problem solving or problem solving uk

“Problem-Solving” Or “Problem Solving”? Learn If It Is Hyphenated

Is it problem-solving or problem solving? Hyphenation rules seem to be a little confusing when you’re first picking up a language. Don’t worry, though. They’re not nearly as complicated as the language may have led you to believe!

Problem-Solving Or Problem Solving – Hyphenated Or Not?

When we discuss the problem-solving hyphen rule, we learn that problem-solving is hyphenated when used to modify a noun or object in a sentence. We keep the two words separated when using them as their own noun and not modifying anything else in the sentence.

Examples Of When To Use “Problem-Solving”

Now that we’re into the whole debate of problem-solving vs problem solving, let’s look through some examples of how we can use “problem-solving” with a hyphen. As stated above, we use “problem-solving” when modifying a noun or object in a sentence. It’s the most common way to write “problem-solving.” Even the spelling without a hyphen is slowly being pushed out of common language use!

• This is a problem-solving class.
• I hold a problem-solving position at my workplace.
• My manager put me in charge of the problem-solving accounts.
• They say I have a problem-solving mind.
• We’re known as problem-solving children.

Examples Of When To Use “Problem Solving”

Though much less common to be seen written as a phrase noun, it is still worth mentioning. It’s grammatically correct to use “problem solving” at the end of a sentence or clause without a hyphen. However, as we stated above, many people are beginning to prefer the ease of sticking to the hyphenated spelling, meaning that it’s slowly phasing out of existence even in this form.

• I’m good at problem solving.
• This requires a lot of problem solving.
• We are all trained in problem solving.
• My job asks for problem solving.
• Did you say you were good at problem solving?

Is Problem-Solving Hyphenated AP Style?

Have you had a look through the rules in the AP stylebook before? Even if you haven’t, there’s a good explanation for hyphens there. As we stated above, we use hyphens when linking close words that modify a noun or object in a sentence. They’re used to help a reader better understand what is going on through the modification of the clause.

Should I Capitalize “Solving” In The Word “Problem-Solving”?

The question of “is problem-solving hyphenated” was answered, but now we’ve got a new question. What happens to capitalization rules when we add a hyphen to a title. It depends on your own title choices, so let’s look a little further into the three potential options. The first option capitalizes only the first word and any proper nouns in a title. In this case, neither word in “problem-solving” is capitalized.

The second option capitalizes all words except for short conjunctions, short prepositions, and articles. In this case, you will always capitalize “problem” but always leave “solving” uncapitalized. The final option capitalizes every single word in a title. No matter what, you’ll capitalize both words in “problem-solving” when using this style to write your titles.

Does The Rule Also Apply To “Problem Solver” Vs “Problem-Solver”?

The same rule does apply when we use “problem solver” instead of “problem solving.” However, it’s not often that we’ll see a “problem-solver” modifying a noun or object (unless it’s a problem-solver robot or something). So, it’s most likely you’ll write “problem solver.”

Alternatives To “Problem-Solving”

If you’re still struggling with the hyphen rule of whether it’s problem solving or problem-solving, there’s one last thing we can help you with. We can give you some alternatives that have the same meanings but don’t require a hyphen. This way, you can be safe in your own knowledge without having to worry about getting the rules wrong.

• interpretive

Quiz – Problem-Solving Or Problem Solving?

We’ll finish with a quiz to see how much you’ve learned from this article. The answers are all multiple choice, so you should have a blast with them! We’ll include the answers at the end to reference as well.

• I’ve been told that I’m good at (A. problem-solving / B. problem solving).
• I hold my (A. problem-solving / B. problem solving) skills close to my heart.
• We aren’t great at (A. problem-solving / B. problem solving).
• These are all the best (A. problem-solving / B. problem solving) subjects.
• Can we have a go at a (A. problem-solving / B. problem solving) puzzle?

Quiz Answers

Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here .

• Full time or Full-time? Learn if “Full time” is hyphenated
• “Well written” or “Well-written”? Learn If “Well written” Is Hyphenated
• “On-Time” Or “On Time”? Learn If “On Time” Is Hyphenated
• Year round or Year-round? (Hyphen Rule Explained)

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Problem-solving skills: What are they? + examples

Problem-solving skills are essential in all types of workplaces as well as in your wider life. This article takes you through the different types of problem-solving skills including how to improve them and demonstrate them in the job application process.

What are problem-solving skills?

Examples of problem-solving skills, how to improve problem-solving skills, how to include problem-solving skills in a cv, how to include problem-solving skills in a cover letter.

• Problem-solving interview questions

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Having great problem-solving skills allows you to handle situations you don’t expect or challenges you may face at work. Being able to utilise your problem-solving skills means you can assess complex problems well and form effective solutions. Not only is this great for your personal and professional lives; it makes you a valuable asset to any team.

These skills are crucial at all stages in your career, and strong problem-solving skills are important in a wide variety of jobs. Problem-solving skills are closely related to decision-making skills and communication skills. In order to effectively understand the problem and relay your solution, you need to communicate effectively with your team, plus be decisive in the approach you collectively take to the problem.

Since problem-solving skills are soft skills, you can easily improve them through practice. Learn how to solve problems creatively with the below Academy module.

CTA: Academy problem-solving module

Problem-solving can be split into various different skills which help build up your ability to effectively resolve an issue. Here are five potential sub-skills of problem-solving that you can use:

Research skills

This relates to your ability to find, draw out, organise and assess available information on a certain subject or situation. This includes data collection, time management, critical thinking and detail orientation, among other skills. Research skills are crucial when problem-solving so you have access to the correct information to solve the problem. 

Learn more about research skills and how you can develop yours.

Analytical skills      

Having great analytical skills means being able to effectively unpick a situation by effectively using the data available to you. Therefore, analytical skills are a combination of data analysis, critical thinking and visualisation among others. 

Decision-making skills

Whenever you choose to do something in your daily life, whether professional, academic or personal, you are demonstrating decision-making skills. Having effective decision-making skills means combining several aspects which you use to make the best decision in a given scenario, including logical reasoning, intuition, teamwork, conflict resolution, organisation and emotional intelligence.

Project management skills

In your professional life, there are likely to be projects or tasks that you’re assigned or you take on which you lead. This could be anything from minor tasks to shaking up a whole area of the business. Regardless of the size, if it’s your project to own, it requires project management skills. This involves communication, negotiation, time management and leadership to get your project done efficiently and within the agreed timeframe.

Want to learn more? Read this project management skills article.

Assessment skills

This is your ability to recognise how well something or someone has done. It might be reviewing the work a colleague has completed and addressing what needs to be improved upon and where the work is great, or it might be reflecting on an event, meeting, strategy session or other which you’ve been a part of or run recently and identifying the strengths and weaknesses. Assessment skills mean you can effectively assess the success of something and sometimes involve data analysis and interpretation skills to understand the full picture.

Learn how to develop your entire transferable skillset with this free online learning course. You'll also get a certificate once you complete the course that you can display on your CV and LinkedIn profile.

The level of your problem-solving skills is by no means fixed and you can take easy steps throughout your working day to improve upon them. Even if you have very strong problem-solving skills, it’s worth identifying if there are areas you could improve on. Follow these simple actions to improve your problem-solving skills:

Practice . The best way to improve on a skill is to take the time and practise it. This could include volunteering yourself to help when an issue arises at work or at home, identifying a long-standing issue and finding a solution for it or asking your friends, family or colleagues if there’s anything they’re stuck on that you can help with.

Be solution-focused . This may require a shift in mindset on your part. If you identify a problem or someone reaches out to you with a problem, instead of worrying about the issue itself, focus instead on the reasonable steps you can take to find a solution. Put the emphasis on finding an answer rather than over-assessing the problem.

Learn from others . A great way to learn is from others. If you can see a colleague or peer that is particularly good at solving problems, watch them! See what their process is and how they go about dealing with an issue. You can even ask them questions about how they came to a conclusion or practically solved the issue.

Improve your technical knowledge . Some problem-solving comes from having a greater understanding of the issue that you’re facing. For example, if you’re struggling to get a piece of software to do what you need it to, learn more about the software. You could watch videos, contact colleagues or peers who use the software more than you or even ask on a forum or the company’s helpline.

Use brainstorms to assess your ideas . Not all problem-solving needs to be done alone. A fantastic way to improve your skills is to learn from others. Try brainstorming with peers or colleagues around a problem and have each member of the group think up an idea on how you can resolve the issue. This way, you can bounce ideas off of each other and hopefully find a sensible solution collectively.

Simplify situations . Try not to over-complicate the issue. If you’re struggling to find the solution to the problem as a whole, break it down into a series of smaller issues to which you can find answers more easily. 

Seek feedback . Learn from experience. If you’ve recently worked on or solved a problem, ask the people you worked with, perhaps a colleague or a peer, to give you some feedback on how they think you did. Consider asking them some structured questions which would help you learn from the experience and their perspective of how you’ve performed so you can improve for next time.

Your CV is the ideal place to highlight all the great skills you’ve acquired to demonstrate why you’d be a fantastic employee in any role. Since problem-solving is such a widely sought-after skill, including it in your CV is a great way to make yourself noticed and prove you have the skill set the employer is looking for.

We recommend having a specific section in your CV dedicated to your skills under your employment history. In this section, you can name the skill, for example, problem-solving, project management and analytical skills. After you’ve named the skills, we recommend including a very brief one-line description of when you either acquired the skill or demonstrated it in your working, personal or academic life. This way, you’re proving you have the skill rather than just naming it.

Need some help making sure your CV is ready for applications? Read our guide on  how to write a CV including some great templates for you to download and customise.

Much like including your problem-solving skills in your CV, demonstrating them in your cover letter is another great way to get noticed by employers. This is your opportunity to expand on what you’ve written in your CV, so make sure to include practical examples on when you’ve shown the skills you’re claiming to have.

There are many ways that you can do this, and it depends on the structure you’re using for your cover letter. If you have lots of work experience, you can structure your cover letter around the different jobs you’ve had. Alternatively, if you don’t have a great deal of experience, you can structure your cover letter around the skills you’ve acquired throughout your professional, academic and personal life. Here are examples of how you can do this:

In my role as a customer service advisor, I demonstrated clear problem-solving skills. One of my tasks included helping make sure the shop was tidy and had no safety hazards for customers or staff. I recognised that customers were repeatedly leaving large items out of the shelves that they were meant to be stored in which blocked a fire door and therefore was a safety hazard. After identifying this issue, I reviewed the aisle and located a position away from the fire door which had smaller items being stored there. With the permission of my manager, I swapped over the items, preventing the hazard from reoccurring.

I have demonstrated my problem-solving skills in my prior experience. When I was social secretary for the History Society at my university, I was involved in organising the annual ball for our members. The first venue I booked for the event was cancelled just a week before the ball was supposed to take place. Instead of cancelling, I assessed the situation and researched local venues which would accommodate us. I found two possible options and managed to negotiate a reduction in price compared to the original quote. As such, we were able to secure a bigger venue allowing for more attendees to the event and saving money.

Need some help making sure your cover letter is perfect for your applications? Read our guides on  how to structure a cover letter and  how to write a good cover letter

Problem-solving interview questions and answers

Since problem-solving is such a key skill employers look for, it’s not uncommon for employers to ask you questions about it during an interview. In most cases, they’re trying to fully understand how you have dealt with a situation in the past, so they have an idea of how you would perform and behave if you were to solve a problem as their employee. Here are 10 interview questions about problem-solving that you might be asked at your next interview and examples of how you could respond:

What process do you follow when you identify a problem?

