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Overview of the Problem-Solving Mental Process

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Rachel Goldman, PhD FTOS, is a licensed psychologist, clinical assistant professor, speaker, wellness expert specializing in eating behaviors, stress management, and health behavior change.

• Identify the Problem
• Define the Problem
• Form a Strategy
• Organize Information
• Allocate Resources
• Monitor Progress
• Evaluate the Results

Frequently Asked Questions

Problem-solving is a mental process that involves discovering, analyzing, and solving problems. The ultimate goal of problem-solving is to overcome obstacles and find a solution that best resolves the issue.

The best strategy for solving a problem depends largely on the unique situation. In some cases, people are better off learning everything they can about the issue and then using factual knowledge to come up with a solution. In other instances, creativity and insight are the best options.

It is not necessary to follow problem-solving steps sequentially, It is common to skip steps or even go back through steps multiple times until the desired solution is reached.

In order to correctly solve a problem, it is often important to follow a series of steps. Researchers sometimes refer to this as the problem-solving cycle. While this cycle is portrayed sequentially, people rarely follow a rigid series of steps to find a solution.

The following steps include developing strategies and organizing knowledge.

1. Identifying the Problem

While it may seem like an obvious step, identifying the problem is not always as simple as it sounds. In some cases, people might mistakenly identify the wrong source of a problem, which will make attempts to solve it inefficient or even useless.

Some strategies that you might use to figure out the source of a problem include :

• Asking questions about the problem
• Breaking the problem down into smaller pieces
• Looking at the problem from different perspectives
• Conducting research to figure out what relationships exist between different variables

2. Defining the Problem

After the problem has been identified, it is important to fully define the problem so that it can be solved. You can define a problem by operationally defining each aspect of the problem and setting goals for what aspects of the problem you will address

At this point, you should focus on figuring out which aspects of the problems are facts and which are opinions. State the problem clearly and identify the scope of the solution.

3. Forming a Strategy

After the problem has been identified, it is time to start brainstorming potential solutions. This step usually involves generating as many ideas as possible without judging their quality. Once several possibilities have been generated, they can be evaluated and narrowed down.

The next step is to develop a strategy to solve the problem. The approach used will vary depending upon the situation and the individual's unique preferences. Common problem-solving strategies include heuristics and algorithms.

• Heuristics are mental shortcuts that are often based on solutions that have worked in the past. They can work well if the problem is similar to something you have encountered before and are often the best choice if you need a fast solution.
• Algorithms are step-by-step strategies that are guaranteed to produce a correct result. While this approach is great for accuracy, it can also consume time and resources.

Heuristics are often best used when time is of the essence, while algorithms are a better choice when a decision needs to be as accurate as possible.

4. Organizing Information

Before coming up with a solution, you need to first organize the available information. What do you know about the problem? What do you not know? The more information that is available the better prepared you will be to come up with an accurate solution.

When approaching a problem, it is important to make sure that you have all the data you need. Making a decision without adequate information can lead to biased or inaccurate results.

5. Allocating Resources

Of course, we don't always have unlimited money, time, and other resources to solve a problem. Before you begin to solve a problem, you need to determine how high priority it is.

If it is an important problem, it is probably worth allocating more resources to solving it. If, however, it is a fairly unimportant problem, then you do not want to spend too much of your available resources on coming up with a solution.

At this stage, it is important to consider all of the factors that might affect the problem at hand. This includes looking at the available resources, deadlines that need to be met, and any possible risks involved in each solution. After careful evaluation, a decision can be made about which solution to pursue.

6. Monitoring Progress

After selecting a problem-solving strategy, it is time to put the plan into action and see if it works. This step might involve trying out different solutions to see which one is the most effective.

It is also important to monitor the situation after implementing a solution to ensure that the problem has been solved and that no new problems have arisen as a result of the proposed solution.

Effective problem-solvers tend to monitor their progress as they work towards a solution. If they are not making good progress toward reaching their goal, they will reevaluate their approach or look for new strategies .

7. Evaluating the Results

After a solution has been reached, it is important to evaluate the results to determine if it is the best possible solution to the problem. This evaluation might be immediate, such as checking the results of a math problem to ensure the answer is correct, or it can be delayed, such as evaluating the success of a therapy program after several months of treatment.

Once a problem has been solved, it is important to take some time to reflect on the process that was used and evaluate the results. This will help you to improve your problem-solving skills and become more efficient at solving future problems.

A Word From Verywell​

It is important to remember that there are many different problem-solving processes with different steps, and this is just one example. Problem-solving in real-world situations requires a great deal of resourcefulness, flexibility, resilience, and continuous interaction with the environment.

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You can become a better problem solving by:

• Practicing brainstorming and coming up with multiple potential solutions to problems
• Being open-minded and considering all possible options before making a decision
• Breaking down problems into smaller, more manageable pieces
• Asking for help when needed
• Researching different problem-solving techniques and trying out new ones
• Learning from mistakes and using them as opportunities to grow

It's important to communicate openly and honestly with your partner about what's going on. Try to see things from their perspective as well as your own. Work together to find a resolution that works for both of you. Be willing to compromise and accept that there may not be a perfect solution.

Take breaks if things are getting too heated, and come back to the problem when you feel calm and collected. Don't try to fix every problem on your own—consider asking a therapist or counselor for help and insight.

