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Nine essential problem solving tools: The ultimate guide to finding a solution

October 26, 2023 by MindManager Blog

Problem solving may unfold differently depending on the industry, or even the department you work in. However, most agree that before you can fix any issue, you need to be clear on what it is, why it’s happening, and what your ideal long-term solution will achieve.

Understanding both the nature and the cause of a problem is the only way to figure out which actions will help you resolve it.

Given that most problem-solving processes are part inspiration and part perspiration, you’ll be more successful if you can reach for a problem solving tool that facilitates collaboration, encourages creative thinking, and makes it easier to implement the fix you devise.

The problem solving tools include three unique categories: problem solving diagrams, problem solving mind maps, and problem solving software solutions.

They include:

Fishbone diagrams
Strategy maps
Mental maps
Concept maps
Layered process audit software
Charting software
MindManager

In this article, we’ve put together a roundup of versatile problem solving tools and software to help you and your team map out and repair workplace issues as efficiently as possible.

Let’s get started!

Problem solving diagrams

Mapping your way out of a problem is the simplest way to see where you are, and where you need to end up.

Not only do visual problem maps let you plot the most efficient route from Point A (dysfunctional situation) to Point B (flawless process), problem mapping diagrams make it easier to see:

The root cause of a dilemma.
The steps, resources, and personnel associated with each possible solution.
The least time-consuming, most cost-effective options.

A visual problem solving process help to solidify understanding. Furthermore, it’s a great way for you and your team to transform abstract ideas into a practical, reconstructive plan.

Here are three examples of common problem mapping diagrams you can try with your team:

1. Fishbone diagrams

Fishbone diagrams are a common problem solving tool so-named because, once complete, they resemble the skeleton of a fish.

With the possible root causes of an issue (the ribs) branching off from either side of a spine line attached to the head (the problem), dynamic fishbone diagrams let you:

Lay out a related set of possible reasons for an existing problem
Investigate each possibility by breaking it out into sub-causes
See how contributing factors relate to one another

Fishbone diagrams are also known as cause and effect or Ishikawa diagrams.

2. Flowcharts

A flowchart is an easy-to-understand diagram with a variety of applications. But you can use it to outline and examine how the steps of a flawed process connect.

Made up of a few simple symbols linked with arrows indicating workflow direction, flowcharts clearly illustrate what happens at each stage of a process – and how each event impacts other events and decisions.

3. Strategy maps

Once you’ve got a few tactics you feel are worth exploring as possible ways to overcome a challenge, a strategy map will help you establish the best route to your problem-solving goal.

Problem solving mind maps

Problem solving mind maps are especially valuable in visualization. Because they facilitate the brainstorming process that plays a key role in both root cause analysis and the identification of potential solutions, they help make problems more solvable.

Mind maps are diagrams that represent your thinking. Since many people struggle taking or working with hand-written or typed notes, mind maps were designed to let you lay out and structure your thoughts visually so you can play with ideas, concepts, and solutions the same way your brain does.

By starting with a single notion that branches out into greater detail, problem solving mind maps make it easy to:

Explain unfamiliar problems or processes in less time
Share and elaborate on novel ideas
Achieve better group comprehension that can lead to more effective solutions

Mind maps are a valuable problem solving tool because they’re geared toward bringing out the flexible thinking that creative solutions require. Here are three types of problem solving mind maps you can use to facilitate the brainstorming process.

4. Mental maps

A mental map helps you get your thoughts about what might be causing a workplace issue out of your head and onto a shared digital space.

Because mental maps mirror the way our brains take in and analyze new information, using them to describe your theories visually will help you and your team work through and test those thought models.

5. Idea maps

Idea maps let you take advantage of a wide assortment of colors and images to lay down and organize your scattered thought process. Idea maps are ideal brainstorming tools because they allow you to present and explore ideas about the best way to solve a problem collaboratively, and with a shared sense of enthusiasm for outside-the-box thinking.

6. Concept maps

Concept maps are one of the best ways to shape your thoughts around a potential solution because they let you create interlinked, visual representations of intricate concepts.

By laying out your suggested problem-solving process digitally – and using lines to form and define relationship connections – your group will be able to see how each piece of the solution puzzle connects with another.

Problem solving software solutions

Problem solving software is the best way to take advantage of multiple problem solving tools in one platform. While some software programs are geared toward specific industries or processes – like manufacturing or customer relationship management, for example – others, like MindManager , are purpose-built to work across multiple trades, departments, and teams.

Here are three problem-solving software examples.

7. Layered process audit software

Layered process audits (LPAs) help companies oversee production processes and keep an eye on the cost and quality of the goods they create. Dedicated LPA software makes problem solving easier for manufacturers because it helps them see where costly leaks are occurring and allows all levels of management to get involved in repairing those leaks.

8. Charting software

Charting software comes in all shapes and sizes to fit a variety of business sectors. Pareto charts, for example, combine bar charts with line graphs so companies can compare different problems or contributing factors to determine their frequency, cost, and significance. Charting software is often used in marketing, where a variety of bar charts and X-Y axis diagrams make it possible to display and examine competitor profiles, customer segmentation, and sales trends.

9. MindManager

No matter where you work, or what your problem-solving role looks like, MindManager is a problem solving software that will make your team more productive in figuring out why a process, plan, or project isn’t working the way it should.

Once you know why an obstruction, shortfall, or difficulty exists, you can use MindManager’s wide range of brainstorming and problem mapping diagrams to:

Find the most promising way to correct the situation
Activate your chosen solution, and
Conduct regular checks to make sure your repair work is sustainable

MindManager is the ultimate problem solving software.

Not only is it versatile enough to use as your go-to system for puzzling out all types of workplace problems, MindManager’s built-in forecasting tools, timeline charts, and warning indicators let you plan, implement, and monitor your solutions.

By allowing your group to work together more effectively to break down problems, uncover solutions, and rebuild processes and workflows, MindManager’s versatile collection of problem solving tools will help make everyone on your team a more efficient problem solver.

Download a free trial today to get started!

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35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems

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How do you identify problems?

How do you identify the right solution.

Tips for more effective problem-solving

Complete problem-solving methods

Problem-solving techniques to identify and analyze problems
Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

Problem-solving warm-up activities

Closing activities for a problem-solving process.

Before you can move towards finding the right solution for a given problem, you first need to identify and define the problem you wish to solve.

Here, you want to clearly articulate what the problem is and allow your group to do the same. Remember that everyone in a group is likely to have differing perspectives and alignment is necessary in order to help the group move forward.

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner. It can be scary for people to stand up and contribute, especially if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Be sure to try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions.

Remember that problem analysis and further discussion are also important. Not taking the time to fully analyze and discuss a challenge can result in the development of solutions that are not fit for purpose or do not address the underlying issue.

Successfully identifying and then analyzing a problem means facilitating a group through activities designed to help them clearly and honestly articulate their thoughts and produce usable insight.

With this data, you might then produce a problem statement that clearly describes the problem you wish to be addressed and also state the goal of any process you undertake to tackle this issue.

Finding solutions is the end goal of any process. Complex organizational challenges can only be solved with an appropriate solution but discovering them requires using the right problem-solving tool.

After you’ve explored a problem and discussed ideas, you need to help a team discuss and choose the right solution. Consensus tools and methods such as those below help a group explore possible solutions before then voting for the best. They’re a great way to tap into the collective intelligence of the group for great results!

Remember that the process is often iterative. Great problem solvers often roadtest a viable solution in a measured way to see what works too. While you might not get the right solution on your first try, the methods below help teams land on the most likely to succeed solution while also holding space for improvement.

Every effective problem solving process begins with an agenda . A well-structured workshop is one of the best methods for successfully guiding a group from exploring a problem to implementing a solution.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to go from an idea to a complete agenda . Start by dragging and dropping your core problem solving activities into place . Add timings, breaks and necessary materials before sharing your agenda with your colleagues.

The resulting agenda will be your guide to an effective and productive problem solving session that will also help you stay organized on the day!

Tips for more effective problem solving

Problem-solving activities are only one part of the puzzle. While a great method can help unlock your team’s ability to solve problems, without a thoughtful approach and strong facilitation the solutions may not be fit for purpose.

Let’s take a look at some problem-solving tips you can apply to any process to help it be a success!

Clearly define the problem

Jumping straight to solutions can be tempting, though without first clearly articulating a problem, the solution might not be the right one. Many of the problem-solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on.

This is a vital part of the problem-solving process and taking the time to fully define an issue can save time and effort later. A clear definition helps identify irrelevant information and it also ensures that your team sets off on the right track.

Don’t jump to conclusions

It’s easy for groups to exhibit cognitive bias or have preconceived ideas about both problems and potential solutions. Be sure to back up any problem statements or potential solutions with facts, research, and adequate forethought.

The best techniques ask participants to be methodical and challenge preconceived notions. Make sure you give the group enough time and space to collect relevant information and consider the problem in a new way. By approaching the process with a clear, rational mindset, you’ll often find that better solutions are more forthcoming.

Try different approaches

Problems come in all shapes and sizes and so too should the methods you use to solve them. If you find that one approach isn’t yielding results and your team isn’t finding different solutions, try mixing it up. You’ll be surprised at how using a new creative activity can unblock your team and generate great solutions.

Don’t take it personally

Depending on the nature of your team or organizational problems, it’s easy for conversations to get heated. While it’s good for participants to be engaged in the discussions, ensure that emotions don’t run too high and that blame isn’t thrown around while finding solutions.

You’re all in it together, and even if your team or area is seeing problems, that isn’t necessarily a disparagement of you personally. Using facilitation skills to manage group dynamics is one effective method of helping conversations be more constructive.

Get the right people in the room

Your problem-solving method is often only as effective as the group using it. Getting the right people on the job and managing the number of people present is important too!

If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. If the group is too large, you can go round and round during the ideation stages.

Creating the right group makeup is also important in ensuring you have the necessary expertise and skillset to both identify and follow up on potential solutions. Carefully consider who to include at each stage to help ensure your problem-solving method is followed and positioned for success.

Document everything

The best solutions can take refinement, iteration, and reflection to come out. Get into a habit of documenting your process in order to keep all the learnings from the session and to allow ideas to mature and develop. Many of the methods below involve the creation of documents or shared resources. Be sure to keep and share these so everyone can benefit from the work done!

Bring a facilitator

Facilitation is all about making group processes easier. With a subject as potentially emotive and important as problem-solving, having an impartial third party in the form of a facilitator can make all the difference in finding great solutions and keeping the process moving. Consider bringing a facilitator to your problem-solving session to get better results and generate meaningful solutions!

Develop your problem-solving skills

It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. While some roles or participants might more naturally gravitate towards problem-solving, it can take development and planning to help everyone create better solutions.

You might develop a training program, run a problem-solving workshop or simply ask your team to practice using the techniques below. Check out our post on problem-solving skills to see how you and your group can develop the right mental process and be more resilient to issues too!

Design a great agenda

Workshops are a great format for solving problems. With the right approach, you can focus a group and help them find the solutions to their own problems. But designing a process can be time-consuming and finding the right activities can be difficult.

Check out our workshop planning guide to level-up your agenda design and start running more effective workshops. Need inspiration? Check out templates designed by expert facilitators to help you kickstart your process!

In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem-solving methods that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. These will help guide your team from the discovery and definition of a problem through to delivering the right solution.

If you’re looking for an all-encompassing method or problem-solving model, these processes are a great place to start. They’ll ask your team to challenge preconceived ideas and adopt a mindset for solving problems more effectively.

Six Thinking Hats
Lightning Decision Jam
Problem Definition Process
Discovery & Action Dialogue

Design Sprint 2.0

Open Space Technology

1. Six Thinking Hats

Individual approaches to solving a problem can be very different based on what team or role an individual holds. It can be easy for existing biases or perspectives to find their way into the mix, or for internal politics to direct a conversation.

Six Thinking Hats is a classic method for identifying the problems that need to be solved and enables your team to consider them from different angles, whether that is by focusing on facts and data, creative solutions, or by considering why a particular solution might not work.

Like all problem-solving frameworks, Six Thinking Hats is effective at helping teams remove roadblocks from a conversation or discussion and come to terms with all the aspects necessary to solve complex problems.

2. Lightning Decision Jam

Featured courtesy of Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart Berlin, Lightning Decision Jam is one of those strategies that should be in every facilitation toolbox. Exploring problems and finding solutions is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and get lost.

Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use a method that creates a clear process and team focus.

In Lightning Decision Jam, participants are invited to begin by writing challenges, concerns, or mistakes on post-its without discussing them before then being invited by the moderator to present them to the group.

From there, the team vote on which problems to solve and are guided through steps that will allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on.

By deciding the problems that need to be solved as a team before moving on, this group process is great for ensuring the whole team is aligned and can take ownership over the next stages.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

3. Problem Definition Process

While problems can be complex, the problem-solving methods you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design.

By taking the time to truly identify and define a problem before asking the group to reframe the challenge as an opportunity, this method is a great way to enable change.

Begin by identifying a focus question and exploring the ways in which it manifests before splitting into five teams who will each consider the problem using a different method: escape, reversal, exaggeration, distortion or wishful. Teams develop a problem objective and create ideas in line with their method before then feeding them back to the group.

This method is great for enabling in-depth discussions while also creating space for finding creative solutions too!

Problem Definition #problem solving #idea generation #creativity #online #remote-friendly A problem solving technique to define a problem, challenge or opportunity and to generate ideas.

4. The 5 Whys

Sometimes, a group needs to go further with their strategies and analyze the root cause at the heart of organizational issues. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying what is at the heart of business problems or recurring challenges.

The 5 Whys is a simple and effective method of helping a group go find the root cause of any problem or challenge and conduct analysis that will deliver results.

By beginning with the creation of a problem statement and going through five stages to refine it, The 5 Whys provides everything you need to truly discover the cause of an issue.

The 5 Whys #hyperisland #innovation This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

5. World Cafe

World Cafe is a simple but powerful facilitation technique to help bigger groups to focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems.

World Cafe enables this approach by creating a relaxed atmosphere where participants are able to self-organize and explore topics relevant and important to them which are themed around a central problem-solving purpose. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the method, let them take the lead!

Making problem-solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. More approachable formats like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold.

World Cafe #hyperisland #innovation #issue analysis World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

One of the best approaches is to create a safe space for a group to share and discover practices and behaviors that can help them find their own solutions.

With DAD, you can help a group choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. It’s great at helping remove resistance to change and can help get buy-in at every level too!

This process of enabling frontline ownership is great in ensuring follow-through and is one of the methods you will want in your toolbox as a facilitator.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly DADs make it easy for a group or community to discover practices and behaviors that enable some individuals (without access to special resources and facing the same constraints) to find better solutions than their peers to common problems. These are called positive deviant (PD) behaviors and practices. DADs make it possible for people in the group, unit, or community to discover by themselves these PD practices. DADs also create favorable conditions for stimulating participants’ creativity in spaces where they can feel safe to invent new and more effective practices. Resistance to change evaporates as participants are unleashed to choose freely which practices they will adopt or try and which problems they will tackle. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions.

7. Design Sprint 2.0

Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? The Design Sprint 2.0 template from Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, is a complete agenda for a with proven results.

Developing the right agenda can involve difficult but necessary planning. Ensuring all the correct steps are followed can also be stressful or time-consuming depending on your level of experience.

Use this complete 4-day workshop template if you are finding there is no obvious solution to your challenge and want to focus your team around a specific problem that might require a shortcut to launching a minimum viable product or waiting for the organization-wide implementation of a solution.

8. Open space technology

Open space technology- developed by Harrison Owen – creates a space where large groups are invited to take ownership of their problem solving and lead individual sessions. Open space technology is a great format when you have a great deal of expertise and insight in the room and want to allow for different takes and approaches on a particular theme or problem you need to be solved.

Start by bringing your participants together to align around a central theme and focus their efforts. Explain the ground rules to help guide the problem-solving process and then invite members to identify any issue connecting to the central theme that they are interested in and are prepared to take responsibility for.

Once participants have decided on their approach to the core theme, they write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, pick a session time and place, and post the paper on the wall. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group is then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin!

Everyone joins the problem-solving group they’ve signed up to, record the discussion and if appropriate, findings can then be shared with the rest of the group afterward.

Open Space Technology #action plan #idea generation #problem solving #issue analysis #large group #online #remote-friendly Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

Using a problem-solving method to help a team identify and analyze a problem can be a quick and effective addition to any workshop or meeting.

While further actions are always necessary, you can generate momentum and alignment easily, and these activities are a great place to get started.

We’ve put together this list of techniques to help you and your team with problem identification, analysis, and discussion that sets the foundation for developing effective solutions.

Let’s take a look!

The Creativity Dice
Fishbone Analysis
Problem Tree
SWOT Analysis
Agreement-Certainty Matrix
The Journalistic Six
LEGO Challenge
What, So What, Now What?
Journalists

Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively?

Flip It is a method we love because it is both simple to understand and run, and allows groups to understand how their perspectives and biases are formed.

Participants in Flip It are first invited to consider concerns, issues, or problems from a perspective of fear and write them on a flip chart. Then, the group is asked to consider those same issues from a perspective of hope and flip their understanding.

No problem and solution is free from existing bias and by changing perspectives with Flip It, you can then develop a problem solving model quickly and effectively.

Flip It! #gamestorming #problem solving #action Often, a change in a problem or situation comes simply from a change in our perspectives. Flip It! is a quick game designed to show players that perspectives are made, not born.

10. The Creativity Dice

One of the most useful problem solving skills you can teach your team is of approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility, and openness. Games like The Creativity Dice allow teams to overcome the potential hurdle of too much linear thinking and approach the process with a sense of fun and speed.

In The Creativity Dice, participants are organized around a topic and roll a dice to determine what they will work on for a period of 3 minutes at a time. They might roll a 3 and work on investigating factual information on the chosen topic. They might roll a 1 and work on identifying the specific goals, standards, or criteria for the session.

Encouraging rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible are great skills to cultivate. Having a stage for idea incubation in this game is also important. Moments of pause can help ensure the ideas that are put forward are the most suitable.

The Creativity Dice #creativity #problem solving #thiagi #issue analysis Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

11. Fishbone Analysis

Organizational or team challenges are rarely simple, and it’s important to remember that one problem can be an indication of something that goes deeper and may require further consideration to be solved.

Fishbone Analysis helps groups to dig deeper and understand the origins of a problem. It’s a great example of a root cause analysis method that is simple for everyone on a team to get their head around.

Participants in this activity are asked to annotate a diagram of a fish, first adding the problem or issue to be worked on at the head of a fish before then brainstorming the root causes of the problem and adding them as bones on the fish.

Using abstractions such as a diagram of a fish can really help a team break out of their regular thinking and develop a creative approach.

Fishbone Analysis #problem solving ##root cause analysis #decision making #online facilitation A process to help identify and understand the origins of problems, issues or observations.

12. Problem Tree

Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many strategies. By simply reframing and clarifying problems, a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them.

In Problem Tree, groups are asked to first brainstorm a list of problems – these can be design problems, team problems or larger business problems – and then organize them into a hierarchy. The hierarchy could be from most important to least important or abstract to practical, though the key thing with problem solving games that involve this aspect is that your group has some way of managing and sorting all the issues that are raised.

Once you have a list of problems that need to be solved and have organized them accordingly, you’re then well-positioned for the next problem solving steps.

Problem tree #define intentions #create #design #issue analysis A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it represents high level problems or related sublevel problems.

13. SWOT Analysis

Chances are you’ve heard of the SWOT Analysis before. This problem-solving method focuses on identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a tried and tested method for both individuals and teams.

Start by creating a desired end state or outcome and bare this in mind – any process solving model is made more effective by knowing what you are moving towards. Create a quadrant made up of the four categories of a SWOT analysis and ask participants to generate ideas based on each of those quadrants.

Once you have those ideas assembled in their quadrants, cluster them together based on their affinity with other ideas. These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move things forward.

SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing technique of looking at what we have, with respect to the desired end state, as well as what we could improve on. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. When we understand those conditions, we can influence what comes next.

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

Not every problem-solving approach is right for every challenge, and deciding on the right method for the challenge at hand is a key part of being an effective team.

The Agreement Certainty matrix helps teams align on the nature of the challenges facing them. By sorting problems from simple to chaotic, your team can understand what methods are suitable for each problem and what they can do to ensure effective results.

If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem-solving strategy, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. We’ve found it particularly if you are having issues with recurring problems in your organization and want to go deeper in understanding the root cause.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix #issue analysis #liberating structures #problem solving You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic . A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably. A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail. Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the skills they need to stay on track throughout the process.

Begin with two different colored sticky notes – one for questions and one for answers – and with your central topic (the head of the squid) on the board. Ask the group to first come up with a series of questions connected to their best guess of how to approach the topic. Ask the group to come up with answers to those questions, fix them to the board and connect them with a line. After some discussion, go back to question mode by responding to the generated answers or other points on the board.

It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future effort and as an example for other teams.

SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram.

16. Speed Boat

To continue with our nautical theme, Speed Boat is a short and sweet activity that can help a team quickly identify what employees, clients or service users might have a problem with and analyze what might be standing in the way of achieving a solution.

Methods that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments quickly are invaluable when trying to solve complex problems.

In Speed Boat, the approach is to first consider what anchors and challenges might be holding an organization (or boat) back. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop ideas that can also deal with competitors!

Speed Boat #gamestorming #problem solving #action Speedboat is a short and sweet way to identify what your employees or clients don’t like about your product/service or what’s standing in the way of a desired goal.

17. The Journalistic Six

Some of the most effective ways of solving problems is by encouraging teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking.

Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create teams to see the whole picture. By using who, what, when, where, why, and how to facilitate the conversation and encourage creative thinking, your team can make sure that the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the are covered exhaustively and thoughtfully. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional.

The Journalistic Six – Who What When Where Why How #idea generation #issue analysis #problem solving #online #creative thinking #remote-friendly A questioning method for generating, explaining, investigating ideas.

