having a problem solving mindset

• Coaching Positive Performance
• Carthage Buckley
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Developing a problem solving mindset

By   Carthage

August 22, 2014

Whether you are trying to improve your productivity, improve the quality of your relationships or, resolve conflict; there is one critical factor which is often overlooked – a problem solving mindset. A problem solving mindset is essential in almost every area of life. Even with the best planning and preparation, things will go wrong for you. When this happens, your problem solving mindset will enable you to find the best path forward. You will be able to achieve your objectives quicker, help others to find solutions to their problems and, reduce conflict and stress. When you have an effective problem solving mindset, you become a valuable resource for friends, family and colleagues. Even in the most pressurised of situations, you will be seen as an ally rather than a threat.

Critical aspects of a problem solving mindset

The following skills are critical aspects of a problem solving mindset. As you start to implement these skills, and improve your ability with them, you will see large improvements in the results that you achieve.

1. Responsibility

Responsibility is both a skill and an attitude. When you encounter a problem in your life, you can either bury your head in the sand or, you can choose to do something proactive about the situation. Sadly, many choose the first option but avoidance is not an effective problem solving skill . When you choose to ignore a problem; it doesn’t go away. Instead, it builds up in the background until eventually; you are forced to deal with it.

With a problem solving mindset, you know that if you do not attempt to deal with the problem; you are creating a bigger problem which, when you are eventually forced to deal with it; it will be more difficult to resolve successfully. Therefore, when you see a problem, you are eager and willing to step up and attempt to resolve the situation.

2. Emotional intelligence

When things go wrong, it is easy to lose control of your emotions. You may become angry or distraught due to things not going as expected. It is important that you feel and experience your emotions but it is just as important that you do not choose your next action based on these emotions. Your emotions are so powerful that they can influence you to take decisions and actions that you would not otherwise consider. An essential component of an effective problem solving mindset is the ability to take ownership of your emotions and then, centre yourself and regain your composure, prior to choosing your response to the situation.

Dr. Steve Peter’s excellent book ‘The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Program to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence, and Happiness’, will give you an excellent overview of this.

3. Goal identification

You would be amazed at how many people I have met over the years who, when faced with a problem, rush straight in to trying to solve the problem before they have decided on the outcome they desire. When you are trying to solve a problem, you must first understand the true nature of the problem . Then, you must decide what solution you would like to achieve i.e. what is the end goal of the problem solving process. If you have no idea of the outcome you are trying to achieve; you will not solve the problem, you will merely change the problem.

Once you have developed a problem solving mindset, you will realise that you need to stand back and analyse a problem before you rush in to solve it. You will then enter the problem solving phase with a clear understanding of what is wrong, what it is costing you and, what you would like to achieve as a result of your efforts. With this approach, your chances of success are greatly elevated.

You can learn more about idenitifying and setting effective goals with the Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting .

4. Descriptive and objective detail

One of the biggest obstacles to problem solving is the apportioning of blame. When you use the language of blame, others take offence and go on the defensive. They are then less likely to engage in any attempts to resolve the situation. To prevent this from happening, it is imperative that you be able to give an accurate, detailed account of what has occurred. If you are unsure of some of the details, say so. Do not try to fill the gap with assumptions as somebody is likely to offer a contrary view, thus leading to an unnecessary argument.

5. Active listening

When I first entered the working world, the term ‘active listening ’ was really taking off. However, the teaching on this area seemed to focus on the need to let the other person know that you are listening; with verbal and physical gestures e.g. nodding your head. However, I have always found that there is a simpler way to practice active listening – listen.

When you genuinely listen to people, and take an interest in what they say, this communicates itself to the person speaking. You will naturally begin to do verbal and physical gestures. You will also find that you are inclined to ask questions and reflect. When you listen actively, the speaker feels valued and appreciated thus encouraging them to be more open, trustworthy and helpful as you try to resolve the problem.

6. Probe and reflect

So, active listening is not just listening. It is listening and, supporting that listening with questions and reflections, with the purpose of gathering as much information about the problem as possible. When you are listening, you may be confused about something that you have heard or, you may wish to learn a little more about something which was mentioned. This is the ideal time to ask a question or two, so that you may probe a little further.

When you develop a problem solving mindset, you realise that there is thinking that you understand and, ensuring that you understand. You don’t settle for thinking that you understand. Instead, you use reflection to tell the speaker your understanding of what they have told you. This is important because it provides them with the opportunity to correct any misunderstandings. This ensures that you can pursue a solution based on facts rather than miscommunications.

7. Desire to find the most appropriate solution

Too often, when trying to solve a problem, people jump at the first solution that comes into their head. In my experience, the first solution is rarely the best or most appropriate solution. It is best to take a period of time to generate as many potential solutions as possible. Invite all of the relevant stakeholders to offer their thoughts. Then, together, you can evaluate each potential solution to determine which one is most likely to bring about the conclusion that you are seeking.

Effective communication skills are an essential part of a problem solving mindset. You can learn more with How To Talk So Others Will Listen .

A problem solving mindset is crucial in every walk of life. When you have a problem solving mindset you understand the difference between actually solving the problem and, merely changing the nature of the problem. When you have a problem solving mindset you have a range of skills and attributes which enable you to find the most appropriate solution to implement, in order to bring about the desired change. As you implement these skills and gain confidence in your ability to use them, you will deal with any problems that may arise, quicker and more effectively. As a consequence, you will improve the quality of the results that you achieve in all areas of your life.

People with a 'growth mindset' are better problem-solving — here are 4 ways to develop one, according to experts

• People with healthy growth mindsets are often more curious and motivated to learn new things.
• Researchers from Yale-NUS College say this mindset can be developed with practice.
• Instead of expecting to simply "find" your passions, make an effort to nurture and develop them.

Problem-solving may be among the more underrated skills. Research from Yale-NUS College suggests we can improve our problem-solving skills with something called a "growth mindset."

What are growth mindsets?

People with growth mindsets see interest or a spark of curiosity as something that can be developed, explains Paul O'Keefe, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale-NUS College.

"By understanding interest is [a] thing that develops over time, maybe with interaction with getting involved with commitment, [growth mindsets] build over time and grow and become interests," O'Keefe said.

O'Keefe's team's 2021 study builds on earlier work. Its research thus far suggests that the benefits of cultivating growth mindsets are plentiful, including adaptability, innovative thinking, and problem-solving.

How to develop a growth mindset

If you went to a liberal-arts school, you may already be further along than you think, since liberal-arts education focuses on broadening students' knowledge with a foundation in a variety of disciplines. This supports the growth theory of interest from an educational standpoint.

In contrast, O'Keefe's research indicates students who believe their interests lie in limited areas are "not as inclined to see how outside areas of knowledge can be connected and integrated with their existing interests." 

1. Feed your curiosity

People with growth mindsets are often more curious and motivated to learn. When you don't know something and absolutely have to know it, chances are you consult Google. In " The Science of Interest ," O'Keefe and Judith Harackiewicz say "interest" can be sparked by a desire to fill gaps in our knowledge.

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Whether you're looking up why clouds are shaped a certain way or watching YouTube tutorials on how to play the harmonica, you're doing it because you don't know and you want to know.

2. Rethink 'finding your passion'

Have you ever noticed how influential figures talk about "finding your calling"? Well, it turns out the idea that your passion is just there, waiting for you to find it if you look hard enough, may just not be true. 

O'Keefe's research calls this idea (of a passion waiting to be found) a "fixed mindset of interests." People with fixed mindsets of interest believe their interests are already there, inherent within them, and just need to be revealed. 

Erik Weisz didn't wake up and realize he was a magician overnight; he spent years practicing and developing tricks before he became Harry Houdini. In reality, instead of finding our passions, we need to take the time and effort to nurture them.

3. Become a 't-shaped' person

Though great things can come from developing one expertise, O'Keefe stresses that the potential for innovation when you color outside the lines is tremendous.

"Once we start to expand our focus outside of our silo of say, interests, we start to understand the value of other information," O'Keefe said. "And we begin to see connections between what we know already from our own interests, and connecting it to new interests."

"One of the things they do at their organization is that they hire people who they call 'T-shaped' people." T-shaped people have a singular pillar of expertise or interest with broader interests. "They might not be experts in another area, but they certainly have some basic knowledge, some interests that are far-reaching."

4. Look at your work environment

At an organizational level, growth mindsets can be underestimated. Think of the old-school finance giant that hired the best of the best in marketing, sales, finance, etc. Those hires went on to compose tighter groups of highly specialized professionals. 

But when you hire diverse teams, "you don't get people who are all just thinking from one discipline," O'Keefe explained. "You're getting people who have been exposed to different ideas."

What's more, you can't be the "logical" person of the team who looks down on the "artsy" person in the group. People with growth mindsets value being around people they can learn from. So, the next time you're at a conference or networking event, rather than seek out the people you'd have the most in common with, branch out and talk to the person you'd never ordinarily cross paths with. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two.

Correction: September 8, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the college where Paul O'Keefe works. It's Yale-NUS College, not Yale-National University of Singapore.

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Mindset Mastery: Keys to Effective Problem-Solving

The art of problem-solving is not merely an intellectual exercise but a holistic approach that encompasses one's mindset, emotions, and behaviors. Mindset Mastery in problem-solving is the cornerstone of personal and professional success. It is the catalyst that transforms challenging situations into opportunities for growth and innovation.

This article delves into the intricate relationship between a person’s mindset and their ability to solve problems effectively. We define the problem-solving mindset as a complex fusion of resilience, open-mindedness, and the tenacious pursuit of solutions amidst adversity. At its core, a problem-solving mindset is the unwavering belief that one can navigate through problems by developing skills and strategies conducive to mastering challenges.

The Psychology of Problem-Solving

Understanding Cognitive Approaches: Cognitive approaches in problem-solving are quintessential in determining the efficacy of the solutions derived. These frameworks create a structure within which problems can be dissected and examined from various angles. Analytical thinking, which involves systematic and logical reasoning, forms the bedrock of this cognitive methodology. However, it is the amalgamation of analytical and creative thinking that truly propels problem-solving to its peak. Creative thought processes encourage the exploration of non-conventional solutions, allowing for a comprehensive and often novel resolution.

Emotional Intelligence in Problem-Solving: Within the labyrinth of problem-solving lies the critical element of emotional intelligence – the capability to identify, assess, and manage emotions. Processing emotional responses can have a profound impact on decision-making. It allows for a level-headed approach that is less prone to biases and distortions, leading to effective problem-solving . Emotional intelligence also enables individuals to communicate better and collaborate effectively, especially in group problem-solving contexts.

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Keys to Problem-Solving Mastery

Cultivating a Growth Mindset: The dichotomy of growth versus fixed mindsets has significant implications for problem-solving. Individuals with growth mindsets view challenges as stepping stones to mastery; they believe abilities can be honed with effort and perseverance. This mentality facilitates an adaptive and agile approach to problem-solving, as it fosters resilience and a willingness to engage in continuous learning.

Embracing Challenges as Opportunities: To dominate the realm of problem-solving, one must reframe challenges as opportunities for growth. This shift in perspective minimizes the fear of failure and inspires individuals to experiment with novel strategies. Such a paradigm encourages learning from failures and setbacks, which is an essential component for achieving mastery in problem-solving .