If you've tried everything and there doesn't seem to be a way to fix the problem, you may have to learn to accept it. This can be difficult, but try to focus on the positive aspects of your life and remember that every situation is temporary. Don't dwell on what's going wrong—instead, think about what's going right. Find support by talking to friends or family. Seek professional help if you're having trouble coping.

Davidson JE, Sternberg RJ, editors.  The Psychology of Problem Solving .  Cambridge University Press; 2003. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511615771

Sarathy V. Real world problem-solving .  Front Hum Neurosci . 2018;12:261. Published 2018 Jun 26. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00261

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , Simon London speaks with Charles Conn, CEO of venture-capital firm Oxford Sciences Innovation, and McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin about the complexities of different problem-solving strategies.

Podcast transcript

Simon London: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , with me, Simon London. What’s the number-one skill you need to succeed professionally? Salesmanship, perhaps? Or a facility with statistics? Or maybe the ability to communicate crisply and clearly? Many would argue that at the very top of the list comes problem solving: that is, the ability to think through and come up with an optimal course of action to address any complex challenge—in business, in public policy, or indeed in life.

Looked at this way, it’s no surprise that McKinsey takes problem solving very seriously, testing for it during the recruiting process and then honing it, in McKinsey consultants, through immersion in a structured seven-step method. To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].

Charles and Hugo, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Hugo Sarrazin: Our pleasure.

Charles Conn: It’s terrific to be here.

Simon London: Problem solving is a really interesting piece of terminology. It could mean so many different things. I have a son who’s a teenage climber. They talk about solving problems. Climbing is problem solving. Charles, when you talk about problem solving, what are you talking about?

Charles Conn: For me, problem solving is the answer to the question “What should I do?” It’s interesting when there’s uncertainty and complexity, and when it’s meaningful because there are consequences. Your son’s climbing is a perfect example. There are consequences, and it’s complicated, and there’s uncertainty—can he make that grab? I think we can apply that same frame almost at any level. You can think about questions like “What town would I like to live in?” or “Should I put solar panels on my roof?”

You might think that’s a funny thing to apply problem solving to, but in my mind it’s not fundamentally different from business problem solving, which answers the question “What should my strategy be?” Or problem solving at the policy level: “How do we combat climate change?” “Should I support the local school bond?” I think these are all part and parcel of the same type of question, “What should I do?”

I’m a big fan of structured problem solving. By following steps, we can more clearly understand what problem it is we’re solving, what are the components of the problem that we’re solving, which components are the most important ones for us to pay attention to, which analytic techniques we should apply to those, and how we can synthesize what we’ve learned back into a compelling story. That’s all it is, at its heart.

I think sometimes when people think about seven steps, they assume that there’s a rigidity to this. That’s not it at all. It’s actually to give you the scope for creativity, which often doesn’t exist when your problem solving is muddled.

Simon London: You were just talking about the seven-step process. That’s what’s written down in the book, but it’s a very McKinsey process as well. Without getting too deep into the weeds, let’s go through the steps, one by one. You were just talking about problem definition as being a particularly important thing to get right first. That’s the first step. Hugo, tell us about that.

Hugo Sarrazin: It is surprising how often people jump past this step and make a bunch of assumptions. The most powerful thing is to step back and ask the basic questions—“What are we trying to solve? What are the constraints that exist? What are the dependencies?” Let’s make those explicit and really push the thinking and defining. At McKinsey, we spend an enormous amount of time in writing that little statement, and the statement, if you’re a logic purist, is great. You debate. “Is it an ‘or’? Is it an ‘and’? What’s the action verb?” Because all these specific words help you get to the heart of what matters.

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Simon London: So this is a concise problem statement.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah. It’s not like “Can we grow in Japan?” That’s interesting, but it is “What, specifically, are we trying to uncover in the growth of a product in Japan? Or a segment in Japan? Or a channel in Japan?” When you spend an enormous amount of time, in the first meeting of the different stakeholders, debating this and having different people put forward what they think the problem definition is, you realize that people have completely different views of why they’re here. That, to me, is the most important step.

Charles Conn: I would agree with that. For me, the problem context is critical. When we understand “What are the forces acting upon your decision maker? How quickly is the answer needed? With what precision is the answer needed? Are there areas that are off limits or areas where we would particularly like to find our solution? Is the decision maker open to exploring other areas?” then you not only become more efficient, and move toward what we call the critical path in problem solving, but you also make it so much more likely that you’re not going to waste your time or your decision maker’s time.

How often do especially bright young people run off with half of the idea about what the problem is and start collecting data and start building models—only to discover that they’ve really gone off half-cocked.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah.

Charles Conn: And in the wrong direction.

Simon London: OK. So step one—and there is a real art and a structure to it—is define the problem. Step two, Charles?

Charles Conn: My favorite step is step two, which is to use logic trees to disaggregate the problem. Every problem we’re solving has some complexity and some uncertainty in it. The only way that we can really get our team working on the problem is to take the problem apart into logical pieces.

What we find, of course, is that the way to disaggregate the problem often gives you an insight into the answer to the problem quite quickly. I love to do two or three different cuts at it, each one giving a bit of a different insight into what might be going wrong. By doing sensible disaggregations, using logic trees, we can figure out which parts of the problem we should be looking at, and we can assign those different parts to team members.

Simon London: What’s a good example of a logic tree on a sort of ratable problem?

