Problem-solving is such a significant aspect of every individual’s life. It plays a strong factor across the various areas that we live in every day.
To some, problem-solving may come naturally; some of us can work collaboratively alongside others as well as individually to come up with innovative solutions in our personal lives and the workplace.
However, others view problem-solving as a hurdle that needs to be jumped at specific points in their life. Problem-solving can be a daunting task that holds loads of pressure. The possibility of failure can even prevent someone from trying to solve a problem, leading them to implement the “ignore it until it goes away” methodology.
Problem-solving doesn’t have to be a scary or confusing thing. Sure, we may run into challenging situations, but a few useful tools can help us get where we need to be and form sound, logical, and productive solutions.
Steps in Problem-Solving
One of the best tools you can use when problem-solving is the various steps it takes to actually complete the process. By breaking problem-solving up into steps, it not only gives a natural kind of thought process and organization, but it helps the issue, and the solution, seem a little less scary.
Rather than viewing problem-solving as one large and vital action, we can break it down into mini-accomplishments that we guide us through to finding an answer.
Problems happen all the time, and many of them need answers, so it’s a good idea to take advantage of a negative situation by looking to make things better around us.
Step 1: Identify the Issue
The first step you should take when trying to solve a problem is to identify and define precisely what that problem is. It is especially important to identify the issue when you’re working through a situation that involves more than one person.
Whether it’s a case of miscommunication or simply differing definitions of what a problem is, it’s inevitable that other people will have varying viewpoints. Several people looking in from different angles may not see the picture the same way that you do, so identifying the issue can ensure there is clarity across the board.
It can also help determine who thinks there’s an issue and who doesn’t. If you don’t specify that there is an issue at hand, some people may remain ignorant of anything that is going on.
At the same time, even after you define the issue, there may still be individuals who disagree that it truly is a problem. Something that might be offensive or wrong to you may be perfectly okay in someone else’s eyes. However, when you make it clear that this issue resonates with you, it gives the other people involved the opportunity to empathize and put themselves in your shoes.
This step is often helpful in personal relationships that can suffer when one person in the partnership is struggling with an issue that the other person does not see. When you make it clear to your significant other that there’s a problem, you give them a fair chance at making things right and working with you.
At the very least, identifying an issue lets others become aware of the problem and makes it easier to collaborate alongside you to find a solution. And on the individual level, identifying an issue within yourself can paint a clearer picture of where you need to go next.
Step 2: Define and Understand Everyone’s Needs
Issues that involve more than one person have a farther reach than the personal issues we deal with alone. Therefore, in order to come up with the best possible solution, we need to include everyone’s best interest with a deeper understanding of each individual’s needs.
For example, in the workplace, someone may point out to a team that their timelines are falling short, and they are beginning to miss deadlines. While one solution may be to add extra work to some staff members’ plates, it may leave a parent unable to pick a child up from school or a spouse consistently missing dinner and jeopardizing their relationship. Perhaps another team member attends counseling for personal issues, and additional work hours interfere with that.
We all understand the need to pitch in, but when there’s at least a surface understanding of everyone’s needs and interests, it can be easier to build a productive solution that works out for the group as a whole – not just the individual who recognized the issue.
This step is a major one that many problem-solving situations fail to address, mainly because when an issue comes up, everyone just wants it solved as quickly and seamlessly as possible. But when we don’t take the time to drop everything, put aside differences, and really listen to each other, we end up with high emotions and unproductive arguments.
The best solutions are the ones that deliver a best-case outcome for most people. You can’t make 100 percent of people happy all the time, but if you can strive for it, you’re on the right track to finding an excellent solution.
Step 3: List Your Options
Even though there may only be one solution in the end that makes sense, every problem starts out with a host of possible solutions that you need to sort through and cross out. The next step is to list plausible solutions that may or may not be the right answer.
This step is otherwise known as brainstorming.
During this step in the process, there are no wrong answers – except for giving up. If you’re dealing with a situation on your own, grab a notebook and write down the thoughts you have – all of them. Don’t dismiss any ideas off the bat and give them all a fighting chance.
If you’re in a group setting, such as a family discussion or a work meeting, have everyone take a few minutes to gather their thoughts and write down some realistic solutions. Then, make time for everyone to share their brainstorming. Make sure everyone who wants to speak gets the chance; you never know who in the room might have the right answer.
Have someone take notes of all the ideas that have been shared. In the workplace, someone can write these ideas on a whiteboard. At home, someone can take a page of notes.
Step 4: Review the Options
Now that all the ideas have been put out into the world, take them one at a time and open them up for discussion. This part of the process can take some time, but it’s the best way to separate the ideas with potential and the ideas that simply will not work.
If you’d like, you can even implement voting into this process. This works best when you have a large group of people.
Talk about the pros and cons of each possible solution. Be straightforward and honest, but maintain high levels of respect across those involved. Ideas are more well-received in a room full of respect rather than a room full of negativity. If you listen to someone, they are more likely to listen to you.