18. LEGO Challenge

Now for an activity that is a little out of the (toy) box. LEGO Serious Play is a facilitation methodology that can be used to improve creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

The LEGO Challenge includes giving each member of the team an assignment that is hidden from the rest of the group while they create a structure without speaking.

What the LEGO challenge brings to the table is a fun working example of working with stakeholders who might not be on the same page to solve problems. Also, it’s LEGO! Who doesn’t love LEGO!

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

19. What, So What, Now What?

If not carefully managed, the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the problem-solving process can actually create more problems and misunderstandings.

The What, So What, Now What? problem-solving activity is designed to help collect insights and move forward while also eliminating the possibility of disagreement when it comes to identifying, clarifying, and analyzing organizational or work problems.

Facilitation is all about bringing groups together so that might work on a shared goal and the best problem-solving strategies ensure that teams are aligned in purpose, if not initially in opinion or insight.

Throughout the three steps of this game, you give everyone on a team to reflect on a problem by asking what happened, why it is important, and what actions should then be taken.

This can be a great activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. This is one of the most important problem-solving skills you can bring to your organization.

W³ – What, So What, Now What? #issue analysis #innovation #liberating structures You can help groups reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. It is possible for every voice to be heard while simultaneously sifting for insights and shaping new direction. Progressing in stages makes this practical—from collecting facts about What Happened to making sense of these facts with So What and finally to what actions logically follow with Now What . The shared progression eliminates most of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what to do. Voila!

20. Journalists

Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward.

Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.

In Journalists, the group is invited to draft the front page of a fictional newspaper and figure out what stories deserve to be on the cover and what headlines those stories will have. By reframing how your problems and challenges are approached, you can help a team move productively through the process and be better prepared for the steps to follow.

Journalists #vision #big picture #issue analysis #remote-friendly This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.

Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to narrow down to the correct solution.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team find consensus, compare possible solutions, and move towards taking action on a particular problem.

Improved Solutions
Four-Step Sketch
15% Solutions
How-Now-Wow matrix
Impact Effort Matrix

21. Mindspin

Brainstorming is part of the bread and butter of the problem-solving process and all problem-solving strategies benefit from getting ideas out and challenging a team to generate solutions quickly.

With Mindspin, participants are encouraged not only to generate ideas but to do so under time constraints and by slamming down cards and passing them on. By doing multiple rounds, your team can begin with a free generation of possible solutions before moving on to developing those solutions and encouraging further ideation.

This is one of our favorite problem-solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Remember the importance of helping people become engaged in the process – energizing problem-solving techniques like Mindspin can help ensure your team stays engaged and happy, even when the problems they’re coming together to solve are complex.

MindSpin #teampedia #idea generation #problem solving #action A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

22. Improved Solutions

After a team has successfully identified a problem and come up with a few solutions, it can be tempting to call the work of the problem-solving process complete. That said, the first solution is not necessarily the best, and by including a further review and reflection activity into your problem-solving model, you can ensure your group reaches the best possible result.

One of a number of problem-solving games from Thiagi Group, Improved Solutions helps you go the extra mile and develop suggested solutions with close consideration and peer review. By supporting the discussion of several problems at once and by shifting team roles throughout, this problem-solving technique is a dynamic way of finding the best solution.

Improved Solutions #creativity #thiagi #problem solving #action #team You can improve any solution by objectively reviewing its strengths and weaknesses and making suitable adjustments. In this creativity framegame, you improve the solutions to several problems. To maintain objective detachment, you deal with a different problem during each of six rounds and assume different roles (problem owner, consultant, basher, booster, enhancer, and evaluator) during each round. At the conclusion of the activity, each player ends up with two solutions to her problem.

23. Four Step Sketch

Creative thinking and visual ideation does not need to be confined to the opening stages of your problem-solving strategies. Exercises that include sketching and prototyping on paper can be effective at the solution finding and development stage of the process, and can be great for keeping a team engaged.

By going from simple notes to a crazy 8s round that involves rapidly sketching 8 variations on their ideas before then producing a final solution sketch, the group is able to iterate quickly and visually. Problem-solving techniques like Four-Step Sketch are great if you have a group of different thinkers and want to change things up from a more textual or discussion-based approach.

Four-Step Sketch #design sprint #innovation #idea generation #remote-friendly The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper, Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

24. 15% Solutions

Some problems are simpler than others and with the right problem-solving activities, you can empower people to take immediate actions that can help create organizational change.

Part of the liberating structures toolkit, 15% solutions is a problem-solving technique that focuses on finding and implementing solutions quickly. A process of iterating and making small changes quickly can help generate momentum and an appetite for solving complex problems.

Problem-solving strategies can live and die on whether people are onboard. Getting some quick wins is a great way of getting people behind the process.

It can be extremely empowering for a team to realize that problem-solving techniques can be deployed quickly and easily and delineate between things they can positively impact and those things they cannot change.

15% Solutions #action #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

25. How-Now-Wow Matrix

The problem-solving process is often creative, as complex problems usually require a change of thinking and creative response in order to find the best solutions. While it’s common for the first stages to encourage creative thinking, groups can often gravitate to familiar solutions when it comes to the end of the process.

When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose your creative energy! The How-Now-Wow Matrix from Gamestorming is a great problem-solving activity that enables a group to stay creative and think out of the box when it comes to selecting the right solution for a given problem.

Problem-solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud.

How-Now-Wow Matrix #gamestorming #idea generation #remote-friendly When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.

26. Impact and Effort Matrix

All problem-solving techniques hope to not only find solutions to a given problem or challenge but to find the best solution. When it comes to finding a solution, groups are invited to put on their decision-making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice.

The Impact and Effort Matrix is one of the problem-solving techniques that fall into this camp, empowering participants to first generate ideas and then categorize them into a 2×2 matrix based on impact and effort.

Activities that invite critical thinking while remaining simple are invaluable. Use the Impact and Effort Matrix to move from ideation and towards evaluating potential solutions before then committing to them.

Impact and Effort Matrix #gamestorming #decision making #action #remote-friendly In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

27. Dotmocracy

If you’ve followed each of the problem-solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. But how do you help a group go from ideation to putting a solution into action?

Dotmocracy – or Dot Voting -is a tried and tested method of helping a team in the problem-solving process make decisions and put actions in place with a degree of oversight and consensus.

One of the problem-solving techniques that should be in every facilitator’s toolbox, Dot Voting is fast and effective and can help identify the most popular and best solutions and help bring a group to a decision effectively.

Dotmocracy #action #decision making #group prioritization #hyperisland #remote-friendly Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. The options or ideas are written on post-its and stuck up on a wall for the whole group to see. Each person votes for the options they think are the strongest, and that information is used to inform a decision.

All facilitators know that warm-ups and icebreakers are useful for any workshop or group process. Problem-solving workshops are no different.

Use these problem-solving techniques to warm up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Activating your group by tapping into some of the top problem-solving skills can be one of the best ways to see great outcomes from your session.

Check-in/Check-out
Doodling Together
Show and Tell
Constellations
Draw a Tree

28. Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process.

Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute.

If you are running a series of meetings, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove. We recommend this opening-closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if they’re disciplined!

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

29. Doodling Together

Thinking creatively and not being afraid to make suggestions are important problem-solving skills for any group or team, and warming up by encouraging these behaviors is a great way to start.

Doodling Together is one of our favorite creative ice breaker games – it’s quick, effective, and fun and can make all following problem-solving steps easier by encouraging a group to collaborate visually. By passing cards and adding additional items as they go, the workshop group gets into a groove of co-creation and idea development that is crucial to finding solutions to problems.

Doodling Together #collaboration #creativity #teamwork #fun #team #visual methods #energiser #icebreaker #remote-friendly Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group’s creative confidence.

30. Show and Tell

You might remember some version of Show and Tell from being a kid in school and it’s a great problem-solving activity to kick off a session.

Asking participants to prepare a little something before a workshop by bringing an object for show and tell can help them warm up before the session has even begun! Games that include a physical object can also help encourage early engagement before moving onto more big-picture thinking.

By asking your participants to tell stories about why they chose to bring a particular item to the group, you can help teams see things from new perspectives and see both differences and similarities in the way they approach a topic. Great groundwork for approaching a problem-solving process as a team!

Show and Tell #gamestorming #action #opening #meeting facilitation Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

31. Constellations

Who doesn’t love stars? Constellations is a great warm-up activity for any workshop as it gets people up off their feet, energized, and ready to engage in new ways with established topics. It’s also great for showing existing beliefs, biases, and patterns that can come into play as part of your session.

Using warm-up games that help build trust and connection while also allowing for non-verbal responses can be great for easing people into the problem-solving process and encouraging engagement from everyone in the group. Constellations is great in large spaces that allow for movement and is definitely a practical exercise to allow the group to see patterns that are otherwise invisible.

Constellations #trust #connection #opening #coaching #patterns #system Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

32. Draw a Tree

Problem-solving games that help raise group awareness through a central, unifying metaphor can be effective ways to warm-up a group in any problem-solving model.

Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy. Start by asking your participants to draw a tree in just 45 seconds – they can choose whether it will be abstract or realistic.

Once the timer is up, ask the group how many people included the roots of the tree and use this as a means to discuss how we can ignore important parts of any system simply because they are not visible.

All problem-solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Warm-up games like Draw a Tree are great in that they quickly demonstrate some key problem-solving skills in an accessible and effective way.

Draw a Tree #thiagi #opening #perspectives #remote-friendly With this game you can raise awarness about being more mindful, and aware of the environment we live in.

Each step of the problem-solving workshop benefits from an intelligent deployment of activities, games, and techniques. Bringing your session to an effective close helps ensure that solutions are followed through on and that you also celebrate what has been achieved.

Here are some problem-solving activities you can use to effectively close a workshop or meeting and ensure the great work you’ve done can continue afterward.

One Breath Feedback
Who What When Matrix
Response Cards

How do I conclude a problem-solving process?

All good things must come to an end. With the bulk of the work done, it can be tempting to conclude your workshop swiftly and without a moment to debrief and align. This can be problematic in that it doesn’t allow your team to fully process the results or reflect on the process.

At the end of an effective session, your team will have gone through a process that, while productive, can be exhausting. It’s important to give your group a moment to take a breath, ensure that they are clear on future actions, and provide short feedback before leaving the space.

The primary purpose of any problem-solving method is to generate solutions and then implement them. Be sure to take the opportunity to ensure everyone is aligned and ready to effectively implement the solutions you produced in the workshop.

Remember that every process can be improved and by giving a short moment to collect feedback in the session, you can further refine your problem-solving methods and see further success in the future too.

33. One Breath Feedback

Maintaining attention and focus during the closing stages of a problem-solving workshop can be tricky and so being concise when giving feedback can be important. It’s easy to incur “death by feedback” should some team members go on for too long sharing their perspectives in a quick feedback round.

One Breath Feedback is a great closing activity for workshops. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. This keeps feedback short and to the point and means that everyone is encouraged to provide the most important piece of feedback to them.

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

34. Who What When Matrix

Matrices feature as part of many effective problem-solving strategies and with good reason. They are easily recognizable, simple to use, and generate results.

The Who What When Matrix is a great tool to use when closing your problem-solving session by attributing a who, what and when to the actions and solutions you have decided upon. The resulting matrix is a simple, easy-to-follow way of ensuring your team can move forward.

Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership. Your problem-solving process should include a stage for allocating tasks to individuals or teams and creating a realistic timeframe for those solutions to be implemented or checked out. Use this method to keep the solution implementation process clear and simple for all involved.

Who/What/When Matrix #gamestorming #action #project planning With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to.

35. Response cards

Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem-solving activities and by the end of the process, you might find that your team is talked out!

Providing a means for your team to give feedback with short written notes can ensure everyone is head and can contribute without the need to stand up and talk. Depending on the needs of the group, giving an alternative can help ensure everyone can contribute to your problem-solving model in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Response Cards is a great way to close a workshop if you are looking for a gentle warm-down and want to get some swift discussion around some of the feedback that is raised.

Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. However, with the use of Response Cards, everyone will be involved in providing feedback or clarify questions at the end of a session.

Save time and effort discovering the right solutions

A structured problem solving process is a surefire way of solving tough problems, discovering creative solutions and driving organizational change. But how can you design for successful outcomes?

With SessionLab, it’s easy to design engaging workshops that deliver results. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically , saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective problem solving workshops or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

The problem-solving process can often be as complicated and multifaceted as the problems they are set-up to solve. With the right problem-solving techniques and a mix of creative exercises designed to guide discussion and generate purposeful ideas, we hope we’ve given you the tools to find the best solutions as simply and easily as possible.

Is there a problem-solving technique that you are missing here? Do you have a favorite activity or method you use when facilitating? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

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Leanne Armstrong

May 17, 2021

9 Essential Problem Solving Tools: The Ultimate Guide

Problem solving studies have suggested that the average business professional spends 3 hours every week solving work-related problems!

Problem solving may unfold differently depending on the industry, or even the department you work in. But most of us will agree that before you can fix any issue, you need to be clear on what it is, why it’s happening, and what your ideal long-term solution will achieve.

Understanding both the nature and the cause of a problem is the only way to figure out which actions will help you resolve it.

And given that most problem-solving processes are part inspiration, part perspiration, you’ll be more successful, more often, if you can reach for a problem solving tool that facilitates collaboration, encourages creative thinking, and makes it easier to implement the fix you devise.

We’ve put together this roundup of versatile problem solving tools and software to help you and your team map out and repair workplace issues as efficiently as possible. The problem solving tools include three unique categories: problem solving diagrams, problem solving mind maps, and problem solving software solutions. They include:

Fishbone diagrams
Strategy maps
Mental maps
Concept maps
Layered process audit software
Charting software
MindManager

Let’s get started!

[Free Webinar] Lean Six Sigma: What it is and why you’ll want to use it on your next project

Problem solving diagrams

Mapping your way out of a problem is the simplest way to see where you are, and where you need to end up.

Not only do visual problem maps let you plot the most efficient route from Point A (dysfunctional situation) to Point B (flawless process), problem mapping diagrams make it easier to see:

The root cause of a dilemma
Steps, resources, and personnel associated with each possible solution
The least time-consuming, most cost-effective options

A visual problem solving process help to solidify understanding and are a great way for you and your team to transform abstract ideas into a practical, reconstructive plan.

Here are three examples of common problem mapping diagrams you can try with your team.

1. Fishbone diagrams

Fishbone diagrams are a common problem solving tool so-named because, once complete, they resemble the skeleton of a fish.

With the possible root causes of an issue (the ribs) branching off from either side of a spine line attached to the head (the problem), dynamic fishbone diagrams let you:

Lay out a related set of possible reasons for an existing problem
Investigate each possibility by breaking it out into sub-causes
See how contributing factors relate to one another

Fishbone diagrams are also known as cause and effect or Ishikawa diagrams.

2. Flowcharts

A flowchart is an easy-to-understand diagram with a variety of applications. But you can use it to outline and examine how the steps of a flawed process connect. Made up of a few simple symbols linked with arrows indicating workflow direction, flowcharts clearly illustrate what happens at each stage of a process – and how each event impacts other events and decisions.

3. Strategy maps

Frequently used as a strategic planning tool , strategy maps also work well as problem mapping diagrams. Based on a hierarchal system, thoughts and ideas can be arranged on a single page to flesh out a potential resolution. Once you’ve got a few tactics you feel are worth exploring as possible ways to overcome a challenge, a strategy map will help you establish the best route to your problem-solving goal.

9 Essential Problem Solving Tools: The Ultimate Guide

Problem solving mind maps

By starting with a single notion that branches out into greater detail, problem solving mind maps make it easy to:

Explain unfamiliar problems or processes in less time
Share and elaborate on novel ideas
Achieve better group comprehension that can lead to more effective solutions

4. Mental maps

A mental map helps you get your thoughts about what might be causing a workplace issue out of your head and onto a shared digital space. Because mental maps mirror the way our brains take in and analyze new information, using them to describe your theories visually will help you and your team work through and test those thought models.

5. Idea maps

6. Concept maps

Concept maps are one of the best ways to shape your thoughts around a potential solution because they let you create interlinked, visual representations of intricate concepts. By laying out your suggested problem-solving process digitally – and using lines to form and define relationship connections – your group will be able to see how each piece of the solution puzzle connects with another.

Problem solving software solutions

Here are three problem-solving software examples.

7. Layered process audit software

8. Charting software

9. MindManager

Once you know why an obstruction, shortfall, or difficulty exists, you can use MindManager’s wide range of brainstorming and problem mapping diagrams to:

Find the most promising way to correct the situation
Activate your chosen solution, and
Conduct regular checks to make sure your repair work is sustainable

MindManager is the ultimate problem solving software .

Lean Six Sigma is one powerful problem solving and efficiency auditing technique that can be accomplished using MindManager. Watch this webinar for a full overview of what Lean Six Sigma is, and how MindManager fits into the process.

Find more great content here !

5 steps to problem solving proficiency
9 problem solving tools you should be using with your team

Armstrong, L. (2021). 9 Essential Problem Solving Tools: The Ultimate Guide. Available at: https://blog.mindmanager.com/blog/2020/07/202007problem-solving-tools/ [Accessed: 11th May 2021].

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10 Problem-solving strategies to turn challenges on their head

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What is an example of problem-solving?

What are the 5 steps to problem-solving, 10 effective problem-solving strategies, what skills do efficient problem solvers have, how to improve your problem-solving skills.

Problems come in all shapes and sizes — from workplace conflict to budget cuts.

Creative problem-solving is one of the most in-demand skills in all roles and industries. It can boost an organization’s human capital and give it a competitive edge.

Problem-solving strategies are ways of approaching problems that can help you look beyond the obvious answers and find the best solution to your problem .

Let’s take a look at a five-step problem-solving process and how to combine it with proven problem-solving strategies. This will give you the tools and skills to solve even your most complex problems.

Good problem-solving is an essential part of the decision-making process . To see what a problem-solving process might look like in real life, let’s take a common problem for SaaS brands — decreasing customer churn rates.

To solve this problem, the company must first identify it. In this case, the problem is that the churn rate is too high.

Next, they need to identify the root causes of the problem. This could be anything from their customer service experience to their email marketing campaigns. If there are several problems, they will need a separate problem-solving process for each one.

Let’s say the problem is with email marketing — they’re not nurturing existing customers. Now that they’ve identified the problem, they can start using problem-solving strategies to look for solutions.

This might look like coming up with special offers, discounts, or bonuses for existing customers. They need to find ways to remind them to use their products and services while providing added value. This will encourage customers to keep paying their monthly subscriptions.

They might also want to add incentives, such as access to a premium service at no extra cost after 12 months of membership. They could publish blog posts that help their customers solve common problems and share them as an email newsletter.

The company should set targets and a time frame in which to achieve them. This will allow leaders to measure progress and identify which actions yield the best results.

Perhaps you’ve got a problem you need to tackle. Or maybe you want to be prepared the next time one arises. Either way, it’s a good idea to get familiar with the five steps of problem-solving.

Use this step-by-step problem-solving method with the strategies in the following section to find possible solutions to your problem.

1. Identify the problem

The first step is to know which problem you need to solve. Then, you need to find the root cause of the problem.

The best course of action is to gather as much data as possible, speak to the people involved, and separate facts from opinions.

Once this is done, formulate a statement that describes the problem. Use rational persuasion to make sure your team agrees .

2. Break the problem down

Identifying the problem allows you to see which steps need to be taken to solve it.

First, break the problem down into achievable blocks. Then, use strategic planning to set a time frame in which to solve the problem and establish a timeline for the completion of each stage.

3. Generate potential solutions

At this stage, the aim isn’t to evaluate possible solutions but to generate as many ideas as possible.

Encourage your team to use creative thinking and be patient — the best solution may not be the first or most obvious one.

Use one or more of the different strategies in the following section to help come up with solutions — the more creative, the better.

4. Evaluate the possible solutions

Once you’ve generated potential solutions, narrow them down to a shortlist. Then, evaluate the options on your shortlist.

There are usually many factors to consider. So when evaluating a solution, ask yourself the following questions:

Will my team be on board with the proposition?
Does the solution align with organizational goals ?
Is the solution likely to achieve the desired outcomes?
Is the solution realistic and possible with current resources and constraints?
Will the solution solve the problem without causing additional unintended problems?

woman-helping-her-colleague-problem-solving-strategies

5. Implement and monitor the solutions

Once you’ve identified your solution and got buy-in from your team, it’s time to implement it.

But the work doesn’t stop there. You need to monitor your solution to see whether it actually solves your problem.

Request regular feedback from the team members involved and have a monitoring and evaluation plan in place to measure progress.

If the solution doesn’t achieve your desired results, start this step-by-step process again.

There are many different ways to approach problem-solving. Each is suitable for different types of problems.

The most appropriate problem-solving techniques will depend on your specific problem. You may need to experiment with several strategies before you find a workable solution.

Here are 10 effective problem-solving strategies for you to try:

Use a solution that worked before
Brainstorming
Work backward
Use the Kipling method
Draw the problem
Use trial and error
Sleep on it
Get advice from your peers
Use the Pareto principle
Add successful solutions to your toolkit

Let’s break each of these down.

1. Use a solution that worked before

It might seem obvious, but if you’ve faced similar problems in the past, look back to what worked then. See if any of the solutions could apply to your current situation and, if so, replicate them.

2. Brainstorming

The more people you enlist to help solve the problem, the more potential solutions you can come up with.

Use different brainstorming techniques to workshop potential solutions with your team. They’ll likely bring something you haven’t thought of to the table.

3. Work backward

Working backward is a way to reverse engineer your problem. Imagine your problem has been solved, and make that the starting point.

Then, retrace your steps back to where you are now. This can help you see which course of action may be most effective.

4. Use the Kipling method

This is a method that poses six questions based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “ I Keep Six Honest Serving Men .”

What is the problem?
Why is the problem important?
When did the problem arise, and when does it need to be solved?
How did the problem happen?
Where is the problem occurring?
Who does the problem affect?

Answering these questions can help you identify possible solutions.