Charles Conn: Maybe the easiest one is the classic profit tree. Almost in every business that I would take a look at, I would start with a profit or return-on-assets tree. In its simplest form, you have the components of revenue, which are price and quantity, and the components of cost, which are cost and quantity. Each of those can be broken out. Cost can be broken into variable cost and fixed cost. The components of price can be broken into what your pricing scheme is. That simple tree often provides insight into what’s going on in a business or what the difference is between that business and the competitors.

If we add the leg, which is “What’s the asset base or investment element?”—so profit divided by assets—then we can ask the question “Is the business using its investments sensibly?” whether that’s in stores or in manufacturing or in transportation assets. I hope we can see just how simple this is, even though we’re describing it in words.

When I went to work with Gordon Moore at the Moore Foundation, the problem that he asked us to look at was “How can we save Pacific salmon?” Now, that sounds like an impossible question, but it was amenable to precisely the same type of disaggregation and allowed us to organize what became a 15-year effort to improve the likelihood of good outcomes for Pacific salmon.

Simon London: Now, is there a danger that your logic tree can be impossibly large? This, I think, brings us onto the third step in the process, which is that you have to prioritize.

Charles Conn: Absolutely. The third step, which we also emphasize, along with good problem definition, is rigorous prioritization—we ask the questions “How important is this lever or this branch of the tree in the overall outcome that we seek to achieve? How much can I move that lever?” Obviously, we try and focus our efforts on ones that have a big impact on the problem and the ones that we have the ability to change. With salmon, ocean conditions turned out to be a big lever, but not one that we could adjust. We focused our attention on fish habitats and fish-harvesting practices, which were big levers that we could affect.

People spend a lot of time arguing about branches that are either not important or that none of us can change. We see it in the public square. When we deal with questions at the policy level—“Should you support the death penalty?” “How do we affect climate change?” “How can we uncover the causes and address homelessness?”—it’s even more important that we’re focusing on levers that are big and movable.

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Simon London: Let’s move swiftly on to step four. You’ve defined your problem, you disaggregate it, you prioritize where you want to analyze—what you want to really look at hard. Then you got to the work plan. Now, what does that mean in practice?

Hugo Sarrazin: Depending on what you’ve prioritized, there are many things you could do. It could be breaking the work among the team members so that people have a clear piece of the work to do. It could be defining the specific analyses that need to get done and executed, and being clear on time lines. There’s always a level-one answer, there’s a level-two answer, there’s a level-three answer. Without being too flippant, I can solve any problem during a good dinner with wine. It won’t have a whole lot of backing.

Simon London: Not going to have a lot of depth to it.

Hugo Sarrazin: No, but it may be useful as a starting point. If the stakes are not that high, that could be OK. If it’s really high stakes, you may need level three and have the whole model validated in three different ways. You need to find a work plan that reflects the level of precision, the time frame you have, and the stakeholders you need to bring along in the exercise.

Charles Conn: I love the way you’ve described that, because, again, some people think of problem solving as a linear thing, but of course what’s critical is that it’s iterative. As you say, you can solve the problem in one day or even one hour.

Charles Conn: We encourage our teams everywhere to do that. We call it the one-day answer or the one-hour answer. In work planning, we’re always iterating. Every time you see a 50-page work plan that stretches out to three months, you know it’s wrong. It will be outmoded very quickly by that learning process that you described. Iterative problem solving is a critical part of this. Sometimes, people think work planning sounds dull, but it isn’t. It’s how we know what’s expected of us and when we need to deliver it and how we’re progressing toward the answer. It’s also the place where we can deal with biases. Bias is a feature of every human decision-making process. If we design our team interactions intelligently, we can avoid the worst sort of biases.

Simon London: Here we’re talking about cognitive biases primarily, right? It’s not that I’m biased against you because of your accent or something. These are the cognitive biases that behavioral sciences have shown we all carry around, things like anchoring, overoptimism—these kinds of things.

Both: Yeah.

Charles Conn: Availability bias is the one that I’m always alert to. You think you’ve seen the problem before, and therefore what’s available is your previous conception of it—and we have to be most careful about that. In any human setting, we also have to be careful about biases that are based on hierarchies, sometimes called sunflower bias. I’m sure, Hugo, with your teams, you make sure that the youngest team members speak first. Not the oldest team members, because it’s easy for people to look at who’s senior and alter their own creative approaches.

Hugo Sarrazin: It’s helpful, at that moment—if someone is asserting a point of view—to ask the question “This was true in what context?” You’re trying to apply something that worked in one context to a different one. That can be deadly if the context has changed, and that’s why organizations struggle to change. You promote all these people because they did something that worked well in the past, and then there’s a disruption in the industry, and they keep doing what got them promoted even though the context has changed.

Simon London: Right. Right.

Hugo Sarrazin: So it’s the same thing in problem solving.

Charles Conn: And it’s why diversity in our teams is so important. It’s one of the best things about the world that we’re in now. We’re likely to have people from different socioeconomic, ethnic, and national backgrounds, each of whom sees problems from a slightly different perspective. It is therefore much more likely that the team will uncover a truly creative and clever approach to problem solving.

Simon London: Let’s move on to step five. You’ve done your work plan. Now you’ve actually got to do the analysis. The thing that strikes me here is that the range of tools that we have at our disposal now, of course, is just huge, particularly with advances in computation, advanced analytics. There’s so many things that you can apply here. Just talk about the analysis stage. How do you pick the right tools?

Charles Conn: For me, the most important thing is that we start with simple heuristics and explanatory statistics before we go off and use the big-gun tools. We need to understand the shape and scope of our problem before we start applying these massive and complex analytical approaches.