In general, I identify the problem, recognise all the factors influencing the problem I can, consult with someone else to make sure I’m not neglecting any factors, provide several solutions, assess the impact of each solution and select the solution which best solves the problem with minimal negative impact and maximum positive impact. One example of this was when I was part of a university society working to get sponsorship for our events. One local company approached us and suggested sponsoring us, but the company didn’t quite match the ethos of the society. After considering it myself and speaking with other committee members, we decided to go ahead with the sponsorship on the basis that the messaging of the company didn’t clash with or undermine that of the society and the money from the company could be used to do a lot of good in the community we’ve built.

How would you resolve an issue with an unsatisfied customer or client?

When working in retail, I occasionally had to deal with unhappy customers as this is part of the service. One time, a customer came in complaining that they had seen an item on the website but couldn’t find it in-store. I explained that we don’t offer the entire range of items from the website, but the customer was unhappy having travelled to get here. Instead of escalating the issue to my manager, I worked with the customer to find the item they wanted, order it for home delivery and secure them a small discount which they were eligible for but weren’t aware of.

Talk about a situation where you’ve had to change your approach at the last minute

Whilst studying, one of the projects for a module I completed was a group project. My group consisted of four members including myself. We all agreed to collaborate on the task and then set ourselves the task of collecting data on a topic we agreed upon and coming together to combine it into a presentation and practice before the assessment. However, one member of the group became unwell a week before the presentation. Therefore, I was sent all the information that the group member had collected so far, researched deeper into the topic since it’s not my area of expertise, and combined my existing information with the group member’s and my additional research. Overall, we had a very successful presentation which we scored highly in. 

Talk about a time you’ve taken charge when solving a problem

During my time working in retail, my manager left the store to deal with a delivery and my colleague and I stayed to serve customers. During the time my manager was unavailable, one of the tills stopped working, cutting down the number of customers we could serve at one time by half. Instead of running out to get my manager to deal with the issue, I told my colleague to continue serving customers with the working till while I troubleshot the issue, first with my own understanding of the system and then by calling our IT-Support who were able to access the till remotely and resolve the fault.

To summarise, here are the most important pieces of information for you to take away:

• Problem-solving is a highly sought-after skill by employers. You should be able to demonstrate an instance in which you’ve dealt with a problem, either on your own or with a group, to show the employer you have the skill.
• Problem-solving includes several different skills including analytical skills, research skills, decision-making skills, project management skills and assessment skills.
• There are numerous ways for you to improve your problem-solving skills, so don’t feel that you can’t get better.

You can include your problem-solving skills in your CV and cover letter and talk about them in an interview to help you show an employer you’re a great candidate and have the right soft skills for the role. Want to improve on other soft skills? Read our soft skills employers value article. 

Browse thousands of available graduate jobs, schemes and more and demonstrate to employers that you're able to use your problem-solving skills to succeed at interview and in your early career. 

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What are the Differences in Meaning Between "Problem Solving" and "Solving Problems"

Problem Solving tells us what you do.

Solving Problems tells us what you do it to.

Is there any other difference in meaning in the context of math word problems?

• "He loves nothing better than problem solving; or, "He loves nothing better than solving problems." Each sentence says pretty much the same thing. –  rhetorician Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 2:45

2 Answers 2

In principle a connection of gerund and object can have three forms

1 the solving of problems (in Latin Grammar "problems" is called genetivus objectivus, i.e. "problems" corresponds to an object in a normal sentence with a finite verb.)

2 solving problems

3 problem solving/problem-solving

In 1 we have the full form with the and of. 2 is derived from 1 by dropping the and of. 3 is derived from 2 by putting "problems" in front position.

All three forms have the same meaning. Which form will be used is a matter of style. Form 2 is the common form.

Even "I'm solving problems" might be derived from form 1: I'm at/in the act of (the) solving (of) problems.

Well, "problem solving" is a noun (or, when hyphenated, an adjective); but "solving problems" is a present-progressive tense verb with an object.

Thus, "He has good problem-solving skills." But: "I am solving problems", rather than "I am problem solving".

But these are only matters of syntax. In answer to your question, no, there is no difference in meaning.

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What is problem solving?

Whether at school, in the workplace or in your personal life, everyone encounters setbacks. Knowing when and how to apply problem solving techniques is key to overcoming challenges to help you move forward and achieve success.

Why are problem solving skills important?

Problem solving has been found to be one of the top skills employers look for when recruiting, so learning how to apply this skill in different scenarios can help prepare learners for the world of work. By gaining an understanding of the six stages of problem solving, as well as identifying situations in which they already use these skills, learners will gain an adaptable approach to problem solving.

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LifeSkills problem solving resources help make day-to-day problem solving easier and help you use a different perspective to reach a goal, whether at school, home or in employment. Use the activities below to understand the six stages of problem solving, as well as identify the different types of situations in which you might already be using these skills.

Putting problem solving into action

Problems are easy to solve if we break them down. Follow this step-by-step guide to help you solve them.

6 stages of problem solving

Check out this fun animation that explains the six simple steps to help you solve your problems and get on with things

Listening and problem solving skills can be essential in the workplace

See how these skills can be vital in different work place situations and how you can master them and develop other key skills with LifeSkills

Reboot Your Thinking With These Cool Hacks

Solving problems doesn't have to be a chore. These hacks show how good problem solving can produce inventive solutions.

I want to develop my mindset and skills for work

From problem solving and improving your efficiency to revealing your creativity and hidden strengths, discover the skills and qualities that will help set you up for success.

I want an insight into how the world of work is changing

From resilience and problem solving to creative thinking and proactivity – explore our tools to help you step into a job with confidence.

From lesson plans and activities for students to complete in the classroom to modules that help build the employability skills of adult learners you might be supporting one to one, our problem solving resources enable you to build your learners’ confidence to overcome challenges and think creatively to solve problems they encounter at school, college, in the workplace or their personal lives. 

Problem solving

Help students develop problem solving skills utilising a clear 6-step process adapted from computational thinking used for coding.

Help your students become expert problem solvers

Find out about the 6-step process we’ve created to help support young people in developing their problem solving skills.

Understand core transferable skills original

Find out more about the core transferable skills young people need to be better prepared for the future workplace.

Boosting your problem solving skills

This module will support learners to apply a six-step problem solving strategy, explore three problem solving scenarios and practise an exercise on future problem solving.

Understanding your zones of control

This module will help improve learners’ focus. It supports them to identify what is within their control and what is not, giving them more clarity on the actions they need to take.

Overcoming setbacks

This module focuses on positive challenge for growth. It will encourage learners to reflect how they currently deal with setbacks and consider how they can take a new approach.

Problem solving is one of the top skills employers look for when recruiting for a role within their organisation, and yet it is also one most often lacking in candidates. Our problem solving resources can be used to improve your problem solving skills and make you more attractive to a future employer.

Learn how to be better at problem-solving

Problem-solving is a skill that can help in your day-to-day life. Learn to solve problems and overcome challenges more effectively with these useful techniques.

Creative thinking – top tips for thinking creatively & generating ideas

Creative thinking is a valuable skill for employees and business owners alike. Find out how to think more creatively & generate good ideas with top tips from LifeSkills

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An ability to be resilient, solve problems, be creative and adaptable is in greater demand than ever before. We explain why.

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Problem solving is important both to individuals and organisations to allow us to have control over our environment. It gives us the power to identify the things we want to change, and work out what needs to be done to create a desired outcome. Problem solving is also the source of all new inventions and social and cultural evolution, leading to continuing improvement in our communication and learning.

You can find lots of other LifeSkills content that may prove useful for helping yourself or your learners build their problem solving skills, so they feel confident in meeting challenges, overcoming obstacles and approaching creative and strategic projects from a different angle.

• Students aged 14 and over can access the Young people hub to develop problem solving and other core transferable skills further, so you’re ready for the future workplace.
• Educators can access our Educator hub which contains full-length lesson plans, modules, independent worksheets, online lesson films and interactive tools so you can deliver problem solving content to young people and adults, regardless of the setting. Make sure you set up your dashboard to see the content most relevant to you whether you are coaching an adult, teaching a class or mentoring a group.
• If you’re an adult adapting to Changing worklife , our hub contains articles and advice on how you can boost your problem solving skills to achieve workplace success.

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Everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter problems on a daily basis. Some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others.

It would be wonderful to have the ability to solve all problems efficiently and in a timely fashion without difficulty, unfortunately though there is no one way in which all problems can be solved.

You will discover, as you read through our pages on problem solving, that the subject is complex.

However well prepared we are for problem solving, there is always an element of the unknown. Although planning and structuring will help make the problem solving process more likely to be successful, good judgement and an element of good luck will ultimately determine whether problem solving was a success.

Interpersonal relationships fail and businesses fail because of poor problem solving.

This is often due to either problems not being recognised or being recognised but not being dealt with appropriately.

Problem solving skills are highly sought after by employers as many companies rely on their employees to identify and solve problems.

A lot of the work in problem solving involves understanding what the underlying issues of the problem really are - not the symptoms. Dealing with a customer complaint may be seen as a problem that needs to be solved, and it's almost certainly a good idea to do so. The employee dealing with the complaint should be asking what has caused the customer to complain in the first place, if the cause of the complaint can be eliminated then the problem is solved.

In order to be effective at problem solving you are likely to need some other key skills, which include:

Creativity. Problems are usually solved either intuitively or systematically. Intuition is used when no new knowledge is needed - you know enough to be able to make a quick decision and solve the problem, or you use common sense or experience to solve the problem. More complex problems or problems that you have not experienced before will likely require a more systematic and logical approach to solve, and for these you will need to use creative thinking. See our page on Creative Thinking for more information.

Researching Skills. Defining and solving problems often requires you to do some research: this may be a simple Google search or a more rigorous research project. See our Research Methods section for ideas on how to conduct effective research.

Team Working. Many problems are best defined and solved with the input of other people. Team working may sound like a 'work thing' but it is just as important at home and school as well as in the workplace. See our Team-Working page for more.

Emotional Intelligence. It is worth considering the impact that a problem and/or its solution has on you and other people. Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognise the emotions of yourself and others, will help guide you to an appropriate solution. See our Emotional Intelligence pages for more.

Risk Management. Solving a problem involves a certain amount of risk - this risk needs to be weighed up against not solving the problem. You may find our Risk Management page useful.

Decision Making . Problem solving and decision making are closely related skills, and making a decision is an important part of the problem solving process as you will often be faced with various options and alternatives. See Decision Making for more.

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.

John Foster Dulles, Former US Secretary of State.

What is a Problem?

The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) defines a problem as:

“ A doubtful or difficult matter requiring a solution ”

“ Something hard to understand or accomplish or deal with.”

It is worth also considering our own view of what a problem is.

We are constantly exposed to opportunities in life, at work, at school and at home. However many opportunities are missed or not taken full advantage of. Often we are unsure how to take advantage of an opportunity and create barriers - reasons why we can't take advantage. These barriers can turn a potentially positive situation into a negative one, a problem.

Are we missing the 'big problem'? It is human nature to notice and focus on small, easy to solve problems but much harder to work on the big problems that may be causing some of the smaller ones.