5. Draw the problem

Sometimes it can be difficult to visualize all the components and moving parts of a problem and its solution. Drawing a diagram can help.

This technique is particularly helpful for solving process-related problems. For example, a product development team might want to decrease the time they take to fix bugs and create new iterations. Drawing the processes involved can help you see where improvements can be made.

woman-drawing-mind-map-problem-solving-strategies

6. Use trial-and-error

A trial-and-error approach can be useful when you have several possible solutions and want to test them to see which one works best.

7. Sleep on it

Finding the best solution to a problem is a process. Remember to take breaks and get enough rest . Sometimes, a walk around the block can bring inspiration, but you should sleep on it if possible.

A good night’s sleep helps us find creative solutions to problems. This is because when you sleep, your brain sorts through the day’s events and stores them as memories. This enables you to process your ideas at a subconscious level.

If possible, give yourself a few days to develop and analyze possible solutions. You may find you have greater clarity after sleeping on it. Your mind will also be fresh, so you’ll be able to make better decisions.

8. Get advice from your peers

Getting input from a group of people can help you find solutions you may not have thought of on your own.

For solo entrepreneurs or freelancers, this might look like hiring a coach or mentor or joining a mastermind group.

For leaders , it might be consulting other members of the leadership team or working with a business coach .

It’s important to recognize you might not have all the skills, experience, or knowledge necessary to find a solution alone.

9. Use the Pareto principle

The Pareto principle — also known as the 80/20 rule — can help you identify possible root causes and potential solutions for your problems.

Although it’s not a mathematical law, it’s a principle found throughout many aspects of business and life. For example, 20% of the sales reps in a company might close 80% of the sales.

You may be able to narrow down the causes of your problem by applying the Pareto principle. This can also help you identify the most appropriate solutions.

10. Add successful solutions to your toolkit

Every situation is different, and the same solutions might not always work. But by keeping a record of successful problem-solving strategies, you can build up a solutions toolkit.

These solutions may be applicable to future problems. Even if not, they may save you some of the time and work needed to come up with a new solution.

three-colleagues-looking-at-computer-problem-solving-strategies

Improving problem-solving skills is essential for professional development — both yours and your team’s. Here are some of the key skills of effective problem solvers:

Critical thinking and analytical skills
Communication skills , including active listening
Decision-making
Planning and prioritization
Emotional intelligence , including empathy and emotional regulation
Time management
Data analysis
Research skills
Project management

And they see problems as opportunities. Everyone is born with problem-solving skills. But accessing these abilities depends on how we view problems. Effective problem-solvers see problems as opportunities to learn and improve.

Ready to work on your problem-solving abilities? Get started with these seven tips.

1. Build your problem-solving skills

One of the best ways to improve your problem-solving skills is to learn from experts. Consider enrolling in organizational training , shadowing a mentor , or working with a coach .

2. Practice

Practice using your new problem-solving skills by applying them to smaller problems you might encounter in your daily life.

Alternatively, imagine problematic scenarios that might arise at work and use problem-solving strategies to find hypothetical solutions.

3. Don’t try to find a solution right away

Often, the first solution you think of to solve a problem isn’t the most appropriate or effective.

Instead of thinking on the spot, give yourself time and use one or more of the problem-solving strategies above to activate your creative thinking.

two-colleagues-talking-at-corporate-event-problem-solving-strategies

4. Ask for feedback

Receiving feedback is always important for learning and growth. Your perception of your problem-solving skills may be different from that of your colleagues. They can provide insights that help you improve.

5. Learn new approaches and methodologies

There are entire books written about problem-solving methodologies if you want to take a deep dive into the subject.

We recommend starting with “ Fixed — How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving ” by Amy E. Herman.

6. Experiment

Tried-and-tested problem-solving techniques can be useful. However, they don’t teach you how to innovate and develop your own problem-solving approaches.

Sometimes, an unconventional approach can lead to the development of a brilliant new idea or strategy. So don’t be afraid to suggest your most “out there” ideas.

7. Analyze the success of your competitors

Do you have competitors who have already solved the problem you’re facing? Look at what they did, and work backward to solve your own problem.

For example, Netflix started in the 1990s as a DVD mail-rental company. Its main competitor at the time was Blockbuster.

But when streaming became the norm in the early 2000s, both companies faced a crisis. Netflix innovated, unveiling its streaming service in 2007.

If Blockbuster had followed Netflix’s example, it might have survived. Instead, it declared bankruptcy in 2010.

Use problem-solving strategies to uplevel your business

When facing a problem, it’s worth taking the time to find the right solution.

Otherwise, we risk either running away from our problems or headlong into solutions. When we do this, we might miss out on other, better options.

Use the problem-solving strategies outlined above to find innovative solutions to your business’ most perplexing problems.

If you’re ready to take problem-solving to the next level, request a demo with BetterUp . Our expert coaches specialize in helping teams develop and implement strategies that work.

Elizabeth Perry

Content Marketing Manager, ACC

8 creative solutions to your most challenging problems

What are metacognitive skills examples in everyday life, 5 problem-solving questions to prepare you for your next interview, what is lateral thinking 7 techniques to encourage creative ideas, 31 examples of problem solving performance review phrases, learn what process mapping is and how to create one (+ examples), leadership activities that encourage employee engagement, can dreams help you solve problems 6 ways to try, how much do distractions cost 8 effects of lack of focus, similar articles, the pareto principle: how the 80/20 rule can help you do more with less, thinking outside the box: 8 ways to become a creative problem solver, experimentation brings innovation: create an experimental workplace, effective problem statements have these 5 components, contingency planning: 4 steps to prepare for the unexpected, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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36 Problem-solving techniques, methods and tools

When it comes to solving problems, getting ideas is the easy part.

But businesses often forget the other four stages of the problem-solving process that will allow them to find the best solution.

Instead of jumping straight to idea generation, your problem-solving framework should look like this:

Identify the problem
Reveal why it has occurred
Brainstorm ideas
Select the best solution

See how idea generation doesn’t appear until stage 3?!

In this extensive resource, we provide techniques, methodologies and tools to guide you through every stage of the problem-solving process.

Once you’ve finished reading, you’ll possess an extensive problem-solving arsenal that will enable you to overcome your biggest workplace challenges.

11 Problem-solving techniques for clarity and confidence

Before we dive into more comprehensive methodologies for solving problems, there are a few basic techniques you should know.

The following techniques will set you up for a successful problem-solving session with your team, allowing you to take on your biggest challenges with clarity and confidence. ‍

1. Take a moment, take a breath

When a problem or challenge arises, it’s normal to act too quickly or rely on solutions that have worked well in the past. This is known as entrenched thinking.

But acting impulsively, without prior consideration or planning, can cause you to misunderstand the issue and overlook possible solutions to the problem.

Therefore, the first thing you should always do when you encounter a problem is: breathe in and out.

Take a step back and make a clear plan of action before you act. This will help you to take rational steps towards solving a problem. ‍

2. Ask questions to understand the full extent of the issue

Another common mistake people make when attempting to solve a problem is taking action before fully understanding the problem.

Before committing to a theory, ask enough questions to unearth the true root of the issue.

Later in this article, we cover The 5 Why’s problem-solving methodology which you can use to easily identify the root of your problem. Give this a go at your next meeting and see how your initial understanding of a problem can often be wrong. ‍

3. Consider alternative perspectives

A common problem-solving issue is that of myopia—a narrow-minded view or perception of the problem. Myopia can occur when you’re too involved with the problem or your team isn’t diverse enough.

To give yourself the best chance of resolving a problem, gain insight from a wide range of sources. Collaborate with key stakeholders, customers and on-the-ground employees to learn how the problem affects them and whether they have found workarounds or solutions.

To paint the broadest picture, don’t limit your problem-solving team to a specific archetype. Try to include everyone, from the chief executive to the office janitor.

If you’re working with a small team, try the Flip It! problem-solving methodology to view the issue from a fresh angle. ‍

4. Make your office space conducive to problem-solving

The environment in which your host your brainstorming sessions should maximise creativity . When your team members trust each other and feel relaxed, they’re more likely to come up with innovative ideas and solutions to a problem.

Here are a few ways to get your employees’ creative juices flowing:

Play team-building games that maximise trust and build interpersonal relationships
Improve your team’s problem-solving skills with games that encourage critical thinking
Redesign the office with comfortable furniture and collaborative spaces
Boost job satisfaction by creating a positive work-life balance
Improve collaborative skills and learn to resolve conflicts

World Café is a problem-solving method that creates a casual environment conducive to creative thinking.

Keep reading to learn more about how World Café can help your team solve complex organisational problems. ‍

5. Use problem-solving methodologies to guide the process

Because problem-solving is a creative process, it can be hard to keep it on track. As more ideas get banded around, conflicts can arise that derail the session.

That’s why problem-solving methodologies are so helpful. They offer you proven problem-solving frameworks to guide your group sessions and keep them on track.

The Six Thinking Hats problem-solving method is a popular technique that guides the process and helps your team analyse a problem from all angles.

We’re going to take a look at our favourite problem-solving methodologies in the next section of this article, XY Tried and tested problem-solving methodologies. ‍

6. Use analogies to solve complex problems

Sometimes, solving a different problem can help you uncover solutions to another problem!

By stripping back a complex issue and framing it as a simplified analogy , you approach a problem from a different angle, enabling you to come up with alternative ideas.

After solving practice problems, your team might be more aptly equipped to solve real-world issues.

However, coming up with an analogy that reflects your issue can be difficult, so don’t worry if this technique doesn’t work for you.

The Speed Boat diagram is a visual tool that helps your employees view existing challenges as anchors holding back a boat which represents your end goals. By assigning a “weight” to each anchor, your team can prioritise which issues to tackle first. ‍

7. Establish clear constraints

Constraints make a big problem more approachable.

Before you tackle a problem, establish clear boundaries and codes of conduct for the session. This allows your team to focus on the current issue without becoming distracted or veering off on a tangent.

In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, authors Oguz A. Acar, Murat Tarakci, and Daan van Knippenberg wrote, “Constraints … provide focus and a creative challenge that motivates people to search for and connect information from different sources to generate novel ideas for new products, services, or business processes.” (Why Constraints Are Good for Innovation, 2019)

Lightning Decision Jam is a prime example of how constraints can assist the creative process. Here, your team are given strict time constraints and isn’t permitted to discuss ideas until the end. ‍

8. Dislodge preconceived ideas

Humans are creatures of habit.

We defer to strategies that have produced positive results in the past. This is typically beneficial because recalling our previous successes means we don’t need to constantly re-learn similar tasks.

But when it comes to problem-solving, this way of thinking can trip us up. We become fixated on a solution that worked in the past, but when this fails we’re dismayed and left wondering what to do next.

To resolve problems effectively, your employees need to escape the precincts of their imaginations. This helps to eliminate functional fixedness—the belief that an item serves only its predefined function.

Alternative Application is an icebreaker game that encourages employees to think outside the box by coming up with different uses for everyday objects. Try this at your next meeting or team-building event and watch your team tap into their creativity. ‍

9. Level the playing field

Having a diverse group of employees at your brainstorming sessions is a good idea, but there’s one problem: the extroverted members of your team will be more vocal than the introverts.

To ensure you’re gaining insight from every member of your team, you need to give your quieter employees equal opportunities to contribute by eliminating personality biases.

Read more: What icebreaker games and questions work best for introverts?

The obvious solution, then, is to “silence” the louder participants (it’s not as sinister as it sounds, promise)—all you have to do is ban your team from debating suggestions during the ideation process.

The Lightning Decision Jam methodology gives your employees equal opportunities to contribute because much of the problem-solving process is carried out in silence. ‍

10. Take a break from the problem

Have you ever noticed how the best ideas seem to come when you’re not actively working on a problem? You may have spent hours slumped over your desk hashing out a solution, only for the “eureka!” moment to come when you’re walking your dog or taking a shower.

In James Webb Young’s book, A Technique for Producing Ideas , phase three of the process is “stepping away from the problem.” Young proclaims that after putting in the hard work, the information needs to ferment in the mind before any plausible ideas come to you.

So next time you’re in a meeting with your team trying to solve a problem, don’t panic if you don’t uncover groundbreaking ideas there and then. Allow everybody to mull over what they’ve learned, then reconvene at a later date.

The Creativity Dice methodology is a quick-fire brainstorming game that allows your team to incubate ideas while concentrating on another. ‍

11. Limit feedback sessions

The way your team delivers feedback at the end of a successful brainstorming session is critical. Left unsupervised, excessive feedback can undo all of your hard work.

Therefore, it’s wise to put a cap on the amount of feedback your team can provide. One great way of doing this is by using the One Breath Feedback technique.

By limiting your employees to one breath, they’re taught to be concise with their final comments.

16 Tried and tested problem-solving methodologies

Problem-solving methodologies keep your brainstorming session on track and encourage your team to consider all angles of the issue.

Countless methods have wiggled their way into the world of business, each one with a unique strategy and end goal.

Here are 12 of our favourite problem-solving methodologies that will help you find the best-fit solution to your troubles. ‍

12. Six Thinking Hats

Six Thinking Hats is a methodical problem-solving framework that helps your group consider all possible problems, causes, solutions and repercussions by assigning a different coloured hat to each stage of the problem-solving process.

The roles of each hat are as follows:

Blue Hat (Control): This hat controls the session and dictates the order in which the hats will be worn. When wearing the Blue Hat, your group will observe possible solutions, draw conclusions and define a plan of action.
Green Hat (Idea Generation): The Green Hat signifies creativity. At this stage of the methodology, your team will focus their efforts on generating ideas, imagining solutions and considering alternatives.
Red Hat (Intuition and Feelings): It’s time for your employees to communicate their feelings. Here, your team listen to their guts and convey their emotional impulses without justification.
Yellow Hat (Benefits and Values): What are the merits of each idea that has been put forward thus far? What positive impacts could they have?
Black or Grey Hat (Caution): What are the potential risks or shortcomings of each idea? What negative impacts could result from implicating each idea?
White Hat (Information and Data): While wearing The White Hat, your team must determine what information is needed and from where it can be obtained.

For Six Thinking Hats to work effectively, ensure your team acts within the confines of each role.

While wearing The Yellow Hat, for example, your team should only discuss the positives . Any negative implications should be left for the Black or Grey hat.

Note: Feel free to alter the hat colours to align with your cultural context. ‍

13. Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)

Lightning Decision Jam is a nine-stage problem-solving process designed to uncover a variety of perspectives while keeping the session on track.

The process starts by defining a general topic like the internal design process, interdepartmental communication, the sales funnel, etc.

Then, armed with pens and post-it notes, your team will work through the nine stages in the following order:

Write problems (7 minutes)
Present problems (4 minutes/person)
Select problems (6 minutes)
Reframe the problems (6 minutes)
Offer solutions (7 minutes)
Vote on solutions (10 minutes)
Prioritise solutions (30 seconds)
Decide what to execute (10 minutes)
Create task lists (5 minutes)

The philosophy behind LDJ is that of constraint. By limiting discussion, employees can focus on compiling ideas and coming to democratic decisions that benefit the company without being distracted or going off on a tangent. ‍

14. The 5 Why’s

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the process of unearthing a problem and finding the underlying cause. To help you through this process, you can use The 5 Why’s methodology.

The idea is to ask why you’re experiencing a problem, reframe the problem based on the answer, and then ask “ why?” again. If you do this five times , you should come pretty close to the root of your original challenge.

While this might not be a comprehensive end-to-end methodology, it certainly helps you to pin down your core challenges. ‍

15. World Café

If you’ve had enough of uninspiring corporate boardrooms, World Café is the solution.

This problem-solving strategy facilitates casual conversations around given topics, enabling players to speak more openly about their grievances without the pressure of a large group.

Here’s how to do it:

Create a cosy cafe-style setting (try to have at least five or six chairs per table).
As a group, decide on a core problem and mark this as the session topic.
Divide your group into smaller teams by arranging five or six players at a table.
Assign each group a question that pertains to the session topic, or decide on one question for all groups to discuss at once.
Give the groups about 20 minutes to casually talk over each question.
Repeat this with about three or four different questions, making sure to write down key insights from each group.
Share the insights with the whole group.

World Café is a useful way of uncovering hidden causes and pitfalls by having multiple simultaneous conversations about a given topic. ‍

16. Discovery and Action Dialogue (DAD)

Discovery and Actions Dialogues are a collaborative method for employees to share and adopt personal behaviours in response to a problem.

This crowdsourcing approach provides insight into how a problem affects individuals throughout your company and whether some are better equipped than others.

A DAD session is guided by a facilitator who asks seven open-ended questions in succession. Each person is given equal time to participate while a recorder takes down notes and valuable insights.

This is a particularly effective method for uncovering preexisting ideas, behaviours and solutions from the people who face problems daily. ‍

17. Design Sprint 2.0

The Design Sprint 2.0 model by Jake Knapp helps your team to focus on finding, developing measuring a solution within four days . Because theorising is all well and good, but sometimes you can learn more by getting an idea off the ground and observing how it plays out in the real world.

Here’s the basic problem-solving framework:

Day 1: Map out or sketch possible solutions
Day 2: Choose the best solutions and storyboard your strategy going forward
Day 3: Create a living, breathing prototype
Day 4: Test and record how it performs in the real world

This technique is great for testing the viability of new products or expanding and fixing the features of an existing product. ‍

18. Open Space Technology

Open Space Technology is a method for large groups to create a problem-solving agenda around a central theme. It works best when your group is comprised of subject-matter experts and experienced individuals with a sufficient stake in the problem.

Open Space Technology works like this:

Establish a core theme for your team to centralise their efforts.
Ask the participants to consider their approach and write it on a post-it note.
Everybody writes a time and place for discussion on their note and sticks it to the wall.
The group is then invited to join the sessions that most interest them.
Everybody joins and contributes to their chosen sessions
Any significant insights and outcomes are recorded and presented to the group.

This methodology grants autonomy to your team and encourages them to take ownership of the problem-solving process. ‍

19. Round-Robin Brainstorming Technique

While not an end-to-end problem-solving methodology, the Round-Robin Brainstorming Technique is an effective way of squeezing every last ounce of creativity from your ideation sessions.

Here’s how it works:

Decide on a problem that needs to be solved
Sitting in a circle, give each employee a chance to offer an idea
Have somebody write down each idea as they come up
Participants can pass if they don’t have anything to contribute
The brainstorming session ends once everybody has passed

Once you’ve compiled a long list of ideas, it’s up to you how you move forward. You could, for example, borrow techniques from other methodologies, such as the “vote on solutions” phase of the Lightning Decision Jam. ‍

20. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is a method for preventing and mitigating problems within your business processes.

This technique starts by examining the process in question and asking, “What could go wrong?” From here, your team starts to brainstorm a list of potential failures.

Then, going through the list one by one, ask your participants, “Why would this failure happen?”

Once you’ve answered this question for each list item, ask yourselves, “What would the consequences be of this failure?”

This proactive method focuses on prevention rather than treatment. Instead of waiting for a problem to occur and reacting, you’re actively searching for future shortcomings. ‍

21. Flip It!

The Flip It! Methodology teaches your team to view their concerns in a different light and frame them instead as catalysts for positive change.

The game works like this:

Select a topic your employees are likely to be concerned about, like market demand for your product or friction between departments.
Give each participant a pile of sticky notes and ask them to write down all their fears about the topic.
Take the fears and stick them to an area of the wall marked “fears.”
Then, encourage your team to look at these fears and ask them to reframe them as “hope” by writing new statements on different sticky notes.
Take these “hope” statements and stick them to an area of the wall marked “hope.”
Discuss the statements, then ask them to vote on the areas they feel they can start to take action on. They can do this by drawing a dot on the corner of the sticky note.
Move the notes with the most votes to a new area of the wall marked “traction.”
Discuss the most popular statements as a group and brainstorm actionable items related to each.
Write down the actions that need to be made and discuss them again as a group.

This brainstorming approach teaches your employees the danger of engrained thinking and helps them to reframe their fears as opportunities. ‍

22. The Creativity Dice

The Creativity Dice teaches your team to incubate ideas as they focus on different aspects of a problem. As we mentioned earlier in the article, giving ideas time to mature can be a highly effective problem-solving strategy. Here’s how the game works:

Choose a topic to focus on, It can be as specific or open-ended as you like. Write this down as a word or sentence. Roll the die, start a timer of three minutes and start writing down ideas within the confines of what that number resembles. The roles of each number are as follows:

Specification: Write down goals you want to achieve.
Investigation: Write down existing factual information you know about the topic.
Ideation: Write down creative or practical ideas related to the topic.
Incubation: Do something else unrelated to the problem.
Iteration: Look at what you’ve already written and come up with related ideas (roll again if you didn’t write anything yet). ‍
Integration: Look at everything you have written and try to create something cohesive from your ideas like a potential new product or actionable next step.

Once you’ve finished the activity, review your findings and decide what you want to take with you. ‍

23. SWOT Analysis

The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing method for analysing the current state of your business and considering how this affects the desired end state.

The basic idea is this:

Before the meeting, come up with a “Desired end state” and draw a picture that represents this on a flipchart or whiteboard.
Divide a large piece of paper into quadrants marked “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Opportunities” and “Threats.”
Starting with “Strengths”, work through the quadrants, coming up with ideas that relate to the desired end state.
Ask your team to vote for the statements or ideas of each category that they feel are most relevant to the desired end state.
As a group, discuss the implications that these statements have on the desired end state. Spark debate by asking thought-provoking and open-ended questions.

The SWOT Analysis is an intuitive method for understanding which parts of your business could be affecting your long-term goals. ‍

24. The Journalistic Six

When learning to cover every aspect of a story, journalists are taught to ask themselves six essential questions:

Now, this approach has been adopted by organisations to help understand every angle of a problem. All you need is a clear focus question, then you can start working through the six questions with your team until you have a 360-degree view of what has, can and needs to be done. ‍

25. Gamestorming

Gamestorming is a one-stop creative-thinking framework that uses various games to help your team come up with innovative ideas.

