Training in Problem-solving and Decision-making Skills

As a manager, you deal with problems every day, and you may use your past experience, available information, and your team's experience to identify and implement the solution, and your response to problems is often quick and straightforward. Occasionally, it is important to take a long-term look to be able to solve problems. Highly achieving managers recognize that some problems require a more systematic and comprehensive process in order to get to the origin of the problem, rather than simply providing a temporary solution.

If you want to improve your teams, problem solving skills are the solution. There are courses designed to provide you with hypotheses, tools, and methods to refine your problem solving and decision-making abilities.

Looking for causes and symptoms:

The  basic message is to go deeper and beyond dealing with symptoms, and you may have heard it all before, and you may have experienced it too.

Dealing with causes, not symptoms:

If you treat all your symptoms separately, you will end up falling into an endless cycle of frequent problems and short-term temporary solutions, and you may or may not improve.

As a manager, your role is to see the biggest picture, and collect all the symptoms of the problems you see in your process. The discipline and style you take as a problem solver will have a great impact on the results for you and the entire team, so a good leadership development program is always worth the investment of time.

Wait before you act quickly:

We've all heard the saying, "Take one step forward and two steps back". Sometimes you need to wait before you can act quickly, and even a little bit of waiting never seems like a suitable business option. However, to upgrade your level to a professional problem solving level, the big challenge you will face is waiting to solve a problem.

You may need time to clarify the facts and reflect before acting. Also, moving to conclusions and easily predictable feedback is likely to lead to temporary solutions while feeling more frustrated.

Waiting to solve a problem must not be a difficult process, as identifying the problem in advance and clarifying the cost of the process will attract people's attention, and it will also save time and the resources they need to reach the root cause and deal with the problem once and for all.

Identify the problem before offering solutions:

Have you ever seen “good experience in identifying the problem” on someone's resume? In  fact, we see ourselves successful when we come up with great solutions, as our focus is on the winning idea that makes the problem disappear. You never hear about all the hard work that goes into identifying the problem, and it takes a long time to understand exactly what you're dealing with.

So, what happens is that we focus most of our concentration and energy on ideas about solutions, which makes perfect sense. After all, finding great problem-solving ideas is what gives us respect and credibility.

"It is not that they cannot know the solution, but they cannot know the problem." - English philosopher Gilbert Chesterton (G. K. Chesterton).

Asking yourself questions:

Think about the last problem you solved as part of a group.

Was the group successful? If  yes, why? If not, why also?

Problem-Solving Steps:

The  generally accepted definition of problem solving is as follows:

Problem solving is the process of finding the best viable solution to a problem, or identifying an innovative solution to improve opportunities. The problem solving process consists of 6 steps:

1. Choose the problem or opportunity.
2. Identify the problem or opportunity.
3. Analyze the problem or opportunity to identify the basic cause.
4. Develop the best solutions or improved ideas.
5. Apply selected solutions or ideas.
6. Evaluate the results of solutions and identify new opportunities.

Theoretically, the problem-solving process may seem a bit frustrating to you, and these steps may be a natural part of your carefully refined instincts, but the secret is not the words used to describe the process, but rather, it is in the discipline required to follow the process, know when and how to apply the tools, and achieve results

The value of having a consistent process that you can refer to also pays off in some unexpected ways. The six-step problem solving process gives us a common language that we can use to identify and analyze problems, and it also gives you a basis in your teams to synchronize, calibrate, and focus on your problem solving activities.

Problem-solving methods as an essential skill:

Whatever your position at work, problem solving skills and techniques are the basic skills, and problem solving training can help you develop your skills.

Problem solving uses your entire mind:

The right and left sides of your brain are used for different types of tasks. They are specialized as follows:

Left Side = Logical things, such as speaking, arithmetic, writing, and composition.

Right side = creativity, such as art, music, symbols, and spatial relationships.

There is a common myth that solving problems is the logic, so think about the best solutions you have ever come up with, whether the solutions were based on a crazy idea that might have been impossible at first, or was a typical experience for most of us, and determine where this idea came from, whether it came from your imagination or from a brainstorming session with your team.

Problem solving needs to be able to think logically and creatively and to be strong throughout the entire problem solving process. Using too much logic limits deeper understanding of the problem or finding an innovative solution, as creativity gives logic the necessary balance to see all the possible causes of the problem and come up with a range of solutions.

Effective problem solving is balancing a logical and rational approach with creative ideas led by innovation. For you and your teams, remember to encourage the use of logical and creative thinking throughout the problem solving process.

In conclusion:

When you realize that some problems require a more comprehensive process in order to get to the bottom of the problem, using a fish structure chart or the so-called Ishikawa chart can be a valuable tool. This helps manage the stress of dealing with problems and provides you with a clear breakdown of the root cause of your problem.