Developing Effective Problem-Solving Skills

Enhancing Critical Thinking: Critical analysis is an indispensable element of problem-solving. To strengthen this faculty, individuals must engage in targeted strategies that challenge their reasoning abilities. This may include problem-solving courses free of charge available online or systematic practice through intellectual pursuits. Sharpening critical thinking abilities complements other problem-solving skills by laying a strong foundation of logical analysis.

Creative Solution Generation: Innovation and creativity are jewels in the crown of problem-solving. They drive the generation of unique solutions that can outpace traditional methods. Encouraging out-of-the-box thinking requires cultivating an environment where brainstorming and experimentation are embraced. Techniques that push the boundaries of conventional paradigms contribute to the growth of creative proficiency.

Applying the Problem-Solving Mindset in Real-Life Scenarios

Case Studies: Analyzing real-life case studies can substantially augment one's understanding of practical problem-solving. These provide rich narratives showcasing the application of various problem-solving principals in tangible situations. By observing the mindset of individuals who have navigated complex issues successfully, one can glean insights into effective mindset strategies.

Interactive Scenarios: The true testament of having acquired a problem-solving mindset is the ability to apply it to real-world problems. Interactive scenarios, which may be found in comprehensive online courses like an online MBA course , provide a fertile ground for practicing the theories and techniques discussed in this manuscript. Engaging with these scenarios hones one's problem-solving skills, ensuring they become second nature.

Mastery in Problem-Solving: Continuous Improvement

Reflective Practices: Reflection is a catalyst for growth in problem-solving. By embedding reflective practices into one's daily routine, individuals can continuously refine their problem-solving methods. Tools such as journals, mind-maps, or reflection sessions can assist in evaluating the process and outcomes of problem-solving activities.

Lifelong Learning and Adaptability: In an ever-evolving world, adaptability is crucial. The commitment to lifelong learning ensures that one's problem-solving skills do not plateau but instead continue to advance. It is through this persistent endeavor that individuals maintain their edge in problem-solving, adapting to new challenges effectively.

Recognizing the indispensable role of mindset in effective problem-solving is the essence of true mastery. This article has traversed through various dimensions of mindset and its pivotal impact on solving problems. The journey towards enhancing problem-solving skills is both challenging and rewarding, and it is incumbent upon readers to dedicate themselves to this pursuit.

What are the most effective strategies for mastering a problem-solving mindset?

Problem-solving mindset: strategies for mastery, understanding the mindset.

To solve problems effectively, one requires a particular mindset. This mindset embraces challenges, tolerates ambiguity, and persists despite setbacks. It involves creativity and critical thinking. Cultivating this mindset is crucial for success in various aspects of life.

Strategy 1: Embrace Challenges

First, one must seek out challenges. Comfort often impedes growth. By stepping out of one’s comfort zone, one strengthens problem-solving muscles. This involves accepting complex tasks. It demands willingness to fail and learn.

Strategy 2: Develop Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is paramount. This involves questioning assumptions. It includes evaluating evidence and reasoning. One must practice breaking down arguments. Looking at situations from multiple viewpoints is essential. This broadens one's thinking horizon.

Strategy 3: Enhance Creativity

Creativity is a key problem-solving skill. Practicing brainstorming helps. So does keeping an idea journal. One can draw inspiration from diverse fields. It pays to challenge conventional wisdom. This unlocks innovative solutions.

Strategy 4: Learn from Others

Learning from peers and mentors is invaluable. Collaboration often leads to better solutions. It unites diverse skills and perspectives. One should engage in constructive debates. These exchanges sharpen one’s mind.

Strategy 5: Reflect and Adapt

Reflection is a powerful tool. After each problem, one should reflect. This involves analyzing what worked and what did not. It is important to adapt future strategies accordingly. Mastery requires continuous refinement.

Strategy 6: Develop Persistence

Persistence is crucial in developing problem-solving skills. Obstacles are inevitable. Persisting teaches resilience. One must remain focused on the end goal. This fosters a strong problem-solving mindset.

Strategy 7: Set Incremental Goals

Setting incremental goals helps. This means breaking big problems into smaller parts. It makes complex problems more manageable. Achieving these smaller milestones builds confidence. It reinforces a positive approach to challenges.

Strategy 8: Practice Regularly

Like any skill, problem-solving improves with practice. Regular exercises and challenges hone one’s abilities. There are various puzzles and logical problems available for practice. Commitment to daily practice is vital.

Mastering the problem-solving mindset comprises various strategies. It involves embracing challenges and failing forward. One sharpens critical thinking and creativity. Learning from others and collaboration enrich one's approach. Reflecting, adapting, and persisting are key. Setting incremental goals and practicing regularly are also essential. With these strategies, individuals can develop robust problem-solving capabilities.

How does mindset influence the problem-solving process?

Mindset and problem-solving, definitions matter.

Mindset shapes perception. It influences behavior. Carol Dweck explains this well. She distinguishes between fixed and growth mindsets. The former sees abilities as static. The latter views skills as malleable.

Impact on Approach

A fixed mindset limits. It avoids challenges. It fears failure. A growth mindset embraces difficulties. It perseveres through setbacks. It learns from criticism. Thus, mindset sets the stage for problem-solving.

Handling Challenges

With a fixed mindset, individuals shun complex problems. They prefer the familiar. This hinders creative solutions. In contrast, a growth mindset cultivates resilience. It encourages innovative thinking. It approaches obstacles with optimism.

Strategies and Techniques

Mindset influences strategy choice. A fixed mindset might select safe, known methods. It runs from risks. A growth mindset seeks diverse options. It considers multiple perspectives. It values the learning process.

Adaptability and Flexibility

Problem-solving requires adaptability. Fixed mindsets struggle here. They prefer predictability. Growth mindsets excel in adaptability. They pivot as needed. They reframe problems effectively.

Collaboration and Feedback

Problems often need teamwork. A fixed mindset may resist collaboration. It views aid as weakness. Conversely, a growth mindset values input. It appreciates different viewpoints. It utilizes collective intelligence.

Outcomes and Responses

Reactions to outcomes vary by mindset. A fixed mindset despairs over failure. It cannot separate effort from ability. A growth mindset learns from outcomes. It acknowledges effort. It refines approaches accordingly.

Long-term Effects

A growth mindset leads to continuous improvement. It sees problems as learning chances. It enhances lifelong skills. A fixed mindset stagnates. It avoids growth opportunities. It yields fewer personal advancements.

In sum, mindset deeply influences how we solve problems. It affects approach, adaptability, and outcomes. Cultivating a growth mindset can greatly enhance problem-solving abilities.

Can mindset mastery significantly improve my problem-solving skills?

Can mindset mastery improve problem-solving skills, understanding mindset.

Mindset shapes perception . It steers actions. Experts agree on its importance. Carol Dweck introduced mindset distinctions. She highlights fixed and growth mindsets.

Fixed vs. Growth Mindset

A fixed mindset limits possibilities. Challenges become threats. Effort seems futile. Growth mindset differs greatly. Challenges are opportunities. Effort is the path to mastery.

Mindset mastery fosters enhanced problem-solving skills. Here's how:

Persistence : Growth mindset encourages perseverance.

Resilience : Setbacks become learning experiences.

Adaptability : Flexible thinking arises.

Innovation : Creative solutions are welcomed.

Open-mindedness : Different perspectives get consideration.

Embracing Challenges

View problems as puzzles. This shift matters. It turns anxiety into curiosity.

Process Over Outcome

Focus on learning . Mastery comes from process. Outcomes improve as a result.

Feedback and Growth

Seek constructive criticism . Feedback fuels improvement. It transforms problem-solving ability.

incremental Progress

Celebrate small victories. They add up. They lead to significant improvements.

Collaborative Problem-Solving

Collaborate with others . Different viewpoints enhance solutions. Teamwork broadens thinking.

Yes, mindset mastery can improve problem-solving. It requires dedication. Change does not happen overnight. Practice fosters growth. Cultivate a growth mindset. Watch your problem-solving skills transform.

He is a content producer who specializes in blog content. He has a master's degree in business administration and he lives in the Netherlands.

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Mindset: The hidden essential for problem solving

September 16, 2022 by Jim Connolly

Much ink has been spilled over the years, regarding problem solving. The majority of which focuses on strategies and tactics. Far less attention has been given to the importance of your mindset.

Mindset is the essential foundation of problem solving. It’s the very base that will support (or collapse) any strategies or tactics you use. In short, if your mindset isn’t right, strategies and tactics are pointless.

To help redress the mindset imbalance, I’d like to share a few ideas to help you overcome your next challenge / problem.

Mindset presupposition

Part of building the most effective problem solving mindset, is to presuppose there’s an answer.

Not only an answer, but a great answer.

However, people will often only try a problem solving strategy, after failing to swiftly find the answer the need. This can lead to doubt; especially if it’s a major problem. And doubt tends to lead to circular, negative thinking. It places you in a toxic mindset, making it extremely hard to find the solution.

Here’s an example of circular, negative thinking. Imagine John has just learned he’s about to be laid-off from his job. His thinking may look something like this.

• If I don’t quickly find a new job, I’ll end up broke.
• What will happen if we can’t pay the rent?
• Well, I have some savings. That will last for a while. Maybe long enough for me to find a job.
• But what if I don’t find a new job quickly enough? (Circling back to the first point).

No matter how good John’s problem solving strategy is, that mindset will massively reduce the likelihood of a great outcome. It will simply heap increasing levels of unhelpful stress on him. This, in turn, makes it even harder for him to focus optimally on the answer he needs.

Clearly, a more effective and efficient mindset is required.

Improving your mindset for problem solving

If you’ve ever tried telling yourself to “think positive”, you’ll know it seldom, if ever, works. Especially when you’re mindset is already in a negative / stressful state. The mind is complex. It knows when you’re bullshitting yourself.

Well, it would, wouldn’t it !?!

The answer? Drop the bullshit and let the facts of your situation inspire your thinking and improve your mindset.

To demonstrate this, I’ll use John’s example again. Here are just a few real-world facts he could focus on, which would massively improve his mindset.

• Every minute of every day, people in his situation are being hired.
• There are countless examples of people like John, whose lives were enriched beyond recognition, after being forced to find a new job or career.
• We live in the era of free, global communications. This means it’s the best time ever to connect with people, who can hire him or help him get hired.
• People who’ve overcome the same problem as John, have shared their experiences all over the internet. So, he’ll be able to learn from them.
• And John will never be more than one call, one email or one meeting away from the person or company who will hire him.

You get the idea.

That type of real-world thinking is easier for your mind to accept, because it’s based on facts. And when your mind accepts a solution-focused reality, your mindset is in a highly effective state .

Now, you have the mindset foundation in place, to find and implement a problem solving strategy, successfully.

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Five Practices to Enhance Your Problem-Solving Mindset

As Steven Snyder points out in Leadership and the Art of Struggle , having a growth mindset is essential as we navigate through leadership challenges. It keeps us optimistic as well as wanting to learn more and enhance the way we do things.

