Why is it important to carefully identify the problem

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Company reviews. Find salaries. Upload your resume. Sign in. Career Development. What is problem-solving? Problem-solving steps. Define the problem. Separate facts from opinions. Determine the process where the problem exists. Analyze company policies and procedures. Discuss with team members involved in order to gather more information. Define the problem in specific terms. Gather all the necessary information required to solve the problem.

Identify alternative solutions. Consider every aspect that could slow down the process of solving the existing problem. Make sure the ideas generated are consistent with relevant goals and objectives. Check that everyone participates in the process of idea generation. Distinguish between short- and long-term alternatives. Evaluate solutions. Select a solution. It solves the problem smoothly without creating another problem. It is acceptable to everyone involved.

It is practical and easy to implement. The employees responsible for executing the solution How the employees will implement the solution The amount of time and resources needed. Implement the chosen solution.

Develop an action plan to implement the chosen solution. Define objectives and separate them into measurable targets to monitor the implementation. Define timelines for implementation. Communicate the plan to everyone involved. 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. 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.

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.

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. Otherwise, people tend to be inhibited about offering their impressions of the real causes of problems. Write down what your opinions and what you've heard from others.

Regarding what you think might be performance problems associated with an employee, it's often useful to seek advice from a peer or your supervisor in order to verify your impression of the problem. Write down a description of the cause of the problem and in terms of what is happening, where, when, how, with whom and why. Select an approach to resolve the problem When selecting the best approach, consider: Which approach is the most likely to solve the problem for the long term?

Which approach is the most realistic to accomplish for now? Do you have the resources? Are they affordable? Do you have enough time to implement the approach? What is the extent of risk associated with each alternative?

Plan the implementation of the best alternative this is your action plan Carefully consider "What will the situation look like when the problem is solved? What systems or processes should be changed in your organization, for example, a new policy or procedure? Don't resort to solutions where someone is "just going to try harder". How will you know if the steps are being followed or not? How much time will you need to implement the solution?

Write a schedule that includes the start and stop times, and when you expect to see certain indicators of success. Who will primarily be responsible for ensuring implementation of the plan?

Write down the answers to the above questions and consider this as your action plan. Communicate the plan to those who will involved in implementing it and, at least, to your immediate supervisor.

Monitor implementation of the plan Monitor the indicators of success: Are you seeing what you would expect from the indicators? Will the plan be done according to schedule?

If the plan is not being followed as expected, then consider: Was the plan realistic? Are there sufficient resources to accomplish the plan on schedule? Should more priority be placed on various aspects of the plan? Should the plan be changed? Verify if the problem has been resolved or not One of the best ways to verify if a problem has been solved or not is to resume normal operations in the organization.

Still, you should consider: What changes should be made to avoid this type of problem in the future? Consider changes to policies and procedures, training, etc. Lastly, consider "What did you learn from this problem solving? Consider writing a brief memo that highlights the success of the problem solving effort, and what you learned as a result. Share it with your supervisor, peers and subordinates. Rational Versus Organic Approach to Problem Solving Rational A person with this preference often prefers using a comprehensive and logical approach similar to the guidelines in the above section.

Define the problem. Examine all potential causes for the problem. Identify all alternatives to resolve the problem. Carefully select an alternative. Develop an orderly implementation plan to implement that best alternative. Carefully monitor implementation of the plan. Verify if the problem has been resolved or not.