Use this step to eliminate a good chunk of the options given. Talk about the ramifications involved, using statements like, “If we choose this option, then we will have to make these changes.”
Step 5: Select One or More Solution
After some heavy discussion, some pro and con lists, and maybe even some voting, you should have narrowed your list of options down to just a few. So, now is the time to pick one – or more, depending on if your situation calls for or allows it.
Often times, choosing a solution may mean selecting the option that has the fewest negative impacts. In a perfect world, we can all probably say we’d prefer to keep it positive, with the winning choice being the one with benefits for everyone involved.
However, that’s not always the case, so sometimes we need to choose the item that causes the least damage.
Let everyone have a say. This will look different in all kinds of situations. In the workplace, the final say may come down to one person: the boss. In a marriage, a solution is more likely to be a joint decision made together, and can often involve a compromise of some sort. In a family situation, the final decision might be made by parents who have chosen to include their children’s opinions first.
Whatever your issue may be, make your decision with true conviction and as little negative impact as possible.
Step 6: Document the Decision
Documenting the solution to your problem may sound like a highly business-like and serious response in light of your situation, but it actually applies to all areas.
Yes, in business, when you make certain decisions to solve problems, it often requires documentation and sometimes even binding contracts. However, this step can prove useful in your personal life as well.
Coming up with a solution to a problem can often be similar to making a resolution or setting goals for yourself. When we do the latter two things, it’s not unlikely for us to write it down. We make a note in our journal or write our daily goals on a post-it note.
Writing things down helps to solidify them. It makes them real, rather than just an idea floating up in space that may or may not happen.
Perhaps your problem is an issue in your marriage that you and your spouse are trying to work through. By writing down a solution that you have come up with together, you are demonstrating your commitment to problem-solving and to each other. It also serves as a constant reminder of the improvements you are trying to make in your relationship.
Likewise, someone whose health is deteriorating due to their diet and amount of exercise may choose to clean up their eating and set fitness goals as a viable solution. Writing these things down also shows a commitment to themselves and can be a great motivator.
Additionally, if the solution you have come to for your issue is a complex one with several people, ideas, steps, and possible outcomes, writing things down may be necessary simply to remember all of the details. If your plan involves several steps, you might need to check out your decision to see where you should go next. You might also need to make adjustments along the way should something unplanned happens.
Step 7: Follow Up
After you have made a decision and defined a solution, you’re still not done. You still have to carry out your plan, playing your role in the solution.
Your problem-solving may also require some follow-up. Your solution could have been a bit of a risk with a little bit of unknown attached to it, and so you decided to try it for a period of time to see how it goes. In this case, you need to track your actions, your timelines, and your results so that when the period is over, you can look back and see if you’ve been successful or not.
This step can be vital in various areas of life because it allows you to see if your solution is actually the right answer. You may have implemented certain commitments or strategies in your marriage only to look back in three months and see that you’re still not feeling confident.
The same goes for a change in daily business. Maybe you split up your teams and tried working with different initiatives for a few months only to see that your productivity has actually decreased.
A huge part of follow-up is making adjustments, not just evaluating the decisions you have already made. Use if-then statements to monitor progress: If we reached 50% of our yearly sales goal in five months, then we will continue using this method.
And, of course, in instances of success, don’t forget to celebrate a little – whether it’s a personal goal or a corporatewide goal.
Other Helpful Tools
The seven steps above offer an excellent step-by-step guideline in productive problem-solving. While these steps alone are a great tool and resource for anyone to use, there are other problem-solving tools we can use in the various situations and issues we come across on a daily basis.
The 5 Whys
Asking questions is a superb and classic method of getting the answers you need. Sometimes it’s all about asking the right question that gets you what you want, and that’s exactly how The 5 Whys works.
The basic principle around The 5 Whys is asking yourself or others involved a series of questions that lead to each other. Every time you ask a “why” question, you come up with a question. From there, you ask a question based on the previous answer.
If you’re a parent, this method might sound vaguely familiar to you. That’s because this is often how our children learn about life. Picture a child asking about the rain:
Why do I have to go to school? You need to go to school so that you can learn. Why do I have to learn? You need to learn so that you can get good grades. Why do I need good grades? You need good grades so you can learn more and develop skills for a career. Why do I need a career? You need a career so that you can support yourself and your family someday.
All of these questions lead to this: You need to go to school so that you can develop the skills needed for a successful career that will support you and your family.
This is the general structure of The 5 Whys. Of course, not every instance will take exactly five “why” questions to get to the answer. Some situations may take ten questions, while others, like the one above, will need only four.
This method simply lets us break issues down until we get to the core of the problem. By asking questions like this, we force ourselves and others to pinpoint exactly what we need to focus on in order to start building a practical and productive solution.
Pareto Charts
Pareto charts are diagrams that combine bar charts and line graphs to give a visual representation of a problem. These kinds of charts are often used in business as a way of clearly demonstrating the frequency or cost of various issues and how they are relevant or related.