It's useful to consider the following questions when faced with a problem.

Is the problem real or perceived?

Is this problem really an opportunity?

Does the problem need solving?

All problems have two features in common: goals and barriers.

Problems involve setting out to achieve some objective or desired state of affairs and can include avoiding a situation or event.

Goals can be anything that you wish to achieve, or where you want to be. If you are hungry then your goal is probably to eat something. If you are the head of an organisation (CEO), then your main goal may be to maximise profits and this main goal may need to be split into numerous sub-goals in order to fulfil the ultimate aim of increasing profits.

If there were no barriers in the way of achieving a goal, then there would be no problem. Problem solving involves overcoming the barriers or obstacles that prevent the immediate achievement of goals.

Following our examples above, if you feel hungry then your goal is to eat. A barrier to this may be that you have no food available - so you take a trip to the supermarket and buy some food, removing the barrier and thus solving the problem. Of course for the CEO wanting to increase profits there may be many more barriers preventing the goal from being reached. The CEO needs to attempt to recognise these barriers and remove them or find other ways to achieve the goals of the organisation.

Our problem solving pages provide a simple and structured approach to problem solving.

The approach referred to is generally designed for problem solving in an organisation or group context, but can also be easily adapted to work at an individual level at home or in education.

Trying to solve a complex problem alone however can be a mistake. The old adage " A problem shared is a problem halved " is sound advice.

Talking to others about problems is not only therapeutic but can help you see things from a different point of view, opening up more potential solutions.

Stages of Problem Solving

Effective problem solving usually involves working through a number of steps or stages, such as those outlined below.

Problem Identification:

This stage involves: detecting and recognising that there is a problem; identifying the nature of the problem; defining the problem.

The first phase of problem solving may sound obvious but often requires more thought and analysis. Identifying a problem can be a difficult task in itself. Is there a problem at all? What is the nature of the problem, are there in fact numerous problems? How can the problem be best defined? By spending some time defining the problem you will not only understand it more clearly yourself but be able to communicate its nature to others, which leads to the second phase.

Structuring the Problem:

This stage involves: a period of observation, careful inspection, fact-finding and developing a clear picture of the problem.

Following on from problem identification, structuring the problem is all about gaining more information about the problem and increasing understanding. This phase is all about fact finding and analysis, building a more comprehensive picture of both the goal(s) and the barrier(s). This stage may not be necessary for very simple problems but is essential for problems of a more complex nature.

Looking for Possible Solutions:

During this stage you will generate a range of possible courses of action, but with little attempt to evaluate them at this stage.

From the information gathered in the first two phases of the problem solving framework it is now time to start thinking about possible solutions to the identified problem. In a group situation this stage is often carried out as a brain-storming session, letting each person in the group express their views on possible solutions (or part solutions). In organisations different people will have different expertise in different areas and it is useful, therefore, to hear the views of each concerned party.

Making a Decision:

This stage involves careful analysis of the different possible courses of action and then selecting the best solution for implementation.

This is perhaps the most complex part of the problem solving process. Following on from the previous step it is now time to look at each potential solution and carefully analyse it. Some solutions may not be possible, due to other problems like time constraints or budgets. It is important at this stage to also consider what might happen if nothing was done to solve the problem - sometimes trying to solve a problem that leads to many more problems requires some very creative thinking and innovative ideas.

Finally, make a decision on which course of action to take - decision making is an important skill in itself and we recommend that you see our pages on decision making .

Implementation:

This stage involves accepting and carrying out the chosen course of action.

Implementation means acting on the chosen solution. During implementation more problems may arise especially if identification or structuring of the original problem was not carried out fully.

Monitoring/Seeking Feedback:

The last stage is about reviewing the outcomes of problem solving over a period of time, including seeking feedback as to the success of the outcomes of the chosen solution.

The final stage of problem solving is concerned with checking that the process was successful. This can be achieved by monitoring and gaining feedback from people affected by any changes that occurred. It is good practice to keep a record of outcomes and any additional problems that occurred.

Continue to: Identifying and Structuring Problems Social Problem Solving

See also: Project Management Risk Management Effective Decision Making

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Educators Blog

Problem-Solving or Solving Problems?

By Carolyn Marchetti,

In both math and science, problem-solving is a critical skill.  It is a process that students will use throughout their schooling, work life, and beyond.  By developing problem-solving skills, our students not only learn how to tackle a math or science problem but also how to logically work their way through any types of problems that they face.  Our textbooks include word problems after every lesson – so this incorporates problem-solving skills, right?  Not necessarily.

I was at a conference over 10 years ago and heard a presenter say, “Problem-solving is what you do when you don’t know how to solve a problem”.  Solving problems, like the typical word problems found in our texts, on the other hand, is applying a known method to a problem that has already been solved before.

Here’s an example of how the majority of textbooks phrase a lesson — “Today we are going to learn how to multiply fractions.  Here are the steps to multiplying 2 fractions.   Here are some non-contextual examples to hone your skill”.  Then most follow with ‘real-life’ word problems which, more times than not, involve fractions that require multiplication. This is a routine of practicing skills.  I’m not saying that this isn’t important, just that problem solving is much more than this.

As teachers, we need to know the differences between the 21st-century skill of problem-solving and the traditional way of solving problems, and we especially need to learn how to recognize and even create true problem-solving experiences for our students.

I would like to give some tips on creating a problem-solving classroom by using an example of a task that I used when doing professional development with math teachers. The task is called The McDonald’s Claim Problem.  There are several versions of this task on the internet, but basically, it goes like this:

• Wikipedia reports that 8% of all Americans eat at McDonald’s every day.
• There are 310 million Americans and 12,800 McDonald’s in the United States.
• Do you believe the Wikipedia report to be true? Create a mathematical argument to justify your position.

Tips on creating a problem-solving classroom:

• Engage students in real-world problems that students can relate to and have a prior understanding of.  For McDonald’s, it was an interesting problem because it engaged students in prior learning – they’ve all been to McDonald’s and have all used Wikipedia.  For other tasks, videos can be used to spark interest.  For example, Dan Meyer’s 3 Act Tasks are one way to spark interest.  Another suggestion is to use a career video like the Defined STEM videos that are included with each performance task.  These videos grab students interest by answering the question of “When will I ever use this?”.
• Use group work for problem-solving. Students can frequently help each other, and talking about a problem helps them think more critically about the steps needed to solve the problem.  By discussing the problem, students will start to realize that problems have multiple solution strategies, and some may be more effective than others.  For the McDonald’s problem, I would have teachers work in groups of 4-5. There would be many discussions among the members before even starting the task. Discussions around what does “eat at” mean?  Does the drive-through count?  Does the question mean the same 8% eat there every day?  These questions and discussions had teachers brainstorming ideas before deciding on a course of action to solve the problem.
• There should not be a direct path to the solution.  Even better if there is not one right answer, like the McDonald’s problem, but these are harder to find.  Monitor student progress and solutions.  When they get stuck, answer their questions with other probing questions.  When the math teachers would ask me questions regarding the McDonald’s problem, I would always come back with “What does your group think?”, to encourage them to collaborate and come to a consensus.
• Have students share their solutions. When everyone is finished, have groups present their solution to the others, especially the ones that went about the problem in different or unique ways. Having the groups share their solutions and justifications is very important for others to see various ways of problem-solving. For the McDonald’s problem, even though groups often used calculations to solve the problem and would get the same numbers, many had a different answer of “yes or no” depending on their reasoning. Hearing the different reasons from other groups can be very enlightening.  I heard a lot of “I never thought of it that way”, which is a powerful aspect of problem-solving.

There are many other tips I can give, which I will continue in a later post.  For now, I would like to leave you with a quote from a colleague: “It is better to answer 1 problem 5 different ways than to answer 5 different problems”.  In one short sentence, that is the difference between problem-solving and solving problems.

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Skills and competencies

Problem solving: the mark of an independent employee.

Abigail Lewis

24 Aug 2023, 08:40

Problem-solving abilities are essential in virtually any graduate role you can think of. Discover how to develop your problem-solving skills and demonstrate them to eagle-eyed recruiters.

Interviewers will be interested to discover how you'd approach problems that could arise in the workplace.

Problem solving is all about using logic, as well as imagination, to make sense of a situation and come up with an intelligent solution. In fact, the best problem solvers actively anticipate potential future problems and act to prevent them or to mitigate their effects.

Problem-solving abilities are connected to a number of other skills, including:

• analytical skills
• innovative and creative thinking
• a lateral mindset
• adaptability and flexibility
• level-headedness
• resilience (in order to reassess when your first idea doesn’t work)
• teamworking (if problem solving is a team effort)
• influencing skills (to get colleagues, clients and bosses to adopt your solutions).

Identifying a problem is often the kernel for a new business or product idea – and, as such, problem solving is an essential ingredient of entrepreneurialism . It is also a key component of good leadership .

Short on time? Watch our one-minute guide to problem solving

• how to answer problem-solving interview questions
• how to think of examples of your problem-solving skills
• a problem-solving technique you can use in any work or life situation.

Our targetjobs careers expert gives you a quick guide to showing off your problem-solving skills in a job interview.

Why all graduates require problem-solving skills in the workplace

Some graduate careers revolve around finding solutions – for example, engineering , management consulting , scientific research and technology . Graduates in other careers, meanwhile, will be expected to solve problems that crop up in the course of their jobs: for example, trainee managers should deal with operational problems (such as delays in the supply chain) or resolve conflict between team members.

In fact, the ability to solve problems is an essential part of any employee’s skill set, even if it isn’t specified on the job description.

Get the insights and skills you need to shape your career journey with Pathways. Learn and practise a selection of simple yet effective reasoning strategies to take your problem solving to the next level.

How will employers assess your problem-solving skills?

Your problem-solving abilities can be assessed in three ways: by asking for examples of times when you previously solved a problem; by presenting you with certain hypothetical situations and asking how you would respond to them; and by seeing how you apply your problem-solving skills to different tests and exercises.

Competency-based application and interview questions about problem solving

You may be asked for an example of when you solved a problem on an application form – for instance, an engineering firm’s application form has previously included the question ‘Please tell us about a time when you have used your technical skills and knowledge to solve a problem’. But these questions are more likely at interview. Typical problem-solving competency-based questions include:

• Give me an example of a time when you ran into a problem on a project. What did you do?
• Give me an example of a difficult problem you had to solve outside of your course. How did you approach it?
• Tell me about a time you worked through a problem as a team.
• Have you ever had a disagreement with a team member? How was it resolved?
• Give me an example of a time when you spotted a potential problem and took steps to stop it becoming one.
• Give me an example of a time when you handled a major crisis.
• Give me an example of your lateral thinking.

Hypothetical interview questions about problem solving

Interviewers will also be interested to know how you would approach problems that could arise when you are in the workplace. The precise interview questions will vary according to the job, but common ones include:

• How would you deal with conflict in the workplace? (This is especially likely to be asked of trainee managers and graduate HR professionals.)
• What would you do if there is an unexpected delay to one of your projects because of supply chain issues? (This is particularly likely to be asked in construction, logistics or retail interviews).
• What would you do if a client or customer raised a complaint?
• What would you do if you noticed that a colleague was struggling with their work?
• How would you react if given negative feedback by a manager on an aspect of your performance?
• How would you judge whether you should use your own initiative on a task or ask for help?

