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The 8 Problem Solving StepsThese 8 Problem Solving Steps are for doing projects and achieving objectives. These include, but are not limited to: Easy to difficult projects and objectives, straight forward and fast to complex and time consuming. And...everything in between!
By thinking through a project or objective, logical and rational alternatives are determined based on facts, data, experience, and common sense.
Then, make informed decisions to solve a well thought out objective based on well grounded confidence. Note: These 8 problem solving steps are not the only way to approach problems. However, the vast majority of problem solving will have some, if not all of these steps. This process has two parts.
Part I: Define your project or objective. Examples of projects are:
Examples of achieving objectives are:
Part II: Structure your problem solving steps, then do it. Structuring a task can be challenging. By using the problem solving steps noted below you will maximize your time and minimize frustration. When working with these problem solving steps, continually ask questions throughout the process. Questions help to ensure a deeper understanding of your mission and how to handle it effectively. Asking
well thought out questions
lead to more worthwhile questions. When one question leads to another question after an answer it is called begging the question.
Step 1: Use your past knowledge Have you encountered this type of task before?
Also ask:
Step 2: Visualize your desired results Visualizing the desired results helps you focus on what is needed to address your mission. By determining the desired results you can work backwards and determine the steps needed to get the desired results.
Discussing your desired outcome with friends, family or coworkers can be helpful to clarify what you want to achieve. Others can frequently spark ideas and ways of looking at things that you may not have thought of yourself.
Step 3: Frame your project or objective Sometimes the most difficult part of doing any task is deciding where to begin. This part of the process can be simplified by framing. Framing means defining what you need to do. To frame your mission you will need to consider the following:
The greater the project or objective the more time should be invested in defining, researching and getting the resources you need.
Checklists Next, take a clean sheet of paper and write down questions that need to be answered. This process is similar to making a grocery check list of items to buy. You make a list of things needed so you can get in and out of the store quickly. Such a list might include:
Making a check list for doing a task is also helpful. However, in this case the check list is of questions that need to be answered. For example, suppose you want to go on a vacation. Use the generic considerations noted earlier to create the following questions.
As you write down questions this begins a train of thought. Writing down questions also encourages you to dig deeper, not taking things at face value and investigating further. For example, the first question: What is your budget for the vacation?, begs the questions:
* How much money do you have available for a vacation?
Step 4: Collect the facts and data Next, determine the resources you will need to investigate your task to collect facts and data.
Step 5: Determine your available options Once you have collected the facts and data you can come up with several potential options. Review the good and the bad of each option.
Step 6: Pick a solution and implement After collecting and reviewing the facts and data and defining available options, select a solution and implement it. Sometimes the solution is obvious. Other times you have to do a comparison study. Feelings, emotions, intuition, past history and the magnitude of your solution may hold you back from deciding. Strive to keep procrastination to a minimum. If you are having a tough time making a decision, review Dealing With Uncertainty from Step 6: Make Your Decision of: The 7 Decision Making Steps
Step 7: Modify or change if required You may require more than one attempt to get a good solution. Consequently, after implementing your solution you may need to modify it. Sometimes significant changes may be required. Only after applying a solution will you know if the results are what you desired. If it becomes obvious that you didn’t make a good decision, rethink it and choose a different solution if possible. The toughest part of changing any decision is the admission that we are human and make mistakes. In our society many people are schooled to think that mistakes are failures. In reality, mistakes are an important part of the learning process. We all make mistakes, no matter how hard we try. Getting over them, admitting the errors and getting on with improving our decisions is crucial to critical thinking and decision making.
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Step 8: Review your lessons learned Each time you use these problem solving steps to do a new project or objective you gain more experience. This experience is invaluable for future undertakings. Think about the lessons you learned. Ask yourself:
Consider other ways you could have handled your task that would have given you similar or better results. If this was a difficult task to do then consider writing it (and the solution) down on paper or in your computer. You can study this information in the future for ideas if/when you encounter a similar task and then use the problem solving steps again. Learning these 8 problem solving steps will help you to approach projects and objectives with a new found confidence.There are many tools that are explored on this website that will help strengthen your ability at each of these problem solving steps. These Problem Solving Tools are referenced below and they define which Problem Solving Steps they are most useful on.
Brainstorming
Ben Franklin Close
Burning Platform
Gathering True Facts and Data
Train of Thought
The Subconscious
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