Simon London: Would you agree with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: I agree. I think there are so many wonderful heuristics. You need to start there before you go deep into the modeling exercise. There’s an interesting dynamic that’s happening, though. In some cases, for some types of problems, it is even better to set yourself up to maximize your learning. Your problem-solving methodology is test and learn, test and learn, test and learn, and iterate. That is a heuristic in itself, the A/B testing that is used in many parts of the world. So that’s a problem-solving methodology. It’s nothing different. It just uses technology and feedback loops in a fast way. The other one is exploratory data analysis. When you’re dealing with a large-scale problem, and there’s so much data, I can get to the heuristics that Charles was talking about through very clever visualization of data.

You test with your data. You need to set up an environment to do so, but don’t get caught up in neural-network modeling immediately. You’re testing, you’re checking—“Is the data right? Is it sound? Does it make sense?”—before you launch too far.

Simon London: You do hear these ideas—that if you have a big enough data set and enough algorithms, they’re going to find things that you just wouldn’t have spotted, find solutions that maybe you wouldn’t have thought of. Does machine learning sort of revolutionize the problem-solving process? Or are these actually just other tools in the toolbox for structured problem solving?

Charles Conn: It can be revolutionary. There are some areas in which the pattern recognition of large data sets and good algorithms can help us see things that we otherwise couldn’t see. But I do think it’s terribly important we don’t think that this particular technique is a substitute for superb problem solving, starting with good problem definition. Many people use machine learning without understanding algorithms that themselves can have biases built into them. Just as 20 years ago, when we were doing statistical analysis, we knew that we needed good model definition, we still need a good understanding of our algorithms and really good problem definition before we launch off into big data sets and unknown algorithms.

Simon London: Step six. You’ve done your analysis.

Charles Conn: I take six and seven together, and this is the place where young problem solvers often make a mistake. They’ve got their analysis, and they assume that’s the answer, and of course it isn’t the answer. The ability to synthesize the pieces that came out of the analysis and begin to weave those into a story that helps people answer the question “What should I do?” This is back to where we started. If we can’t synthesize, and we can’t tell a story, then our decision maker can’t find the answer to “What should I do?”

Simon London: But, again, these final steps are about motivating people to action, right?

Charles Conn: Yeah.

Simon London: I am slightly torn about the nomenclature of problem solving because it’s on paper, right? Until you motivate people to action, you actually haven’t solved anything.

Charles Conn: I love this question because I think decision-making theory, without a bias to action, is a waste of time. Everything in how I approach this is to help people take action that makes the world better.

Simon London: Hence, these are absolutely critical steps. If you don’t do this well, you’ve just got a bunch of analysis.

Charles Conn: We end up in exactly the same place where we started, which is people speaking across each other, past each other in the public square, rather than actually working together, shoulder to shoulder, to crack these important problems.

Simon London: In the real world, we have a lot of uncertainty—arguably, increasing uncertainty. How do good problem solvers deal with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: At every step of the process. In the problem definition, when you’re defining the context, you need to understand those sources of uncertainty and whether they’re important or not important. It becomes important in the definition of the tree.

You need to think carefully about the branches of the tree that are more certain and less certain as you define them. They don’t have equal weight just because they’ve got equal space on the page. Then, when you’re prioritizing, your prioritization approach may put more emphasis on things that have low probability but huge impact—or, vice versa, may put a lot of priority on things that are very likely and, hopefully, have a reasonable impact. You can introduce that along the way. When you come back to the synthesis, you just need to be nuanced about what you’re understanding, the likelihood.

Often, people lack humility in the way they make their recommendations: “This is the answer.” They’re very precise, and I think we would all be well-served to say, “This is a likely answer under the following sets of conditions” and then make the level of uncertainty clearer, if that is appropriate. It doesn’t mean you’re always in the gray zone; it doesn’t mean you don’t have a point of view. It just means that you can be explicit about the certainty of your answer when you make that recommendation.

Simon London: So it sounds like there is an underlying principle: “Acknowledge and embrace the uncertainty. Don’t pretend that it isn’t there. Be very clear about what the uncertainties are up front, and then build that into every step of the process.”

Hugo Sarrazin: Every step of the process.

Simon London: Yeah. We have just walked through a particular structured methodology for problem solving. But, of course, this is not the only structured methodology for problem solving. One that is also very well-known is design thinking, which comes at things very differently. So, Hugo, I know you have worked with a lot of designers. Just give us a very quick summary. Design thinking—what is it, and how does it relate?

Hugo Sarrazin: It starts with an incredible amount of empathy for the user and uses that to define the problem. It does pause and go out in the wild and spend an enormous amount of time seeing how people interact with objects, seeing the experience they’re getting, seeing the pain points or joy—and uses that to infer and define the problem.

Simon London: Problem definition, but out in the world.

Hugo Sarrazin: With an enormous amount of empathy. There’s a huge emphasis on empathy. Traditional, more classic problem solving is you define the problem based on an understanding of the situation. This one almost presupposes that we don’t know the problem until we go see it. The second thing is you need to come up with multiple scenarios or answers or ideas or concepts, and there’s a lot of divergent thinking initially. That’s slightly different, versus the prioritization, but not for long. Eventually, you need to kind of say, “OK, I’m going to converge again.” Then you go and you bring things back to the customer and get feedback and iterate. Then you rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. There’s a lot of tactile building, along the way, of prototypes and things like that. It’s very iterative.