Problem-solving exercises and tests for graduate jobs

Different tests that employers could set to gauge your problem-solving skills include:

• Online aptitude, psychometric and ability tests . These are normally taken as part of the application stage, although they may be repeated at an assessment centre. The tests that are most likely to assess your problem-solving skills are situational judgement tests and any that assess your reasoning, such as inductive reasoning or diagrammatic reasoning tests.
• Video ‘immersive experiences’ , game-based recruitment exercises or virtual reality assessments. Not all of these methods are widely used yet but they are becoming more common. They are usually the recruitment stage before a face-to-face interview or assessment centre.
• Case study exercises. These are common assessment centre tasks. You’d be set a business problem, typically related to the sector in which you’d be working, and asked to make recommendations for solving it, either individually or in groups. You’ll also usually be asked to outline your recommendations in either a presentation or in written form , a task that assesses your ability to explain your problem-solving approach.
• In-tray (or e-tray) exercises. These always used to be set at an assessment centre but nowadays can also be part of the online testing stage. In-tray exercises primarily test your time management skills, but also assess your ability to identify a potential problem and take actions to solve it.
• Job-specific or task-specific exercises, given at an assessment centre or at an interview. If set, these will be related to the role you are applying for and will either require you to devise a solution to a problem or to spot errors. Civil and structural engineering candidates , for example, will often be required to sketch a design in answer to a client’s brief and answer questions on it, while candidates for editorial roles may be asked to proofread copy or spot errors in page proofs (fully designed pages about to be published).

How to develop and demonstrate your problem-solving skills

Here are some tips on how to develop the problem-solving techniques employers look for.

Seek out opportunities to gain problem-solving examples

Dealing with any of the following situations will help you gain problem-solving skills, perhaps without even realising it:

• Sorting out a technical problem with your phone, device or computer.
• Resolving a dispute with a tricky landlord in order to get your deposit back.
• Carrying out DIY.
• Serving a demanding customer or resolving a complaint.
• Finding a way round a funding shortfall in order to pay for travel or a gap year.
• Turning around the finances or increasing the membership of a struggling student society.
• Organising a student society’s trip overseas, overcoming unforeseen difficulties on the way.
• Acting as a course rep or as a mentor for other students.

There should also be opportunities for you to develop problem-solving skills through your studies. Many assignments in subjects such as engineering and computer science are explicitly based around solving a problem in a way that, for example, essay topics in English literature aren’t. But, then, English literature students may also encounter academic problems, such as difficulties in tracking down the best source material.

Some professional bodies (for example, those in construction) run competitions for students, which often ask students to suggest solutions for problems facing the industry; entering these can provide good evidence of your problem-solving skills.

Games such as Sudoku and chess can also strengthen your ability to think strategically and creatively.

Practise recruitment exercises beforehand

Any candidate, no matter how high-flying, may be thrown by undertaking an online test or attending an assessment centre for the first time, so do everything you can to practise beforehand. Access our links to free and paid-for practice tests. Contact your careers service and book in for a mock-interview or mock-assessment centre.

Keep in mind this problem-solving technique

If you’re provided with a scenario or a case study during the graduate recruitment process, you could try using the IDEAL model, described by Bransford and Stein in their book Ideal Problem Solver . It breaks down what you need to do to solve a problem into stages:

• Identify the issue
• Define the obstacles
• Examine your options
• Act on an agreed course of action
• Look at how it turns out, and whether any changes need to be made.

Give detail in your answers

You will need to explain how you identified the problem, came up with a solution and implemented it. Quantifiable results are good, and obviously the more complex the situation, the more impressive a successful result is. Follow the STAR technique outlined in our article on competency-based interview questions .

If you tackled a problem as part of a team, explain how your role was important in ensuring the positive solution, but also explain how your group worked together. This could be an opportunity to promote your teamworking skills as well.

targetjobs editorial advice

This describes editorially independent and impartial content, which has been written and edited by the targetjobs content team. Any external contributors featuring in the article are in line with our non-advertorial policy, by which we mean that we do not promote one organisation over another.

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The Importance of Problem-Solving Skills in the Workplace

The ability to solve problems, both simple and complex, is valuable in all workplaces. More than 60% of employers look for evidence of problem-solving ability when evaluating candidates for roles in their organisation. Problem-solving in the workplace draws on many different skills, often in collaboration, from analytical thinking and creativity to confident decision-making in critical situations. Modern employees who know how to problem solve and don’t panic when a problem arises can be trusted to work independently and contribute towards an organisation’s success.

Some people are natural problem solvers - they see a challenge and they start to suggest solutions without even blinking. For others, problem-solving in the workplace doesn’t come as naturally, but they can develop skills and strategies to help them in the long term.

The role of problem-solving in the workplace 

Let’s take a more specific look at problem-solving in the workplace and start to understand just why it’s such a valuable trait.

To begin with, good problem solvers tend to be good decision-makers. When solving a problem, people may be required to make several smaller decisions to reach a complete solution so an ability to quickly make decisions is essential for fast and effective outcomes. If your team lacks this capability, then any challenges thrown their way will cause them to stall and fall behind. They may even make poor decisions if their ability to problem solve isn’t well-rounded and well-informed.

Strong problem-solving skills also contribute to innovation. This is useful for providing our organisations with a competitive edge but also for finding creative solutions to obstacles. Good problem-solving relies upon the ability to find a solution to the issue as it exists here and now, and not rely on using an approach that worked previously. This is why innovation as a facet of problem-solving in the workplace is key.

Problem-solving in the workplace often involves a lot of teamwork. Collaborating on a problem is a great way for a team to bond and learn more about each other’s strengths. In this way, problem-solving contributes towards team unity and purpose. There are even games you can present to your team to have fun and bond while improving their ability to problem solve.

Identifying problem-solving skills in employees

Many people may answer yes when asked if they’re good problem solvers, but we don’t have to rely on self-reporting (although it’s a useful measure). Instead, we can look out for certain behaviours and traits that indicate someone is good at solving problems. Key indicators of problem-solving capability include taking a proactive approach to challenges and asking insightful questions, as this shows both an understanding of a situation and the ability to think further outside it.

Hiring Managers often need to assess an applicant’s problem-solving abilities during the recruitment process. They can do this by asking situational questions about hypothetical problems and scenarios, and assessing how they would draw upon their skills and experience to tackle a problem. Recruiters can also use abstract reasoning tests to get an understanding of someone’s problem-solving abilities, seeing how they combine logic, fluid intelligence, and lateral thinking to find solutions.

HR teams and managers may also want to assess the problem-solving skills of their existing team members. They can do this with performance reviews, discussing examples that have occurred in the workplace and how the individual tackled an issue, and with feedback sessions utilising 360-degree feedback from fellow employees. Managers can also consciously observe how their employees solve problems on a day-to-day basis, reviewing whether someone attempts to take on challenges independently or turns to others for help.

Developing problem-solving skills in your team 

Just because someone struggles to solve problems now doesn’t mean they can’t be coached to take a more confident approach in the future. Training and development programmes focused on critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and decision-making strategies provide people with the skills and confidence to take on problems by giving them practice scenarios and examples to work from. This can be done at an individual and team level - it’s useful for a team that works closely together to understand how they can divide tasks and decision-making when it comes to problem-solving, and team bonding games provide a light-hearted way to learn this.

It’s easier to suggest solutions to problems in the workplace when you know it’s ok to experiment and make mistakes. If they want to benefit from problem-solving employees, leadership teams and managers should foster a supportive work environment where employees are encouraged to propose and test new ideas without fear of failure. They can do this through their approach to problem-solving in the workplace, and by being empathetic should errors occur in attempts to tackle problems.

Team leaders should also recognise the value of diverse perspectives when it comes to problem-solving. They shouldn’t always turn to the same people when a new problem presents itself but should encourage input from all parties. Varied viewpoints can lead to more innovative solutions or improvements on pre-existing solutions.

Leveraging Thomas’ expertise

For extra support in understanding your employees’ problem-solving abilities, you can turn to Thomas. Our assessments can help identify individuals with strong problem-solving capabilities or areas where employees need development. We can also provide tailored development solutions based on your assessment results with workshops designed to enhance problem-solving skills at a leadership and employee level.

The impact of strong problem-solving skills on business success 

Businesses made up of individuals with strong problem-solving skills set themselves up for success. When we recruit problem solvers and develop the problem-solving skills of our existing employees, we contribute to organisational growth by fostering innovation and improving how our teams collaborate.

There’s a very real return on investment to be made when companies spend time and effort on developing these skills. They create more agile, innovative individuals who give their organisations a competitive advantage versus organisations who overlook this crucial area.

Problem-solving in the workplace shouldn't be overlooked. Speak to an expert at Thomas today and see how we can enhance the problem-solving capabilities of your teams and set them up for success.

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What are Problem Solving Skills?

Problem solving is an important life and work skill.

In work and in life, problems can crop up. Even if you don’t know how to fix the problem at first, you can think about how the problem happened in the first place. Then you can keep calm and use logic to find some good solutions.

This logical way of looking at things with a clear head is called problem solving. It can be a great way to solve problems without heartache, from dealing with school or college gossip to figuring out next steps if an important parcel didn’t get delivered to work.

Why Is Problem Solving Important?

Life will always have problems to overcome, from figuring out why your phone isn’t working to dealing with a tricky customer at work.

Employers want to know how you deal with problems, because they want you to see a problem as a challenge that can be overcome if you deal with it in a logical way.

How to boost your problem solving…

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Building your problem solving skills as a student, we all get problems at school and beyond..

Are you faced with a problem in homework or even an exam? Have you been asked to put together an argument for an essay or debate?

Even if you don’t know the answer, read the problem several times to make sure you understand all the information being given you. If you’re at home you can research, but in an exam situation try to think about it logically: What are you being asked? How would you go about coming up with a logical solution? If you come with more than one solution, which do you think is the best one and why? If you still don’t know the answer, move onto the next problem and come back and try again with a fresh head.

Many of the problems you face at school can be approached with the five key life skills including motivation, self belief, self management and team working. If the problem involves people, your communication skills will come in handy, too.

With any general problem you come across in life, consider:

• Will it help to prepare in advance or in an organised frame of mind?
• Will it help if you approach the problem as a pair or group instead of dealing with it alone?
• How can you stay motivated to tackle the problem and see it through with a positive attitude?
• Can you approach the problem logically, letting your head rule your heart? (It is easier to find solutions this way).

Building Your Problem Solving Skills At Work

Whenever a problem comes up in work, use this 5-step process to see if you can fix it:

• Describe the problem and set a ‘problem statement’.
• Analyse what is right and what is wrong in the current situation.
• Identify the likely causes of the problem.
• Identify the most probable cause and test this out.
• Take action to address the problem.

You’ve probably found solutions to problems in the past, as well as taking pride in your work, so try to think about what went well and what didn’t. You can use the STARRS method to do this.

Building problem solving skills at work (and in general life) will help you to:

• Evaluate situations and information and break them down into manageable chunks
• See problems in a new light, as possible solutions not impossible challenges
• Build your decision-making skills as you make decisions based on information and logic not pure gut feeling
• Discover strengths and skills in yourself that you might never have known about yourself before
• Learn and grow over time with each problem you’ve overcome
• Show employers that you are practical, creative, flexible and can be relied upon.

How Can You Build Your Problem Solving Skills In Everyday Life?