Originally published as a book 10 years ago, Gamestorming contained a selection of creative games used by Silicon Valley’s top-performing businesses to develop groundbreaking products and services.

This collection of resources, plucked from the minds of founders and CEOs like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs, allows you to tap into the potentially genius ideas lying dormant in the minds of your employees. ‍

26. Four-Step Sketch

The Four-Step Sketch is a visual brainstorming that provides an alternative to traditional discussion-based ideation techniques .

This methodology requires prior discussion to clarify the purpose of the activity. Imagine you’re on a startup retreat , for example, and your team is taking part in a design sprint or hackathon.

Once you’ve brainstormed a list of ideas with your team, participants can look at the suggestions and take down any relevant notes. They then take these notes and turn them into rough sketches that resemble the idea.

Then, as a warm-up, give each participant eight minutes to produce eight alternative sketches (eight minutes per sketch) of the idea. These ideas are not to be shared with the group.

Finally, participants create new sketches based on their favourite ideas and share them with the group. The group can then vote on the ideas they think offer the best solution. ‍

27. 15% Solutions

15% Solutions is a problem-solving strategy for motivating and inspiring your employees. By encouraging your team to gain small victories, you pave the way for bigger changes.

First, ask your participants to think about things they can personally do within the confines of their role.

Then, arrange your team into small groups of three to four and give them time to share their ideas and consult with each other.

This simple problem-solving process removes negativity and powerlessness and teaches your team to take responsibility for change.

9 Problem-solving tools for gathering and selecting ideas

Problem-solving tools support your meeting with easy-to-use graphs, visualisations and techniques.

By implementing a problem-solving tool, you break the cycle of mundane verbal discussion, enabling you to maintain engagement throughout the session. ‍

28. Fishbone Diagram

The Fishbone Diagram (otherwise known as the Ishikawa Diagram or Cause and Effect Diagram), is a tool for identifying the leading causes of a problem. You can then consolidate these causes into a comprehensive “Problem Statement.”

The term “Fishbone Diagram” is derived from the diagram’s structure. The problem itself forms the tail, possible causes radiate from the sides to form the fish skeleton while the final “Problem Statement” appears as the “head” of the fish.

Example: A fast-food chain is investigating the declining quality of their food. As the team brainstorms potential causes, they come up with reasons like “poorly trained personnel”, “lack of quality control”, and “incorrect quantity of spices.” Together with other causes, the group summarises that these problems lead to “bad burgers.” They write this as the Problem Statement and set about eliminating the main contributing factors. ‍

29. The Problem Tree

A Problem Tree is a useful tool for assessing the importance or relevance of challenges concerning the core topic. If you’re launching a new product, for example, gather your team and brainstorm the current issues, roadblocks and bottlenecks that are hindering the process.

Then, work together to decide which of these are most pressing. Place the most relevant issues closer to the core topic and less relevant issues farther away. ‍

30. SQUID Diagram

The Squid Diagram is an easy-to-use tool that charts the progress of ideas and business developments as they unfold. Your SQUID Diagram can remain on a wall for your team to add to over time.

Write down a core theme on a sticky note such as “customer service” or “Innovation”—this will be the “head” of your SQUID.
Hand two sets of different coloured sticky notes to your participants and choose one colour to represent “questions” and the other to represent “answers.”
Ask your team to write down questions pertaining to the success of the main topic. In the case of “Innovation,” your team might write things like “How can we improve collaboration between key stakeholders?”
Then, using the other coloured sticky notes, ask your team to write down possible answers to these questions. In the example above, this might be “Invest in open innovation software.”
Over time, you’ll develop a spawling SQUID Diagram that reflects the creative problem-solving process. ‍

31. The Speed Boat

The Speed Boat Diagram is a visual metaphor used to help your team identify and solve problems in the way of your goals.

Here’s how it works:

Draw a picture of a boat and name it after the core objective.
With your team, brainstorm things that are slowing progress and draw each one as an anchor beneath the boat.
Discuss possible solutions to each problem on the diagram.

This is an easy-to-use tool that sparks creative solutions. If you like, your team can assign a “weight” to each anchor which determines the impact each problem has on the end goal. ‍

32. The LEGO Challenge

LEGO is an excellent creative-thinking and problem-solving tool used regularly by event facilitators to help teams overcome challenges.

In our article 5 and 10-minute Team-Building Activities , we introduce Sneak a Peek —a collaborative team-building game that develops communication and leadership skills. ‍

33. The Three W’s: What? So What? Now What?

Teams aren’t always aligned when it comes to their understanding of a problem. While the problem remains the same for everyone, they might have differing opinions as to how it occurred at the implications it had.

Asking “ What? So What? Now What?” Helps you to understand different perspectives around a problem.

It goes like this:

Alone or in small groups, ask your employees to consider and write What happened. This should take between five and 10 minutes.
Then ask So What? What occurred because of this? Why was what happened important? What might happen if this issue is left unresolved?
Finally, ask your team Now What? What might be a solution to the problem? What actions do you need to take to avoid this happening again?

This approach helps your team understand how problems affect individuals in different ways and uncovers a variety of ways to overcome them. ‍

34. Now-How-Wow Matrix

Gathering ideas is easy—but selecting the best ones? That’s a different story.

If you’ve got a bunch of ideas, try the Now-How-Wow Matrix to help you identify which ones you should implement now and which ones should wait until later.

Simply draw a two-axis graph with “implementation difficulty” on the Y axis and “idea originality” on the X axis. Divide this graph into quadrants and write “Now!” in the bottom left panel, “Wow!” in the bottom right panel, and “How?” in the top right panel. You can leave the top left panel blank.

Then, take your ideas and plot them on the graph depending on their implementation difficulty and level of originality.

By the end, you’ll have a clearer picture of which ideas to ignore, which ones to implement now, and which ones to add to the pipeline for the future. ‍

35. Impact-Effort Matrix

The Impact-Effort Matrix is a variation of the Now-How-Wow Matrix where the Y axis is marked “Impact” and the X axis is marked “Effort.”

Then, divide the graph into quadrants and plot your ideas.

Top left section = Excellent, implement immediately
Top right section = Risky, but worth a try
Bottom left section = Low risk, but potentially ineffective
Bottom right section = Bad idea, ignore

The Impact-Effort Matrix is a simple way for your team to weigh the benefits of an idea against the amount of investment required. ‍

36. Dot Voting

Once you’ve gathered a substantial list of ideas from your employees, you need to sort the good from the bad.

Dot voting is a simple tool used by problem-solving facilitators as a fast and effective way for large groups to vote on their favourite ideas . You’ll have seen this method used in problem-solving methods like Flip It! and Lightning Decision Jam .

Participants write their ideas on sticky notes and stick them to the wall or a flipchart.
When asked, participants draw a small dot on the corner of the idea they like the most.
Participants can be given as many votes as necessary.
When voting ends, arrange the notes from “most popular” to “least popular.”

This provides an easy-to-use visual representation of the best and worst ideas put forward by your team.

Give your problems the attention they deserve at an offsite retreat

While working from home or at the office, your team is often too caught up in daily tasks to take on complex problems.

By escaping the office and uniting at an offsite location, you can craft a purposeful agenda of team-building activities and problem-solving sessions. This special time away from the office can prove invaluable when it comes to keeping your business on track.

If you have problems that need fixing (who doesn’t?), reach out to Surf Office and let us put together a fully-customised offsite retreat for you.

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How to plan your first company retreat

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Are you organising a company retreat and want to make sure you have all the costs under the control?

Get a copy of our free Budget Calculator spreadsheet.

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Organize your next company retreat with surf office, 💌 join 15,000+ managers receiving insights on building company culture that people love., stay in touch, work with us.

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Turn your team into skilled problem sol ...

Turn your team into skilled problem solvers with these problem-solving strategies

Picture this, you're handling your daily tasks at work and your boss calls you in and says, "We have a problem."

Unfortunately, we don't live in a world in which problems are instantly resolved with the snap of our fingers. Knowing how to effectively solve problems is an important professional skill to hone. If you have a problem that needs to be solved, what is the right process to use to ensure you get the most effective solution?

In this article we'll break down the problem-solving process and how you can find the most effective solutions for complex problems.

What is problem solving?

Problem solving is the process of finding a resolution for a specific issue or conflict. There are many possible solutions for solving a problem, which is why it's important to go through a problem-solving process to find the best solution. You could use a flathead screwdriver to unscrew a Phillips head screw, but there is a better tool for the situation. Utilizing common problem-solving techniques helps you find the best solution to fit the needs of the specific situation, much like using the right tools.

Decision-making tools for agile businesses

In this ebook, learn how to equip employees to make better decisions—so your business can pivot, adapt, and tackle challenges more effectively than your competition.

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4 steps to better problem solving

While it might be tempting to dive into a problem head first, take the time to move step by step. Here’s how you can effectively break down the problem-solving process with your team:

1. Identify the problem that needs to be solved

One of the easiest ways to identify a problem is to ask questions. A good place to start is to ask journalistic questions, like:

Who : Who is involved with this problem? Who caused the problem? Who is most affected by this issue?

What: What is happening? What is the extent of the issue? What does this problem prevent from moving forward?

Where: Where did this problem take place? Does this problem affect anything else in the immediate area?

When: When did this problem happen? When does this problem take effect? Is this an urgent issue that needs to be solved within a certain timeframe?

Why: Why is it happening? Why does it impact workflows?

How: How did this problem occur? How is it affecting workflows and team members from being productive?

Asking journalistic questions can help you define a strong problem statement so you can highlight the current situation objectively, and create a plan around that situation.

Here’s an example of how a design team uses journalistic questions to identify their problem:

Overarching problem: Design requests are being missed

Who: Design team, digital marketing team, web development team

What: Design requests are forgotten, lost, or being created ad hoc.

Where: Email requests, design request spreadsheet

When: Missed requests on January 20th, January 31st, February 4th, February 6th

How : Email request was lost in inbox and the intake spreadsheet was not updated correctly. The digital marketing team had to delay launching ads for a few days while design requests were bottlenecked. Designers had to work extra hours to ensure all requests were completed.

In this example, there are many different aspects of this problem that can be solved. Using journalistic questions can help you identify different issues and who you should involve in the process.

2. Brainstorm multiple solutions

If at all possible, bring in a facilitator who doesn't have a major stake in the solution. Bringing an individual who has little-to-no stake in the matter can help keep your team on track and encourage good problem-solving skills.

Here are a few brainstorming techniques to encourage creative thinking:

Brainstorm alone before hand: Before you come together as a group, provide some context to your team on what exactly the issue is that you're brainstorming. This will give time for you and your teammates to have some ideas ready by the time you meet.

Say yes to everything (at first): When you first start brainstorming, don't say no to any ideas just yet—try to get as many ideas down as possible. Having as many ideas as possible ensures that you’ll get a variety of solutions. Save the trimming for the next step of the strategy.

Talk to team members one-on-one: Some people may be less comfortable sharing their ideas in a group setting. Discuss the issue with team members individually and encourage them to share their opinions without restrictions—you might find some more detailed insights than originally anticipated.

Break out of your routine: If you're used to brainstorming in a conference room or over Zoom calls, do something a little different! Take your brainstorming meeting to a coffee shop or have your Zoom call while you're taking a walk. Getting out of your routine can force your brain out of its usual rut and increase critical thinking.

3. Define the solution

After you brainstorm with team members to get their unique perspectives on a scenario, it's time to look at the different strategies and decide which option is the best solution for the problem at hand. When defining the solution, consider these main two questions: What is the desired outcome of this solution and who stands to benefit from this solution?

Set a deadline for when this decision needs to be made and update stakeholders accordingly. Sometimes there's too many people who need to make a decision. Use your best judgement based on the limitations provided to do great things fast.

4. Implement the solution

To implement your solution, start by working with the individuals who are as closest to the problem. This can help those most affected by the problem get unblocked. Then move farther out to those who are less affected, and so on and so forth. Some solutions are simple enough that you don’t need to work through multiple teams.

After you prioritize implementation with the right teams, assign out the ongoing work that needs to be completed by the rest of the team. This can prevent people from becoming overburdened during the implementation plan . Once your solution is in place, schedule check-ins to see how the solution is working and course-correct if necessary.

Implement common problem-solving strategies

There are a few ways to go about identifying problems (and solutions). Here are some strategies you can try, as well as common ways to apply them:

Trial and error

Trial and error problem solving doesn't usually require a whole team of people to solve. To use trial and error problem solving, identify the cause of the problem, and then rapidly test possible solutions to see if anything changes.

This problem-solving method is often used in tech support teams through troubleshooting.

The 5 whys problem-solving method helps get to the root cause of an issue. You start by asking once, “Why did this issue happen?” After answering the first why, ask again, “Why did that happen?” You'll do this five times until you can attribute the problem to a root cause.

This technique can help you dig in and find the human error that caused something to go wrong. More importantly, it also helps you and your team develop an actionable plan so that you can prevent the issue from happening again.

Here’s an example:

Problem: The email marketing campaign was accidentally sent to the wrong audience.

“Why did this happen?” Because the audience name was not updated in our email platform.

“Why were the audience names not changed?” Because the audience segment was not renamed after editing.

“Why was the audience segment not renamed?” Because everybody has an individual way of creating an audience segment.

“Why does everybody have an individual way of creating an audience segment?” Because there is no standardized process for creating audience segments.

“Why is there no standardized process for creating audience segments?” Because the team hasn't decided on a way to standardize the process as the team introduced new members.

In this example, we can see a few areas that could be optimized to prevent this mistake from happening again. When working through these questions, make sure that everyone who was involved in the situation is present so that you can co-create next steps to avoid the same problem.

A SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis can help you highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a specific solution. SWOT stands for:

Strength: Why is this specific solution a good fit for this problem?

Weaknesses: What are the weak points of this solution? Is there anything that you can do to strengthen those weaknesses?

Opportunities: What other benefits could arise from implementing this solution?

Threats: Is there anything about this decision that can detrimentally impact your team?

As you identify specific solutions, you can highlight the different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each solution.

This particular problem-solving strategy is good to use when you're narrowing down the answers and need to compare and contrast the differences between different solutions.

Even more successful problem solving

After you’ve worked through a tough problem, don't forget to celebrate how far you've come. Not only is this important for your team of problem solvers to see their work in action, but this can also help you become a more efficient, effective , and flexible team. The more problems you tackle together, the more you’ll achieve.

Looking for a tool to help solve problems on your team? Track project implementation with a work management tool like Asana .

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The Ultimate Guide to Problem Solving Tools

Ossian Muscad
March 10, 2022
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Last Updated on February 29, 2024 by Ossian Muscad

Every business, regardless of its industry, encounters the inevitable challenge of problem-solving. This critical aspect of business operations is often multifaceted, whether it’s in the process of anticipating potential obstacles, addressing immediate issues at hand, or refining systems for improved efficiency. The intricate and often time-intensive nature of solving these problems demands not only a systematic approach but also the right set of tools to navigate the complexities effectively.

Problem-solving tools are, therefore, not just useful but essential for any business professional. This guide delves into the intricacies of these tools, equipping you with the necessary understanding and skills to employ them within your organizational context. From the nuances of selecting the appropriate tool for a specific challenge to the strategic implementation for maximum impact, we offer a comprehensive exploration into the world of problem-solving tools designed to streamline and enhance your decision-making processes.

What are Problem Solving Tools?

Problem-solving tools are structured methodologies or frameworks designed to aid individuals and organizations in navigating the complexities of various challenges. They offer a systematic way to deconstruct and comprehend issues, thereby empowering you to tackle each component with clarity and strategic insight. These tools serve as a kind of compass in the intricate maze of decision-making, providing a step-by-step guide to dissect problems and identify their underlying causes.

By enabling focused brainstorming, these methodologies help in the generation and assessment of potential resolutions, ensuring that the execution of solutions is not only strategic but also monitored for effectiveness. Diverse in their application, problem-solving tools adapt to a range of scenarios, each with its distinct intricacies and nuances. They encourage a proactive approach to conflict resolution, fostering a mindset geared towards continual improvement and preemptive action.

Utilizing visual aids like charts or diagrams, these tools can chart the most efficient path from a problem-ridden present to a solution-oriented future, mapping out the journey from dysfunction to functional success in a clear and accessible manner.

Common Problem Solving Tools and Diagrams

A visual problem-solving process will help reinforce your understanding of the issue and is an excellent way for you and your team to convert abstract ideas into an actual, reconstructive plan. With that said, here are six examples of common problem-mapping diagrams that you can try:

Fishbone Diagram

The Fishbone Diagram , also known as the Cause-and-effect Diagram or the Ishikawa diagram , is a powerful problem-solving tool that visually maps out the potential causes of an issue. Its distinctive shape resembles the skeleton of a fish, where the “head” represents the problem and the “bones” branching out from the “spine” symbolize different categories of root causes.

Each of these categories, such as Methods, Equipment, People, and Materials, is probed to identify possible contributing factors to the problem at hand. The simplicity and effectiveness of the Ishikawa diagram lie in its ability to facilitate comprehensive brainstorming sessions based on the principle of cause and effect.

With its widespread popularity, teams across industries value this type of diagram for its ease of use and its competence in stimulating the identification and analysis of various potential causes for a problem. Fishbone diagrams are versatile tools that can be applied in numerous situations. Here’s a comprehensive list detailing common uses:

Root Cause Analysis in Manufacturing : Identifying the root causes of defects or product quality issues, often drilling down to factors in the production process.
Service Industry Problem-Solving : Pinpointing causes of customer complaints or service bottlenecks, leading to more effective service delivery.
Healthcare Error Analysis : Analyzing medical errors or healthcare process inefficiencies, aiming to improve patient care and safety.
Product Development : Exploring potential issues in new product design and development phases, ensuring all possible flaws are addressed.
Business Process Improvement : Examining processes within a business to identify inefficiencies or recurrent problems, which can then be systematically eliminated.
Marketing Analysis : Understanding complex challenges within marketing campaigns, such as low engagement rates or poor customer feedback.
Human Resources Issues : Addressing issues relating to staff, such as absenteeism, low morale, or high turnover, with an aim to enhance employee satisfaction and retention.

Flowcharts are among the most prevalent and straightforward problem-solving tools utilized across various industries due to their visual representation of processes or systems. They consist of shapes and arrows that designate sequential steps, illustrating the flow from one stage to another. This visual mapping allows individuals and teams to follow a problem from initiation to resolution, providing a bird’s-eye view of the entire process.

The primary advantage of employing a flowchart lies in its capacity to lay out each step in a predictable manner, thereby enabling the observer to identify bottlenecks, redundancies, or inefficiencies within any step. By using flowcharts, you can dissect complex processes into manageable parts, ensuring a more precise understanding of how each component interacts with others.

This comprehensive perspective not only aids in pinpointing where the issues arise but also enhances the potential for optimizing different segments of the workflow to achieve a more efficient, streamlined process. Flowcharts are a universal tool used to break down complex processes and illustrate step-by-step sequences. Common uses for flowcharts that span across various disciplines include, but are not limited to:

Process Documentation : For capturing and communicating the steps involved in a process within an organization, ensuring consistency and clarity.
Troubleshooting Guides : A diagnostic tool to guide users through a series of decisions to resolve a problem or understand a complex scenario.
Operational Improvement : To identify inefficiencies or bottlenecks in operational processes and pinpoint areas for improvement or simplification.
Educational Tool : Utilized in teaching to explain complex topics in a visual, step-by-step manner that is easier for students to follow and understand.
Decision Making : Aids individuals and businesses by mapping out the possible routes and outcomes of a decision, making the decision-making process clearer and more informed.
Quality Management : Helps in ensuring compliance with quality standards by outlining the process flow and establishing critical control points.
System Design : In systems engineering, it represents the interactions and flow between various system components or subsystems.
Project Management : Project managers often use flowcharts to plan and monitor the stages of a project, ensuring that each phase transitions smoothly into the next.

Strategy Maps

Strategy Maps are a frequently used tool for strategic planning within companies, but they also hold significant value in problem-solving tasks. The essence of a strategy map is to illustrate the connections among various aspects of the organization, such as objectives, measures, initiatives, and activities. These diagrams provide a visual representation of how each component supports the overarching goals and serve as a guide to understanding which areas require attention in order to solve a problem. There are three main types of strategy maps:

Cause-and-effect maps : Demonstrating the relationships between different strategic objectives. Each objective is linked by arrows that show how one influences another, creating a network of cause-and-effect connections.
Objective Maps : Focused on detailing the primary objectives of the organization and outlining the necessary measures and initiatives to achieve each one.
Balanced Scorecard Maps : They correspond to the Balanced Scorecard framework and display the organization’s strategy balanced across four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, and Learning & Growth.

While each type of map has its specific applications and nuances, the underlying premise remains constant: to provide a comprehensive view of the strategic interdependencies within an organization. In doing so, strategy maps facilitate the identification of areas where resources can be optimized or where shifts in strategy may resolve existing problems.

Strategy Maps enable leaders and teams to align their efforts toward a common goal and to comprehend how changes in one segment of the business can ripple through and impact the organization as a whole. Strategy Maps are incredibly versatile and can be applied to a number of uses within an organization to enhance strategic understanding and alignment. Below is a detailed list of the common uses of Strategy Maps:

Vision and Strategy Communication : Strategy Maps articulate an organization’s vision and strategy across various levels, ensuring all employees understand how their roles contribute to the broader objectives.
Aligning Initiatives : They align projects and initiatives with strategic objectives, ensuring that each effort is coherent with the overall direction of the company.
Performance Analysis : These maps facilitate performance measurement against strategic goals, allowing companies to track progress and make informed adjustments.
Business Unit Synchronization : They offer a holistic view that aids in synchronizing efforts across different business units or departments, fostering an integrated approach to achieving strategic goals.
Strategic Discussion and Decision Making : Strategy Maps stimulate discussion among executives and managers, providing a framework for strategic decision-making and problem-solving.
Identifying and Closing Gaps : They help identify gaps in strategy execution and provide a structured way of developing initiatives to close those gaps.
Facilitating Strategy Review and Planning Sessions : Strategy Maps are used during strategy review meetings and planning sessions to reflect on strategic performance and plan for future periods.