Simon London: So, Charles, are these complements or are these alternatives?

Charles Conn: I think they’re entirely complementary, and I think Hugo’s description is perfect. When we do problem definition well in classic problem solving, we are demonstrating the kind of empathy, at the very beginning of our problem, that design thinking asks us to approach. When we ideate—and that’s very similar to the disaggregation, prioritization, and work-planning steps—we do precisely the same thing, and often we use contrasting teams, so that we do have divergent thinking. The best teams allow divergent thinking to bump them off whatever their initial biases in problem solving are. For me, design thinking gives us a constant reminder of creativity, empathy, and the tactile nature of problem solving, but it’s absolutely complementary, not alternative.

Simon London: I think, in a world of cross-functional teams, an interesting question is do people with design-thinking backgrounds really work well together with classical problem solvers? How do you make that chemistry happen?

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah, it is not easy when people have spent an enormous amount of time seeped in design thinking or user-centric design, whichever word you want to use. If the person who’s applying classic problem-solving methodology is very rigid and mechanical in the way they’re doing it, there could be an enormous amount of tension. If there’s not clarity in the role and not clarity in the process, I think having the two together can be, sometimes, problematic.

The second thing that happens often is that the artifacts the two methodologies try to gravitate toward can be different. Classic problem solving often gravitates toward a model; design thinking migrates toward a prototype. Rather than writing a big deck with all my supporting evidence, they’ll bring an example, a thing, and that feels different. Then you spend your time differently to achieve those two end products, so that’s another source of friction.

Now, I still think it can be an incredibly powerful thing to have the two—if there are the right people with the right mind-set, if there is a team that is explicit about the roles, if we’re clear about the kind of outcomes we are attempting to bring forward. There’s an enormous amount of collaborativeness and respect.

Simon London: But they have to respect each other’s methodology and be prepared to flex, maybe, a little bit, in how this process is going to work.

Hugo Sarrazin: Absolutely.

Simon London: The other area where, it strikes me, there could be a little bit of a different sort of friction is this whole concept of the day-one answer, which is what we were just talking about in classical problem solving. Now, you know that this is probably not going to be your final answer, but that’s how you begin to structure the problem. Whereas I would imagine your design thinkers—no, they’re going off to do their ethnographic research and get out into the field, potentially for a long time, before they come back with at least an initial hypothesis.

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Hugo Sarrazin: That is a great callout, and that’s another difference. Designers typically will like to soak into the situation and avoid converging too quickly. There’s optionality and exploring different options. There’s a strong belief that keeps the solution space wide enough that you can come up with more radical ideas. If there’s a large design team or many designers on the team, and you come on Friday and say, “What’s our week-one answer?” they’re going to struggle. They’re not going to be comfortable, naturally, to give that answer. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an answer; it’s just not where they are in their thinking process.

Simon London: I think we are, sadly, out of time for today. But Charles and Hugo, thank you so much.

Charles Conn: It was a pleasure to be here, Simon.

Hugo Sarrazin: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Simon London: And thanks, as always, to you, our listeners, for tuning into this episode of the McKinsey Podcast . If you want to learn more about problem solving, you can find the book, Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything , online or order it through your local bookstore. To learn more about McKinsey, you can of course find us at McKinsey.com.

Charles Conn is CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation and an alumnus of McKinsey’s Sydney office. Hugo Sarrazin is a senior partner in the Silicon Valley office, where Simon London, a member of McKinsey Publishing, is also based.

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• 4.12 Fundamentals of functional programming

4.13 Systematic approach to problem solving

• 4.14 Non-exam assessment - the computing practical project
• Scheme of assessment
• Non-exam assessment administration
• General administration

Aspects of software development

Implementation.

Skills for Success

• November 2013
• August 2013
• January 2013
• November 2012
• October 2012

The Problem Solving Cycle – An effective step-by-step approach to find viable solutions

Problem solving is a mental process that involves discovering and analyzing a particular issue, developing strategies, and organizing skills and knowledge in order to overcome obstacles and find viable solutions that best resolve the problem.

The choice of an appropriate strategy depends largely on the unique situation. In fact, there are many different problem solving processes. However, all of them consist of a series of steps. It is useful to view problem solving as a cycle as a problem often needs several attempts to be solved. In the following, we present a seven-step problem solving model:

Step 1: Identify the problem

What is the problem? The first step consists in recognizing the existence of a problem that needs to be solved. In order to find an appropriate solution, you need to identify and name the problem. While it may seem like an obvious and simple step, finding the source of a problem is often the most challenging part of the process. You may not be clear of what the problem is or feel anxious and confused about what is getting in the way of your goals. Ask questions, which help you to determine the difference between what is expected and what is occurring, like: What is the nature of this special problem? Is it temporary or longer-term? Does the problem affect other persons or only you? Will others need to be consulted? What do they know about it? What is hindering you from completing this task? Do you need more time, information or experience?

Step 2: Explore possible strategies

The next stage is to research the problem as fully as possible and to explore possible problem solving strategies. Think about the different elements of the problem by watching it from different angles. You can ask yourself questions such as: How would another person perceive the situation? What would he/she do? What were the best ideas that my competitors have had? Are there existing solutions? Explore as widely as possible, e.g. through brain storming, imaging/visualization or other creative and analytical tools in order to generate many potential solutions. List and discuss them. Then, form possible problem strategies. The next step helps you in doing this.