Take on problems you enjoy

If you like video games, board games or ‘mind’ games like Sudoku you will find these often have problems that need to be approached in a logical way, with strategic planning and trial and error.

Remember that problems can be physical as well as mental

Do you like working with your hands? Car maintenance, DIY and crafting are just some examples of physical work that involves solving problems.

How To Show Your Problem Solving Skills To Employers

Creating a good cv and cover letter.

Many of the grades you studied for, work experience you’ve done and even extra-curricular activities you’ve enjoyed have all had problems you had to think about logically in order to find a solution.

Find an example of a problem you solved for each experience you’ve put on your CV.

For each problem, ask yourself how you:

I dentified the problem

D efined the problem, e xamined the options, a cted on a plan, l ooked at the consequences.

This is known as the IDEAL method! You don’t need to talk about this on your CV or cover letter, but it will help prepare you for job interviews.

Job interviews

Employers will always be interested to hear how you’ve tackled problems in the past and could ask you to name an example of a problem you solved or overcame in your job interview.

Give them an example from your past school, work or life experience using the IDEAL method.

• Problem solving tips for interviews
• Problem solving tips for assessment centres

See all problem solving tips

Problem solving is a life skill you can grow over time.

In life you will get lots of chances to approach problems in a cool, calm and collected way, both inside and outside of work/study.

If you don’t think you do an extra-curricular activity that involves problem solving, add a new hobby to your list where solving problems is a part of what’s involved.

Search for “problem solving skills test” online. You will find lots of online quizzes where you can test yourself on how you solve problems, and discover ways in which you could improve.

Activity: Test Your Problem Solving

See if you can think about the questions below. It’s useful to you to come up with examplesfrom your own life and work experience.

• Why are problem solving skills important to an employer?
• How could you develop your problem solving skills? Give an example.
• How can you demonstrate good communication skills? Give an example.
• How could you demonstrate your problem solving skills to a prospective employer in a job interview? Give an example.

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40 problem-solving techniques and processes

All teams and organizations encounter challenges. Approaching those challenges without a structured problem solving process can end up making things worse.

Proven problem solving techniques such as those outlined below can guide your group through a process of identifying problems and challenges , ideating on possible solutions , and then evaluating and implementing the most suitable .

In this post, you'll find problem-solving tools you can use to develop effective solutions. You'll also find some tips for facilitating the problem solving process and solving complex problems.

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What is problem solving?

Problem solving is a process of finding and implementing a solution to a challenge or obstacle. In most contexts, this means going through a problem solving process that begins with identifying the issue, exploring its root causes, ideating and refining possible solutions before implementing and measuring the impact of that solution.

For simple or small problems, it can be tempting to skip straight to implementing what you believe is the right solution. The danger with this approach is that without exploring the true causes of the issue, it might just occur again or your chosen solution may cause other issues.

Particularly in the world of work, good problem solving means using data to back up each step of the process, bringing in new perspectives and effectively measuring the impact of your solution.

Effective problem solving can help ensure that your team or organization is well positioned to overcome challenges, be resilient to change and create innovation. In my experience, problem solving is a combination of skillset, mindset and process, and it’s especially vital for leaders to cultivate this skill.

What is the seven step problem solving process?

A problem solving process is a step-by-step framework from going from discovering a problem all the way through to implementing a solution.

With practice, this framework can become intuitive, and innovative companies tend to have a consistent and ongoing ability to discover and tackle challenges when they come up.

You might see everything from a four step problem solving process through to seven steps. While all these processes cover roughly the same ground, I’ve found a seven step problem solving process is helpful for making all key steps legible.

We’ll outline that process here and then follow with techniques you can use to explore and work on that step of the problem solving process with a group.

The seven-step problem solving process is:

1. Problem identification 

The first stage of any problem solving process is to identify the problem(s) you need to solve. This often looks like using group discussions and activities to help a group surface and effectively articulate the challenges they’re facing and wish to resolve.

Be sure to align with your team on the exact definition and nature of the problem you’re solving. An effective process is one where everyone is pulling in the same direction – ensure clarity and alignment now to help avoid misunderstandings later.

2. Problem analysis and refinement

The process of problem analysis means ensuring that the problem you are seeking to solve is  the   right problem . Choosing the right problem to solve means you are on the right path to creating the right solution.

At this stage, you may look deeper at the problem you identified to try and discover the root cause at the level of people or process. You may also spend some time sourcing data, consulting relevant parties and creating and refining a problem statement.

Problem refinement means adjusting scope or focus of the problem you will be aiming to solve based on what comes up during your analysis. As you analyze data sources, you might discover that the root cause means you need to adjust your problem statement. Alternatively, you might find that your original problem statement is too big to be meaningful approached within your current project.

Remember that the goal of any problem refinement is to help set the stage for effective solution development and deployment. Set the right focus and get buy-in from your team here and you’ll be well positioned to move forward with confidence.

3. Solution generation

Once your group has nailed down the particulars of the problem you wish to solve, you want to encourage a free flow of ideas connecting to solving that problem. This can take the form of problem solving games that encourage creative thinking or techniquess designed to produce working prototypes of possible solutions. 

The key to ensuring the success of this stage of the problem solving process is to encourage quick, creative thinking and create an open space where all ideas are considered. The best solutions can often come from unlikely places and by using problem solving techniques that celebrate invention, you might come up with solution gold. 

4. Solution development

No solution is perfect right out of the gate. It’s important to discuss and develop the solutions your group has come up with over the course of following the previous problem solving steps in order to arrive at the best possible solution. Problem solving games used in this stage involve lots of critical thinking, measuring potential effort and impact, and looking at possible solutions analytically. 

During this stage, you will often ask your team to iterate and improve upon your front-running solutions and develop them further. Remember that problem solving strategies always benefit from a multitude of voices and opinions, and not to let ego get involved when it comes to choosing which solutions to develop and take further.

Finding the best solution is the goal of all problem solving workshops and here is the place to ensure that your solution is well thought out, sufficiently robust and fit for purpose. 

5. Decision making and planning

Nearly there! Once you’ve got a set of possible, you’ll need to make a decision on which to implement. This can be a consensus-based group decision or it might be for a leader or major stakeholder to decide. You’ll find a set of effective decision making methods below.

Once your group has reached consensus and selected a solution, there are some additional actions that also need to be decided upon. You’ll want to work on allocating ownership of the project, figure out who will do what, how the success of the solution will be measured and decide the next course of action.

Set clear accountabilities, actions, timeframes, and follow-ups for your chosen solution. Make these decisions and set clear next-steps in the problem solving workshop so that everyone is aligned and you can move forward effectively as a group. 

Ensuring that you plan for the roll-out of a solution is one of the most important problem solving steps. Without adequate planning or oversight, it can prove impossible to measure success or iterate further if the problem was not solved. 

6. Solution implementation 

This is what we were waiting for! All problem solving processes have the end goal of implementing an effective and impactful solution that your group has confidence in.

Project management and communication skills are key here – your solution may need to adjust when out in the wild or you might discover new challenges along the way. For some solutions, you might also implement a test with a small group and monitor results before rolling it out to an entire company.

You should have a clear owner for your solution who will oversee the plans you made together and help ensure they’re put into place. This person will often coordinate the implementation team and set-up processes to measure the efficacy of your solution too.

7. Solution evaluation 

So you and your team developed a great solution to a problem and have a gut feeling it’s been solved. Work done, right? Wrong. All problem solving strategies benefit from evaluation, consideration, and feedback.

You might find that the solution does not work for everyone, might create new problems, or is potentially so successful that you will want to roll it out to larger teams or as part of other initiatives. 

None of that is possible without taking the time to evaluate the success of the solution you developed in your problem solving model and adjust if necessary.

Remember that the problem solving process is often iterative and it can be common to not solve complex issues on the first try. Even when this is the case, you and your team will have generated learning that will be important for future problem solving workshops or in other parts of the organization. 

It’s also worth underlining how important record keeping is throughout the problem solving process. If a solution didn’t work, you need to have the data and records to see why that was the case. If you go back to the drawing board, notes from the previous workshop can help save time.

What does an effective problem solving process look like?

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

The format of a workshop ensures that you can get buy-in from your group, encourage free-thinking and solution exploration before making a decision on what to implement following the session.

This Design Sprint 2.0 template is an effective problem solving process from top agency AJ&Smart. It’s a great format for the entire problem solving process, with four-days of workshops designed to surface issues, explore solutions and even test a solution.

Check it for an example of how you might structure and run a problem solving process and feel free to copy and adjust it your needs!

For a shorter process you can run in a single afternoon, this remote problem solving agenda will guide you effectively in just a couple of hours.

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

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

Complete problem-solving methods

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

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

Six Thinking Hats

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

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

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

The Six Thinking Hats   #creative thinking   #meeting facilitation   #problem solving   #issue resolution   #idea generation   #conflict resolution   The Six Thinking Hats are used by individuals and groups to separate out conflicting styles of thinking. They enable and encourage a group of people to think constructively together in exploring and implementing change, rather than using argument to fight over who is right and who is wrong.

Lightning Decision Jam

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

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

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

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

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

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)   #action   #decision making   #problem solving   #issue analysis   #innovation   #design   #remote-friendly   It doesn’t matter where you work and what your job role is, if you work with other people together as a team, you will always encounter the same challenges: Unclear goals and miscommunication that cause busy work and overtime Unstructured meetings that leave attendants tired, confused and without clear outcomes. Frustration builds up because internal challenges to productivity are not addressed Sudden changes in priorities lead to a loss of focus and momentum Muddled compromise takes the place of clear decision- making, leaving everybody to come up with their own interpretation. In short, a lack of structure leads to a waste of time and effort, projects that drag on for too long and frustrated, burnt out teams. AJ&Smart has worked with some of the most innovative, productive companies in the world. What sets their teams apart from others is not better tools, bigger talent or more beautiful offices. The secret sauce to becoming a more productive, more creative and happier team is simple: Replace all open discussion or brainstorming with a structured process that leads to more ideas, clearer decisions and better outcomes. When a good process provides guardrails and a clear path to follow, it becomes easier to come up with ideas, make decisions and solve problems. This is why AJ&Smart created Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ). It’s a simple and short, but powerful group exercise that can be run either in-person, in the same room, or remotely with distributed teams.

Problem Definition Process

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

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

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

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

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

The 5 Whys 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

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

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

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

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

Design Sprint 2.0

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

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

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

Open space technology

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

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

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

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

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

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

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

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

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

Let’s take a look!

Fishbone Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

Problem Tree 

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

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

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

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

SWOT Analysis

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

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

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

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

Agreement-Certainty Matrix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Journalistic Six

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LEGO Challenge

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

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

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

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

What, So What, Now What?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journalists  

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

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

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

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

Problem-solving techniques for brainstorming solutions

Now you have the context and background of the problem you are trying to solving, now comes the time to start ideating and thinking about how you’ll solve the issue.

Here, you’ll want to encourage creative, free thinking and speed. Get as many ideas out as possible and explore different perspectives so you have the raw material for the next step.

Looking at a problem from a new angle can be one of the most effective ways of creating an effective solution. TRIZ is a problem-solving tool that asks the group to consider what they must not do in order to solve a challenge.

By reversing the discussion, new topics and taboo subjects often emerge, allowing the group to think more deeply and create ideas that confront the status quo in a safe and meaningful way. If you’re working on a problem that you’ve tried to solve before, TRIZ is a great problem-solving method to help your team get unblocked.