The 5 Whys is a problem-solving method developed by Sakichi Toyoda and later used within Toyota Motor Corporation during its manufacturing process improvements. It is a simple yet effective technique used to uncover the root cause of a problem by asking “Why?” a minimum of five times or until the underlying issue is identified.

The process involves a team collaboratively pinpointing an issue and then questioning the cause of that issue iteratively. This exercise forces deeper inquiry beyond surface-level symptoms, leading to the discovery of the fundamental problem at hand. By addressing the root cause, organizations can implement substantive, long-term solutions rather than temporary fixes.

The 5 Whys technique is versatile and can be applied in various industries and scenarios, making it a staple in the toolbox of lean manufacturing, quality management, and process improvement. The 5 Whys technique has a multitude of applications across different fields and industries due to its simplicity and effectiveness in root cause analysis. Here is a comprehensive list detailing seven common uses of the 5 Whys:

Problem-Solving in Manufacturing : Applied to identify the root cause of defects or production issues, contributing to improved product quality and process optimization.
Safety Incident Analysis : Used to dissect the series of events leading to a safety incident, allowing organizations to implement measures that prevent future occurrences.
Healthcare Error Reduction : Helps in understanding the underlying causes of errors in medical procedures or patient care, aiming to enhance patient safety and care quality.
IT Troubleshooting : Assists in diagnosing the core issues in IT service disruptions or system failures, ensuring more reliable and efficient technological infrastructures.
Business Process Improvement : Employs the technique to delve into inefficiencies or bottlenecks in business operations, resulting in streamlined processes and reduced operational costs.
Customer Experience Enhancement : Identifies the fundamental reasons behind customer complaints or dissatisfaction, leading to better service and elevated customer satisfaction levels.
Environmental Sustainability : Applied to analyze the root causes of environmental impact within an operation, informing strategies for more sustainable business practices.

Pareto Charts

Pareto charts are statistical tools named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who is best known for the Pareto Principle. This principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, posits that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. A Pareto Chart conveys this concept through a visual graph that combines both bar and line graphs.

The bars represent individual values in descending order from left to right and are typically related to frequency or cost. Next to these, a line graph indicates the cumulative total, enabling users to easily identify which factors contribute the most to the problem they are examining. Pareto Charts are especially useful in quality control and process improvement because they help stakeholders prioritize issues or defects in a process.

By concentrating efforts on the most significant problems, organizations can significantly improve their overall performance, often with considerably less effort than by treating all problems equally. Pareto Charts are widely recognized for their ability to visually represent and prioritize problems to focus improvement efforts. Here are seven common uses of Pareto Charts across various disciplines:

Quality Control in Manufacturing : Helps identify the most frequent defects or errors in the manufacturing process, allowing prioritization and allocation of resources to tackle the issues that will have the greatest impact on quality improvement.
Customer Feedback Analysis : By categorizing and ranking customer complaints or feedback, businesses can focus on resolving the problems that affect the largest number of customers or those that have the most severe impact on customer satisfaction.
Inventory Management : The use of Pareto Charts can highlight the small proportion of items that often constitute the bulk of an inventory’s value, enabling better stock optimization and cost savings.
Sales Analysis : Assists companies in determining their most profitable products or services, as well as their most valuable customers, thus guiding more effective sales and marketing strategies.
Health and Safety : Identifies the most common causes of accidents or health incidents in the workplace, leading to targeted interventions that can improve worker safety and reduce the risk of future incidents.
Operational Bottlenecks : Pinpoints the few critical bottlenecks in operational processes that cause the majority of delays or inefficiencies, allowing for focused process improvement efforts.
Financial Analysis : Enables businesses to target the most significant cost drivers or the areas where spending is greatest, promoting more strategic financial management and cost reduction measures.

Decision Trees

A decision tree is a flowchart-like structure that is used as a decision support tool, representing a series of decisions and their possible consequences, including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. It’s a visual representation that maps out multiple decision paths and evaluates them based on various scenarios, which can be immensely beneficial in making informed choices in complex situations.

Decision trees feature branches that depict decision nodes and leaf nodes representing outcomes, allowing individuals or organizations to review all possible solutions and identify the best course of action before committing. This analytical tool is widely used across business, engineering, law, and medical fields due to its straightforward graphical approach, which promotes clarity in the decision-making process.

Decision Trees are versatile tools, and their application can be found in diverse areas. By exploring different scenarios and their potential outcomes, you can uncover hidden insights and make more informed decisions. Here are some common uses of Decision Trees:

Strategic Business Decisions : Enables businesses to visually map out various strategic choices and assess potential outcomes and risks, leading to well-informed decisions.
Project Management : Assists managers in anticipating potential project challenges and outcomes, allowing for proactive mitigation strategies and better allocation of resources.
Finance and Investment : Used by investors to evaluate different investment opportunities and scenarios, aiding in the risk assessment and decision-making process.
Operations Research : Helps determine optimal operational decisions based on various conditional and probabilistic scenarios, improves efficiency, and reduces costs.
Marketing Analysis : Allows marketers to understand customer behavior and segment markets, facilitating targeted marketing campaigns and customer relationship management.
Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Planning : Helps healthcare providers in assessing the probability of diseases based on symptoms and deciding on the best treatment plans.
Machine Learning and Data Mining : Provides algorithms that assist in classification and regression tasks, making predictions based on data patterns.

Objective Map

An objective map is a strategic tool utilized by companies to visualize their objectives and the connections between them. This graphical illustration aids in clarifying how various goals relate to one another and often reveals how addressing one objective can influence the achievement of others.

By mapping out objectives in a clear and structured way, an objective map enables team members and stakeholders to gain insight into the hierarchy and interdependencies of their collective goals. It’s particularly valuable when trying to solve complex problems within an organization, as it helps to pinpoint which objectives need to be prioritized and tackled in order to address and resolve specific challenges effectively.

This visual mapping can become a critical step in strategic planning, ensuring that efforts are directed toward the most impactful areas. Objective Maps are crucial in a multitude of organizational processes. Here are seven common uses:

Strategic Planning : Assists organizations in identifying their primary goals and exploring secondary objectives that support them. By understanding the impact and relationship between different aims, companies can better allocate resources to critical areas.
Performance Management : Helps translate organizational goals into employee performance metrics, ensuring individual objectives are aligned with the company’s vision and mission.
Process Improvement : Provides a framework to identify processes that are directly tied to strategic goals, which can be optimized for better efficiency and results.
Product Development : Clarifies the objectives surrounding a product’s features, market fit, and customer needs, making it a valuable tool in prioritizing development milestones.
Change Management : Aids in visualizing the objectives tied to organizational change, helping stakeholders see the bigger picture and the key goals that change initiatives support.
Resource Allocation : By clarifying which objectives are most critical, Objective Maps guide decision-makers in allocating budget, personnel, and other resources more effectively.
Risk Management : Facilitates the identification of goals that could be impacted by potential risks, allowing for a proactive approach to mitigating threats to the organization’s objectives.

Balanced Scorecard Map

A Balanced Scorecard Map is a strategic planning and management tool that provides a visual representation of an organization’s performance measures and objectives across different perspectives. It brings together financial, customer, internal, and growth-related goals in a coherent manner, articulating how the organization creates value.

By identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets within these areas, the map serves as a guide to translate a company’s vision into actionable goals. It allows managers and teams to understand at a glance how various objectives tie into overall corporate strategy and how they contribute to resolving organizational issues.

With its clear, graphical design, a Balanced Scorecard Map can highlight specific areas that require attention to drive improvement and achieve strategic balance. Balanced Scorecard Maps are used widely across various industries to enhance strategic alignment and improve organizational performance. Here is a comprehensive list detailing their common uses:

Strategic Alignment & Execution : Aligns the day-to-day work that everyone is doing with strategy, making sure that projects, initiatives, and daily activities all move in the same direction as the organization’s strategic objectives.
Performance Measurement : Goes beyond financial metrics to include valuable KPIs concerning customers, internal processes, and learning and growth, thus providing a more ‘balanced’ view of organizational performance.
Communication of Strategy : Acts as a vehicle to communicate the organization’s strategy internally and externally clearly and concisely, ensuring that everyone understands the strategic priorities and how their roles impact them.
Linking Rewards to Performance Metrics : Ties performance management to KPIs and strategic goals, which can inform compensation and reward systems that motivate employees to support and achieve these goals.
Strategic Feedback & Learning : Provides a structured feedback system for monitoring, analyzing, and reviewing strategic performance and results, promoting continuous improvement and strategic learning within the organization.
Prioritization of Projects & Investments : Helps prioritize projects and investments based on how they align with and impact strategic objectives, ensuring that resources are allocated to the most strategically relevant initiatives.
Organizational Development & Change Management : Facilitates organizational growth and adaptation by linking change management initiatives to long-term strategic objectives, helping manage transformation and development in a strategic context.

No matter what type of problem you’re facing, there’s a diagram that can help you solve it. Therefore, by understanding the different types of diagrams and how to use them, you’ll need to prepare for any issue that comes your way.

How to Choose the Ideal Problem-Solving Tool?

Choosing the ideal problem-solving tool largely depends on the nature of the problem and its complexity. Here are some steps you can follow to select the most suitable tool:

Define the Problem: Before you choose a tool, you need to understand the problem clearly. What is the issue you’re trying to solve? What are its effects?
Identify the Nature of the Problem: Is the problem simple, complicated, or complex? Simple problems have predictable solutions, while complicated ones may require expert knowledge or detailed analysis. Complex problems involve many interconnected parts and are best approached by understanding those connections and their effects.
Consider the Level of Analysis Required: Some problems can be solved with a simple root cause analysis . In contrast, others may require more in-depth analysis, such as a SWOT or PESTEL analysis.
Identify the Resources Available: Some tools require specific resources or software. Ensure you have access to these resources before choosing a tool.
Consider Your Team’s Familiarity with the Tool: If your team is already familiar with a particular tool, it might be advantageous to use it. If not, you’ll need to consider whether there will be a learning curve and if sufficient time and resources are available for training.
Evaluate the Tool: Once you have chosen a tool, use it to solve the problem. Then, evaluate the effectiveness of the tool. Did it help solve the problem? Was it easy to use? Did it save time and resources?

The goal is not just to solve the problem but to learn from the process. This learning can be applied to future problem-solving efforts, continuously improving your approach.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: what differentiates a simple problem from a complex one in problem-solving.

Simple problems usually have a clear and predictable solution, whereas complex problems have many interconnected components that change dynamically and may require holistic and flexible approaches to solve. By understanding the nature of the problem, you can choose a suitable tool for effective problem-solving.

Q2: How frequently should I review and update the problem-solving tools used in my organization?

Review and update your problem-solving tools as needed when there is a significant change in the organization’s objectives or market conditions or when feedback or results indicate an improvement is warranted. Make sure your tools are aligned with your current strategy and goals to ensure their effectiveness.

Q3: Can one problem-solving tool be used for all types of problems?

Not typically. Problem-solving tools are varied and designed to address specific types of issues. It’s crucial to match the right tool to the problem to ensure an effective solution. At the same time, some tools may be adaptable and useful for multiple types of problems.

Q4: What should I do if a selected problem-solving tool does not yield the expected results?

If the tool isn’t working, it’s essential to re-evaluate the situation, possibly redefining the problem or choosing a different tool that may be better suited to the circumstances. That way, you can find a solution that is more likely to yield the expected results. If necessary, seek guidance or assistance from experts in the field to help identify a suitable tool and approach.

Q5: Is collaboration always beneficial when using problem-solving tools?

Collaborative problem-solving can foster diverse ideas and lead to innovative solutions. However, the situation and type of problem should guide the necessity and extent of collaboration. By understanding these factors, you can choose the most effective problem-solving approach and tool for your organization’s needs.

Q6: How important is it to be trained in multiple problem-solving tools?

Proficiency in various tools allows for flexibility and adaptability in tackling different problems. Continuous learning and training in multiple methodologies can significantly improve problem-solving effectiveness. Making sure your team is well-versed in various tools can also increase their confidence and competence in addressing complex issues. So, it’s beneficial to invest in training and development programs that expose individuals to a variety of problem-solving approaches and tools.

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The art of problem-solving necessitates a careful evaluation of the problem, consideration of the tools and resources available, and a sound understanding of your organization’s capabilities. Whether the problem at hand is simple, complicated, or complex, the key lies in matching the right problem-solving tool to the task.

Regular review and adaptation of tools, coupled with a readiness to embrace training and collaboration, bolsters the problem-solving process. Through an iterative and informed approach to problem-solving, it is possible to enhance decision-making, drive continuous improvement, and achieve strategic organizational goals.

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Learn Creative Problem Solving Techniques to Stimulate Innovation in Your Organization

By Kate Eby | October 20, 2017 (updated August 27, 2021)

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In today’s competitive business landscape, organizations need processes in place to make strong, well-informed, and innovative decisions. Problem solving - in particular creative problem solving (CPS) - is a key skill in learning how to accurately identify problems and their causes, generate potential solutions, and evaluate all the possibilities to arrive at a strong corrective course of action. Every team in any organization, regardless of department or industry, needs to be effective, creative, and quick when solving problems.

In this article, we’ll discuss traditional and creative problem solving, and define the steps, best practices, and common barriers associated. After that, we’ll provide helpful methods and tools to identify the cause(s) of problematic situations, so you can get to the root of the issue and start to generate solutions. Then, we offer nearly 20 creative problem solving techniques to implement at your organization, or even in your personal life. Along the way, experts weigh in on the importance of problem solving, and offer tips and tricks.

What Is Problem Solving and Decision Making?

Problem solving is the process of working through every aspect of an issue or challenge to reach a solution. Decision making is choosing one of multiple proposed solutions — therefore, this process also includes defining and evaluating all potential options. Decision making is often one step of the problem solving process, but the two concepts are distinct.

Collective problem solving is problem solving that includes many different parties and bridges the knowledge of different groups. Collective problem solving is common in business problem solving because workplace decisions typically affect more than one person.

Problem solving, especially in business, is a complicated science. Not only are business conflicts multifaceted, but they often involve different personalities, levels of authority, and group dynamics. In recent years, however, there has been a rise in psychology-driven problem solving techniques, especially for the workplace. In fact, the psychology of how people solve problems is now studied formally in academic disciplines such as psychology and cognitive science.

Joe Carella is the Assistant Dean for Executive Education at the University of Arizona . Joe has over 20 years of experience in helping executives and corporations in managing change and developing successful business strategies. His doctoral research and executive education engagements have seen him focus on corporate strategy, decision making and business performance with a variety of corporate clients including Hershey’s, Chevron, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Intel, DP World, Essilor, BBVA Compass Bank.

He explains some of the basic psychology behind problem solving: “When our brain is engaged in the process of solving problems, it is engaged in a series of steps where it processes and organizes the information it receives while developing new knowledge it uses in future steps. Creativity is embedded in this process by incorporating diverse inputs and/or new ways of organizing the information received.”

Laura MacLeod is a Professor of Social Group Work at City University of New York, and the creator of From The Inside Out Project® , a program that coaches managers in team leadership for a variety of workplaces. She has a background in social work and over two decades of experience as a union worker, and currently leads talks on conflict resolution, problem solving, and listening skills at conferences across the country.

MacLeod thinks of problem solving as an integral practice of successful organizations. “Problem solving is a collaborative process — all voices are heard and connected, and resolution is reached by the group,” she says. “Problems and conflicts occur in all groups and teams in the workplace, but if leaders involve everyone in working through, they will foster cohesion, engagement, and buy in. Everybody wins.”

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What Is the First Step in Solving a Problem?

Although problem solving techniques vary procedurally, experts agree that the first step in solving a problem is defining the problem. Without a clear articulation of the problem at stake, it is impossible to analyze all the key factors and actors, generate possible solutions, and then evaluate them to pick the best option.

Dr. Elliott Jaffa is a behavioral and management psychologist with over 25 years of problem solving training and management experience. “Start with defining the problem you want to solve,” he says, “And then define where you want to be, what you want to come away with.” He emphasizes these are the first steps in creating an actionable, clear solution.

Bryan Mattimore is Co-Founder of Growth Engine, an 18-year old innovation agency based in Norwalk, CT. Bryan has facilitated over 1,000 ideation sessions and managed over 200 successful innovation projects leading to over $3 billion in new sales. His newest book is 21 Days to a Big Idea . When asked about the first critical component to successful problem solving, Mattimore says, “Defining the challenge correctly, or ‘solving the right problem’ … The three creative techniques we use to help our clients ‘identify the right problem to be solved’ are questioning assumptions, 20 questions, and problem redefinition. A good example of this was a new product challenge from a client to help them ‘invent a new iron. We got them to redefine the challenge as first: a) inventing new anti-wrinkle devices, and then b) inventing new garment care devices.”

What Are Problem Solving Skills?

To understand the necessary skills in problem solving, you should first understand the types of thinking often associated with strong decision making. Most problem solving techniques look for a balance between the following binaries:

Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking: Convergent thinking is bringing together disparate information or ideas to determine a single best answer or solution. This thinking style values logic, speed, and accuracy, and leaves no chance for ambiguity. Divergent thinking is focused on generating new ideas to identify and evaluate multiple possible solutions, often uniting ideas in unexpected combinations. Divergent thinking is characterized by creativity, complexity, curiosity, flexibility, originality, and risk-taking.
Pragmatics vs. Semantics: Pragmatics refer to the logic of the problem at hand, and semantics is how you interpret the problem to solve it. Both are important to yield the best possible solution.
Mathematical vs. Personal Problem Solving: Mathematical problem solving involves logic (usually leading to a single correct answer), and is useful for problems that involve numbers or require an objective, clear-cut solution. However, many workplace problems also require personal problem solving, which includes interpersonal, collaborative, and emotional intuition and skills.

The following basic methods are fundamental problem solving concepts. Implement them to help balance the above thinking models.

Reproductive Thinking: Reproductive thinking uses past experience to solve a problem. However, be careful not to rely too heavily on past solutions, and to evaluate current problems individually, with their own factors and parameters.
Idea Generation: The process of generating many possible courses of action to identify a solution. This is most commonly a team exercise because putting everyone’s ideas on the table will yield the greatest number of potential solutions.

However, many of the most critical problem solving skills are “soft” skills: personal and interpersonal understanding, intuitiveness, and strong listening.

Mattimore expands on this idea: “The seven key skills to be an effective creative problem solver that I detail in my book Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs are: 1) curiosity 2) openness 3) a willingness to embrace ambiguity 4) the ability to identify and transfer principles across categories and disciplines 5) the desire to search for integrity in ideas, 6) the ability to trust and exercise “knowingness” and 7) the ability to envision new worlds (think Dr. Seuss, Star Wars, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.).”

“As an individual contributor to problem solving it is important to exercise our curiosity, questioning, and visioning abilities,” advises Carella. “As a facilitator it is essential to allow for diverse ideas to emerge, be able to synthesize and ‘translate’ other people’s thinking, and build an extensive network of available resources.”

MacLeod says the following interpersonal skills are necessary to effectively facilitate group problem solving: “The abilities to invite participation (hear all voices, encourage silent members), not take sides, manage dynamics between the monopolizer, the scapegoat, and the bully, and deal with conflict (not avoiding it or shutting down).”

Furthermore, Jaffa explains that the skills of a strong problem solver aren’t measurable. The best way to become a creative problem solver, he says, is to do regular creative exercises that keep you sharp and force you to think outside the box. Carella echoes this sentiment: “Neuroscience tells us that creativity comes from creating novel neural paths. Allow a few minutes each day to exercise your brain with novel techniques and brain ‘tricks’ – read something new, drive to work via a different route, count backwards, smell a new fragrance, etc.”

What Is Creative Problem Solving? History, Evolution, and Core Principles

Creative problem solving (CPS) is a method of problem solving in which you approach a problem or challenge in an imaginative, innovative way. The goal of CPS is to come up with innovative solutions, make a decision, and take action quickly. Sidney Parnes and Alex Osborn are credited with developing the creative problem solving process in the 1950s. The concept was further studied and developed at SUNY Buffalo State and the Creative Education Foundation.

The core principles of CPS include the following:

Balance divergent and convergent thinking
Ask problems as questions
Defer or suspend judgement
Focus on “Yes, and…” rather than “No, but…”

According to Carella, “Creative problem solving is the mental process used for generating innovative and imaginative ideas as a solution to a problem or a challenge. Creative problem solving techniques can be pursued by individuals or groups.”

When asked to define CPS, Jaffa explains that it is, by nature, difficult to create boundaries for. “Creative problem solving is not cut and dry,” he says, “If you ask 100 different people the definition of creative problem solving, you’ll get 100 different responses - it’s a non-entity.”

Business presents a unique need for creative problem solving. Especially in today’s competitive landscape, organizations need to iterate quickly, innovate with intention, and constantly be at the cutting-edge of creativity and new ideas to succeed. Developing CPS skills among your workforce not only enables you to make faster, stronger in-the-moment decisions, but also inspires a culture of collaborative work and knowledge sharing. When people work together to generate multiple novel ideas and evaluate solutions, they are also more likely to arrive at an effective decision, which will improve business processes and reduce waste over time. In fact, CPS is so important that some companies now list creative problem solving skills as a job criteria.

MacLeod reiterates the vitality of creative problem solving in the workplace. “Problem solving is crucial for all groups and teams,” she says. “Leaders need to know how to guide the process, hear all voices and involve all members - it’s not easy.”

“This mental process [of CPS] is especially helpful in work environments where individuals and teams continuously struggle with new problems and challenges posed by their continuously changing environment,” adds Carella.

