and choice trees-and effective problem in general-is to produce your believing mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, or MECE. Basically, thinking MECE means you consider all pieces of your issue exactly once: you don't forget any part and you do not think about any more than once.
Third, actively look for answers : this is what we commonly think about as actual problem solving. Here again issue trees are instrumental in supporting your effort, both for identifying alternative ways to solve your issue and also for organizing them in a MECE manner. As soon as you've identified potential solutions, you'll need to choose which one(s) you need to execute. It can be a good idea to use a decision matrix to help you do that.
Finally, execute your answer : which can be as"simple" as convincing your stakeholders which you simply recommendation is the ideal way to proceed or as complex as performing the convincing and the implementation. This step requires you to communicate and persuade effectively, show effective leadership, -and use exemplary project management skills.