Making Space with TRIZ   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   #issue resolution   You can clear space for innovation by helping a group let go of what it knows (but rarely admits) limits its success and by inviting creative destruction. TRIZ makes it possible to challenge sacred cows safely and encourages heretical thinking. The question “What must we stop doing to make progress on our deepest purpose?” induces seriously fun yet very courageous conversations. Since laughter often erupts, issues that are otherwise taboo get a chance to be aired and confronted. With creative destruction come opportunities for renewal as local action and innovation rush in to fill the vacuum. Whoosh!

Mindspin  

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

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

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

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

The Creativity Dice

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

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

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

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

Idea and Concept Development

Brainstorming without structure can quickly become chaotic or frustrating. In a problem-solving context, having an ideation framework to follow can help ensure your team is both creative and disciplined.

In this method, you’ll find an idea generation process that encourages your group to brainstorm effectively before developing their ideas and begin clustering them together. By using concepts such as Yes and…, more is more and postponing judgement, you can create the ideal conditions for brainstorming with ease.

Idea & Concept Development   #hyperisland   #innovation   #idea generation   Ideation and Concept Development is a process for groups to work creatively and collaboratively to generate creative ideas. It’s a general approach that can be adapted and customized to suit many different scenarios. It includes basic principles for idea generation and several steps for groups to work with. It also includes steps for idea selection and development.

Problem-solving techniques for developing and refining solutions 

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to develop and refine your ideas in order to bring them closer to a solution that actually solves the problem.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team think through their ideas and refine them as part of your problem solving process.

Improved Solutions

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

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

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

Four Step Sketch

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

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

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

Ensuring that everyone in a group is able to contribute to a discussion is vital during any problem solving process. Not only does this ensure all bases are covered, but its then easier to get buy-in and accountability when people have been able to contribute to the process.

1-2-4-All is a tried and tested facilitation technique where participants are asked to first brainstorm on a topic on their own. Next, they discuss and share ideas in a pair before moving into a small group. Those groups are then asked to present the best idea from their discussion to the rest of the team.

This method can be used in many different contexts effectively, though I find it particularly shines in the idea development stage of the process. Giving each participant time to concretize their ideas and develop them in progressively larger groups can create a great space for both innovation and psychological safety.

1-2-4-All   #idea generation   #liberating structures   #issue analysis   With this facilitation technique you can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance. Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified. No buy-in strategies needed! Simple and elegant!

15% Solutions

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

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

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

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

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

Problem-solving techniques for making decisions and planning

After your group is happy with the possible solutions you’ve developed, now comes the time to choose which to implement. There’s more than one way to make a decision and the best option is often dependant on the needs and set-up of your group.

Sometimes, it’s the case that you’ll want to vote as a group on what is likely to be the most impactful solution. Other times, it might be down to a decision maker or major stakeholder to make the final decision. Whatever your process, here’s some techniques you can use to help you make a decision during your problem solving process.

How-Now-Wow Matrix

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

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

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

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

Impact and Effort Matrix

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Straddling the gap between decision making and planning, MoSCoW is a simple and effective method that allows a group team to easily prioritize a set of possible options.

Use this method in a problem solving process by collecting and summarizing all your possible solutions and then categorize them into 4 sections: “Must have”, “Should have”, “Could have”, or “Would like but won‘t get”.

This method is particularly useful when its less about choosing one possible solution and more about prioritorizing which to do first and which may not fit in the scope of your project. In my experience, complex challenges often require multiple small fixes, and this method can be a great way to move from a pile of things you’d all like to do to a structured plan.

MoSCoW   #define intentions   #create   #design   #action   #remote-friendly   MoSCoW is a method that allows the team to prioritize the different features that they will work on. Features are then categorized into “Must have”, “Should have”, “Could have”, or “Would like but won‘t get”. To be used at the beginning of a timeslot (for example during Sprint planning) and when planning is needed.

When it comes to managing the rollout of a solution, clarity and accountability are key factors in ensuring the success of the project. The RAACI chart is a simple but effective model for setting roles and responsibilities as part of a planning session.

Start by listing each person involved in the project and put them into the following groups in order to make it clear who is responsible for what during the rollout of your solution.

• Responsibility  (Which person and/or team will be taking action?)
• Authority  (At what “point” must the responsible person check in before going further?)
• Accountability  (Who must the responsible person check in with?)
• Consultation  (Who must be consulted by the responsible person before decisions are made?)
• Information  (Who must be informed of decisions, once made?)

Ensure this information is easily accessible and use it to inform who does what and who is looped into discussions and kept up to date.

RAACI   #roles and responsibility   #teamwork   #project management   Clarifying roles and responsibilities, levels of autonomy/latitude in decision making, and levels of engagement among diverse stakeholders.

Problem-solving warm-up activities

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

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

Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process. Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute. 

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

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

Doodling Together  

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

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

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

Show and Tell

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

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

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

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

Constellations

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

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

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

Draw a Tree

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

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

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

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

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

Closing activities for a problem-solving process

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

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

One Breath Feedback

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

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

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

Who What When Matrix 

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

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

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

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

Response cards

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

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

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

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

Tips for effective problem solving

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

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

Clearly define the problem

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

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

Don’t jump to conclusions

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

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

Try different approaches  

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

Don’t take it personally 

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

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

Get the right people in the room

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

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

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

Create psychologically safe spaces for discussion

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner.

It can be tough for people to stand up and contribute if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions and where possible, create regular opportunities for challenges to be brought up organically.

Document everything

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

Bring a facilitator 

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

Develop your problem-solving skills

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

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

Design a great agenda

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

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

Save time and effort creating an effective problem solving process

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

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

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

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

Over to you

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

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

James Smart is Head of Content at SessionLab. He’s also a creative facilitator who has run workshops and designed courses for establishments like the National Centre for Writing, UK. He especially enjoys working with young people and empowering others in their creative practice.

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

Your list of techniques for problem solving can be helpfully extended by adding TRIZ to the list of techniques. TRIZ has 40 problem solving techniques derived from methods inventros and patent holders used to get new patents. About 10-12 are general approaches. many organization sponsor classes in TRIZ that are used to solve business problems or general organiztational problems. You can take a look at TRIZ and dwonload a free internet booklet to see if you feel it shound be included per your selection process.

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Critical Thinking Skills: A Guide for Problem-Solving

Feeling challenged by the problems in your business? Looking for creative and strategic ways of solving problems? Your journey can start with critical thinking and problem-solving training . In a business environment, you are always searching for opportunities. Problems are opportunities in disguise. To become a problem-solver, you are on a mission to learn the art of thinking critically and creatively.

You need to find innovative solutions to your problems which will derive from teamwork and collaboration. Let’s explore the key concepts of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

In this article ....

What is critical thinking, critical thinking and problem-solving: why should you have the skills.

• Improves flexibility and learning skills . With the evolutionary changes in technology, you have to learn and adapt faster to new environments and procedures. Critical thinking helps us to be more flexible to changes.
• Students can reflect on their learning experiences critically and make effective decisions.
• With critical thinking, you can take apart facts from opinionated facts . You start considering all possible options for reaching a prospective solution.
• In the field of education, students tend to become more interactive if the teacher encourages them to think critically. With critical thinking, students can align their subjects with their own lives. In the process, learners become active participants in the whole learning process.
• While solving problems, students also learn other important skills such as creativity, collaboration, and cooperation .
• Encourages the practice of reasoning that helps us to overcome biases and prejudices.
• Critical thinking skills enhance performance as you are self-directed in your learning and decision-making.

How relevant is critical thinking to your job?

Managers are role models for their teams. As a manager, your ability to analyse problems critically influence your team members in the long run.

Human Resources Specialist

Business analyst, marketing associate.

Marketing associates gather and analyse a wide range of information regarding the target audience for their organisations. The ability to think critically can influence them to work out different solutions for successful marketing campaigns.

Sales Agent and Customer Service Representative

Creative ways of solving problems: the problem-solving method.

Start identifying your goals, desires or challenges. Don’t make wild assumptions about your problem. Define your objectives clearly for clarity. Gather data about the problem. You can interview people, conduct surveys and collect statistics. Try to understand everyone’s opinions and feelings. Formulate open-ended questions based on your awareness of the problems. Visualise the challenges and opportunities regarding the problem.

It’s time for brainstorming, brain writing, mind mapping or other forms of idea generating techniques. This is where creativity matters. When you get tired of the continuous process, take a break and return with fresh ideas. Problem Solving Skills  discusses elaborately on the preparation for brainstorming.

Now you are moving to the convergent stage of creative problem-solving. Your focus shifts to the evaluation of all the ideas generated before. Analyse the potential solutions, and think of the rationale behind the implementation of the solution.

4. Implement

You have to plan the course of action for the implementation stage. Identify your resources, communicate with the stakeholders and explain everything to the implementer.

Some ways of generating ideas creatively

Brainwriting: Brainwriting is a complementary technique to brainstorming. It can be considered a graphic version of brainstorming. Horst Geschka and his colleagues gave the idea as part of their research on the innovation management method.

Mind mapping: Mind maps are a visual representation of ideas on a piece of paper. You put the central idea in the middle and the associated ideas surrounding the central concept. Afterwards, you connect the ideas.

Duncker diagram: A comparative flowchart of the present state and desired state side by side with general solutions, functional solutions and specific solutions in three different levels.

How can a course on critical thinking help you to solve problems?

From our course on critical thinking and problem-solving , you will familiarise with the following concepts:

• Understanding and defining problems for creative problem-solving
• Using your existing resources more productively to generate ideas
• Thinking outside the box overcoming personal limitations
• Gaining knowledge on the different phases of the creative problem-solving process
• Utilising popular models in your way to gather information about problems and solutions
• Working with team members and implementing established brainstorming techniques for practical solutions to problems.

The modules of the course cover topics like problem-solving methods, information-gathering techniques, defining problems for clarity, getting ready for effective brainstorming, generating solutions maintaining a specific sequence, solutions analysis and planning the implementation phase.

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What Are Problem-Solving Skills? Definition and Examples

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Why do employers hire employees? To help them solve problems. Whether you’re a financial analyst deciding where to invest your firm’s money, or a marketer trying to figure out which channel to direct your efforts, companies hire people to help them find solutions. Problem-solving is an essential and marketable soft skill in the workplace. 

So, how can you improve your problem-solving and show employers you have this valuable skill? In this guide, we’ll cover:

Problem-Solving Skills Definition

Why are problem-solving skills important, problem-solving skills examples, how to include problem-solving skills in a job application, how to improve problem-solving skills, problem-solving: the bottom line.

Problem-solving skills are the ability to identify problems, brainstorm and analyze answers, and implement the best solutions. An employee with good problem-solving skills is both a self-starter and a collaborative teammate; they are proactive in understanding the root of a problem and work with others to consider a wide range of solutions before deciding how to move forward. 

Examples of using problem-solving skills in the workplace include:

• Researching patterns to understand why revenue decreased last quarter
• Experimenting with a new marketing channel to increase website sign-ups
• Brainstorming content types to share with potential customers
• Testing calls to action to see which ones drive the most product sales
• Implementing a new workflow to automate a team process and increase productivity

Problem-solving skills are the most sought-after soft skill of 2022. In fact, 86% of employers look for problem-solving skills on student resumes, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2022 survey . 