Problem Solving Best Practices

By nature, creative problem solving does not have a clear-cut set of do’s and don’ts. Rather, creating a culture of strong creative problem solvers requires flexibility, adaptation, and interpersonal skills. However, there are a several best practices that you should incorporate:

Use a Systematic Approach: Regardless of the technique you use, choose a systematic method that satisfies your workplace conditions and constraints (time, resources, budget, etc.). Although you want to preserve creativity and openness to new ideas, maintaining a structured approach to the process will help you stay organized and focused.
View Problems as Opportunities: Rather than focusing on the negatives or giving up when you encounter barriers, treat problems as opportunities to enact positive change on the situation. In fact, some experts even recommend defining problems as opportunities, to remain proactive and positive.
Change Perspective: Remember that there are multiple ways to solve any problem. If you feel stuck, changing perspective can help generate fresh ideas. A perspective change might entail seeking advice of a mentor or expert, understanding the context of a situation, or taking a break and returning to the problem later. “A sterile or familiar environment can stifle new thinking and new perspectives,” says Carella. “Make sure you get out to draw inspiration from spaces and people out of your usual reach.”
Break Down Silos: To invite the greatest possible number of perspectives to any problem, encourage teams to work cross-departmentally. This not only combines diverse expertise, but also creates a more trusting and collaborative environment, which is essential to effective CPS. According to Carella, “Big challenges are always best tackled by a group of people rather than left to a single individual. Make sure you create a space where the team can concentrate and convene.”
Employ Strong Leadership or a Facilitator: Some companies choose to hire an external facilitator that teaches problem solving techniques, best practices, and practicums to stimulate creative problem solving. But, internal managers and staff can also oversee these activities. Regardless of whether the facilitator is internal or external, choose a strong leader who will value others’ ideas and make space for creative solutions. Mattimore has specific advice regarding the role of a facilitator: “When facilitating, get the group to name a promising idea (it will crystalize the idea and make it more memorable), and facilitate deeper rather than broader. Push for not only ideas, but how an idea might specifically work, some of its possible benefits, who and when would be interested in an idea, etc. This fleshing-out process with a group will generate fewer ideas, but at the end of the day will yield more useful concepts that might be profitably pursued.” Additionally, Carella says that “Executives and managers don’t necessarily have to be creative problem solvers, but need to make sure that their teams are equipped with the right tools and resources to make this happen. Also they need to be able to foster an environment where failing fast is accepted and celebrated.”
Evaluate Your Current Processes: This practice can help you unlock bottlenecks, and also identify gaps in your data and information management, both of which are common roots of business problems.

MacLeod offers the following additional advice, “Always get the facts. Don’t jump too quickly to a solution – working through [problems] takes time and patience.”

Mattimore also stresses that how you introduce creative problem solving is important. “Do not start by introducing a new company-wide innovation process,” he says. “Instead, encourage smaller teams to pursue specific creative projects, and then build a process from the ground up by emulating these smaller teams’ successful approaches. We say: ‘You don’t innovate by changing the culture, you change the culture by innovating.’”

Barriers to Effective Problem Solving

Learning how to effectively solve problems is difficult and takes time and continual adaptation. There are several common barriers to successful CPS, including:

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to only search for or interpret information that confirms a person’s existing ideas. People misinterpret or disregard data that doesn’t align with their beliefs.
Mental Set: People’s inclination to solve problems using the same tactics they have used to solve problems in the past. While this can sometimes be a useful strategy (see Analogical Thinking in a later section), it often limits inventiveness and creativity.
Functional Fixedness: This is another form of narrow thinking, where people become “stuck” thinking in a certain way and are unable to be flexible or change perspective.
Unnecessary Constraints: When people are overwhelmed with a problem, they can invent and impose additional limits on solution avenues. To avoid doing this, maintain a structured, level-headed approach to evaluating causes, effects, and potential solutions.
Groupthink: Be wary of the tendency for group members to agree with each other — this might be out of conflict avoidance, path of least resistance, or fear of speaking up. While this agreeableness might make meetings run smoothly, it can actually stunt creativity and idea generation, therefore limiting the success of your chosen solution.
Irrelevant Information: The tendency to pile on multiple problems and factors that may not even be related to the challenge at hand. This can cloud the team’s ability to find direct, targeted solutions.
Paradigm Blindness: This is found in people who are unwilling to adapt or change their worldview, outlook on a particular problem, or typical way of processing information. This can erode the effectiveness of problem solving techniques because they are not aware of the narrowness of their thinking, and therefore cannot think or act outside of their comfort zone.

According to Jaffa, the primary barrier of effective problem solving is rigidity. “The most common things people say are, ‘We’ve never done it before,’ or ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” While these feelings are natural, Jaffa explains that this rigid thinking actually precludes teams from identifying creative, inventive solutions that result in the greatest benefit.

“The biggest barrier to creative problem solving is a lack of awareness – and commitment to – training employees in state-of-the-art creative problem-solving techniques,” Mattimore explains. “We teach our clients how to use ideation techniques (as many as two-dozen different creative thinking techniques) to help them generate more and better ideas. Ideation techniques use specific and customized stimuli, or ‘thought triggers’ to inspire new thinking and new ideas.”

MacLeod adds that ineffective or rushed leadership is another common culprit. “We're always in a rush to fix quickly,” she says. “Sometimes leaders just solve problems themselves, making unilateral decisions to save time. But the investment is well worth it — leaders will have less on their plates if they can teach and eventually trust the team to resolve. Teams feel empowered and engagement and investment increases.”

Strategies for Problem Cause Identification

As discussed, most experts agree that the first and most crucial step in problem solving is defining the problem. Once you’ve done this, however, it may not be appropriate to move straight to the solution phase. Rather, it is often helpful to identify the cause(s) of the problem: This will better inform your solution planning and execution, and help ensure that you don’t fall victim to the same challenges in the future.

Below are some of the most common strategies for identifying the cause of a problem:

Root Cause Analysis: This method helps identify the most critical cause of a problem. A factor is considered a root cause if removing it prevents the problem from recurring. Performing a root cause analysis is a 12 step process that includes: define the problem, gather data on the factors contributing to the problem, group the factors based on shared characteristics, and create a cause-and-effect timeline to determine the root cause. After that, you identify and evaluate corrective actions to eliminate the root cause.

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Problem Solving Techniques and Strategies

In this section, we’ll explain several traditional and creative problem solving methods that you can use to identify challenges, create actionable goals, and resolve problems as they arise. Although there is often procedural and objective crossover among techniques, they are grouped by theme so you can identify which method works best for your organization.

Divergent Creative Problem Solving Techniques

Brainstorming: One of the most common methods of divergent thinking, brainstorming works best in an open group setting where everyone is encouraged to share their creative ideas. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible – you analyze, critique, and evaluate the ideas only after the brainstorming session is complete. To learn more specific brainstorming techniques, read this article .

Mind Mapping: This is a visual thinking tool where you graphically depict concepts and their relation to one another. You can use mind mapping to structure the information you have, analyze and synthesize it, and generate solutions and new ideas from there. The goal of a mind map is to simplify complicated problems so you can more clearly identify solutions.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI): The basic assumption of AI is that “an organization is a mystery to be embraced.” Using this principle, AI takes a positive, inquisitive approach to identifying the problem, analyzing the causes, and presenting possible solutions. The five principles of AI emphasize dialogue, deliberate language and outlook, and social bonding.

Lateral Thinking: This is an indirect problem solving approach centered on the momentum of idea generation. As opposed to critical thinking, where people value ideas based on their truth and the absence of errors, lateral thinking values the “movement value” of new ideas: This means that you reward team members for producing a large volume of new ideas rapidly. With this approach, you’ll generate many new ideas before approving or rejecting any.

Problem Solving Techniques to Change Perspective

Constructive Controversy: This is a structured approach to group decision making to preserve critical thinking and disagreement while maintaining order. After defining the problem and presenting multiple courses of action, the group divides into small advocacy teams who research, analyze, and refute a particular option. Once each advocacy team has presented its best-case scenario, the group has a discussion (advocacy teams still defend their presented idea). Arguing and playing devil’s advocate is encouraged to reach an understanding of the pros and cons of each option. Next, advocacy teams abandon their cause and evaluate the options openly until they reach a consensus. All team members formally commit to the decision, regardless of whether they advocated for it at the beginning. You can learn more about the goals and steps in constructive controversy here .

Carella is a fan of this approach. “Create constructive controversy by having two teams argue the pros and cons of a certain idea,” he says. “It forces unconscious biases to surface and gives space for new ideas to formulate.”

Abstraction: In this method, you apply the problem to a fictional model of the current situation. Mapping an issue to an abstract situation can shed extraneous or irrelevant factors, and reveal places where you are overlooking obvious solutions or becoming bogged down by circumstances.

Analogical Thinking: Also called analogical reasoning , this method relies on an analogy: using information from one problem to solve another problem (these separate problems are called domains). It can be difficult for teams to create analogies among unrelated problems, but it is a strong technique to help you identify repeated issues, zoom out and change perspective, and prevent the problems from occurring in the future. .

CATWOE: This framework ensures that you evaluate the perspectives of those whom your decision will impact. The factors and questions to consider include (which combine to make the acronym CATWOE):

Customers: Who is on the receiving end of your decisions? What problem do they currently have, and how will they react to your proposed solution?
Actors: Who is acting to bring your solution to fruition? How will they respond and be affected by your decision?
Transformation Process: What processes will you employ to transform your current situation and meet your goals? What are the inputs and outputs?
World View: What is the larger context of your proposed solution? What is the larger, big-picture problem you are addressing?
Owner: Who actually owns the process? How might they influence your proposed solution (positively or negatively), and how can you influence them to help you?
Environmental Constraints: What are the limits (environmental, resource- and budget-wise, ethical, legal, etc.) on your ideas? How will you revise or work around these constraints?

Complex Problem Solving

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM): For extremely complex problems, SSM can help you identify how factors interact, and determine the best course of action. SSM was borne out of organizational process modeling and general systems theory, which hold that everything is part of a greater, interconnected system: This idea works well for “hard” problems (where logic and a single correct answer are prioritized), and less so for “soft” problems (i.e., human problems where factors such as personality, emotions, and hierarchy come into play). Therefore, SSM defines a seven step process for problem solving:

Begin with the problem or problematic situation
Express the problem or situation and build a rich picture of the themes of the problem
Identify the root causes of the problem (most commonly with CATWOE)
Build conceptual models of human activity surrounding the problem or situation
Compare models with real-world happenings
Identify changes to the situation that are both feasible and desirable
Take action to implement changes and improve the problematic situation

SSM can be used for any complex soft problem, and is also a useful tool in change management .

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA): This method helps teams anticipate potential problems and take steps to mitigate them. Use FMEA when you are designing (redesigning) a complex function, process, product, or service. First, identify the failure modes, which are the possible ways that a project could fail. Then, perform an effects analysis to understand the consequences of each of the potential downfalls. This exercise is useful for internalizing the severity of each potential failure and its effects so you can make adjustments or safeties in your plan.

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Problem Solving Based on Data or Logic (Heuristic Methods)

TRIZ: A Russian-developed problem solving technique that values logic, analysis, and forecasting over intuition or soft reasoning. TRIZ (translated to “theory of inventive problem solving” or TIPS in English) is a systematic approach to defining and identifying an inventive solution to difficult problems. The method offers several strategies for arriving at an inventive solution, including a contradictions matrix to assess trade-offs among solutions, a Su-Field analysis which uses formulas to describe a system by its structure, and ARIZ (algorithm of inventive problem solving) which uses algorithms to find inventive solutions.

Inductive Reasoning: A logical method that uses evidence to conclude that a certain answer is probable (this is opposed to deductive reasoning, where the answer is assumed to be true). Inductive reasoning uses a limited number of observations to make useful, logical conclusions (for example, the Scientific Method is an extreme example of inductive reasoning). However, this method doesn’t always map well to human problems in the workplace — in these instances, managers should employ intuitive inductive reasoning , which allows for more automatic, implicit conclusions so that work can progress. This, of course, retains the principle that these intuitive conclusions are not necessarily the one and only correct answer.

Process-Oriented Problem Solving Methods

Plan Do Check Act (PDCA): This is an iterative management technique used to ensure continual improvement of products or processes. First, teams plan (establish objectives to meet desired end results), then do (implement the plan, new processes, or produce the output), then check (compare expected with actual results), and finally act (define how the organization will act in the future, based on the performance and knowledge gained in the previous three steps).

Means-End Analysis (MEA): The MEA strategy is to reduce the difference between the current (problematic) state and the goal state. To do so, teams compile information on the multiple factors that contribute to the disparity between the current and goal states. Then they try to change or eliminate the factors one by one, beginning with the factor responsible for the greatest difference in current and goal state. By systematically tackling the multiple factors that cause disparity between the problem and desired outcome, teams can better focus energy and control each step of the process.

Hurson’s Productive Thinking Model: This technique was developed by Tim Hurson, and is detailed in his 2007 book Think Better: An Innovator’s Guide to Productive Thinking . The model outlines six steps that are meant to give structure while maintaining creativity and critical thinking: 1) Ask “What is going on?” 2) Ask “What is success?” 3) Ask “What is the question?” 4) Generate answers 5) Forge the solution 6) Align resources.

Control Influence Accept (CIA): The basic premise of CIA is that how you respond to problems determines how successful you will be in overcoming them. Therefore, this model is both a problem solving technique and stress-management tool that ensures you aren’t responding to problems in a reactive and unproductive way. The steps in CIA include:

Control: Identify the aspects of the problem that are within your control.
Influence: Identify the aspects of the problem that you cannot control, but that you can influence.
Accept: Identify the aspects of the problem that you can neither control nor influence, and react based on this composite information.

GROW Model: This is a straightforward problem solving method for goal setting that clearly defines your goals and current situation, and then asks you to define the potential solutions and be realistic about your chosen course of action. The steps break down as follows:

Goal: What do you want?
Reality: Where are you now?
Options: What could you do?
Will: What will you do?

OODA Loop: This acronym stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. This approach is a decision-making cycle that values agility and flexibility over raw human force. It is framed as a loop because of the understanding that any team will continually encounter problems or opponents to success and have to overcome them.

There are also many un-named creative problem solving techniques that follow a sequenced series of steps. While the exact steps vary slightly, they all follow a similar trajectory and aim to accomplish similar goals of problem, cause, and goal identification, idea generation, and active solution implementation.

MacLeod offers her own problem solving procedure, which echoes the above steps:

“1. Recognize the Problem: State what you see. Sometimes the problem is covert. 2. Identify: Get the facts — What exactly happened? What is the issue? 3. and 4. Explore and Connect: Dig deeper and encourage group members to relate their similar experiences. Now you're getting more into the feelings and background [of the situation], not just the facts. 5. Possible Solutions: Consider and brainstorm ideas for resolution. 6. Implement: Choose a solution and try it out — this could be role play and/or a discussion of how the solution would be put in place. 7. Evaluate: Revisit to see if the solution was successful or not.”

Many of these problem solving techniques can be used in concert with one another, or multiple can be appropriate for any given problem. It’s less about facilitating a perfect CPS session, and more about encouraging team members to continually think outside the box and push beyond personal boundaries that inhibit their innovative thinking. So, try out several methods, find those that resonate best with your team, and continue adopting new techniques and adapting your processes along the way.

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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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How to Solve Problems

Laura Amico

To bring the best ideas forward, teams must build psychological safety.

Teams today aren’t just asked to execute tasks: They’re called upon to solve problems. You’d think that many brains working together would mean better solutions, but the reality is that too often problem-solving teams fall victim to inefficiency, conflict, and cautious conclusions. The two charts below will help your team think about how to collaborate better and come up with the best solutions for the thorniest challenges.

Laura Amico is a former senior editor at Harvard Business Review.

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Practical Problem Solving Tools for Factory and Office

February 5, 2022

Many tools exist to address deviations and defects, but only a few are simple yet effective to address daily issues in manufacturing, development, administration.

When starting systematic trouble-shooting, it is important to choose the right approach. Using a comprehensive method that requires 50 pages to solve a simple problem is a waste of time, while solving a complex problem with a simple tool will most likely not reveal the hidden causes. The optimal choice of Problem Solving Tools depends on the type of issues to be addressed. Before going into details, let’s first review the most common methods used today.

Comparing Popular Methods: 3W, PDCA, 8D, A3, DMAIC, 7STEP

At their core, all scientific approaches follow a similar logic: take quick action to prevent the problem from getting worse and then define the gap, analyze the gap, identify causes, take action, evaluate impact, and embed the solution so that the problem will not reoccur.

3W : When the issue is small and the solution is obvious, a formal analysis is not required. The 3W-method defines What to do, Who to do it, by When . This “quick-fix” or “just-do-it” is commonly applied at daily team meetings to contain and correct snags and minor issues.
PDCA : The Deming or Shewhart cycle “Plan-Do-Check-Act” is the classic method, used by over 80% companies that practice systematic problem solving. PDCA is effective for medium-size problems that require a systematic analysis to uncover underlying causes.
8D : The eight disciplines (8D) are commonly used in automotive, and the problem-solving process (PSP) in avionics. Both methods are similar, using 8 steps to address complex problems with focus on a fast reaction to non-conformances, completing the first three steps within three days.
A3 : The A3-report, developed by Toyota, is an 8-step improvement and problem-solving process that fits on one sheet of paper. The A3-report is most effective to address small- to medium-size problems, and to structure improvement projects.
DMAIC : The 5-step Six Sigma process “Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control” is a data-centric solving method. DMAIC is used to structure projects and solve complex situations that require statistical analysis to develop the solution, e.g. adjust process parameters to reduce yield loss.
7STEP : This seven-step (7S) problem-solving process shares elements with the A3 and 8D, but does not include a formal step for containment. Because of this weakness, the 7STEP process is rarely used today, replaced by 8D to address major deviations and PDCA for smaller issues.

Problem solving, comparison of different processes - PDCA, DMAIC, Toyota A3, 7-Step, 8D, Airbus, Boeing, Rolls-Royce.

Comparing the most-popular processes for trouble-shooting and root-cause analysis shows how similar they are. For example, the PDCA planning phase covers the first three steps in DMAIC and the first five steps in A3 and 8D. Of all those processes, there are two that stick out, that all others are based on – PDCA and 8D – they are therefore considered the “mother” and “father” of practical problem solving tools used today.

Answer 5 Questions to Select the Best Method

When it comes to choosing the right process, it merely depends on the complexity of the situation to address. The more complex or severe, the more formal steps should be applied to make sure no step is missed. Here are five questions that will help you selecting the best process:

Is the issue small, medium, or large?
Is the solution obvious or unknown?
Is it reoccurring or a single incident?
Is it a single cause or multiple causes?
Is statistical data analysis required?

3 Practical Problem Solving Tools: Fix, Fish, Tree

There are three practical, yet effective tools to address daily issues in factory and office: The 3W or “Fix” because it is quick, simple, informal;, the PDCA or “Fish” because it is based on the Ishikawa or Fishbone diagram;, and the 8D or “Tree” because it uses logical trees to analyze complex root causes.

Fix: use 3W (What-Who-When) for informal trouble-shooting , finding a quick action to fix a small issue within a day .
Fish: use PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) to analyze simple and repeat issues within a week , using the fishbone diagram.
Tree: use 8D (Eight Disciplines) to systematically eliminate multiple root-causes or complex problems within a month .

Problem-solving, tool selection 3W, PDCA, 8D.

Tools and Templates to Eliminate Root Causes

To encourage people to go beyond containment and quick fixes, the method they use must be simple and practical, but also effective and efficient. Over the course of several years, we have tested dozens of different templates and found that the following two forms work best by far. Why? Because the user is given a clear structure, enhanced with pictograms, and the entire solving process can be completed on a single sheet, the key for broad adoption.

The PDCA and 8D templates have proven to be extremely effective in addressing non-conformances; they are practical problem solving tools for teams in manufacturing, quality control, product development, healthcare, back office, and corporate administration to successfully resolve daily issues and prevent them from coming back. You can download the free toolkit in 22 languages here .

Use PDCA Template to Solve Simple Problems

4 Steps to Eliminate Simple Causes

Plan-1 Record Problem : Describe what happened, where and when, and who is involved solving it.
Plan-2 Analyze Problem : Assign potential causes to categories: Man, Method, Machine, Material, Management, Milieu (Environment).
Plan-3 Identify Causes : Ask “why” to drill down to root causes; for complex problems, use several forms, one per branch or issue.
Do Implement Actions : Create and implement an action plan to contain, correct, and prevent the problem from reoccurring.
Check Results and Act : Review impact, standardize solution; close the case or initiate further actions by starting a new PDCA cycle.

Use 8D Template to Solve Complex Problems

8 Steps to Eliminate Complex Causes

D0 Plan : Register problem and define emergency response.
D1 Team : Identify team members to address the problem.
D2 Problem : Grasp the situation and describe the problem.
D3 Containment : Prevent the problem from spreading.
D4 Diagnostics : Identify direct causes and root causes.
D5 Correction : Define and prioritize corrective actions.
D6 Validation : Implement actions and evaluate effectiveness.
D7 Prevention : Systemize solutions to prevent reoccurrence.
D8 Completion : Transfer knowledge and recognize contributors.

Become an Effective Problem Solver by Applying Practical Tools and Learning Battle-Tested Methods

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7 Powerful Problem-Solving Root Cause Analysis Tools

The first step to solving a problem is to define the problem precisely. It is the heart of problem-solving.

Root cause analysis is the second important element of problem-solving in quality management. The reason is if you don't know what the problem is, you can never solve the exact problem that is hurting the quality.

Sustainable Compliance for Out of Specifications (OOS) Results, Deviations, and Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA)

Manufacturers have a variety of problem-solving tools at hand. However, they need to know when to use which tool in a manner that is appropriate for the situation. In this article, we discuss 7 tools including:

The Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram (IFD)
Pareto Chart
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Scatter Diagram
Affinity Diagram
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

1. The Ishikawa Fishbone Diagram IFD

The model introduced by Ishikawa (also known as the fishbone diagram) is considered one of the most robust methods for conducting root cause analysis. This model uses the assessment of the 6Ms as a methodology for identifying the true or most probable root cause to determine corrective and preventive actions. The 6Ms include:

Measurement,
Mother Nature- i.e., Environment

Related Training: Fishbone Diagramming

2. Pareto Chart

The Pareto Chart is a series of bars whose heights reflect the frequency or impact of problems. On the Chart, bars are arranged in descending order of height from left to right, which means the categories represented by the tall bars on the left are relatively more frequent than those on the right.