Equally important is having a problem-solving mindset. There isn’t a day that goes by in which a problem doesn’t arise. Big or small, we encounter problems each and every day. We have a choice on what to do. We can:

Solving problems is what leaders do. It is what people do. We solve problems or, at least, it is what I am suggesting is a necessary life and work skill. Some are better at it than others, but it is a skill anyone can learn and enhance.

Highlighted below are five practices to enhance your problem solving mindset.

Practice 1: recognize a problem..

The first practice is awareness. Attentiveness may be stronger way to look at it. We need to wake-up to the fact a problem exists!

It is easier to recognize a problem when it is someone else’s. When it is ours, it is more challenging to see at times.

Here are some clues:

• You keep having the same conversation over and over again.
• You talk and no real change happens.
• You listen but all you hear are your own thoughts.
• Frustration is growing in your teams and organization.
• People leave or begin to check-out in effort.

There are market, culture, people, and many other clues that arise. We just need to slap ourselves to attention.

Practice 2: Turn the problem inside out.

We need to know the details of the problem. A definition of it is a starting point and then we need to define it further. Key questions requiring answers include:

• What caused the problem? Dig deep.
• What are the dimensions of the problem? Go wide.
• What happens if the problem remains unsolved? Go inside.

Understand the problem. Write it down to gain clarity. Ask why to determine the cause.

Practice 3: Turn it upside down.

We just need to look at a problem from a different angle to gain a better, more accurate perspective.

We need to talk to others. It may be team members impacted by the problem. It may be customers. It may be mentors. It may be colleagues. It may be all of these groups.

We also may need to read market information. It may include looking at other industries, too, in how they handled similar situations. We need a well-rounded perspective.

We may need to just go for a walk.

Practice 4: Take it inside.

At times, we may just need solitude. We need time to think. It may be meditation. It may be writing about it. It may be just having the time to consider the alternatives.

It is not staying wrapped in our own thoughts or taking on the problem alone. Solitude in mind does not equal solo in effort. Instead, we need the time to soak it in and get our thoughts in order. We need to center ourselves to work more effectively with the people required to solve the problem.

Practice 5: Solve it but don’t leave it.

Once we have defined a solution and moved forward, we need to put the right metrics in place to ensure it is working as intended. We need to be flexible to adjust to what the trends are communicating.

Too often, we solve and leave the problem behind. We need to ensure it stays solved or, at least, we have the right solution in place.

Adopt a Problem-Solving Mindset

Part of a having a growth mindset is having a problem-solving one, too. It is how we grow. It is how we learn. It is how we lead to build better organizations and communities.

Problem-solving requires us to evaluate, involve, decide, and deliver. We must avoid stalemate, sidestepping a problem or letting one fester.

Our responsibility as a leaders, team members, and citizens is to adopt and enhance our problem-solving mindset.

How do you develop a problem-solving mindset?

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Hi Jon – I love the steps you offered here. Thanks for the great advice. I also like to advise my clients (and anyone else who will listen) to ‘find the opportunity’ within the problem. Take the time (the step?) to reframe the problem as opportunity and, in so doing, release some mood-enhancing, mind-clearing serotonin in the brain, which paves the way for even better problem-solving. Take care, Dara

Thank you for your feedback and perspective! Re-framing is an important step to take. When a problem arises, we tend to get stuck within its own frame, rather than taking the time to shift our thinking and view. By doing this, we can open a whole new way to solve. Thanks again for adding in your insight!

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Thanks, Greg!

When it comes to problem-solving I turn to awareness, acceptance, and action.

The first step is awareness. I recognize there’s a problem and determine the nature and scope of the problem.

The second step is acceptance. Now this doesn’t mean I am accepting of the problem- what it means is I see the problem as it is. I am not trying to figure it out in this step. I see the problem without judgement or emotion- I accept the situation is what it is.

The third step is action. After I have identified the problem and see it for what it is, this is when I can consider possible solutions.

Sometimes I like to brainstorm all possible solutions- from the reasonable to the unreasonable. Brainstorming all possible solutions helps me recognize more possible options than if I try to only consider workable solutions. Once I start thinking “outside the box” often ideas come to me that I may not have initially considered.

Have a grateful day!

Great steps, Chrysta. Acceptance is a key step in developing a solution and getting to the action step. This is a great process to use in solving problems. Thanks for adding to the conversation! Jon

Great post, Jon & really sound advice on how to sort out problems. Really appreciated #5 Solve it but don’t leave it. We definitely need to measure the effectiveness of our solutions.

Had an opportunity to hear a lecture from a research psychologist this week on problem solving and he shared that if your problem is in your control, it’s effective to ask problem focused questions to better understand the issue. If it’s a more ambiguous situation, solution focused questions are most effective to explore what needs to happen next.

Your post adds another layer to my learning. Thanks!

An interesting distinction on how and when it ask questions, Alli. I can see how that can be beneficial. It sounds like it was an interesting lecture. Appreciate your insights on this. Thanks! Jon

Excellent message Jon – I especially like your point about looking at a problem from different angles. When we’re busy or feeling stressed it’s just so easy to fall into doing things the way they have always been done. We need to learn to open ourselves to possibility thinking to consider all avenues. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks so much for the feedback, Marquita. Appreciate it!

Here’s a problem solving exercise and structure that I’ve used for years. For myself and across teams. Promotes fast, focused collaboration. COBRA. 5 parts. C represents a concern statement. Either broght to the group or boiled down by the group. Time = 1 minute. O represents Objective statement. Time = 2 min.. B represents blocks to objective. Time = 3 min. All blocks are listed. R represents a results statement. Time = 1 min. A represents action specific task statements. Time = 3 min. Whole 5 C.O.B.R.A. part exercise takes 1+2+3+1+3 = 10 min max. Can be expanded but shouldn’t go beyond 13- 14 min. Goal is a focus action development plan that states a concern, defines an objective, lists critical block, creates a desired result statement and compiles key relevant actions. Once actions are define they can be timelines and assigned to people. Someone is appointed lead and manages thru to completion. When problems rear their heads and strike, bite them back with this fast focused exercise to develop critical team think.

This is an interesting approach, Jay. It addresses the speed concern someone raised earlier. Is COBRA used for small and large problems and challenges? It seems that some of the more strategic problems couldn’t be addressed well using this approach, unless each objective is broken into smaller Objectives.

Solid approach. Thanks for sharing it and adding to the conversation! Jon

Good post and solid thoughts, Jon, thanks!

I’m not affiliated with this site in any way, but have often referred to it for good reminders on problem-solving techniques and other tools: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TMC.htm

Thanks for the resources and tools, Mike. Great info! Jon

These are five very logical steps to solve a problem, Jon. As for me, I think simple and simply treat problems as stepping stones. They’re learning experiences. They help you grow in experience and sharpen yourself. Always have the attitude; if there’s a problem, there’s a solution. It’s like a cause-effect relationship. Leader’s got to be optimistic, always. Even if something bad happens, they would say, “Okay, let’s see what we can learn from this, and what can be the positive outcomes for us (either short-term or long-term).” Problem exists only if it is accepted, otherwise ignorance is bliss. But when we recognize a problem, we open doors of opportunities for improvement, and when we solve it, we gain a tool and skill set so as to never be bothered about such problems ever again.

Agree wholeheartedly, Harleena! We need to learn from what we have resolved as well as from how the problem arose to begin with. There needs to be a learning loop so there should be another practice to encompass how to sharpen our perspective and approach next time. All great insights into problem-solving so thank you for jumping into the conversation! Jon

What a beautiful post Jon. Strategic thinking AND engaging with oneself and others, the frame you are presenting is comprehensive. I would add “speed” to this… recognizing that changes requires of us to adapt and adjust continuously. Thanks for being there! Johann

Thank you, Johann. Speed is an important element. We cannot afford to stall our efforts in solving problems. In today’s fast pace world, we will get passed by if we do not resolve in a reasonable time, which may mean spending greater effort in the process to bring it all together. Great add. Thanks! Jon

Invaluable sage wisdom here, Jon!

You’ve nailed many valid points here with excellent precision. For instance, it is imperative that we become aware of the importance of being able to solve the variety of problems we encounter on a day to day basis. One of the key elements is being grounded before the challenges arise. The only way we can go about doing that is ensuring that we are sharpening ourselves when we are not needing to have our “game face on” to tackle predicaments. There is always going to be downtime, or “a calm before the storm.” Those are the typical periods we should be assessing our mindset with honesty, focus, and awareness. The most prepared leaders are the surpassing problem solving leaders of them all. We are only ever as good as we have practiced becoming.

All great points, Deone, and thank you for your your feedback and insights! You have added some great thoughts to developing and using our problem-solving mindset. Grateful for it! Jon

Yes! And, with the research of the last 27 years about how personal responsibility works in our minds — i.e., how we avoid taking ownership for problems AND how we take ownership — we actually understand the organic mental process for turning problems into breakthroughs. It’s understandable, teachable, and can be practices and mastered.

As I mentioned directly to Steven Snyder, this research proves for me that leaders are not born rather they make themselves by the challenges they confront.

Spot on points, Christopher. I particularly like the point of how leaders are made by the challenges they confront. I do believe this is true, as it not only tests our character and skills but strengthens and expands them. Really appreciate your insight on this! Jon

A very interesting post. Thank you.

Practice number 5 got me thinking about problem solving in larger organisations. I believe some type of record needs to be made of how certain problems have been solved. When faced with commercial pressures, tight deadlines etc, people get on with it, just to get the job done. However, the processes used can sometimes be forgotten altogether once the pressures have died down.

Yes, Hiten, recording the lessons learned, the best practices, and how a problem was solved are all important things to document as well as make into teachable moments. Great advice. Thanks! Jon

Let us not re-solve problems to which solutions already exist 🙂 When we turn the problem inside out (practice 2), we may find that the problem had occurred before, and had been solved by others in the organization. We can save a lot of time by having well-documented and accessible “lessons learned” 🙂

Great point, Kumud! We should leverage whenever we can, whatever we can. It is also about focus, meaning let’s not re-solve what has already been solved. Wonderful points! Thank you. Jon

Hiten, my father-in-law is a great proponent of every organization needing a company historian. I think your recommendation falls squarely in that area. If the information is captured & shared, it can promote learning.

This is great, Jon. We’re doing a 4 graphic set + 1 video on analytical thinking next week. Your post is right on target. A key element is to examine your assumptions. Many times, your assumptions about something cause you to react in ways that may not align with what is actually going on. Viewing from alternate perspectives can help you question your assumptions and find new solutions. Another key is to identify those things you don’t know. Once you’ve identified some things you don’t know, you will likely be able to tackle the problem in a more advantageous way.

Great point, Joy. Ensuring we are making the right assumptions is an essential element to sound problem-solving. A great add. I look forward to seeing your analytical thinking series! Thank you for your insights. Jon

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What was the last problem you faced at work?

• An employee issue?
• A difficult client?
• Non-payment?
• Vendor mismanagement? 

Problems are inevitable. The question is — how do you solve these problems?

As defined by MIT , “problem-solving is the process of identifying a problem, developing possible solution paths, and taking the appropriate course of action.”

Problem-solving mindset is an important skill set for any professional especially if you are an entrepreneur, manager, or someone in the leadership team in an organization. 