It’s unsurprising why employers are looking for this skill: companies will always need people to help them find solutions to their problems. Someone proactive and successful at problem-solving is valuable to any team.

“Employers are looking for employees who can make decisions independently, especially with the prevalence of remote/hybrid work and the need to communicate asynchronously,” Eric Mochnacz, senior HR consultant at Red Clover, says. “Employers want to see individuals who can make well-informed decisions that mitigate risk, and they can do so without suffering from analysis paralysis.”

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Problem-solving includes three main parts: identifying the problem, analyzing possible solutions, and deciding on the best course of action.

>>MORE: Discover the right career for you based on your skills with a career aptitude test .

Research is the first step of problem-solving because it helps you understand the context of a problem. Researching a problem enables you to learn why the problem is happening. For example, is revenue down because of a new sales tactic? Or because of seasonality? Is there a problem with who the sales team is reaching out to? 

Research broadens your scope to all possible reasons why the problem could be happening. Then once you figure it out, it helps you narrow your scope to start solving it. 

Analysis is the next step of problem-solving. Now that you’ve identified the problem, analytical skills help you look at what potential solutions there might be.

“The goal of analysis isn’t to solve a problem, actually — it’s to better understand it because that’s where the real solution will be found,” Gretchen Skalka, owner of Career Insights Consulting, says. “Looking at a problem through the lens of impartiality is the only way to get a true understanding of it from all angles.”

Decision-Making

Once you’ve figured out where the problem is coming from and what solutions are, it’s time to decide on the best way to go forth. Decision-making skills help you determine what resources are available, what a feasible action plan entails, and what solution is likely to lead to success.

On a Resume

Employers looking for problem-solving skills might include the word “problem-solving” or other synonyms like “ critical thinking ” or “analytical skills” in the job description.

“I would add ‘buzzwords’ you can find from the job descriptions or LinkedIn endorsements section to filter into your resume to comply with the ATS,” Matthew Warzel, CPRW resume writer, advises. Warzel recommends including these skills on your resume but warns to “leave the soft skills as adjectives in the summary section. That is the only place soft skills should be mentioned.”

On the other hand, you can list hard skills separately in a skills section on your resume .

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In a Cover Letter or an Interview

Explaining your problem-solving skills in an interview can seem daunting. You’re required to expand on your process — how you identified a problem, analyzed potential solutions, and made a choice. As long as you can explain your approach, it’s okay if that solution didn’t come from a professional work experience.

“Young professionals shortchange themselves by thinking only paid-for solutions matter to employers,” Skalka says. “People at the genesis of their careers don’t have a wealth of professional experience to pull from, but they do have relevant experience to share.”

Aaron Case, career counselor and CPRW at Resume Genius, agrees and encourages early professionals to share this skill. “If you don’t have any relevant work experience yet, you can still highlight your problem-solving skills in your cover letter,” he says. “Just showcase examples of problems you solved while completing your degree, working at internships, or volunteering. You can even pull examples from completely unrelated part-time jobs, as long as you make it clear how your problem-solving ability transfers to your new line of work.”

Learn How to Identify Problems

Problem-solving doesn’t just require finding solutions to problems that are already there. It’s also about being proactive when something isn’t working as you hoped it would. Practice questioning and getting curious about processes and activities in your everyday life. What could you improve? What would you do if you had more resources for this process? If you had fewer? Challenge yourself to challenge the world around you.

Think Digitally

“Employers in the modern workplace value digital problem-solving skills, like being able to find a technology solution to a traditional issue,” Case says. “For example, when I first started working as a marketing writer, my department didn’t have the budget to hire a professional voice actor for marketing video voiceovers. But I found a perfect solution to the problem with an AI voiceover service that cost a fraction of the price of an actor.”

Being comfortable with new technology — even ones you haven’t used before — is a valuable skill in an increasingly hybrid and remote world. Don’t be afraid to research new and innovative technologies to help automate processes or find a more efficient technological solution.

Collaborate

Problem-solving isn’t done in a silo, and it shouldn’t be. Use your collaboration skills to gather multiple perspectives, help eliminate bias, and listen to alternative solutions. Ask others where they think the problem is coming from and what solutions would help them with your workflow. From there, try to compromise on a solution that can benefit everyone.

If we’ve learned anything from the past few years, it’s that the world of work is constantly changing — which means it’s crucial to know how to adapt . Be comfortable narrowing down a solution, then changing your direction when a colleague provides a new piece of information. Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone, whether with your personal routine or trying a new system at work.

Put Yourself in the Middle of Tough Moments

Just like adapting requires you to challenge your routine and tradition, good problem-solving requires you to put yourself in challenging situations — especially ones where you don’t have relevant experience or expertise to find a solution. Because you won’t know how to tackle the problem, you’ll learn new problem-solving skills and how to navigate new challenges. Ask your manager or a peer if you can help them work on a complicated problem, and be proactive about asking them questions along the way.

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Step 1 of 3

Companies always need people to help them find solutions — especially proactive employees who have practical analytical skills and can collaborate to decide the best way to move forward. Whether or not you have experience solving problems in a professional workplace, illustrate your problem-solving skills by describing your research, analysis, and decision-making process — and make it clear that you’re the solution to the employer’s current problems. 

Image Credit: Christina Morillo / Pexels 

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How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

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

Podcast transcript

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

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

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

Hugo Sarrazin: Our pleasure.

Charles Conn: It’s terrific to be here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Simon London: So this is a concise problem statement.

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

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

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

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah.

Charles Conn: And in the wrong direction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both: Yeah.

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

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

Simon London: Right. Right.

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

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

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

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

Simon London: Would you agree with that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charles Conn: Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugo Sarrazin: Every step of the process.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugo Sarrazin: Absolutely.

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

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

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

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

Hugo Sarrazin: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

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

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

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Chemistry Education Research and Practice

Metacognitive problem solving: exploration of students’ perspectives through the lens of multi-dimensional engagement.

Solving chemical problems entails content knowledge and mastery of problem-solving processes. However, students sometimes lack metacognitive processes required for problem solving in chemistry. This study investigated how first-year chemistry students engaged with the metacognitive problem-solving scaffold Goldilocks Help. Data was collected from an activity, which involved students reflectively comparing their problem-solving attempts to an expert solution. These comparative reflections (N = 373) were thematically analysed to investigate scaffold engagement in three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural. Finding showed that scaffold use, coupled with self-reflection, allowed students to identify flaws in their solutions that were either problem specific or related to their problem-solving skills. Students were able to propose improvement strategies, such as posing prompting questions to themselves and finding multiple alternatives for evaluating an answer. Students, who initially lacked structured problem-solving skills, found that scaffolding helped them to slow down metacognitive processes that would otherwise be rushed through or engaged with on a surface level. Students’ resistance to the scaffold was due to fear of making a mistake or viewing the scaffold as requiring extra time and effort. Within a semester, many students demonstrated an improvement in successful and structured problem solving but some required more practice to internalise the scaffold. Our findings also indicated that students’ reflections on problem solving became more sophisticated as a result of continued exposure to the scaffold and iterative opportunities to compare their work to expert solutions, to self-assess, and to reflect. Further research on reflective writing in chemistry education should focus on the ipsative nature of such assessments, i.e. processes focussing on students’ own progress, growth, and improvement, compared to their previous performance, while recognising the power relations operationalised in course-embedded reflections. From the teaching practice perspective, having an awareness of students’ thoughts, emotions, and actions can help instructors differentiate between levels of student capabilities, mindsets, and needs for extra support, allowing teaching efforts to be directed at promoting metacognitive and structured problem solving.

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'Final parsec problem' that makes supermassive black holes impossible to explain could finally have a solution

A new study helps solve the "final parsec problem" that has made supermassive black hole formation impossible to explain, pointing to a strange form of dark matter as the key.

Scientists have been modeling how supermassive black holes form when two smaller black holes merge. But in their simulations, most pairs of massive black holes get stuck orbiting each other indefinitely. Now, scientists may have finally found a solution to this "final parsec problem" — and it may also help uncover the identity of one of the universe's most mysterious components.

Lurking at the heart of most ordinary galaxies is a supermassive black hole (SMBH), like the one imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration in the galaxy M87. That one is about 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun, but it wasn't always so big. Astronomers think SMBHs start out much smaller and grow into behemoths through repeated mergers with other black holes.

Evidence for those colliding giants came in 2023, when scientists with the International Pulsar Timing Array collaboration announced they had found a background "hum" of gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time released during mergers of extremely massive objects. Astronomers think this background is produced by distant pairs of massive black holes as they send space "ringing" with the gravitational echo of their faraway collisions.

Eternal cosmic dance

Researchers use sophisticated computer simulations to investigate the complex dance of these circling black holes. But until now, the models have run into a problem: When the black holes get down to a separation of about a parsec — about 3.26 light-years — they get stuck, circling each other eternally.

Related: Black hole singularities defy physics. New research could finally do away with them.

That's because, to collide and merge, the spiraling black holes must first lose energy and slow down. While approaching each other from many light-years apart, the black holes orbit through gas clouds and star clusters that slow their motion, causing them to spiral even closer.

But by the time they reach the last parsec, there isn't enough material left to drain their energy. Instead, the models predict that the duration of their final merger stretches to more than the current age of the universe. This has become known as the "final parsec problem."

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An extra ingredient

Scientists have come up with a few ideas to solve the problem. One answer could be that a spinning disk of matter that orbits the black holes, called an accretion disk, could speed their infall. Previous computer simulations show these reduce the time to a few billion years, but that's not enough to account for the observed background of gravitational waves or to explain how SMBHs can grow so large.

Now, a paper published in July in the journal Physical Review Letters suggests a new way black holes could lose this remaining energy: if dark matter is "self-interacting."

"The possibility that dark matter particles interact with each other is an assumption that we made, an extra ingredient that not all dark matter models contain," lead study author Gonzalo Alonso-Álvarez , a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, said in a statement . "Our argument is that only models with that ingredient can solve the final parsec problem."

Although dark matter is five times more abundant in the universe than ordinary matter, it is essentially invisible and little is known about its properties. Usually, scientists assume that it is collisionless, meaning it doesn't interact with ordinary matter or itself, in any way except through gravity. But because so little is known about it, astronomers sometimes move beyond this simple model.

Physicists have considered self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) before because it can help account for small-scale structures in galaxies that more traditional dark matter struggles with, and because it may help to explain the formation of unexpectedly large galaxies in the early universe .

The gravitational pull of SMBHs attracts dark matter into a dense concentration astrophysicists call a "spike." When the study authors used ordinary dark matter in their models, the spike did not absorb all of the energy from the black holes.

The "spikes are incapable of absorbing the frictional heat and are destroyed by the merger," the team explains in the paper. The energy from the orbiting black holes heats up the dark matter, eventually dispersing it into the wider galaxy, neutralizing the desired effect on the orbiting black holes.

However, when the team adjusted the properties of the dark matter in their models to make it self-interacting, they found that the spike absorbed the energy without being disrupted. The black holes continue to spiral inward and into the zone where they emit gravitational waves that pulsar timing experiments can detect. ( Pulsars — rapidly rotating neutron stars — emit beams of radiation like cosmic lighthouses; by carefully measuring the arrival times of their flashes, scientists can detect tiny variations caused by the passage of gravitational waves).

In these models, the black holes merge in less than a billion years — a timescale short enough that countless mergers could produce the detected gravitational wave background.