Related Training: EFFECTIVE INVESTIGATIONS AND CORRECTIVE ACTIONS (CAPA) Establishing and resolving the root causes of deviations, problems and failures

This model uses the 5 Why by asking why 5 times to find the root cause of the problem. It generally takes five iterations of the questioning process to arrive at the root cause of the problem and that's why this model got its name as 5 Whys. But it is perfectly fine for a facilitator to ask less or more questions depending on the needs.

Related training: Accident/Incident Investigation and Root Cause Analysis

4. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

FMEA is a technique used to identify process and product problems before they occur. It focuses on how and when a system will fail, not if it will fail. In this model, each failure mode is assessed for:

Severity (S)
Occurrence (O)
Detection (D)

A combination of the three scores produces a risk priority number (RPN). The RPN is then provided a ranking system to prioritize which problem must gain more attention first.

Related Training: Failure Mode Effects Analysis

5. Scatter Diagram

A scatter diagram also known as a scatter plot is a graph in which the values of two variables are plotted along two axes, the pattern of the resulting points revealing any correlation present.

To use scatter plots in root cause analysis, an independent variable or suspected cause is plotted on the x-axis and the dependent variable (the effect) is plotted on the y-axis. If the pattern reflects a clear curve or line, it means they are correlated. If required, more sophisticated correlation analyses can be continued.

Related Training: Excel Charting Basics - Produce Professional-Looking Excel Charts

6. Affinity Diagram

Also known as KJ Diagram, this model is used to represent the structure of big and complex factors that impact a problem or a situation. It divides these factors into small classifications according to their similarity to assist in identifying the major causes of the problem.

7. Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

The Fault Tree Analysis uses Boolean logic to arrive at the cause of a problem. It begins with a defined problem and works backward to identify what factors contributed to the problem using a graphical representation called the Fault Tree. It takes a top-down approach starting with the problem and evaluating the factors that caused the problem.

Finding the root cause isn't an easy because there is not always one root cause. You may have to repeat your experiment several times to arrive at it to eliminate the encountered problem. Using a scientific approach to solving problem works. So, its important to learn the several problem-solving tools and techniques at your fingertips so you can use the ones appropriate for different situations.

ComplianceOnline Trainings on Root Cause Analysis

P&PC, SPC/6Sigma, Failure Investigation, Root Cause Analysis, PDCA, DMAIC, A3 This webinar will define what are the US FDA's expectation for Production and Process Control / Product Realization, the use of statistical tehniques, 6 sigma, SPC, for establishing, controlling , and verifying the acceptability of process capability and product characteristics, product acceptance or validation and other studies. Non-conformance, OOS, deviations Failure Investigations, and Root Cause Analysis, PDCA, DMAIC, and similar project drivers to improvement, A# and similar dash boards.

Accident/Incident Investigation and Root Cause Analysis If a major workplace injury or illness occurred, what would you do? How would you properly investigate it? What could be done to prevent it from happening again? A properly executed accident/incident investigation drives to the root causes of the workplace accident to prevent a repeat occurrence. A good accident/incident investigation process includes identifying the investigation team, establishing/reviewing written procedures, identifying root causes and tracking of all safety hazards found to completion.

Root Cause Analysis - The Heart of Corrective Action This presentation will explain the importance of root cause analysis and how it fits into an effective corrective and preventive action system. It will cover where else in your quality management system root cause analysis can be used and will give examples of some of the techniques for doing an effective root cause analysis. Attendees will learn how root cause analysis can be used in process control.

Addressing Non-Conformances using Root Cause Analysis (RCA) RCA assumes that systems and events are interrelated. An action in one area triggers an action in another, and another, and so on. By tracing back these actions, you can discover where the issue started and how it grew into the problem you're now facing.

Introduction to Root Cause Investigation for CAPA If you have reoccurring problems showing up in your quality systems, your CAPA system is not effective and you have not performed an in-depth root cause analysis to be able to detect through proper problem solving tools and quality data sources, the true root cause of your problem. Unless you can get to the true root cause of a failure, nonconformity, defect or other undesirable situation, your CAPA system will not be successful.

Root Cause Analysis and CAPA Controls for a Compliant Quality System In this CAPA webinar, learn various regulations governing Corrective and Preventive Actions (CAPA) and how organization should collect information, analyze information, identify, investigate product and quality problems, and take appropriate and effective corrective and/or preventive action to prevent their recurrence.

Root Cause Analysis for CAPA Management (Shutting Down the Alligator Farm) Emphasis will be placed on realizing system interactions and cultural environment that often lies at the root of the problem and prevents true root cause analysis. This webinar will benefit any organization that wants to improve the effectiveness of their CAPA and failure investigation processes.

Root Cause Analysis for Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) The Quality Systems Regulation (21 CFR 820) and the Quality Management Standard for Medical Devices (ISO 13485:2003), require medical device companies to establish and maintain procedures for implementing corrective and preventive action (CAPA) as an integral part of the quality system.

Strategies for an Effective Root Cause Analysis and CAPA Program This webinar will provide valuable assistance to all regulated companies, a CAPA program is a requirement across the Medical Device, Diagnostic, Pharmaceutical, and Biologics fields. This session will discuss the importance, requirements, and elements of a root cause-based CAPA program, as well as detailing the most effective ways to determine root cause and describing the uses of CAPA data.

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Self-Assessment • 20 min read

How Good Is Your Problem Solving?

Use a systematic approach..

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Good problem solving skills are fundamentally important if you're going to be successful in your career.

But problems are something that we don't particularly like.

They're time-consuming.

They muscle their way into already packed schedules.

They force us to think about an uncertain future.

And they never seem to go away!

That's why, when faced with problems, most of us try to eliminate them as quickly as possible. But have you ever chosen the easiest or most obvious solution – and then realized that you have entirely missed a much better solution? Or have you found yourself fixing just the symptoms of a problem, only for the situation to get much worse?

To be an effective problem-solver, you need to be systematic and logical in your approach. This quiz helps you assess your current approach to problem solving. By improving this, you'll make better overall decisions. And as you increase your confidence with solving problems, you'll be less likely to rush to the first solution – which may not necessarily be the best one.

Once you've completed the quiz, we'll direct you to tools and resources that can help you make the most of your problem-solving skills.

How Good Are You at Solving Problems?

Instructions.

For each statement, click the button in the column that best describes you. Please answer questions as you actually are (rather than how you think you should be), and don't worry if some questions seem to score in the 'wrong direction'. When you are finished, please click the 'Calculate My Total' button at the bottom of the test.

Answering these questions should have helped you recognize the key steps associated with effective problem solving.

This quiz is based on Dr Min Basadur's Simplexity Thinking problem-solving model. This eight-step process follows the circular pattern shown below, within which current problems are solved and new problems are identified on an ongoing basis. This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only.

Below, we outline the tools and strategies you can use for each stage of the problem-solving process. Enjoy exploring these stages!

Step 1: Find the Problem (Questions 7, 12)

Some problems are very obvious, however others are not so easily identified. As part of an effective problem-solving process, you need to look actively for problems – even when things seem to be running fine. Proactive problem solving helps you avoid emergencies and allows you to be calm and in control when issues arise.

These techniques can help you do this:

PEST Analysis helps you pick up changes to your environment that you should be paying attention to. Make sure too that you're watching changes in customer needs and market dynamics, and that you're monitoring trends that are relevant to your industry.

Risk Analysis helps you identify significant business risks.

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis helps you identify possible points of failure in your business process, so that you can fix these before problems arise.

After Action Reviews help you scan recent performance to identify things that can be done better in the future.

Where you have several problems to solve, our articles on Prioritization and Pareto Analysis help you think about which ones you should focus on first.

Step 2: Find the Facts (Questions 10, 14)

After identifying a potential problem, you need information. What factors contribute to the problem? Who is involved with it? What solutions have been tried before? What do others think about the problem?

If you move forward to find a solution too quickly, you risk relying on imperfect information that's based on assumptions and limited perspectives, so make sure that you research the problem thoroughly.

Step 3: Define the Problem (Questions 3, 9)

Now that you understand the problem, define it clearly and completely. Writing a clear problem definition forces you to establish specific boundaries for the problem. This keeps the scope from growing too large, and it helps you stay focused on the main issues.

A great tool to use at this stage is CATWOE . With this process, you analyze potential problems by looking at them from six perspectives, those of its Customers; Actors (people within the organization); the Transformation, or business process; the World-view, or top-down view of what's going on; the Owner; and the wider organizational Environment. By looking at a situation from these perspectives, you can open your mind and come to a much sharper and more comprehensive definition of the problem.

Cause and Effect Analysis is another good tool to use here, as it helps you think about the many different factors that can contribute to a problem. This helps you separate the symptoms of a problem from its fundamental causes.

Step 4: Find Ideas (Questions 4, 13)

With a clear problem definition, start generating ideas for a solution. The key here is to be flexible in the way you approach a problem. You want to be able to see it from as many perspectives as possible. Looking for patterns or common elements in different parts of the problem can sometimes help. You can also use metaphors and analogies to help analyze the problem, discover similarities to other issues, and think of solutions based on those similarities.

Traditional brainstorming and reverse brainstorming are very useful here. By taking the time to generate a range of creative solutions to the problem, you'll significantly increase the likelihood that you'll find the best possible solution, not just a semi-adequate one. Where appropriate, involve people with different viewpoints to expand the volume of ideas generated.

Tip: Don't evaluate your ideas until step 5. If you do, this will limit your creativity at too early a stage.

Step 5: Select and Evaluate (Questions 6, 15)

After finding ideas, you'll have many options that must be evaluated. It's tempting at this stage to charge in and start discarding ideas immediately. However, if you do this without first determining the criteria for a good solution, you risk rejecting an alternative that has real potential.

Decide what elements are needed for a realistic and practical solution, and think about the criteria you'll use to choose between potential solutions.

Paired Comparison Analysis , Decision Matrix Analysis and Risk Analysis are useful techniques here, as are many of the specialist resources available within our Decision-Making section . Enjoy exploring these!

Step 6: Plan (Questions 1, 16)

You might think that choosing a solution is the end of a problem-solving process. In fact, it's simply the start of the next phase in problem solving: implementation. This involves lots of planning and preparation. If you haven't already developed a full Risk Analysis in the evaluation phase, do so now. It's important to know what to be prepared for as you begin to roll out your proposed solution.

The type of planning that you need to do depends on the size of the implementation project that you need to set up. For small projects, all you'll often need are Action Plans that outline who will do what, when, and how. Larger projects need more sophisticated approaches – you'll find out more about these in the article What is Project Management? And for projects that affect many other people, you'll need to think about Change Management as well.

Here, it can be useful to conduct an Impact Analysis to help you identify potential resistance as well as alert you to problems you may not have anticipated. Force Field Analysis will also help you uncover the various pressures for and against your proposed solution. Once you've done the detailed planning, it can also be useful at this stage to make a final Go/No-Go Decision , making sure that it's actually worth going ahead with the selected option.

Step 7: Sell the Idea (Questions 5, 8)

As part of the planning process, you must convince other stakeholders that your solution is the best one. You'll likely meet with resistance, so before you try to “sell” your idea, make sure you've considered all the consequences.

As you begin communicating your plan, listen to what people say, and make changes as necessary. The better the overall solution meets everyone's needs, the greater its positive impact will be! For more tips on selling your idea, read our article on Creating a Value Proposition and use our Sell Your Idea Skillbook.

Step 8: Act (Questions 2, 11)

Finally, once you've convinced your key stakeholders that your proposed solution is worth running with, you can move on to the implementation stage. This is the exciting and rewarding part of problem solving, which makes the whole process seem worthwhile.

This action stage is an end, but it's also a beginning: once you've completed your implementation, it's time to move into the next cycle of problem solving by returning to the scanning stage. By doing this, you'll continue improving your organization as you move into the future.

Problem solving is an exceptionally important workplace skill.

Being a competent and confident problem solver will create many opportunities for you. By using a well-developed model like Simplexity Thinking for solving problems, you can approach the process systematically, and be comfortable that the decisions you make are solid.

Given the unpredictable nature of problems, it's very reassuring to know that, by following a structured plan, you've done everything you can to resolve the problem to the best of your ability.

This assessment has not been validated and is intended for illustrative purposes only. It is just one of many Mind Tool quizzes that can help you to evaluate your abilities in a wide range of important career skills.

If you want to reproduce this quiz, you can purchase downloadable copies in our Store .

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6 Powerful Problem-Solving Root Cause Analysis Tools

Sarah Burner

ClickUp Contributor

February 13, 2024

When solving problems, you either take a proactive approach or a reactive one. Proactive: address the underlying causes of the issue to avoid future challenges. Reactive: respond to issues as they come.

For many project managers, getting at the root cause of an issue before it derails an entire project is key. You’ll save time, money, and valuable resources where they matter most. Plus, you develop insights to build better processes for smoother workflows.

To nail down what’s at the heart of an issue, you need root cause analysis. 👀

In this article, we’ll share ten of the best root cause analysis tools and techniques. We’ll dive into what root cause analysis is and how to choose the right tools for your business.

How to choose the right root cause analysis tool for a specific problem

2. intelex root cause analysis software, 3. apache skywalking, 4. taproot®, 5. appdynamics from cisco, 6. sologic root cause analysis software, pareto chart, fishbone diagram, scatter plot diagram.

What Is Root Cause Analysis?

Root cause analysis is the process of examining the source of an issue using various techniques and tools. It’s ideal for solving complex problems and helps teams create and prioritize solutions for better quality control and seamless processes.

There are several steps in the process, including:

Describing the existing issue
Analyzing metrics and collecting data
Identifying potential causes
Brainstorming solutions
Taking corrective action
Observing changes and performance

ClickUp Whiteboards product template view

Root cause analysis is a key component of quality management because its goal is to get to the heart of an issue and what’s causing it. That way, you prevent similar problems from arising and causing havoc on a project.

The benefit of root cause analysis is that it allows you to examine potential issues at their core. Plus, it’s designed to assess the issue as well as the solutions as you implement them.

As you gather valuable data on the problems your business faces and the effectiveness of the solutions you try out, you learn how to improve processes every step of the way. The result is a more efficient and successful business that’s able to adapt to whatever comes next. 🤩

You’ll find plenty of tools and methods designed to make root cause analysis easier and streamline the overall process. Luckily, there are also a number of free options in addition to paid analytics tools on the market to gather insights into the cause of the problem.

Of course, not all tools are equally effective. Some are meant to help brainstorm ideas for solutions. Others are designed to dive into metrics to track issues and nail down what’s behind them. And some are complete process software tools designed to integrate into your daily work. 🛠️

Want effective root cause analysis? Here’s what to look for in different tools and techniques:

Integrations : RCA is best when done collaboratively. Look for tools that let you work with team members to break down problems
Data tools : You can’t figure out what’s wrong without diving into metrics. Choose a tool that lets you collect data to inform the process
Specific actions : It’s not enough to know what’s causing a problem. You need a tool that lets you take specific actions, like instantly assigning remedial tasks

6 Best Root Cause Analysis Tools in 2024

Ready to figure out what’s at the root of your problem? With these six best root cause analysis tools and techniques, you’ll have what you need to break down an issue. From integrated software tools to free methods, there’s something for everyone. 💪

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management software designed to centralize your work across apps into one collaborative platform. With a rich set of dynamic features to streamline any workflow, teams rely on ClickUp to drive productivity, reduce downtime, and make processes more efficient.

One of the first steps in root cause analysis is to describe the problem. With ClickUp Whiteboards , teams can take a visual approach to this step. With live cursors, actionable tasks, embedding, and more, teams can work collaboratively to identify the root cause and present metrics that support their ideas.

The next step is to collect data. Use metrics to truly see what’s driving the issue. With ClickUp Forms , you can survey customers and employees to find out what problems are present and what may be causing them. These Forms are completely customizable, letting you collect the specific data you need. Plus, they’re easy to share, allowing you to cast a wide net to gather as much information as possible.

Once you’re in the analysis stage, ClickUp’s Table view will be your best friend. Create spreadsheets in seconds and design visual databases of information. Use these views to analyze your data and lay the groundwork for next steps to correct the problem. 🤩

ClickUp best features

ClickUp AI features hundreds of tools for various use cases, identifying issues and brainstorming solutions
Use Docs from ClickUp to easily document your RCA process and keep track of important insights and potential next steps
More than 1,000 templates, including ClickUp’s Root Cause Analysis Template , make it easy to do your work faster and more efficiently

ClickUp limitations

Right now, ClickUp AI writing tools are only available on desktop, but mobile rollout is on the way
The sheer number of features requires some time to learn, but once you do, you’ll be able to create more powerful processes

ClickUp pricing

Free Forever
Unlimited : $7/month per user
Business : $12/month per user
Enterprise : Contact for pricing
ClickUp AI is available on all paid plans for $5 per Workspace member per month

ClickUp ratings and reviews

G2 : 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
Capterra : 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)

Intelex Root Cause Analysis product example

The Root Cause Analysis Software from Intelex is a SaaS tool designed to help companies create better environment, health, safety, and quality (EHSC) procedures. It uses various methodologies to get to the root cause of the problem.

Start by recording incident data in the tool where everyone on the team can access and analyze the information. Next, use methodology tools like Ishikawa diagrams and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to identify trends.

Intelex best features

Integrated RCA techniques, including 5 whys, checklists, and gap analysis, make it easy to assess problems in one space
Workflow tools feature integrations to identify the root causes of problems outside your organization when they occur
Custom dashboards and reporting make sharing insights with various team members easier than ever

Intelex limitations

Some users felt the tool was rigid and that data collection features could be more insightful
The user interface isn’t the most friendly, particularly for beginners

Intelex pricing

Free: seven-day trial
Custom : Contact for pricing

Intelex ratings and reviews

G2 : 4/5 (10+ reviews)
Capterra : N/A

Root cause analysis tools: Apache Skywalking's services stats dashboard

Apache Skywalking is an application performance management (APM) tool designed to identify issues in software tools. Specifically made for microservices, cloud, and Kubernetes applications, this tool is useful for software engineers in charge of tech teams. 👨🏽‍💻

Apache Skywalking best features

Profile codes on runtime using the built-in root causes analysis features that identify the exact point where issues develop
Performance optimization tools let you create continuous improvement processes to better meet customer needs
In-depth metrics get to the heart of the problem, so your team can brainstorm solutions

Apache Skywalking limitations

The complex interface may be intimidating, particularly for entry-level team members
Some found the tool was better suited for smaller-scale projects

Apache Skywalking pricing

Free (open source tool)

Apache Skywalking ratings and reviews

Bonus: Check out The Best Open-Source Project Management Tools in 2024

TapRooT® is a software tool designed to identify and fix problems caused by both equipment and humans. Use this tool to collect evidence of the issue, identify the cause and effect of various actors, and develop fixes.

TapRooT® best features

Processes are differentiated based on whether it’s a simple incident or a major accident, so you react accordingly
The Corrective Action Helper® Guide/Module leads you through potential solutions and makes implementation faster
Charts and graphs organize data so it’s easier to identify trends

TapRooT® limitations

Some users found the pricing to be high
The tool is extremely in-depth, making it a better choice for big businesses

TapRooT® pricing

Contact for pricing

TapRooT® ratings and reviews

Root cause analysis tools: AppDynamics from Cisco's Dashboard and Reports page

AppDynamics is a tech tool from Cisco that’s designed to identify the root causes of issues across your business. Use it to break down problems in software, applications, user experience, and overall business health. The tool lets you gain visibility, gather data, and automate solutions. 📚

AppDynamics best features

Extensive supported technologies, including Apache, Python, and Docker
Monitoring and migration tools make implementing solutions faster
Application flow maps let you pinpoint the exact moment issues arise

AppDynamics limitations

A steep learning curve means you have to allocate resources to get the team up to speed
Complicated licensing and limited data security features

AppDynamics pricing

Infrastructure Monitoring Edition : $6/month/CPU Core
Premium Edition : $60/month/CPU Core
Enterprise Edition : $90/month/CPU Core
Enterprise Edition for SAP® Solutions : $167/month/CPU Core
Real User Monitoring : $0.06/month per 1,000 tokens

AppDynamics ratings and reviews

G2 : 4.3/5 (300+ reviews)
Capterra : 4.5/5 (30+ reviews)

Causelink® is Sologic’s RCA tool. It uses techniques like 5 whys, fishbone diagrams, and incident timelines to pinpoint the root cause of a problem. Use it as an individual, team, or enterprise tool based on the size of your business.

Sologic best features

Virtual RCA training features make it easy to provide professional development opportunities for all team members
Multiple built-in techniques let you analyze data in ways that make the most sense for your business
The built-in five-step method takes the guesswork out of RCA

Sologic limitations

Since the tool features built-in methodologies, there isn’t as much customization as with other tools
Pricing can be expensive, making it harder for small businesses to use

Sologic pricing

Causelink® Individual : $384/year
Causelink® Team : Contact for pricing
Causelink® Enterprise : Contact for pricing

Sologic ratings and reviews

G2 : 4/5 (1+ reviews)

Root Cause Analysis Techniques

A major benefit to using root cause analysis tools is that they’re designed to help teams integrate proven techniques into their daily processes. There are a ton of ways to get to the root of a problem, especially when you consider the range of issues teams face across industries.

If you’re searching for a new strategy or wondering what root cause analysis technique will best fit your team’s needs, start here with a few of our favorite examples:

Also called Pareto analysis, this RCA tool is a simple bar chart that ranks data based on frequency. It’s useful for identifying problems that cause the most downtime and highlighting where you should focus your efforts. The main purpose of a Pareto Chart is to separate minor problems from major ones. Teams turn to Pareto charts and analysis to:

Simplify the problem-solving process
Look for a singular cause to hone in on the root issue
Highlight the most commonly felt problems

The 5 Whys method is an investigative tool that’s much like a child repeatedly asking, “Why?” 🤔

That might be frustrating in other areas of life, but it’s great for root cause analysis because it pushes you to consider what’s behind a problem.