Be it in life or at the workplace , a problem-solving mindset helps to keep the surrounding under control while exploring new opportunities. Here are some tips to help you develop a problem-solving mindset. 

6 steps to develop a problem-solving mindset

No business is immune to problems . If you are in a management role, you will be focusing a lot of your time in identifying and solving problems. 

Having a problem-solving mindset is the skill that will help you in the long run. Here’s how you can develop a problem-solving mindset. 

1.    Embrace the problem

The word “problem” has a negative impact on our minds. 

When someone says “ there is a problem ” the brain starts focusing more on the problem and suppresses the mind to come up with a solution . When you embrace a problem and acknowledge it as a part and parcel of life and work, you will have a more open outlook towards it. This will help you focus more on the solution instead of just brooding over the problem. 

Here is a quick tip: Every morning get up from sleep expecting to encounter problems at work. When your mind is prepared to encounter a problem, you will do better at solving it. 

2. Focus on the solution

You can spend time obsessing over what’s gone wrong or you can shift your focus on coming up with solutions. The choice is yours. 

Instead of focussing on the problem, adopt a solution-focused approach . The key principle of this approach is are based on two simple ideas: 

Here is a classic example of how Honda did away with what didn’t work for them and focused on what worked for them when they forayed into the US motorcycle market.

As quoted in HBR , “In 1958, the American motorcycle market was dominated by robust players like Harley Davidson and Honda’s bike was not able to compete with it. 

At the same time, it was found by Honda that its smaller motorcycles that were mainly used by its employees to run errands in town were gaining popularity among young buyers who wanted affordable, convenient, and independent transportation. 

Soon, Honda realized this and changed its strategy. Instead of its giant bikes, it started focusing on selling its small bikes. Thus, Honda from no presence in the US market made 63% of the market in 1959.”

3. Come up with all possible solutions

Start with listing down all the solutions that you can think of. If needed, brainstorm with your team to come up with all the possible solutions.

Let’s say, a recent employee survey revealed that your employees are dissatisfied with the leadership communication. Now, that’s a problem.

What can be the possible solutions?

When you make a list of all possible solutions, you’re in a better place to evaluate options and measure effectiveness. 

It’s a good idea to use mind mapping tools to visualize all the possible solutions, weigh their pros and cons, and make a more informed decision. 

4. Analyze the root cause

To nurture a positive mindset you need to focus more on the solution. To do so, analyze the root cause of the problem. 

Sakichi Toyoda’s 5 Why Technique initially used at Toyota is a fantastic tool to analyze the root cause. The philosophy of this technique is simple. Whenever there is a problem, ask the question ‘Why’ five times. This helps to devise a countermeasure for the problem. You then follow through it until the problem is solved and stop recurring. 

This technique works well when the problem is simple to moderate. For more critical problems, different techniques like cause and effect analysis or failure mode and effects analysis might be more suitable. 

5. Take on a new perspective

See your problems as opportunities to grow. 

If you are too bothered with a nagging issue, take a step back and try to look at it with a new perspective . Brainstorming sessions with others also help you to see things with a new perspective which you might have missed out on otherwise. 

When you see a problem with a fresh perspective, you see it as an opportunity to grow and come up with a new solution. 

6. Implement solutions and monitor them

Once you identify the problem and come up with all the possible solutions, put down all your information in one place. The more information you have, the chances for a positive outcome is better. Now, go through all the options, choose the best-suited one for the situation and set measurable goals. 

Finally, it is time to implement the solution. So, if the problem was exceeding budgets for overheads, measure and monitor if the new solution has been able to reduce it? If not, you need to relook at your solution and come up with an alternative solution. 

A problem-solving mindset is an asset to any organization. It is more than just a skill. 

A person with a problem-solving mindset sees a problem as an opportunity to grow and is motivated to find solutions, thereby focussing on growth and achieving positive results.  ___________________________________________________________________________

Adela Belin is a content marketer and blogger at Writers Per Hour . She is passionate about sharing stories with the hope to make a difference in people’s lives and contribute to their personal and professional growth. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn .  

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Growth Mindset

4 mindsets that can help you succeed, how do you cultivate a mindset for success and happiness.

Posted September 12, 2022 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

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• Four well-known mindsets are growth mindset, positive mindset, entrepreneurial mindset, and challenge mindset.

Our mindsets are crucially important because our attitudes and beliefs affect everything we do, feel, think, and experience. Although you might say each of us has one overall mindset, this mindset is made up of many smaller parts. Some of these help us improve our well-being and succeed in the world. Others hurt our ability to do so. That's why developing certain mindsets can greatly help us improve ourselves, enjoy our lives, and be more successful.

Some of the most well-known (and beneficial) mindsets include the following:

• Growth mindset
• Positive mindset
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Challenge mindset

These mindsets are changeable. If you find that you don’t really have much of a particular mindset, you can engage in thought exercises and activities to develop that mindset. So let's talk a bit more about each of these mindsets and how they can be developed.

1. Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the tendency for people to believe that their abilities can be developed through hard work. With a growth mindset, you try harder, you want to learn new strategies, and you seek out feedback when you are stuck (Dweck, 2015). Growth mindset is the most-studied type of mindset. Having a growth mindset has been linked to success in a variety of life domains (Yeager et al., 2019). One way to develop a growth mindset is to learn a bit more about neuroplasticity—or the brain's ability to change and grow. Indeed, we have the power to change our brains, learn new things, and develop new skills. When we have a mindset that believes this fully, we're more likely to put in the effort required to learn and grow, which helps us improve our lives in a multitude of ways.

2. Positive Mindset

A positive mindset is the tendency to focus on the good things in life rather than the bad. People with a positive mindset may use strategies like gratitude , reappraisal, and savoring to identify the good things and increase their positive emotions (Quoidbach, Mikolajczak, & Gross, 2015). Their attitudes are generally optimistic and they tend to expect the best.

A positive mindset can be great for our well-being and even help us to be more successful. In fact, the broaden and build theory of positive emotion suggests that positive emotions build on themselves, eventually leading to things like professional and relationship success (Fredrickson, 2004).

3. Entrepreneurial Mindset

An entrepreneurial mindset is helpful for those who want to be entrepreneurs, but it's also a really useful mindset for all of us in the modern world. Modern life is undergoing near-constant change, and the types of skills needed for entrepreneurship are the same skills that are most useful in adapting to, and coping with, rapid change and uncertainty. That's why an entrepreneurial mindset can be a crucial mindset to develop.

According to a whitepaper on entrepreneurial mindset (Gold & Rodriguez, 2018), this mindset is made up of several important skills including these:

• Comfort with risk
• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Initiative and self-reliance
• Communication and collaboration
• Future orientation
• Opportunity recognition
• Flexibility and adaptability

​These skills are thought to aid academic and career success. Of course, this is a broad range of skills and no one person likely has high levels of all of these skills. So, developing the skills we are weaker in may be the most beneficial approach.

4. Challenge Mindset

A challenge (vs. threat) mindset is thought to arise in performance situations like test-taking, game-playing, athletics, work tasks, and elsewhere. We can either evaluate these situations as a challenge that we can handle or a threat that might beat us.

​This mindset is about how we evaluate the demands of the situation and our resources for coping with these demands. Resources may include skills, knowledge, abilities, dispositions (like positive self-esteem ), and external support. Demands may include danger, uncertainty, and required effort (Blascovich et al., 2004). Most of these resources and demands are attitudes, perceptions , and other cognitions—things that we have the power to change.

By pushing ourselves to see our difficult circumstances as challenges that we can handle, we actually respond to these situations in ways that are more beneficial. In fact, a challenge mindset changes our physiology in ways that can make us more successful at the task (Blascovich et al., 2004).

Adapted from an article on mindsets published by The Berkeley Well-Being Institute.

Blascovich, J., Seery, M. D., Mugridge, C. A., Norris, R. K., & Weisbuch, M. (2004). Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(5), 683-688.

Dweck, C. (2015). Carol Dweck revisits the growth mindset. Education Week, 35(5), 20-24.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367-1377.​

Gold, T., & Rodriguez, S. (2018). Measuring entrepreneurial mindset in youth: Learning from NFTE’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Index. Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Positive interventions: An emotion regulation perspective. Psychological bulletin, 141(3), 655.

Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., ... & Paunesku, D. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369.

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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Overview of the Problem-Solving Mental Process

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

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

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

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

The following steps include developing strategies and organizing knowledge.

1. Identifying the Problem

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

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

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

2. Defining the Problem

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

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

3. Forming a Strategy

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

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

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

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

4. Organizing Information

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

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

5. Allocating Resources

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

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

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

6. Monitoring Progress

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

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

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

7. Evaluating the Results

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

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

A Word From Verywell​

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

Get Advice From The Verywell Mind Podcast

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how you can stop dwelling in a negative mindset.

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You can become a better problem solving by:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Developing a Problem-Solving Mindset

While mastering various technologies is crucial to becoming a full-stack developer, developing the right mindset is equally important. The most important skill in programming is arguably problem-solving: you're always being tasked with finding solutions to complex issues or creating something from scratch. This makes having a problem-solving mindset essential for your success in full-stack development.

Understanding the Problem-Solving Mindset

A problem-solving mindset is a way of approaching challenges where you actively seek and implement solutions rather than focusing on the impossibility or difficulty of the task. It's about breaking down a complex problem into smaller, more manageable parts, and tackling each one systematically.

Developing a problem-solving mindset isn't something that happens overnight. It's a skill that requires consistent practice, much like learning a new programming language or framework.

Steps for Effective Problem Solving

• Understanding the Problem : Before you start writing any code, make sure you understand the problem you're trying to solve. Ask questions, do research, and ensure you know exactly what's being asked.
• Planning : Plan your solution before you start coding. Use pseudocode or diagrams to sketch out your solution. This process can help you identify potential issues before they become a problem.
• Breaking the Problem Down : Large problems can often seem overwhelming. Break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks. This will make the problem seem less daunting and will also make it easier to test your solution.
• Debugging : If your code isn't working as expected, take a systematic approach to debugging. Look for common errors, use debugging tools, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you're stuck.
• Learning from Mistakes : Mistakes are a natural part of learning. When you encounter a bug or error, take the time to understand why it happened and how you can avoid it in the future.

The Role of Resilience

Learning to code and becoming a full-stack developer is a journey filled with challenges and setbacks. It's important to stay resilient and keep a positive mindset even when faced with difficult problems.

Resilience in the face of coding challenges means not giving up when you encounter a bug or a concept you don't understand. It's about continuing to push forward, even when things are tough. Remember, every developer, no matter how experienced, encounters challenges and makes mistakes.

Problem Solving in the Real World

In the real world, problems are rarely well-defined or have a single correct solution. Therefore, the ability to adapt, think creatively, and come up with innovative solutions is crucial.

Working on real-world projects, collaborating with others, and constantly challenging yourself are all excellent ways to develop your problem-solving skills. Open source projects, coding challenges, and hackathons are all excellent ways to practice problem solving and gain real-world experience.

While technical skills are crucial in full-stack development, having a problem-solving mindset is what separates good developers from great ones. It's about more than just solving the problem at hand; it's about learning, adapting, and growing with every challenge you face.