Step 3: Set goals

Goal setting is crucial to reach your strategic objectives. Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. Key questions are: What is it that you want to achieve? What would it be like without the problem? What do you want things to be like instead? It is important to solve a problem at the right level. If you ask questions that are too broad, then you’ll never have enough resources to answer them effectively. If you ask questions that are too narrow, you may end up fixing the symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself. One effective tool to set goals at the right level is the SMART criteria.

Step 4: Look at alternatives

How many different approaches can you think of that will solve the problem? What are the pros and cons of each approach? When you have decided what your goal is you need to look for possible solutions. The more possible solutions you find the more likely it is that you will be able to discover an effective solution. You can brain-storm for ideas. The purpose of brain storming is to compile a list of possibilities. It does not matter whether the ideas are useful or practical or manageable: just write down the ideas as they come into your mind. Some of the best solutions arise from creative thinking during brain storming . You can also seek ideas about possible solutions from friends, family, a partner, a counsellor, books or the internet. The aim is to collect as many alternative solutions as possible.

Step 5: Select a possible solution

Decide which of the available options you will choose. You should be prepared to give reasons why and be able to show that this is the best of all options available. From the list of possible solutions you can sort out, which are most relevant to your situation and which are realistic and manageable. You can do this by predicting outcomes for possible solutions and also checking with other people what they think outcomes might be. When you have explored the consequences, you can use this information to identify the most relevant solution.

Step 6: Implement a possible solution

Once you have selected a possible solution put your plan into action. Create an action list, which comprises the following elements: What needs to be done and by whom? Can you chunk your plan into smaller bites? Estimate how many time, money, and effort will be needed to realize your subgoals. An essential question to motivate yourself is: What rewards you will give yourself when you have done it?

Step 7: Evaluate the result

After a solution has been reached, it is important to evaluate the results to determine if it is the best possible solution to the problem. Decide how you will quantify the success of your problem solving strategy. Questions are: How effective was that solution? Did I achieve what I wanted? How do I know this?

If the implemented strategy was successful in helping you solve your problem and reach your goal, then you know that you have effectively solved your problem. If you feel dissatisfied with the result, try alternative possibilities by beginning the problem solving cycle again.

Further information? www.ansus-consulting.com | Communication and Thinking Skills

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ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)

As an employer, there is a good chance that you will run into conflict between yourself and an employee. The reasons for the conflict could be down to several things, such as pay and working hours.

How you deal with these issues can be confusing, and if they are done incorrectly could land you in trouble.

In the article, we are going to dive into what ACAS is, how it can help employers, and how their services work.

What is ACAS?

ACAS is an independent and impartial organisation that helps to improve the working life of employers, employees and the overall organisation.

They offer free advice, information and guidance on the rules and practices for employers, employees and trade union representatives.

What does ACAS stand for?

ACAS stands for the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Taking three separate services that are utilised by businesses to help them reach a suitable resolution.

To understand ACAS fully, you need to break conciliation and arbitration into separate entities and understand how they can help you and your workforce.

What issues does ACAS help with?

Employers need to understand what kinds of problems ACAS can help with if needed, this could include the following:

• Dismissals .
• Disciplinary and grievance issues
• Discrimination , harassment or bullying.

How does ACAS help enforce employment law?

ACAS was put in place to help businesses find solutions, improve organisations' performance, solve disputes, and promote good practices in workplaces. ACAS works to help employers avoid large-scale industrial disputes by preventing or solving problems before they become larger disputes, such as strikes.

Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) enforces employment law by providing free impartial guidance on:

• Best practices, rules and policies,
• Working with employees to resolve workplace conflicts.

What is conciliation?

ACAS provide Employees with conciliation assistance when employees and employers are looking to make a complaint about their employer at an employment tribunal.

What's the purpose of ACAS early conciliation?

The purpose of the ACAS early conciliation is to avoid both employers and employees going to an employment tribunal to solve their dispute.

How does ACAS conciliation work?

The main use case for conciliation is to avoid employment tribunals, this is mainly used to help individual complaints, group complaints will go through a different process.

On an individual complaint, ACAS will speak to both parties, arrange a mediator, and aim to reach a settlement agreement without the need for an employment tribunal. You could look at conciliation as the last chance to solve any issues before the employee's claim can be heard at a tribunal. Although once early conciliation period has ended, ACAS can still be involved if the parties want to continue exploring settlement options.

What is Arbitration?

An arbitration service is slightly different to conciliation, this is where a third party is brought into a dispute to help find a resolution. ACAS will work with both the employers and employees, and provide these two types of arbitration:

• Individual arbitration, for example, could be a case regarding flexible working, or an unfair dismissal.
• Collective arbitration, for example, will cover cases that involve an employer and a group of employees.

Employers need to know how arbitration services work.

How does the Arbitration service work?

ACAS's arbitration service is there to help make and maintain a better relationship between employers and employees.

Typically, the arbitrator is appointed by ACAS and each side must agree to the decision for the process to start. From here the arbitrator will put together the hearing, which will cover all the aspects of the dispute or events.

The hearing process is as follows:

• Confirm the dispute the decision needs to be made on.
• Allow all parties to explain their case and present any evidence.
• Discuss the case and answer questions related to the dispute.
• Each party is allowed to ask questions based on the evidence they have presented.

The results of the hearing are sent within 21 days for collective disputes and 14 days for individual disputes.