This tool isn’t meant for quantitative analysis; it’s more for a qualitative approach to finding out what’s behind an issue. It’s a mental exercise that limits your focus on one potential issue and encourages you to identify multiple contributors to that problem. The idea is to ask why-type questions about the problem to understand what’s wrong and why it may not be working.

This root cause analysis method is named for the shape of the diagram. It’s a process that breaks down problems into subcategories like machine, method, and materials. 🐟

Use fishbone diagram templates when you have no idea what’s behind the issue and need to do a big brainstorm. This strategy can be used for both simple and complex problems by breaking down each subcategory further and further until you nail down the root cause.

A scatter diagram helps you analyze the correlation of two sets of data. An independent variable (or potential cause) is plotted on the x-axis, while a dependent variable (the observed effect) is plotted on the y-axis. If the dots are grouped to create a line, this means there is a relationship between the two.

By clearly identifying the cause and effect based on data, you can implement solutions quickly and efficiently—even when using data points that may initially seem unrelated to each other.

Identify and Solve Problems With ClickUp

With these root cause analysis tools and methods, finding the problem and creating solutions is easier than ever. Choose one tool or mix and match a few depending on your business needs.

Sign up for ClickUp today to start gathering metrics, identifying problems, and creating solutions in your processes. With AI insights, Whiteboards, and Forms, quickly brainstorm ideas on what’s behind the issue and work collaboratively with your team.

Once you identify the problem, ClickUp makes it easy to instantly assign tasks and create a schedule for implementing solutions. 🏆

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10 best AI math solver tools for math problem-solving

Homework AI makes it easier for students to learn difficult subjects. Boost your assignment and exam grades with these best AI homework helpers.

March 18, 2024

$Math problem$

The traditional approach to learning involves acquiring knowledge through listening and observation.

However, professionally trained AI can better accommodate different learning styles and enhance comprehension by offering tailored, on-demand learning assistance, especially in challenging subjects like mathematics.

As a subject many students struggle with, having access to a reliable AI math solver is invaluable. Math AI solvers can provide students and other learners with instant homework help outside the classroom at any time when needed.

They can also help improve students’ math test scores and build their mathematical skills over time. Let’s look at some of the best math AI tools for mathematical problem-solving:

Ten best AI math solver tools

1. Mathful – Best AI math solver overall

2. HIX Tutor – Best AI math solver for rapid homework response

3. AI Math – Best AI math solver for increasing math test scores

4. HomeworkAI – Best AI math solver for 24/7 math homework help

5. GeniusTutor – Best AI math solver for high-level learning

6. Mathway – Best AI math solver for solving algebra problems

7. Air Math – Best AI math solver for mobile uses

8. StudyMonkey – Best AI math solver for in-depth explanations

9. Interactive Mathematics – Best AI math solver for comprehensive chat support

10. Smodin – Best AI math solver for step-by-step solutions

Mathful – Best AI math solver overall

Mathful is an AI-powered math homework solver that provides step-by-step answers to all types of math questions.

The math AI tool uses a large language model and advanced algorithms to help students improve their math grades and prepare for exams.

Mathful has proven to be one of the most accurate AI math solvers, boasting a remarkable 98% accuracy rate across various mathematical disciplines, such as calculus, algebra, and geometry.

Mathful can also help students of all levels, from elementary school to university and beyond.

Mathful can help students improve their math grades in school by enforcing core math concepts and providing detailed explanations that promote comprehension.

Students can start using Mathful for free; low-cost subscription plans are available after the initial trial.

Able to provide highly accurate solutions and comprehensive explanations.
Can process text and image files.
Able to solve a variety of question types.
Available to use 24/7.
It cannot replace a real classroom education.

Get instant answers to Math homework questions with Mathful AI math solver >>>

HIX Tutor – Best AI math solver for rapid homework response

HIX Tutor is a powerful AI homework helper that provides comprehensive support in many subjects, such as chemistry, biology, and physics.

It also serves as a personal AI math tutor, helping students boost their math grades and overall academic success.

To use HIX Tutor’s advanced math AI, type in a math problem or upload an image or document of the question.

The tool instantly generates a detailed explanation for each problem step, helping students understand the underlying math concepts.

HIX Tutor’s AI math problem solver can help save users time spent struggling with complicated math assignments.

Try the AI math solver at no cost. Once you’ve reached your question limit, upgrade to an affordable monthly or annual plan.

Delivers step-by-step solutions to math questions.
Trained on a large math knowledge dataset.
Reduces time spent on math homework.
Requires payment after the initial trial.
Some students may only use the tool to get answers without learning.

Streamline the math learning experience with HIX Tutor’s math AI solver >>>

AI Math – Best AI math solver for increasing math test scores

Aimath home page with a children doing math homework.

How you prepare for a math test can significantly impact your performance.

AI math solvers like AI Math help take the frustration out of studying by providing thorough explanations that teach students how to tackle similar math problems.

The AI math problem solver generates answers to questions in under 10 seconds with a 99% accuracy rate.

AI Math supports over 30 languages so that students can get responses in their native language for better understanding.

Students who use AI Math to supplement their classroom education experience an increase in their math test scores of up to 35%. Starting with AI Math is free; subscriptions cost just a few dollars a month.

Covers most branches of math, such as arithmetic and trigonometry.
Walks students through the solution to facilitate understanding.
Can solve simple to complex math problems.
Does not currently offer advanced math features.

Choose AI Math and study for math tests in a smarter way >>>

HomeworkAI – Best AI math solver for 24/7 math homework help

Students often need help with homework outside of traditional school hours. AI math solver tools like HomeworkAI allow students to get comprehensive support round-the-clock.

Much like a personal tutor, HomeworkAI focuses on teaching students how to solve homework problems instead of simply giving answers.

HomeworkAI can handle math problems with multiple solution methods, meaning a primary solution and possible alternative approaches.

It can also analyze textbook material with practice math questions to aid students’ studies.

While HomeworkAI excels in helping students complete math assignments with high precision, this AI homework tool can also help students in other school subjects, such as biology, physics, chemistry, literature, and history.

Try HomeworkAI for free, or choose from a low-cost subscription plan for unlimited uses.

Allows students to work at their own pace at home.
User-friendly platform is easy to navigate.
It can help students excel in many subjects, including math.
This may cause students to rely too much on online math-solving platforms.
Rarely, solutions may be outdated or incorrect.

Try HomeworkAI and get instant help for your math homework >>>

5. Genius Tutor – Best AI Math Solver for High-Level Learning

Genius Tutor is a versatile AI tutor and homework helper that can help students build their math skills and gain confidence in their academic abilities.

While the AI math solver is geared toward all types of learners, it is best suited for high school and college-level students.

The AI math problem solver provides a step-by-step breakdown for math questions of all types, showing the exact process of figuring out math problems and concepts.

Genius Tutor also highlights and explains important theorems, formulas, and rules so that students know when and how to use them.

Genius Tutor not only helps students complete math homework assignments in record time but can also help them prepare for exams.

No credit card is needed to try Genius Tutor, and budget-friendly paid subscriptions are available after the free trial.

Can help students with all mathematical disciplines.
Provides in-depth guides that foster lifelong learning.
Gives instant feedback on a variety of homework questions.
May not provide accurate solutions to highly complex math problems.

Genius Tutor’s AI math solver can instantly elevate your math learning experience >>>

Mathway – Best AI math solver for solving algebra problems

Algebra is a complex branch of mathematics that many students struggle with in high school and college.

Mathway offers a sophisticated AI math solver designed to solve algebra homework questions, from word problems to complex mathematical operations that form meaningful expressions.

The math solver AI tool combines an algebra calculator with a conversational chatbot. Simply type in a math problem or upload a photo and get instant step-by-step solutions.

Mathway also offers AI-driven math problem solvers for other branches of math, such as calculus, statistics, chemistry, and physics.

The clean interface is easy to use.
You can upload documents on a computer or mobile device.
It makes it easy to master algebraic concepts.
Additional features require a paid upgrade.
Does not always provide detailed explanations.

Air Math – Best AI math solver for mobile uses

Nowadays, many students rely on their smartphones or other mobile devices for homework help. Air Math is a smart AI math solver app available on Apple and Android devices.

Once installed, the Air Math app allows students to snap and solve math homework questions in under three seconds.

The innovative math AI solver can solve everything from geometry questions to word problems.

The 24/7 instant solutions include step-by-step solutions to teach students how to solve the problem independently.

If you still have problems understanding the explanations, Air Math can connect you with professional math experts worldwide at any time.

Free to use.
Offers support on mobile devices.
You can ask expert math tutors for additional assistance.
Students can download the Chrome Extension on the web.
The app may not accurately read handwritten math questions.

StudyMonkey – Best AI math solver for in-depth explanations

StudyMonkey is a free AI homework helper that provides academic assistance in many areas, including mathematics.

The powerful AI math solver saves students time and headaches by instantly generating solutions to complex math problems, preventing long homework sessions.

Type in the math problem, and StudyMonkey provides an accurate answer, detailed explanation, and steps to solve the problem to make it easier to understand.

This platform also retains a history of past questions asked, allowing students to review and revisit solutions anytime, aiding in effective long-term learning.

Can handle math problems from first grade to expert.
Offers a free plan.
Math features are limited.
Can not upload images or documents.
You must pay for a subscription to ask more than three questions daily.

Interactive Mathematics – Best AI math solver for comprehensive chat support

Many students are familiar with chatbots, making Interactive Mathematics a popular option for homework help.

The state-of-the-art AI math problem solver claims to be more accurate than ChatGPT and more powerful than a math calculator. Its speed also surpasses human math tutors.

Using Interactive Mathematics for homework help is also very simple.

You can type in your math question or upload an image, and the tool immediately sets to work, with the added benefit of offering solutions through a chatbot-style conversation that simulates a real-time, interactive math problem-solving session.

You can help students improve their grades.
Chat-based real-time problem-solving
Offers bonuses like SAT/ACT prep courses.
Users can only ask three questions before reaching the free question limit.

Smodin – Best AI math solver for step-by-step solutions

The Smodin Math AI Homework Solver can help if you’re struggling with math homework.

This unique tool uses machine learning and AI algorithms to efficiently solve all types of math problems, from formulas to equations.

The tool also promises high accuracy, reducing the risk of submitting incorrect answers.

Smodin doesn’t just provide a final answer to your query. It provides both brief answers and comprehensive explanations to help you better understand the concept.

It also shows a variety of relevant web answers and links to other resources, such as YouTube videos.

Users must make an account to start using Smodin.
Step-by-step solutions are highly detailed and engaging.
Can help students ace their math exams.
Free users are limited to 3 daily credits.
Cannot upload images or documents.

Final thoughts

Many students struggle with math, but that doesn’t mean they must settle for bad grades. With the right AI math solver, students can confidently develop their math skills and complete assignments and exams.

Based on our assessments, Mathful easily stands out from the pack. It is a sophisticated AI math problem solver that offers enhanced problem-solving capabilities, accurate solutions, and affordable subscription plans.

Try Mathful for free and achieve greater academic success.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook .

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to, Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects. Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19. Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising. Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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What Are the Rules? Discovering Constraints from Data

Boris Wiegand SHS - Stahl-Holding-Saar Saarland University
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WordPress 6.5 Release Derailed By Bugs In New Feature

WordPress 6.5 postponed after a disagreement on how to implement a new feature resulted in a change of direction

WordPress 6.5 has been postponed because of disagreements over a new feature that would have required some websites to download a plugin in order to keep them functioning.

Font Directory Problem

What derailed the 6.5 release is a new Font Library feature for managing fonts that also makes using Google Fonts GDPR compliant. The GDPR compliance part is a nice feature that allows a publisher to connect with Google Fonts and download fonts locally instead of serving them from Google’s servers. That’s what makes them GDPR compliant because Google’s servers won’t have access to your site visitor’s IP address.

The fonts themselves were going to be stored in a new location, /wp-content/fonts/. However it was acknowledged that doing this would result in bugs due to some file systems inability to store fonts in that directory. The compromise that the core contributors initially agreed to was to require buggy sites to use a plugin (Fonts to Uploads) in order to be able to function with WordPress 6.5.

That plan didn’t go down to well because it didn’t conform to the design philosophy of making WordPress work out of the box.

There was strong opposition from the WordPress community.

Among the comments :

“I think this is a significant mistake that deviates from WordPress’ core philosophies, the existing technical infrastructure, and the stated requirements and plan for shipping in 6.5. …By removing a key aspect of the compromise plan, it undermines the entire plan, and means we are fundamentally shipping something we know is broken with 6.5.”

Multiple comments agreed that the original plan was flawed, including this one :

“So basically the decision of moving uploadable fonts outside of the uploadable folder is already proven problematic even before releasing with partial testing. And TBH `wp-content/uploads/fonts` path was semantically better in the first place.”

So the fonts are now back to being stored in the more compatible location of /wp-content/uploads/fonts/.

And that led to the announcement that 6.5 would be delayed by a week:

“Based on community feedback on the Unblocking WP6.5 – Font Library and Synced Pattern Overrides and Font Library follow up posts, there has been a change to the WordPress 6.5 release schedule and a final change to the Font Library. …This approach ensures that the greatest number of sites possible can benefit from the new Font Library feature without the need to install or configure anything. …Shipping a feature that requires additional configuration or technical knowledge isn’t in line with the guiding philosophies that have helped the project mature into the successful project that exists today.”

Not Without Some Minor Complaints

The change to where the files will be stored did meet with the observation that storing fonts in the /uploads/ directory is not semantically correct because the fonts are downloaded in the case of Google fonts, among other observations.

WordPress 6.5 is now schedule for release on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024.

Read the full announcement:

WordPress 6.5 release delayed 1 week

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The 5 most exciting home and kitchen trends we spotted at the biggest housewares trade show of the year

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Business Insider sent our home and kitchen reviews editors to scope out the newest and most exciting housewares products at The Inspired Home Show, where industry stalwarts and up-and-coming innovators showcase their latest ideas. It's a chef's paradise and a home organizer's dream, with no limit to the inspiration of what your home can accomplish.

From the best cookware to air purifiers , there was no shortage of color and beautiful designs, sustainable alternatives, and smart home products spanning cooking, cleaning, smart home, organization, and decor. Here are the trends that dominated the show and some of the products we saw that we can't wait to get our hands on.

Connected cooking

We saw brands across the board using technology and smart capabilities to elevate home cooking. Basic small appliances are being transformed into sous chefs, recipe books, and multicookers. This trend has the potential to make every home chef deliver professional results.

If there was ever a multicooker made for food nerds, this is it. The ChefMaker from Dreo uses a smart algorithm to balance temperature, moisture, and time to produce the perfect meal.

If you’ve been wanting to venture into the benefits of cooking with Sous Vide, Typhur’s Sous Vide Station incorporates all functions of sous vide cooking into one unit, with a built-in tank, scheduling functions, and step-by-step cooking instructions on a large LCD display.

Capitalizing on the trends of induction cooking and smart home appliances, the Guru is a portable induction cooktop that connects to an app on your phone to deliver cooking tips, recipes, portion guidance, and more. The set includes a ceramic nonstick fry pan and a stainless steel Dutch oven.

Sustainability and alternative materials

Eco-friendly materials are at the forefront of home and kitchen design. From bamboo to recycled materials like ocean waste and wood fiber scraps, sustainable and repurposed materials are being used to make statements out of basic housewares.

As part of the brand's new sustainability efforts, Zyliss has released a line of serving and cooking utensils with wheat straw handles. The utensils are all lightweight and dishwasher-safe, but we particularly like the easy lift turner thanks to the thin edge and sturdy body.

Made with recycled plastic and recycled wood fiber (that being the extra wood scraps from other products), this stylish and modular wall planter can be placed horizontally or vertically to showcase your favorite houseplants.

I was also particularly struck by the voluptuous Umbra Ringo Chair, an indoor/ outdoor design also made with recycled wood fiber and powder-coated steel. It's available in three colors and a counter-height version, too.

Full Circle should be on your radar for eco-friendly cleaning tools and hydration solutions. They’re expanding into kitchen gadgets — think can openers, food graters, pizza cutters, ice cream scoops, and more — made from 75% kraft paper combined with a food-safe, fortifying resin and stainless steel that is dishwasher safe, antibacterial, and has a weighty, substantial feel. Also launching soon, Clean Ocean, a collection of cleaning brushes made with fishing nets and recycled ocean plastics.

Maximalism and color stories

The Inspired Home Show was an explosion of color. From earth tones and pastels to vibrant collections, you can coordinate your kitchen in monochrome hues, prints, and textures.

The best Takeya features (hot and cold temperature retention, protective bumper, and powder-coated exterior) are now available in three glow-in-the-dark finishes.

Everything about this salt and pepper grinder is pleasing to the senses, from the richly colored exteriors to the way the shape fits in your hand.

Cuisinart didn't stop after making an affordable, ceramic nonstick cookware set with an included lid organizer. The brand also released the set in three colors, so you can coordinate your pots and pans with the rest of your kitchen.

Convenient problem solving

These days, we want our meals prepared and homes cleaned as quickly and easily as possible. In a keynote presentation, Joe Derochowski, Circana industry advisor, said, "Never, ever underestimate how lazy we (as consumers) can be." He identified categories of heat and eat and portability as major trends in housewares.

Compact in size, this wine accessory houses four feet of stainless steel coils that will instantly chill your favorite wine and spirits. House it in your freezer, and anytime a room temperature bottle of wine is lying in wait, simply attach it to your wine bottle and funnel it through, directly into a glass, and voila.

The best part of this portable blender is how you can turn the vessel into a travel cup. Once your smoothie is ready, you can detach the blending base, attach the included lid, and take your blend on the go.

Your favorite disinfectant or multi-purpose spray can always be within arm's reach of your paper towels for quick clean-ups. A small spray pump discreetly nests within the towel holder and satisfyingly ejects when it’s time to wipe down the counters.

We've been searching for a more affordable nugget ice maker, and this small appliance from Luma might be the one. In eight minutes, you can have chewable ice falling into the 44-pound reservoir.

Space saving profiles

Home and kitchen brands have heard the pleas of consumers running out of space and are delivering compact solutions. When every inch of your countertop or studio apartment is at a premium, look for multifunctional appliances and clever designs.

With its first cookware launch, Joseph Joseph addresses two major consumer concerns: storage and nonstick safety. We're excited to see the foldable handles that allow you to store more pans per drawer and PFA-free ceramic coatings.

Dyson is no longer your only option for a multi-purpose fan, heater, and air purifier. Midea is emerging as a major contender in the air care and comfort space. This bladeless design has 12 cooling speeds, a dual-ceramic heating element, and H13 HEPA filtration. Plus, it’s a fraction of the price.

With hydration becoming a larger category than ever, how are we supposed to store all our water bottles? Many are too tall for our cabinet heights. Honey-Can-Do has found a simple yet effective solution: a tiered organizer that stores water bottles on their sides.

What we're looking forward to

The Inspired Home Show is also a good launchpad for items that are not quite yet available but will be in the coming months. Here are a few that caught our attention.

Brabantia Refresh and Steam Collection: Foldable Steam Board

Brabantia has targeted steam cleaning as its next frontier in the laundry room and is launching a whole suite of products and garment racks dedicated to making steaming easier. This new foldable steam board is travel-friendly and takes minimal space hanging in your closet. It provides a safe and stable steaming surface instead of trying to hang garments over the back of a door or on a wall. Estimated to launch Summer 2024.

Everest Home: Shoe Bench

Everest Home is a new brand devoted to making storage, specifically utilitarian places like the garage, beautiful and maximized with modular organization ideas. The hallmark of the collection will be its metal storage cabinets, available in three colors. We're most excited about the Shoe Bench, which lifts to reveal ample space for shoes, an additional front-facing tilt-out bin to access the interior while sitting, and a metal grated bottom with a rubber under-tray to allow for drainage and airflow. Launching May 2024.

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

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Balance divergent and convergent thinking. Ask problems as questions. Defer or suspend judgement. Focus on "Yes, and…" rather than "No, but…". According to Carella, "Creative problem solving is the mental process used for generating innovative and imaginative ideas as a solution to a problem or a challenge.
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Nine essential problem solving tools: The ultimate guide to finding a solution

Problem solving diagrams

1. Fishbone diagrams

2. Flowcharts

3. Strategy maps

Problem solving mind maps

4. Mental maps

5. Idea maps

6. Concept maps

Problem solving software solutions

7. Layered process audit software

8. Charting software

9. MindManager

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35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems

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How do you identify problems?

Complete problem-solving methods

Problem-solving warm-up activities

Tips for more effective problem solving

Clearly define the problem

Don’t jump to conclusions

Try different approaches

Don’t take it personally

Get the right people in the room

Document everything

Bring a facilitator

Develop your problem-solving skills

Design a great agenda

1. Six Thinking Hats

2. Lightning Decision Jam

3. Problem Definition Process

4. The 5 Whys

5. World Cafe

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

7. Design Sprint 2.0

8. Open space technology

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

10. The Creativity Dice

11. Fishbone Analysis

12. Problem Tree

13. SWOT Analysis

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

16. Speed Boat

17. The Journalistic Six

18. LEGO Challenge

19. What, So What, Now What?

20. Journalists

Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

21. Mindspin

22. Improved Solutions

23. Four Step Sketch

24. 15% Solutions

25. How-Now-Wow Matrix

26. Impact and Effort Matrix

27. Dotmocracy

28. Check-in / Check-out

29. Doodling Together

30. Show and Tell

31. Constellations

32. Draw a Tree

How do I conclude a problem-solving process?

33. One Breath Feedback

34. Who What When Matrix

35. Response cards

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9 Essential Problem Solving Tools: The Ultimate Guide

Problem solving diagrams

1. Fishbone diagrams

2. Flowcharts