Problem-solving is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice. So, don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away. Keep pushing, keep learning, and keep solving problems. The journey might be challenging, but the rewards are worth it.

Every problem you solve is a step forward on your journey to becoming a full-stack developer.  So, embrace the challenges, learn from your mistakes, and never be discouraged. Your journey as a full-stack developer is just beginning, and the world is full of problems for you to solve.

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What Is Problem Solving?

By the Mind Tools Content Team

We all spend a lot of our time solving problems, both at work and in our personal lives.

Some problems are small, and we can quickly sort them out ourselves. But others are complex challenges that take collaboration, creativity, and a considerable amount of effort to solve.

At work, the types of problems we face depend largely on the organizations we're in and the jobs we do. A manager in a cleaning company, for example, might spend their day untangling staffing issues, resolving client complaints, and sorting out problems with equipment and supplies. An aircraft designer, on the other hand, might be grappling with a problem about aerodynamics, or trying to work out why a new safety feature isn't working. Meanwhile, a politician might be exploring solutions to racial injustice or climate change.

But whatever issues we face, there are some common ways to tackle them effectively. And we can all boost our confidence and ability to succeed by building a strong set of problem-solving skills.

Mind Tools offers a large collection of resources to help you do just that!

How Well Do You Solve Problems?

Start by taking an honest look at your existing skills. What's your current approach to solving problems, and how well is it working? Our quiz, How Good Is Your Problem Solving? lets you analyze your abilities, and signposts ways to address any areas of weakness.

Define Every Problem

The first step in solving a problem is understanding what that problem actually is. You need to be sure that you're dealing with the real problem – not its symptoms. For example, if performance in your department is substandard, you might think that the problem lies with the individuals submitting work. However, if you look a bit deeper, the real issue might be a general lack of training, or an unreasonable workload across the team.

Tools like 5 Whys , Appreciation and Root Cause Analysis get you asking the right questions, and help you to work through the layers of a problem to uncover what's really going on.

However, defining a problem doesn't mean deciding how to solve it straightaway. It's important to look at the issue from a variety of perspectives. If you commit yourself too early, you can end up with a short-sighted solution. The CATWOE checklist provides a powerful reminder to look at many elements that may contribute to the problem, keeping you open to a variety of possible solutions.

Understanding Complexity

As you define your problem, you'll often discover just how complicated it is. There are likely several interrelated issues involved. That's why it's important to have ways to visualize, simplify and make sense of this tangled mess!

Affinity Diagrams are great for organizing many different pieces of information into common themes, and for understanding the relationships between them.

Another popular tool is the Cause-and-Effect Diagram . To generate viable solutions, you need a solid understanding of what's causing the problem.

When your problem occurs within a business process, creating a Flow Chart , Swim Lane Diagram or a Systems Diagram will help you to see how various activities and inputs fit together. This may well highlight a missing element or bottleneck that's causing your problem.

Quite often, what seems to be a single problem turns out to be a whole series of problems. The Drill Down technique prompts you to split your problem into smaller, more manageable parts.

General Problem-Solving Tools

When you understand the problem in front of you, you’re ready to start solving it. With your definition to guide you, you can generate several possible solutions, choose the best one, then put it into action. That's the four-step approach at the heart of good problem solving.

There are various problem-solving styles to use. For example:

• Constructive Controversy is a way of widening perspectives and energizing discussions.
• Inductive Reasoning makes the most of people’s experiences and know-how, and can speed up solution finding.
• Means-End Analysis can bring extra clarity to your thinking, and kick-start the process of implementing solutions.

Specific Problem-Solving Systems

Some particularly complicated or important problems call for a more comprehensive process. Again, Mind Tools has a range of approaches to try, including:

• Simplex , which involves an eight-stage process: problem finding, fact finding, defining the problem, idea finding, selecting and evaluating, planning, selling the idea, and acting. These steps build upon the basic, four-step process described above, and they create a cycle of problem finding and solving that will continually improve your organization.
• Appreciative Inquiry , which is a uniquely positive way of solving problems by examining what's working well in the areas surrounding them.
• Soft Systems Methodology , which takes you through four stages to uncover more details about what's creating your problem, and then define actions that will improve the situation.

Further Problem-Solving Strategies

Good problem solving requires a number of other skills – all of which are covered by Mind Tools.

For example, we have a large section of resources to improve your Creativity , so that you come up with a range of possible solutions.

By strengthening your Decision Making , you'll be better at evaluating the options, selecting the best ones, then choosing how to implement them.

And our Project Management collection has valuable advice for strengthening the whole problem-solving process. The resources there will help you to make effective changes – and then keep them working long term.

Problems are an inescapable part of life, both in and out of work. So we can all benefit from having strong problem-solving skills.

It's important to understand your current approach to problem solving, and to know where and how to improve.

Define every problem you encounter – and understand its complexity, rather than trying to solve it too soon.

There's a range of general problem-solving approaches, helping you to generate possible answers, choose the best ones, and then implement your solution.

Some complicated or serious problems require more specific problem-solving systems, especially when they relate to business processes.

By boosting your creativity, decision-making and project-management skills, you’ll become even better at solving all the problems you face.

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Beginner Guide: Why & How to Develop Problem-Solving Mindset for Challenging Workplace?

Whether you just want to improve your productivity, make your stance at a relationship better, or simply just want to resolve conflict, developing a problem-solving mindset is a critical factor. Many people often go wrong by overlooking this essential factor in every aspect of our lives. Sometimes, even with the best planning and preparation and making sure that everything turns out as expected, things do go wrong, and there is nothing you can do about it.

For instance, the whole planet is suffering from the Corona Virus outbreak as we talk about it. The pandemic has shaken the world ever since it was first discovered in China four months ago. Ever since then, every plan, event, work, school, and even as random as your grocery trips have been abruptly stopped. We all have been asked to stay home, and it doesn’t matter if it means that you have to work from home. The only way to stay safe in this situation is to stay indoors as much as possible.

Now in such a situation where anxiety is at an all-time high, and everybody seems to have been deeply hit by it in one way or the other, it is crucial to keep a cool head and an equally positive attitude. It’s about time developing a problem solving will come in handy and keep all the pandemic woes at bay.

A Step By Step Guide to Develop a Problem Solving Mindset for Working At Home

Therefore, here we have listed a step-by-step guide to help you develop a problem-solving mindset for working from home during these challenging times and just keeping calm in general to get through this abrupt phase in our lives.

Step 1: Contribute to have a working environment

The environment plays a massive role in how you think. Our surroundings affect our thinking more than we value them for doing so. Many people complain that it gets difficult to work from home. The reason is that we find ourselves in our comfort zone at home where we hardly get time to think about work, especially if you have a family.

If you don’t have any experience prior to this of working from home, then you will find it difficult to take your mind away from its resting phase to working mode. Thus, it is only viable to first contribute to having a working environment. Choose a room away from the main hall in order to lower distractions and set up your work desk there. Let your family know about timings, so they don’t disturb you when you finally focus on work.

Step 2: Be meticulous yet adaptable

Being meticulous is a great virtue to have most of the time, but that doesn’t mean if you are very particular and precise about things, you cannot get your head around other aspects that should be rather adaptable. Especially if we consider the current situation, then it is not something we are used to. Working from home and just generally staying indoors has been hard on even celebrities that we know for having the most positive outlook on life.

Thus, it is understandable if you are also finding it hard to adapt to sudden changes. Going against how you would want things specifically for them to work in your favor shouldn’t mean that you are unable to turn things around. You should be flexible enough to make any situation work in your support no matter how difficult it gets.

Step 3: Communication is crucial

You cannot expect that not talk about a problem and keep worrying about it on your own would get you through the situation. Just because now all of a sudden you and your workmates have been thrown miles apart to sit in their private home offices and work, doesn’t mean you cannot hit up each other and talk on conference calls.

Technology should be considered a huge blessing at this time because if it weren’t for apps like Whatsapp, Face Time, and Zoom , it would have become exceedingly difficult. So now that you are privileged to have such accessible routes for communication, utilize them efficiently. Understand that now this is the only way you can interact with each other, so don’t break the communication and address issues as soon as they arise.

Step 4: Take responsibility

Do not go on to waste your time arguing over things. It can get complicated already to put a point across over a conference or a video call if you are just used to interacting and discussing issues with your teammates in person. And heating up a discussion can very quickly manifest into something against work ethics.

Therefore, even if it is not your mistake and somebody else’s, making them accept and deal with the difficulty of that person, for now, is not necessary. Take responsibility as a bigger person and start by thinking about how you can correct things that have gone wrong. Verily your team leader or manager would notice this, and it will add up positively in your credibility. You can even discuss it with them personally afterward to point-out.

Step 5: Get into the problem-solving attitude

Now that you have made a healthy working environment, communicated your issues, and taken the responsibility to set things straight, it’s time to get in the right headspace with the right attitude. Most of the time, it is not the actual problem that is causing concerns, but how we react to it. That is why it is vital to get into the problem-solving attitude before going all in.

If in your head you don’t feel as confident for addressing an issue, then maybe your outcome will reflect that. You can even take personal statements help to help you get in the right frame of mind. Define the problem in your head first and be confident that you can work your way around it. Being stuck at home and having a monotonous routine can get in the way and put you to a slump, but your attitude should not be affected.

Step 6: Believe that there is a way out

The obvious next step is in knowing and firmly believing that there is a way out of the issue at hand. Sometimes shaky confidence can lead to diminished belief and insecurity that you will ever see yourself out of the problem. Considering the current situation we are in, it has become quite inevitable to feel this particular way, but developing a problem-solving mindset at its core starts with the belief that there is a solution to the problem you are facing.

Sooner or later, you will be able to find it. If you lose at this step, you might want to reconsider all the steps above and question if you have yet to perfect them before you come back to this step and conquer it this time.

Step 7: Recognize patterns that lead to this situation

Sometimes a recurring issue has a recurring pattern of occurrence as well. It takes a sharp mind to be able to pick on it right away. However, even if you can’t recognize the pattern right from the get-go, then give it some thought. Take your time to think about it from the very beginning and communicate with your teammates and your manager as much as you can to discuss ideas back and forth.

Sometimes a difference of perspective and opinion can also help in seeing a situation differently and ultimately finding a way out of it. Many people think they can do things on their own, and their own ego gets in the way. You shouldn’t be in that frame of mind. Instead, be open to different opinions and viewpoints as they may play better in your favor.

Step 8: Define your desired outcomes

Now that you are moving forward and find yourself on the right track, it is about time you define your desired outcomes. Highlight the end goals, more significant objectives, and your expected result of a problem at hand.

Knowing what you are working towards will keep you on track and motivated throughout to keep working hard without stopping. We are humans, and an incentive is always what keeps us motivated for doing tasks no matter how difficult and challenging they are. Therefore, align your actions with the end goal and keep moving forward.

Step 9: Keep moving forward

No matter what hurdles appear or you might even feel that you are going in circles, keep moving forward. Stopping is not the option here. An issue, if prolonged, can cause more damage than it already is meant to. Thus, discipline your mind to not stop and keep moving forward with the available resources and making your way around the hurdles. If an issue is causing you to a halt, then stop, think act and then move forward.