What is the ACAS code of practice?

The ACAS code of practice is a set of standards that are expected in the workplace by employers and employees.

The code includes the following:

• Code of Practice on disclosure of information to trade unions for collective bargaining purposes
• Code of practice on the settlement agreement.
• Amend to Code of Practice on flexible working requests
• Code of practice on time off for trade union duties and activities.
• Code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

The ACAS code of practice should be used to run an organisation successfully and avoid employment tribunals. There is a statutory code of practice, if this is not followed by the employer, it can result in an increase of the award at tribunal.

Get expert advice on ACAS from Croner

Croner has a team of award-winning HR consultants who are specialists in their field. We've been helping businesses for over 80 years and our advice line is open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Why not speak to a Croner expert on 0800 124 4996.

If you like this content, you may also like

• How can I improve my HR?

• Employer Rights and Responsibilities in the UK

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About the Author

Amanda represents corporate clients and large public bodies, including complex discrimination and whistleblowing claims. Amanda also drafts and delivers bespoke training regarding all aspects of employment law, including ‘mock tribunal’ events; in addition she also frequently drafts employment law articles for various publications for Croner and their clients.

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• ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)

Peninsula Group , HR and Health & Safety Experts

Jul 9th 2019 (Last updated Apr 5th 2024 )

In this guide, we'll discuss what ACAS is, how they help employers, the issues they deal with and how their services work.

Jump to section:

What is ACAS?

What issues does acas help with, how does acas help enforce employment law, what is conciliation, how does acas conciliation work, what is arbitration, how does the arbitration service work, what is the acas code of practice, get expert advice on acas with peninsula.

As a business owner, sometimes there will be a conflict between yourself and an employee. This could be between pay or hours, but how you go about resolving the issue can be confusing.

Failure to resolve any conflicts as quickly as possible can go a long way in a claim being made against you, which could lead to an employment tribunal.

Claim your free advice call

Find the safest and easiest way to resolve your workplace issue

ACAS is an independent and impartial organisation whose aims are to improve the working life of both employers, employees and to improve organisations. They've been advising the employment world for over 30 years and became a household name in the 1980s.

ACAS is an executive public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which is governed by an independent council.

They provide free information, impartial advice and guidance on the rules and best practices to employers, employees, and representatives of a trade union.

In order to understand how ACAS can help your business, it's important you understand how they work.

What does ACAS stand for?

ACAS stands for Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service, which breaks down the three separate services which are used to help businesses reach suitable resolutions.

Before you fully understand how ACAS can work for your business, you need to break conciliation and arbitration service into two separate entities and learn how they can help you and your employees.

As an employer, it's important you understand the sort of problems ACAS can assist you with should they occur in your workplace. Such as:

• Dismissals such as unfair,  wrong  and  constructive .
• Discrimination ,  bullying  or  harassment .
• Disciplinary  or  grievance.

How does ACAS help with employment relations?

ACAS works to resolve  disputes , find solutions, improve performance and aims to promote good practice in all workplaces. They don't side with a particular party during employment conflicts.

Helping businesses with their employment relations means you can solve problems and improve performance moving forward.

ACAS works to avoid large-scale industrial disputes by trying to prevent problems before they arise and find suitable resolutions before they become bigger disputes.

ACAS (advisory conciliation and arbitration service) helps to enforce employment law by working with businesses of all sizes to improve the working life for both employers and workers.

They provide free and impartial guidance on the following:

• Employment rights (such as  pay  and  leave entitlements ).
• Best practices, rules and policies.
• How best to resolve  workplace conflicts .

Their main strategy is to improve organisations and avoid employment tribunals.

Conciliation is assistance provided by ACAS to employees who are looking to take a complaint against their employer to an employment tribunal.

The early stages of ACAS conciliation are used to help avoid a tribunal hearing taking place.

What's the purpose of ACAS early conciliation?

To put it simply, the main purpose of early conciliation is to avoid both sides having to go to an employment tribunal. It's used to help with individual complaints rather than on a group basis.

ACAS speaks with both parties, arranges a mediator and hopefully reaches a  settlement agreement  without having to stand up in front of an  employment tribunal .

In essence, conciliation is the last opportunity to solve the dispute before the employee's full application is made to be heard by a tribunal.

To begin the conciliation process, your employee will need to complete an Early Conciliation Notification Form - which can be found on  ACAS website .

The usual time period for conciliation to take place is a month, but it can be increased to another 14 days if required.

If the conciliation fails, ACAS will close the process and give the employee an early conciliation certificate. The certificate includes a number which must be put on the form they must fill in when making their tribunal claim.

Arbitration is when a third party is brought into a dispute to find a resolution. ACAS works with employers and employees to provide two types of arbitration. Such as:

• Collective arbitration: This is for a case between the employer and a group of employees.
• Individual arbitration: This is for a case regarding flexible working or unfair dismissal between the employer and employee.

As an employer, it's important you understand how the arbitration service works in case it's ever required in your company.

ACAS' arbitration service is in place to help create and maintain better employment relations between employer and employee.

An arbitrator is appointed by ACAS, and both sides must agree to accept their decision before the process starts. The arbitrator will arrange the hearing, which will deal with all aspects of the event.

The process of the hearing is as follows:

• Confirm the dispute they're making a decision on.
• Allow both sides to explain their case and present any evidence.
• Discuss the case and ask any questions they seem fit. 
• Allow both sides to ask questions of the other party based on the evidence presented.