SIDM softens the spectrum

While still theoretical, the new SIDM models may help solve another puzzle. When the black holes are far apart, they radiate very long gravitational waves, like widely separated crests of ocean waves. As the black holes spiral closer, the crests also get closer together. But measurements from pulsar timing hint that the height of the crests is smaller when they are closer together — an effect astronomers call a "softening" of the spectrum.

— 'Immortal' stars at the Milky Way's center may have found an endless energy source, study suggests

— Supermassive black hole roars to life before astronomers' eyes in world-1st observations

— Black hole growth is slowing down in the universe. New research could help explain why.

There is no such softening when they use ordinary dark matter, but when the team introduced SIDM instead, the dark matter spike not only absorbed energy but also softened the gravitational wave spectrum.

"A prediction of our proposal is that the spectrum of gravitational waves observed by pulsar timing arrays should be softened at low frequencies," study co-author James Cline , a professor at McGill University and the CERN Department of Theoretical Physics in Switzerland, said in the statement. "The current data already hint at this behavior, and new data may be able to confirm it in the next few years."

If future measurements by pulsar timing arrays confirm the softening of the gravitational wave spectrum, scientists may finally be able to learn more about the elusive properties of dark matter from the behavior of some of the biggest giants in the universe.

Jonathan is an educator based in Hungary with a passion for astronomy. He enjoys communicating science stories in astrophysics and cosmology. He has a bachelor's degree in astrophysics from Cardiff University and a PhD in astronomy from Queen Mary University of London. In his spare time he enjoys hiking with his family and exploring the night sky.

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These Convenient Handbags Solve Problems You Didn't Know You Had

Staff Writer

Call it a purse, pocketbook, handbag or tote — a trusty pack can take you (and all your things) places. If you’re in the market for a new bag and don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on something so small it can’t hold your phone then, well, you came to the right place.

To help you carry your things and make life in general a little bit easier, we curated a list of helpful bags that all have different qualities that make them handy.

From waterproof bags to bags with a water bottle holder, here are a bunch of bags that are so much more than bags . We hope you find your next daily carrier and maybe something for travel too.

HuffPost and its publishing partners may receive a commission from some purchases made via links on this page. Every item is independently curated by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.

After seeing a friend use this effortlessly cool, versatile Baggu crescent bag, I got one for myself. It's the perfect size and can carry a book or water bottle without feeling clunky or cumbersome, but the best feature is the adjustable strap that can be worn over one shoulder like a purse or as a crossbody. It's perfect for casual days and dressy nights alike and truly will be the only bag you need. Best of all, you can throw it in the wash.

Finally, a work bag that's good-looking enough to go to dinner or drinks. This leather tote looks like a purse but has an internal laptop sleeve, an internal zippered container and other internal pockets. It has a top zip closure, keeping all your things secure, and comes in four colors of leather. Amazon customer Medical Professional wrote , "I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to find THE ONE and this is it!"

About half the price of the Lululemon Everywhere belt bag , this crossbody option has a simple, flat front and isn’t covered in extra zippers or frippery. It comes in a ton of fun colors (all of which are in stock) and offers many of the same features as the Everywhere bag, including an adjustable strap, an easy-to-open main zipper, a main compartment with mesh sections and a pocket in the back to keep valuables close. HuffPost readers love this versatile pick.

The TikTok viral Bogg bag is best described as a Croc in tote bag form. It's made from a waterproof and washable EVA material that's perfect for Little League games, lake days and long shifts at the hospital or school. Like Crocs, the bag's perforations lend themselves to accessorizing: In the holes, you can add a holder for a water bottle, carabiner clips for your keys or sunglasses , and a neoprene holder for a Stanley cup or other 40-ounce drink container . It comes in a bunch of colors so you can let your personality show.

Another staff pick, this super spacious carry-on bag is beloved by shopping writer Tessa Flores. If you're only allowed one bag on a flight or are trying to be more organized on the go, this bag has four external pockets including a space for your water bottle, as well as a computer sleeve, internal pockets and a large zipper compartment at the bottom that's perfect for storing shoes. It has an adjustable shoulder strap and two handles, and it comes with a clean toiletry bag that's ready for takeoff. This comes in five colors.

With a slash-resistant strap and inner lining and an RFID-blocking organizer, this angular bag is ideal for running around the city or exploring new places while keeping your stuff extra-safe. It's water-resistant, has both interior and exterior pockets, and has a water bottle holder on each side.

HuffPost shopping writer Haley Zovickian has and loves this incredibly handy water bottle sling from CalPak calling it , "An expandable, insulated pocket for bottles and thermoses, which could even hold my large 40-ounce bottle."

Zovickian notes the external pockets, namely the zippered one that's perfect for holding keys, ear buds, a phone, and a wallet as well as body items like lip balm or a mini sunscreen. It comes in a bunch of colors with an adjustable and detachable shoulder strap that can be worn over the shoulder or as a crossbody. "I’ve found it works beautifully for walks around the neighborhood, shopping, errands and day trips while traveling ," Zovickian said. "Plus, if you do get some spillage, the insulated inner liner will hold everything in so the rest of your belongings won’t get wet."

L.L. Bean's signature Boat & Tote is possibly the best out there for going to the farmer's market, food shopping or otherwise hauling a bunch of stuff. Originally invented to haul large quantities of ice, it's made from a heavyweight canvas that can stand up on its own and hold up to a whopping 500 pounds. If you're looking to conserve space or like products with multiple uses, this is ideal for a beach bag, travel carry-on or to take while running errands during the day. Find it in options with short and long handles, in four sizes and a bunch of colors.

Keep your credit cards extra secure with this compact Baggallini crossbody that comes with an RFID-protected wristlet. It's water-resistant, plus it has a bunch of internal organization, a slot to quickly grab your phone and an adjustable strap so you can wear it on one shoulder or as a crossbody. This bag is great for traveling or everyday wear and comes in a bunch of fun colors and patterns.

It's a cool black leather tote. It's a diaper bag. It's a cool black leather tote diaper bag . For new parents, grandparents, favorite aunties and babysitters, this magic bag looks and functions like a purse while still having internal pockets for bottles, diapers, snacks and more. It has a large insulated pocket to keep things temperature-regulated, as well as internal pockets and zipper pockets, giving all your adult and baby things a spot. This comes in five colors. (Clip the coupon for an additional 15% off.)

It's time to retire your overworked reusable grocery bag that's tearing at the seams and straps. Say hello to this utility canvas tote that's meant to carry anything from groceries to laundry to a picnic to craft supplies. It has a water-resistant vinyl lining and comes in a bunch of fun colors and patterns. The tote has a soft frame that gives it integrity but it can be folded down for easy storage and comfortable carrying.

Commuters, students or anyone who travels with a computer knows how drab some laptop bags can be. Say hello to this super chic, personalizable leather laptop bag with an adjustable strap and two exterior pockets to help you never forget your charger again. It's good-looking enough that you'll almost want to use it as a purse and can be carried via the handles or worn over your shoulder.

HuffPost shopping writer Haley Zovickian put us on to this budget-friendly crossbody phone holder for its convenience and ease.

" It has been a mainstay in my life," she said. "I’m able to talk on speakerphone hands-free; I can easily listen to music with my corded headphones without it being a pain; and best of all, I never drop my phone — if I do fumble it, my cell is caught by the strap before hitting the ground."

If you haven't been to a concert or large sporting event lately, you may not realize that the NFL (and many major arenas and venues) now limits you to a clear bag that does not exceed 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches. A modern take on a traditional pocketbook, this option has a fold-over flap with one main compartment and a turn clasp. It measures 10.2 inches by 7.8 inches by 2.7 inches with a top handle and detachable adjustable crossbody strap. This comes in four different colors for the handle and strap.

Bring your lunch in style or keep your afternoon Diet Coke nice and cold with this insulated faux-leather crossbody bag that's also a cooler. It's 10.5 by 8 inches, holds up to four cans of seltzer or soda, and has an adjustable strap. Reviewer LisaHE wrote: "I love this cooler so much that I ordered 3 more for gifts! It is great for holding 4-5 cans to go to the pool or to carry your lunch! Love the gold interior! So chic!"

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Research: How IT Can Solve Common Problems in DEI Initiatives

• Monideepa Tarafdar
• Marta Stelmaszak

Lessons from three organizations that successfully leveraged IT to drive structural change.

The authors’ research found that three persistent problems plague DEI initiatives: They do not connect to operational or strategic goals and objectives; they do not include the rank-and-file; and they are often implemented through periodic efforts like annual diversity training that aren’t integrated into day-to-day work processes. Organizations can overcome these problems by using IT in three ways.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are under attack. Confronted by high costs, mixed outcomes , unclear organizational benefits , and a political and regulatory backlash , organizations are rolling back their initiatives. Google and Meta, for example, recently reduced investment in their DEI programs and let go of DEI staff.

• Monideepa Tarafdar is Charles J. Dockendorff Endowed Professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• Marta Stelmaszak is an assistant professor of information systems at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Emrs: a simple ai use case to solve a big problem.

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Alex Waddell, Chief Information Officer, Adobe Population Health Leadership .

Rarely are electronic medical records (EMRs) liked by those who use them. They are often seen as a barrier to care. This is due to two major problems: inaccessible data and the time it takes to chart accurately.

EMRs have a problem with inaccessible data due to the nature of data modeling and user interface design. Often, pertinent information is hidden deep in the chart, and clinicians—who may have five minutes before a visit to brush up on the patient’s history—are stuck fumbling around a system trying to uncover valuable information.

The time it takes to chart is also a difficult problem. No matter how advanced your EMR is, the clinician must still write out their note. They can fill out hundreds of assessment questions as drop downs and check boxes but must sit down and write a text summary of what was captured in those structured data points. They must also provide context in areas that cannot be captured in a drop-down, such as how they addressed an issue. This precious time that should be spent with the patient discussing how to solve complex medical and social challenges is often rushed due to a need to provide the organization with documentation. Those who do not limit time with patients are left charting after the visit to catch up, frustrating the clinician and opening the opportunity for charting mistakes.

So, how does artificial intelligence (AI) help solve this problem? The answer is by using natural language processing for summarization. Imagine a world where a clinician accesses a chart and there is already a summary of the patient's medical history waiting for them, which could stretch across months or years of visits with that person. For those who have the time to deep dive into charts before the visit, this extra time can be spent preparing to see the patient. For those who do not have the time and therefore miss out on the historical context of the patient’s chart, they now have insight into critical data that may change the direction of the visit for the better.

Once a visit is complete, the clinician could trigger a natural language model to collect essential information and pre-fill much of the notes for them. This leaves the clinician with the easier task of simply editing the prompt that the AI created and adding any missing information.

In the healthcare industry, we have spent the last decade creating paper assessments, charts and EMRs to gather and maintain valuable data insights, but in the process, we have created unworkable systems for those on the front lines. As technologists, we must not forget those we build systems for and ensure they help clinicians provide quality care.

In doing this, organizations can reap significant returns in opportunity gains. That may be fitting in another visit or two due to time saved or enabling more informed decisions that could positively impact a patient's life and ultimately reduce costs for the patient and healthcare system.

When considering AI use cases in your organization, do not lose sight of the low-hanging fruit. AI does not need to be complicated or expensive. Start by looking at how you can drive efficiencies within your organization, giving time back to those who do the work.

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