Try not to lose track of the more significant objective at the end of your problem-solving. The only thing that has changed is the place where you are working and how you are working. We all will agree that ever since the pandemic has hit, the work has been doubled and become increasingly difficult, but then that is the challenge, and you will rightfully conquer it.

Step 10: Learn from the past and strategize the future

Lastly, now that you are well on track and successfully powering through learning from your past mistakes and strategize the future accordingly. Mistakes and lessons that we determine in the past can help us focus more intently on the future. We can now notice recurring patterns before they get out of hand, communicate our issues with fellow mates, practice self-discipline, adapt and improvise as well as incentivize our goals and visions.

In Conclusion

All in all, a problem-solving mindset at the end of the day is not that hard to achieve if you practice self-discipline and are self-aware. The pandemic has shaken the whole planet. None of us is alone in this situation, and as much as it would daunt us to be home, staying home is the only way we are safe and able to avoid spreading and prolonging this situation.

These times might be tough, but looking on the brighter side of things that you are getting to spend more time with your family should ease things out until we are finally able to step out. Till then, stay safe and stay at home!

Author Bio: Amanda Jerelyn is currently working as an Associate Consultant at Crowd Writer, an excellent platform to get research proposal writing service UK . She is a stay-at-home single mother. Amanda, having tackled work from home for quite some time now, likes to share her short-coming and experiences through her blog.

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Supporting next-generation educational programs that combine the metaverse experience with a problem-solving mindset

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カーボンニュートラル社会の実現 エネルギービジネスの変革に向けたカウントダウン（pdf）, creating social value - ey is fulfilling its corporate responsibilities through ey ripples, in which it leverages the professional knowledge of its people across various fields to carry out pro bono activities that benefit society., ey japan is playing its part by operating a next-generation educational program utilizing the latest technologies..

• Controlling a self-made avatar within the metaverse provides children with an opportunity to think about how to communicate with others.
• Using design thinking to find the best solutions to a problem.
• Showing how a pro bono project for EY Ripples leverages how EY does business to create a positive impact in society.

Experiencing the metaverse and creating avatars using VR headsets and tablets

The workshop enabled children to create and control their own avatars and to think about different ways to communicate with others.

This next-generation educational program is being carried out in conjunction with Education A³ of Fukuoka City (Representative Director: Yuichi Kusaba ) which is a Certified NPO Corporation. Education A³ is working to eliminate disparities within children’s education, particularly in the Fukuoka area, by operating alternative schools for children who are unable to attend mainstream education. The program aims to help these children nurture problem-solving abilities and ways of thinking that differ from what they would learn in mainstream classes.

It has four sessions and caters to students across a variety of age ranges, from the third grade of elementary school to high school. The first session was held at EY Digital Hub Fukuoka, facility established by EY to lead Japan’s digital transformation. Members of EY Strategy and Consulting’s Technology Consulting team provided a communication experience using the metaverse and virtual reality (VR).

The children were each provided with tablets to enter a virtual recreation of Fukuoka City’s Torikai Hachimangu shrine. They explored the shrine and its grounds using an avatar (a virtual character of themselves) which they created and took part in an information-gathering activity. They also used VR headsets to be more immersed in the virtual world, where they worked on clearing missions.

EY Japan also supported the building of the metaverse version of Torikai Hachimangu shrine that was used in the program. For c.1800 years, the shrine has been a center of faith and communication within the region so we gave thought to how to optimize the shrine in a way that would be relevant to the modern world.

EY Japan is also proposing and developing projects which unite cutting-edge technologies, including the metaverse, with our support for companies and organizations that are exploring new initiatives or are interested in merging real and digital environments. Building a metaverse version of Torikai Hachimangu shrine is just one example of our work.

The team from EY Japan used the same approach to create the metaverse experience for children as they do when giving a client demonstration in their everyday roles. Firstly, it was important that the children had a visceral experience of the metaverse by using a VR headset. Today, children are often referred to as digital natives and can quickly familiarize themselves with how to operate technology, with younger children tending to master it the fastest. One of the children at the session commented: “When I entered the metaverse, it was surprising at the start. But then it was fun, and I thought that modern technology is amazing.”

A particular highlight for the children was the time spent creating their own avatars. They were completely free to choose items such as their avatar’s face, hairstyle and clothing, making the avatar an aspirational model, rather than an accurate likeness of each child. Operating an avatar within the metaverse provided children who are unable to attend school with an opportunity to think about how to communicate with others.

Experiencing the opportunities for work and play in the metaverse helps to give children hope for the future. I also think that in an era of rapid change children can learn an important skill through early exposure to design thinking: they learn how to develop their own solution to a given problem. Yuichi Kusaba, Representative Director, Education A³

Working toward design thinking that gets to the heart of problem solving

The design thinking workshop was a valuable learning opportunity, not only for the children but also for the EY team. We were able to adjust the workshop content based on the children’s level of engagement, and establish our fundamental approach to design thinking.

The second and subsequent sessions were held as online workshops about design thinking. Team members from EY wavespace™, an innovation support hub that facilitates collaboration between various stakeholders, provided opportunities to learn how to think in a way that gets to the heart of a problem and, in turn, to its solution.

Design thinking is a method of applying the thought patterns used by designers in business situations: finding the fundamental solution to an issue can be a source of innovation. Design includes elements of planning and conceptualization and design thinking is included in programs at major US universities as a method for innovative thinking.

The EY team acted as facilitators and led discussions on issues familiar to children. They helped organize the many ideas suggested by the children to solve the problem and encouraged them to continue their discussions. The children in each group then presented their proposed solution.

This was the children’s first experience of design thinking. The second and subsequent sessions focused on junior high school students, who exchanged opinions using an online conferencing system and an online whiteboard tool to post and develop ideas. Many of the children appeared to initially find this difficult so the team responded by adjusting the difficulty of the program. When the children gained a better understanding of the scenario, they were able to contribute and get more involved.

One of the participants commented, “This was the first time do this. I don’t usually get opportunities to think so deeply about a topic, so it was really fun.” Building a basic approach to design thinking with content easily understood by junior high school students also proved a learning experience for the EY Japan team.

As adults tend to view things through existing frameworks, it was striking how the children could come up with novel ideas that were free of bias.

The children discussed creating new snacks suitable for field trips, generating far more innovative ideas than adults would.

A success that aligns with EY’s Purpose and how we do business

We want to combine new technologies like the metaverse with design thinking to enable children to find their own solutions to a problem.” This was the thinking behind the program and it was a project that also resonates with EY’s global shared purpose of Building a better working world. Innovation is generated through the intersection of many different approaches so, as well as being a pro bono project for the EY Ripples program, this was also an initiative that leveraged how EY does business to impact society. In this way, the program was a great success.

Yosuke Amano , EY wavespace™ Tokyo Leader

EY wavespace™

EY wavespace™   brings together business, design and technology, enabling companies to accelerate transformation, drive innovation and create measurable outcomes. With human-centered design and collaboration at our core methodologies, we support our clients reimagine what’s possible and reframe their thinking to solve problems together.

EY is fulfilling its corporate responsibilities through EY Ripples, and EY Japan is playing its part by operating a next-generation educational program utilizing the latest technologies.

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A Problem-Solving Mindset Is The Cornerstone Of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is not an easy profession, but as in any field, there are fundamental principles that govern success. As a successful entrepreneur, your business must fill a gap, solve a problem, or introduce and innovate a new product. Whether successful entrepreneurial problem-solvers use their talents to find success or whether these skills are developed after years of experience, successful entrepreneurs have a problem-solving mindset that helps them find solutions differently from other professionals.

As an entrepreneur and team leader, you will be responsible for identifying and ultimately solving the problems of your customers, partners, employees, and organization. Problem-solving is the cornerstone and one of the most critical aspects of entrepreneurship.

Problem-Solving Mindset

As an entrepreneur, you solve problems every day. Because the truth is, it’s easy to fall into the problem-solving trap. But adopting a problem-solving mindset can make your business more efficient than ever.

Adopting a problem-solving mindset is about facing any challenge and looking at it from a different perspective to overcome it, keeping all aspects of the business in mind.

The successful entrepreneur knows that problem-solving is vital. On the other hand, problem-solving is a talent that can develop. To do this well requires focusing on several of the following activities and practices:

1. Maintain a positive attitude

It is usual for startups to have problems starting up. Therefore, if you are angry or show a negative attitude towards the team over issues, you will negatively impact the potential success of your startup at risk. Successful problem-solving is often more a state of mind than any particular skill or process.

2. Learn to listen non-defensively

One cannot solve a problem without seeing or understanding it.

Therefore, one of the challenges many aspiring entrepreneurs face is not seeing and understanding their problems because of their enthusiasm, haste, and lack of recognition of an existing problem. So it would be best to listen more than you speak and learn to practice non-defensive listening to advisors, team members, and clients.

3. Effective communication

A successful entrepreneur communicates effectively with his team and determines the initial actions to solve problems. In addition, they take responsibility openly and explicitly and are committed to providing the appropriate solution.

4. Who consulted didn’t fail

During startups, some unique problems arise. As a successful entrepreneur, do not hesitate to seek advice from experienced professionals. He adopted the principle of ” who consulted didn’t fail, “as the diversity of points of view and see them from many different sides helps to solve them more quickly and successfully.

5. Data and analysis

Problems, by their nature, need information and data to help make the right decision to solve them. As a future entrepreneur, you must obtain information from appropriate and reliable sources and analyze it. Thus, you can make the proper decision based on data to solve the existing problem.

6. Create a tracking mechanism

Neglecting or not paying attention to the problem when it arises turns it into a crisis, which increases its complexity and the difficulty of resolving it quickly, in line with the institution’s workflow. To avoid this, you must find a mechanism or system to track each problem since it arises, keeping you focused on the problem until it is resolved.

7. Set measurements

It is natural that when starting startups, efforts are focused mainly on the organization’s external environment, such as customers, who constitute the primary source of revenue for the establishment. As a result, the focus should be more on solving internal problems when they arise, or they should be addressed, which leads to their worsening. So it would be best if you made sure that there are metrics for the number of issues, the time to resolve them, and the revenue impact.

8. Analyze the previous problems

To confirm interest and follow-up, you should analyze the problems encountered by the establishment and how to resolve them. Analyzing the data and information of these problems helps you avoid similar or similar problems. Note that there is no same problem as the other, but review and analysis provide you with many indicators that help you solve your problems.

Every aspiring entrepreneur needs to nurture and develop a problem-solving mindset. So, there is a lot to gain from adopting the problem-solving techniques of top decision-makers in the field of entrepreneurship. Applying different styles of thinking and new leadership philosophy and being open to more potential problem-solving options will help you solve problems more comprehensively and reap better results in the long run.

Dr Atef Awad

Employees having well-developed problem-solving skills is a competitive advantage for an organization, a successful leader reinforces a problem-solving culture in organizations.

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Research: How Different Fields Are Using GenAI to Redefine Roles

• Maryam Alavi

Examples from customer support, management consulting, professional writing, legal analysis, and software and technology.

