Effective Approach to Problem Solving

Every problem contains within itself the seeds of its own solution.

~~~~ Stanley Arnold

There is no doubt that problems are a daily part of our professional and personal lives. But the question remains; how do you approach solving a problem as an individual, employee or organization? I can bet that a lot of the times, we jump right in to finding a solution rather than taking some time to critically analyse such problems in order to come up with the most suitable and implementable solution.

My perspective towards problem solving changed completely after taking the IBM’s course, Professional Skills: Solving Problems with Critical and Creative Thinking. I have come to understand the five-step process to take when attempting to solve a problem. The first step in this process admonishes that we identify the problem with a clearly written problem statement that includes details such as the;

• who,
• where,
• when and
• what, to help us clearly understand the problem.

I equally understood and applied the “5 Whys” questioning technique to arrive at the root cause of a problem scenario presented. It became ingrained in me that when solving a problem, it is always beneficial to use a combination of both creative and critical thinking to identify the specific problem, analyse its root cause(s), generate possible solutions, select and implement suitable solutions. While creative thinking is a divergent thinking process, which aids in the generation of ideas to solve the problem, critical thinking on the other hand, is a convergent thinking process that helps us streamline such ideas with the view to selecting only the best suitable one to solve our problem.

At the end of the course, I was able to apply the Ease and Effectiveness Matrix tool to select the most effective solution to a problem in a scenario that was given. I have included the link to this course (see hyperlinked text above) for anyone who might be interested in exploring this course, I guarantee, you would not be disappointed.

I can now boldly say that I have a variety of tools in my arsenal to employ when tackling any professional or personal problem. Problem solving skill is indeed invaluable. A lot of organizations and businesses nowadays place a high premium on such skills as it has the potential to make their business processes more effective and efficient. It would be to every professional's benefit to learn and master this skill.