A Pareto chart is a great way to display a company’s failures following an audit. By using the bars and the lines, a company leader can show employees what categories they failed in and just how much these failures are costing them.
Pareto charts are great business tools because they put a clear picture, literally, right in front of personnel. When you can physically see the effect of a problem, it becomes easier to grasp it, treat it seriously, and come up with some real solutions.
Often times, visuals can have a larger impact on us than the written or verbal word. It’s easy to pretend to listen to someone speak and nod along, but images are harder to ignore and can truly represent a greater issue.
Scatter Plot Diagram
Another excellent tool for problem-solving in business, the scatter plot, is something we all probably learned about at a young age in our elementary school mathematics classes.
Scatter plots are extremely useful because they allow us to use data points to reveal relationships between variables.
Scatter plots operate using the x-axis and y-axis on a diagram to properly plot information. Your independent variable, or your cause, is plotted on the x-axis, while your dependent variable, or your effect, is plotted on the y-axis.
For example, a company might suspect that their sales numbers are directly impacted by the number of cold calls made. Therefore, their independent variable may be the number of calls performed by the department each day, and their dependent variable could be their sales numbers.
After a predefined amount of time, a manager could plot data points to see if there’s a relationship between sales growth and the number of cold calls that the sales representatives are making on a daily basis.
Plotting these points on a scatter plot diagram can help to identify whether the problem truly lies where a manager suspects it does or can disprove a theory altogether. Either way, it helps an individual come closer to identifying a problem – which is the first step in solving one.
The Drill Down Technique
The Drill Down Technique is a method that has a concept similar to The 5 Whys, in that it uses several steps to simplify a problem, making it easier to tackle and conquer and more clearly defines the issue at hand.
To use the Drill Down Technique, simply start by taking a piece of paper and writing down the problem you’re currently dealing with. Try to keep it simple and write it down in just one word or a short phrase – even if the problem is super complex, really try to nail down a short description.
From here, you will start to drill down the problem.
Underneath the word or phrase that you wrote at the top of the page, break the issue down into three to five smaller issues. Write these issues in smaller lettering on the next line. For example, perhaps you wrote “overweight” at the top of your page, and that’s your problem.
On the next line, you might write things like “poor diet,” “no exercise,” and “lack of nutritional knowledge.”
For our example, that might be enough to feel like you have a good grasp on the bigger problem at hand, as well as the smaller issues that need to be dealt with in order to solve the problem.
However, you can use this technique to really drill down super complicated issues layer by layer until you feel like you can’t go any further.
This technique works because it uncovers the simple things that play a part in a larger, more complex issue. It makes it easier to start brainstorming solutions because you’re now trying to solve a few small problems rather than conquering the whole mountain at once.
The Drill Down Technique is awesome for business needs, but it also helps you get to the heart of the problem in personal relationships. A struggling relationship may seem like one giant issue, but by drilling it down, you can get a grasp on the little things in life that play into the big things, making it easier to resolve and rebuild.
The Cynefin Framework
The Cynefin Framework does not actually give you a solution to your problem, but it helps you put your problem in the right context so that you have a better starting point. Often times, when we find ourselves in a pickle, we can go into panic mode or not see the big picture as clearly as we should.
By implementing the Cynefin Framework, we can get a better grasp of the situation and put things in their proper perspective, which leads to better problem-solving.
The Cynefin Framework operates using five defined contexts where you can categorize your problems.
The first context is for problems that are self-explanatory. These problems are typically the easiest to solve because, well, they explain themselves. Your problem is that you are low on gas, so the obvious answer is to drive your car to the gas station before your next trip.
The second context is the complicated context. These issues require a little more thought and may invoke help from other sources, whether it be individuals that you work with or trusted relationships.
After that comes the sector of issues that are complex, like above, but they may not be readily solved today. In fact, they may be complicated issues that have to simply remain on your radar until a solution is available. These kinds of problems can be frustrating because you can’t just come up with a way to fix them at whim, and they require some patients.
The fourth context is problems that you know exist, but that you don’t currently understand. You need to solve them, but you’re unsure exactly how to define them, why they’re happening, or what their implications may be. With issues like these, you often need to come up with a temporary solution, meanwhile tracking progress and analyzing circumstances along the way.
Finally, the last context includes any issues that you don’t recognize as issues right away. You may not understand the issue at hand, and you may not even believe it to be an issue at first. But, it is an issue nonetheless that must be dealt with. In this case, you can only do your best to learn more and wait for the right moment to tackle the problem.
Problem-Solving at its Finest
No one likes to deal with problems, whether it be in the workplace or right at home in your living room. However, problem-solving is a necessary evil that helps us deal with issues using the right steps and innovative tools.
Problem-solving tools are there for us to use to make our lives easier, as well as the lives that we impact on a regular basis. Use them to make improvements throughout all areas of life.