The interactive, conversational, analytical, and generative features of GenAI offer support for creativity, problem-solving, and processing and digestion of large bodies of information. Therefore, these features can act as cognitive resources for knowledge workers. Moreover, the capabilities of GenAI can mitigate various hindrances to effective performance that knowledge workers may encounter in their jobs, including time pressure, gaps in knowledge and skills, and negative feelings (such as boredom stemming from repetitive tasks or frustration arising from interactions with dissatisfied customers). Empirical research and field observations have already begun to reveal the value of GenAI capabilities and their potential for job crafting.

There is an expectation that implementing new and emerging Generative AI (GenAI) tools enhances the effectiveness and competitiveness of organizations. This belief is evidenced by current and planned investments in GenAI tools, especially by firms in knowledge-intensive industries such as finance, healthcare, and entertainment, among others. According to forecasts, enterprise spending on GenAI will increase by two-fold in 2024 and grow to $151.1 billion by 2027 .

• Maryam Alavi is the Elizabeth D. & Thomas M. Holder Chair & Professor of IT Management, Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology .

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Everybody seems to be talking about 3 Body Problem , the new Netflix series based on Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past book trilogy . Fewer people are talking about the two series’ namesake: The unsolvable physics problem of the same name.

This makes sense, because it’s confusing . In physics, the three-body problem attempts to find a way to predict the movements of three objects whose gravity interacts with each of the others — like three stars that are close together in space. Sounds simple enough, right? Yet I myself recently pulled up the Wikipedia article on the three-body problem and closed the tab in the same manner that a person might stagger away from a bright light. Apparently the Earth, sun, and moon are a three-body system? Are you telling me we don’t know how the moon moves ? Scientists have published multiple solutions for the three-body problem? Are you telling me Cixin Liu’s books are out of date?

All I’d wanted to know was why the problem was considered unsolvable, and now memories of my one semester of high school physics were swimming before my eyes like so many glowing doom numbers. However, despite my pains, I have readied several ways that we non-physicists can be confident that the three-body problem is, in fact, unsolvable.

Reason 1: This is a special definition of ‘unsolvable’

The three-body problem is extra confusing, because scientists are seemingly constantly finding new solutions to the three-body problem! They just don’t mean a one-solution-for-all solution. Such a formula does exist for a two-body system, and apparently Isaac Newton figured it out in 1687 . But systems with more than two bodies are, according to physicists, too chaotic (i.e., not in the sense of a child’s messy bedroom, but in the sense of “chaos theory”) to be corralled by a single solution.

When physicists say they have a new solution to the three-body problem, they mean that they’ve found a specific solution for three-body systems that have certain theoretical parameters. Don’t ask me to explain those parameters, because they’re all things like “the three masses are collinear at each instant” or “a zero angular momentum solution with three equal masses moving around a figure-eight shape.” But basically: By narrowing the focus of the problem to certain arrangements of three-body systems, physicists have been able to derive formulas that predict the movements of some of them, like in our solar system. The mass of the Earth and the sun create a “ restricted three-body problem ,” where a less-big body (in this case, the moon) moves under the influence of two massive ones (the Earth and the sun).

What physicists mean when they say the three-body problem has no solution is simply that there isn’t a one-formula-fits-all solution to every way that the gravity of three objects might cause those objects to move — which is exactly what Three-Body Problem bases its whole premise on.

Reason 2: 3 Body Problem picked an unsolved three-body system on purpose

Henri Poincaré’s research into a general solution to the three-body problem formed the basis of what would become known as chaos theory (you might know it from its co-starring role in Jurassic Park ). And 3 Body Problem itself isn’t about any old three-body system. It’s specifically about an extremely chaotic three-body system, the exact kind of arrangement of bodies that Poincaré was focused on when he showed that the problem is “unsolvable.”

[ Ed. note: The rest of this section includes some spoilers for 3 Body Problem .]

In both Liu’s books and Netflix’s 3 Body Problem , humanity faces an invasion by aliens (called Trisolarans in the English translation of the books, and San-Ti in the TV series) whose home solar system features three suns in a chaotic three-body relationship. It is a world where, unlike ours, the heavens are fundamentally unpredictable. Periods of icy cold give way to searing heat that give way to swings in gravity that turn into temporary reprieves that can never be trusted. The unpredictable nature of the San-Ti environment is the source of every detail of their physicality, their philosophy, and their desire to claim Earth for their own.

In other words, 3 Body Problem ’s three-body problem is unsolvable because Liu wanted to write a story with an unsolvable three-body system, so he chose one of the three-body systems for which we have not discovered a solution, and might never.

Reason 3: Scientists are still working on the three-body problem

Perhaps the best reason I can give you to believe that the three-body problem is real, and is really unsolvable, is that some scientists published a whole set of new solutions for specific three-body systems very recently .

If physicists are still working on the three-body problem, we can safely assume that it has not been solved. Scientists, after all, are the real experts. And I am definitely not.

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Six problem-solving mindsets for very uncertain times

Great problem solvers are made, not born. That’s what we’ve found after decades of problem solving with leaders across business, nonprofit, and policy sectors. These leaders learn to adopt a particularly open and curious mindset, and adhere to a systematic process for cracking even the most inscrutable problems. They’re terrific problem solvers under any conditions. And when conditions of uncertainty are at their peak, they’re at their brilliant best.

Six mutually reinforcing approaches underly their success: (1) being ever-curious about every element of a problem; (2) being imperfectionists , with a high tolerance for ambiguity; (3) having a “dragonfly eye” view of the world, to see through multiple lenses; (4) pursuing occurrent behavior and experimenting relentlessly; (5) tapping into the collective intelligence , acknowledging that the smartest people are not in the room; and (6) practicing “show and tell” because storytelling begets action (exhibit).

Here’s how they do it.

1. Be ever-curious

As any parent knows, four-year-olds are unceasing askers. Think of the never-ending “whys” that make little children so delightful—and relentless. For the very young, everything is new and wildly uncertain. But they’re on a mission of discovery, and they’re determined to figure things out. And they’re good at it! That high-energy inquisitiveness is why we have high shelves and childproof bottles.

When you face radical uncertainty, remember your four-year-old or channel the four-year-old within you. Relentlessly ask, “Why is this so?” Unfortunately, somewhere between preschool and the boardroom, we tend to stop asking. Our brains make sense of massive numbers of data points by imposing patterns that have worked for us and other humans in the past. That’s why a simple technique, worth employing at the beginning of problem solving, is simply to pause and ask why conditions or assumptions are so until you arrive at the root of the problem. 1 This approach was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota.

Natural human biases in decision making, including confirmation, availability, and anchoring biases, often cause us to shut down the range of solutions too early. 2 Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow , New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. Better—and more creative—solutions come from being curious about the broader range of potential answers.

One simple suggestion from author and economist Caroline Webb to generate more curiosity in team problem solving is to put a question mark behind your initial hypotheses or first-cut answers. This small artifice is surprisingly powerful: it tends to encourage multiple solution paths and puts the focus, correctly, on assembling evidence. We also like thesis/antithesis, or red team/blue team, sessions, in which you divide a group into opposing teams that argue against the early answers—typically, more traditional conclusions that are more likely to come from a conventional pattern. Why is this solution better? Why not that one? We’ve found that better results come from embracing uncertainty. Curiosity is the engine of creativity.

We have to be comfortable with estimating probabilities to make good decisions, even when these guesses are imperfect. Unfortunately, we have truckloads of evidence showing that human beings aren’t good intuitive statisticians.

2. Tolerate ambiguity—and stay humble!

When we think of problem solvers, many of us tend to picture a poised and brilliant engineer. We may imagine a mastermind who knows what she’s doing and approaches a problem with purpose. The reality, though, is that most good problem solving has a lot of trial and error; it’s more like the apparent randomness of rugby than the precision of linear programming. We form hypotheses, porpoise into the data, and then surface and refine (or throw out) our initial guess at the answer. This above all requires an embrace of imperfection and a tolerance for ambiguity—and a gambler’s sense of probabilities.

The real world is highly uncertain. Reality unfolds as the complex product of stochastic events and human reactions. The impact of COVID-19 is but one example: we address the health and economic effects of the disease, and their complex interactions, with almost no prior knowledge. We have to be comfortable with estimating probabilities to make good decisions, even when these guesses are imperfect. Unfortunately, we have truckloads of evidence showing that human beings aren’t good intuitive statisticians. Guesses based on gut instinct can be wildly wrong. That’s why one of the keys to operating in uncertain environments is epistemic humility, which Erik Angner defines as “the realization that our knowledge is always provisional and incomplete—and that it might require revision in light of new evidence.” 3 Erik Angner, “Epistemic humility—knowing your limits in a pandemic,” Behavioral Scientist , April 13, 2020, behavioralscientist.org.

Recent research shows that we are better at solving problems when we think in terms of odds rather than certainties. 4 Annie Duke, Thinking in Terms of Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts , New York, NY: Portfolio/Penguin, 2018. For example, when the Australian research body Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which owned a core patent on the wireless internet protocol, sought royalties from major companies, it was initially rebuffed. The CSIRO bet that it could go to court to protect its intellectual property because it estimated that it needed only 10 percent odds of success for this to be a good wager, given the legal costs and likely payoff. It improved its odds by picking the weakest of the IP violators and selecting a legal jurisdiction that favored plaintiffs. This probabilistic thinking paid off and eventually led to settlements to CSIRO exceeding $500 million. 5 CSIRO briefing to US Government, December 5, 2006. A tolerance for ambiguity and a willingness to play the odds helped the organization feel its way to a good solution path.

To embrace imperfectionism with epistemic humility, start by challenging solutions that imply certainty. You can do that in the nicest way by asking questions such as “What would we have to believe for this to be true?” This brings to the surface implicit assumptions about probabilities and makes it easier to assess alternatives. When uncertainty is high, see if you can make small moves or acquire information at a reasonable cost to edge out into a solution set. Perfect knowledge is in short supply, particularly for complex business and societal problems. Embracing imperfection can lead to more effective problem solving. It’s practically a must in situations of high uncertainty, such as the beginning of a problem-solving process or during an emergency.

Good problem solving typically involves designing experiments to reduce key uncertainties. Each move provides additional information and builds capabilities.

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3. take a dragonfly-eye view.

Dragonfly-eye perception is common to great problem solvers. Dragonflies have large, compound eyes, with thousands of lenses and photoreceptors sensitive to different wavelengths of light. Although we don’t know exactly how their insect brains process all this visual information, by analogy they see multiple perspectives not available to humans. The idea of a dragonfly eye taking in 360 degrees of perception 6 Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction , New York, NY: Crown, 2015. is an attribute of “superforecasters”—people, often without domain expertise, who are the best at forecasting events.

Think of this as widening the aperture on a problem or viewing it through multiple lenses. The object is to see beyond the familiar tropes into which our pattern-recognizing brains want to assemble perceptions. By widening the aperture, we can identify threats or opportunities beyond the periphery of vision.

Consider the outbreak of HIV in India in the early 1990s—a major public-health threat. Ashok Alexander, director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s India Aids Initiative, provided a brilliant example of not just vision but also dragonfly vision. Facing a complex social map with a rapidly increasing infection rate, he widened the problem’s definition, from a traditional epidemiological HIV transmission model at known “hot spots,” to one in which sex workers facing violence were made the centerpiece.