The result of the hearing will be sent within 21 days for collective disputes and 14 days for individual disputes.

The ACAS code of practice is the minimum set of standards that are expected in the workplace by employers and employees. The code is used by employment tribunals when deciding on the outcome of a case.

The following are included in the code:

• Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.
• Code of Practice on disclosure of information of trade unions for the  collective bargaining process . 
• Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities. 
• Code of Practice on settlement agreements.
• Code of Practice on handling a reasonable manner request to work flexibly.

In essence, the code should be used by employers in order to run a successful organisation and avoid an independent tribunal.

Workplace conflicts are sometimes unavoidable - so if this happens in your workplace, it's important you understand where you can receive free guidance from.

ACAS (Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service) are there to help employers and employees should a conflict need resolving before the need for an employment tribunal. Their Code of Practice is in place to ensure standards are met.

Peninsula offers expert advice on Acas. Our teams provide 24/7 HR advice which is available 365 days a year. We take care of everything when you work with our HR experts.

Want to find out more? Contact us on 0800 028 2420 and book a free consultation with an HR consultant today.

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What are employment tribunals?

An employment tribunal is a public body that is in place to resolve disputes between employer and employee.

Are decisions made by an employment tribunal legally binding?

Yes, even though they're not as formal as court hearings - the outcome giving by the tribunal is legally binding.

What claims does an employment tribunal deal with?

Employment tribunals deal with a range of disputes. Such as dismissal, equal pay, redundancy, and discrimination.

How can Peninsula help with employment tribunal claims?

We can help you with the entire tribunal process. This includes preparing your legal paperwork, taking witness statements, and defending you in court. Contact us today and see how we can help you.

What punishments can an employment tribunal hand down?

If an employee wins their claim, you can be given a heavy fine to pay. Not paying it can mean you're reported to the government and placed on a list that states you didn't pay the fine.

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Journal article

Joint problem solving and the role of third parties: an evaluation of acas advisory work.

Ian Kessler and John Purcell, Fellows of Templeton College, Oxford, use data from a postal survey and case studies of organisations seeking in-depth advisory assistance from ACAS to evaluate the effectiveness of joint problem solving techniques. They find strong support from both managers and employee representatives for the use of joint working parties in the management of change in employment relations. ACAS's unique role as an independent and impartial third party is seen as critical in he...

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How a child expresses feelings

Modelling positive relationships, redirecting behaviour, caring for babies, bottle feeding, changing a nappy, cleaning and sterilising bottles, daily cleaning tasks, helping new children settle in, preparing for a nappy change, sleep patterns – babies, sleep routines – babies, toilet training, caring for children, allowing time for practice, dressing/undressing, nappy change, packing away/caring for the environment, sleep/rest time, common self-help milestones, tips for sleep and rest time, communication, body language, limits and guidelines, ways children communicate, greeting children and families, modelling appropriate communication, questioning, verbal and non–verbal communication, acknowledging children's feelings, listening attentively, communicating with aboriginal and torres strait islander parents/carers, development, creative development, language development, physical development, sharing and taking turns, encourage independent problem solving, fundamental movement skills, health, hygiene and safety, coping with stress, correct manual handling principles, hand washing, hand washing poster, manual handling overview, safety checklist, learning experiences and play, environmentally friendly learning experiences, learning experiences for different development areas, creative resource materials, arranging the environment to facilitate learning and pleasure, indoors and outdoor areas, creating a positive physical environment, legal and ethical issues, child abuse case studies, how do i recognise when a child or young person is at risk, tips on dealing with disclosures, observation methods, arranging experiences (pdf 351kb), recording observations, rules for making observations, what you can learn from observations, programming, children’s interests, strengths, needs and skills, extending the children’s interest in dinosaurs, objective observation, planning an oshc environment, behavior management plan, planning enjoyable experiences, planning experiences for 0 - 2 years age group, planning experiences for 2 - 3 years age group, planning experiences for 3 - 5 years age group.

All learning experiences should encourage independent problem solving.

Children need to be given the opportunity to manipulate, explore, experiment and master the equipment or piece of material for themselves. They should also be allowed time to practise newly acquired skills and thought processes.

Focus experiences

By designing experiences that involve the children in problem solving, children learn the skills needed to solve problems for themselves and feel confident to take on new challenges. While providing an experience, the way you interact with the children allows you to focus the experience so that each child learns problem solving skills for themselves.

If children, aged four years and older, are playing together with the same material, the adult may act as a facilitator to assist and encourage the children to work collaboratively to achieve an outcome.

Ask open questions

You need to extend the child's thought processes by asking open questions or making comments that assist the child.

Examples of open questions include:

• 'I wonder what will happen if…'
• 'Can you tell me how you think it might work?'
• 'That's an interesting way to…'
• 'Just suppose we did this…then what'.

The right type of questioning is a very effective technique to enhance cognitive development. Ensure that you only ask a few at a time and that they are not onerous but are simply woven into the activity. Remember to give children ample time to answer questions. As adults, we like answers right away but children need time to gather their thoughts before speaking

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‘Knowledge economy’ important in solving socio-economic problems

I n today’s world economy, the contradiction between knowledge economy and  ‘religion economy’ presents a compelling narrative that determines every nation’s development. While some countries’ development relies on their innovation, scientific advancement, and investment in educational skills, Nigeria seems stuck in a cycle of dependence on religious favour, neglecting the human intellect and creativity they are