This approach led to the “Avahan solution,” which addressed a broader set of leverage points by including the sociocultural context of sex work. The solution was rolled out to more than 600 communities and eventually credited with preventing 600,000 infections. The narrow medical perspective was sensible and expected, but it didn’t tap into the related issue of violence against sex workers, which yielded a richer solution set. Often, a secret unlocks itself only when one looks at a problem from multiple perspectives, including some that initially seem orthogonal.

The secret to developing a dragonfly-eye view is to “anchor outside” rather than inside when faced with problems of uncertainty and opportunity. Take the broader ecosystem as a starting point. That will encourage you to talk with customers, suppliers, or, better yet, players in a different but related industry or space. Going through the customer journey with design-thinking in mind is another powerful way to get a 360-degree view of a problem. But take note: when decision makers face highly constrained time frames or resources, they may have to narrow the aperture and deliver a tight, conventional answer.

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4. pursue occurrent behavior.

Occurrent behavior is what actually happens in a time and place, not what was potential or predicted behavior. Complex problems don’t give up their secrets easily. But that shouldn’t deter problem solvers from exploring whether evidence on the facets of a solution can be observed, or running experiments to test hypotheses. You can think of this approach as creating data rather than just looking for what has been collected already. It’s critical for new market entry—or new market creation. It also comes in handy should you find that crunching old data is leading to stale solutions.

Most of the problem-solving teams we are involved with have twin dilemmas of uncertainty and complexity, at times combined as truly “wicked problems.” 7 A term coined in a now famous 1973 article: Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin Webber, “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning,” Policy Sciences , 1973, Number 4, pp. 155–69. For companies ambitious to win in the great unknown in an emerging segment—such as electric cars or autonomous vehicles, where the market isn’t fully established—good problem solving typically involves designing experiments to reduce key uncertainties, not just relying on existing data. Each move (such as buying IP or acquiring a component supplier) and each experiment (including on-road closed tests) not only provides additional information to make decisions but also builds capabilities and assets that support further steps. Over time, their experiments, including alliances and acquisitions, come to resemble staircases that lead to either the goal or to abandonment of the goal. Problem-solving organizations can “bootstrap” themselves into highly uncertain new spaces, building information, foundational assets, and confidence as they take steps forward.

Risk-embracing problem solvers find a solution path by constantly experimenting. Statisticians use the abbreviation EVPI—the expected value of perfect information—to show the value of gaining additional information that typically comes from samples and experiments, such as responses to price changes in particular markets. A/B testing is a powerful tool for experimenting with prices, promotions, and other features and is particularly useful for digital marketplaces and consumer goods. Online marketplaces make A/B testing easy. Yet most conventional markets also offer opportunities to mimic the market’s segmentation and use it to test different approaches.

The mindset required to be a restless experimenter is consistent with the notion in start-ups of “failing fast.” It means that you get product and customer affirmation or rejection quickly through beta tests and trial offerings. Don’t take a lack of external data as an impediment—it may actually be a gift, since purchasable data is almost always from a conventional way of meeting needs, and is available to your competitors too. Your own experiments allow you to generate your own data; this gives you insights that others don’t have. If it is difficult (or unethical) to experiment, look for the “natural experiments” provided by different policies in similar locations. An example would be to compare outcomes in twin cities, such as Minneapolis–St. Paul.

It’s a mistake to think that your team has the smartest people in the room. They aren’t there. They’re invariably somewhere else. Nor do they need to be there if you can access their intelligence via other means.

5. Tap into collective intelligence and the wisdom of the crowd

Chris Bradley, a coauthor of Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick , 8 Chris Bradley, Marin Hirt, and Sven Smit, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds , Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2018. observed that “it’s a mistake to think that on your team you have the smartest people in the room. They aren’t there. They’re invariably somewhere else.” 9 For more from Chris Bradley, in a conversation with Rob McLean, see “ Want better strategies? Become a bulletproof problem solver ,” August 2019. Nor do they need to be there if you can access their intelligence via other means. In an ever-changing world where conditions can evolve unpredictably, crowdsourcing invites the smartest people in the world to work with you. For example, in seeking a machine-learning algorithm to identify fish catch species and quantities on fishing boats, the Nature Conservancy (TNC) turned to Kaggle and offered a $150,000 prize for the best algorithm. This offer attracted 2,293 teams from all over the world. TNC now uses the winning algorithm to identify fish types and sizes caught on fishing boats in Asia to protect endangered Pacific tuna and other species.

Crowdsourced problem solving is familiar in another guise: benchmarking. When Sir Rod Carnegie was CEO of Conzinc Riotinto Australia (CRA), he was concerned about the costs of unscheduled downtime with heavy trucks, particularly those requiring tire changes. He asked his management team who was best in the world at changing tires; their answer was Formula One, the auto racing competition. A team traveled to the United Kingdom to learn best practice for tire changes in racetrack pits and then implemented what it learned thousands of miles away, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The smartest team for this problem wasn’t in the mining industry at all.

Of course, while crowdsourcing can be useful when conventional thinking yields solutions that are too expensive or incomplete for the challenge at hand, it has its limitations. Good crowdsourcing takes time to set up, can be expensive, and may signal to your competitors what you are up to. Beware of hidden costs, such as inadvertently divulging information and having to sieve through huge volumes of irrelevant, inferior suggestions to find the rare gem of a solution.

Accept that it’s OK to draw on diverse experiences and expertise other than your own. Start with brainstorming sessions that engage people from outside your team. Try broader crowdsourcing competitions to generate ideas. Or bring in deep-learning talent to see what insights exist in your data that conventional approaches haven’t brought to light. The broader the circles of information you access, the more likely it is that your solutions will be novel and creative.

Rookie problem solvers show you their analytic process and math to convince you they are clever. Seasoned problem solvers show you differently.

6. Show and tell to drive action

We started our list of mindsets with a reference to children, and we return to children now, with “show and tell.” As you no doubt remember—back when you were more curious!—show and tell is an elementary-school activity. It’s not usually associated with problem solving, but it probably piqued your interest. In fact, this approach is critical to problem solving. Show and tell is how you connect your audience with the problem and then use combinations of logic and persuasion to get action.

The show-and-tell mindset aims to bring decision makers into a problem-solving domain you have created. A team from the Nature Conservancy, for instance, was presenting a proposal asking a philanthropic foundation to support the restoration of oyster reefs. Before the presentation, the team brought 17 plastic buckets of water into the boardroom and placed them around the perimeter. When the foundation’s staff members entered the room, they immediately wanted to know what the buckets were for. The team explained that oyster-reef restoration massively improves water quality because each oyster filters 17 buckets of water per day. Fish stocks improve, and oysters can also be harvested to help make the economics work. The decision makers were brought into the problem-solving domain through show and tell. They approved the funding requested and loved the physical dimension of the problem they were part of solving.

Rookie problem solvers show you their analytic process and mathematics to convince you that they are clever. That’s sometimes called APK, the anxious parade of knowledge. But seasoned problem solvers show you differently. The most elegant problem solving is that which makes the solution obvious. The late economist Herb Simon put it this way: “Solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent.” 10 Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969.

To get better at show and tell, start by being clear about the action that should flow from your problem solving and findings: the governing idea for change. Then find a way to present your logic visually so that the path to answers can be debated and embraced. Present the argument emotionally as well as logically, and show why the preferred action offers an attractive balance between risks and rewards. But don’t stop there. Spell out the risks of inaction, which often have a higher cost than imperfect actions have.

The mindsets of great problem solvers are just as important as the methods they employ. A mindset that encourages curiosity, embraces imperfection, rewards a dragonfly-eye view of the problem, creates new data from experiments and collective intelligence, and drives action through compelling show-and-tell storytelling creates radical new possibilities under high levels of unpredictability. Of course, these approaches can be helpful in a broad range of circumstances, but in times of massive uncertainty, they are essential.

Charles Conn is an alumnus of McKinsey’s Sydney office and is a board member of Patagonia and former CEO of the Rhodes Trust. Robert McLean is an alumnus of the Sydney office and is the advisory-board chair of the Nature Conservancy Australia. They are the authors of Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything (Wiley, 2018).

This article was edited by David Schwartz, an executive editor in the Tel Aviv office.

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Opinion | Should we have age limits or cognitive tests…

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Opinion | Should we have age limits or cognitive tests for politicians?

With recent questions being raised about the mental competence of presidential candidates and congresspeople, it’s worth thinking about what should be done about it or whether we should do anything about it at all. An age limit has been proposed although it’s far from clear if this is something we should implement. Since part of the reason we’re considering whether to implement such a measure is to exclude individuals like Biden and Trump, I’ll assume that the limit would be somewhere around 75. Not much of what I say here depends on whether this is the optimal age limit.

An unintended consequence of an upper limit is that we would also be excluding many individuals who are perfectly capable of carrying out the duties of office. I personally know many people over the age of 75 who are about as mentally sound as anyone. I’d actually vote for some of them if they were on the ballot.

While this is not an unfounded concern, current candidates must be over the age of 35 to run for the presidency. To some this might justify an upper age limit. The thought behind the lower limit is that we think that age correlates with traits like wisdom and experience. We want our presidents to have certain characteristics, such as experience, and we want them to lack others, such as the impulsiveness that comes with young age.

We might apply similar reasoning to justify an upper limit. Certain diseases like dementia and general cognitive decline correlate with age. So the justification for a 75 year limit is similar to the lower limit currently in effect: being a president is extremely difficult so for the sake of the public good, we need to make sure that candidates are able to perform the required duties.

There is a practical argument here: an age limit is the best we can do. We use the age limit as a broad protection against a president having a certain trait, just like we use the age minimum. Of course, there are many capable, intelligent, and ethical individuals under 35. But generally speaking perhaps, we might think that we get more experienced and wise individuals after 35.

One problem with this is that people over the age of 80 only have a one in six chance of developing dementia. While this may seem high, this means of course that there’s a five in six chance that they won’t. The great majority of individuals in the 65 to 80 age range will not have dementia, which casts doubt on the justification for the age limit, particularly when we note that the rate of cognitive problems is dependent on the present and future state of medicine.

We are trying to account for mental decline, so a more direct proposal would be to implement yearly mandatory cognitive tests. Trump submitted himself to a cognitive test, which he apparently passed with flying colors – yeah, we’re going to need an independent office to design and administer the exam.

This would allow us to address our concerns with individuals like our current presidential candidates while also avoiding discriminating against the elderly who are perfectly fit to serve. Implementing mental fitness tests would present several challenges. How would that test be designed and where should we set the threshold for a passing grade?

It’s clear that there are many concerning features of both an age limit and a mental fitness test. They both suffer from their own threshold problem. But we don’t have to throw our hands up about this. The threshold problem with an age limit appears to be more vicious than the threshold problem with cognitive tests.

An age limit casts a wider net and has the potential to exclude many more capable individuals. There is no perfect solution to this problem and there will be ambiguous cases where competent candidates are excluded either way. But we cannot allow compromised individuals to hold such powerful positions. At least a cognitive test for holding office directly targets the problem we’re trying to solve – it’s about mental acuity, not age.

Rafael Perez is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Rochester. You can reach him at [email protected].

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