There’s no need to waste your time with a long and unnecessary introduction. You know how important it is to be able to solve problems in business, as in life. Below, you’re going to learn the seven best and most effective methods to use to level up your problem-solving skills.
Skip To A Specific Problem-Solving Skill
Brainstorming
Brainstorming may be one of the oldest creative problem-solving skills in the world, but that does not make it any less important. It works, and works well, which is why it is still around. It also means that it is an important skill for you to master if you are trying to improve your problem-solving skills.
It is not hard to brainstorm, but it can be difficult to brainstorm correctly. This is because we humans have a natural tendency to edit and censor ourselves while we are thinking. That is the opposite of what you are supposed to do while brainstorming! You will need to keep this tendency in check to master brainstorming.
Here is the process to follow when you want to use brainstorming to solve a problem.
1. Get Your Tools Ready
If you are brainstorming by yourself (you can do this, but it is better to do it with other people), all you need is a notebook and pen or a computer with an open document for typing. Whiteboards are better for this process, however, and are almost indispensable for group brainstorming sessions.
2. State The Problem Clearly
Write the problem down so you and everyone else in the group can see it well. Be clear about what the problem is. State it as simply as possible. Do not add qualifications, addendums, or anything else that would muddy the issue. Ideally, you need a single, short sentence that states what you are trying to do.
3. Set A Timer and Start Writing Down Ideas
The timer is an essential part of the process. How long should you brainstorm for? It depends on your group, the problem, and how much time you have. Five to ten minutes might be enough if you are working by yourself, or it is a simple problem. Ten to twenty minutes is usually better.
While the timer runs, write down every idea. No one is allowed to be negative or censor any idea during the session. It ruins the flow and the process.
4. Go Through The Ideas
After the timer stops, go through all the ideas the group generated and see which ones might be viable. You will take these ideas and explore them further.
That is all there is to brainstorming. The difficulty lies in not censoring yourself, as noted before. Some of the best ideas in the past have come out of brainstorming sessions.
Ask “What-If?”
One of the best ways to understand a problem and come up with new ways to possibly solve it is to perform a what-if analysis. This process works so well that NASA and other space agencies use it to harden spacecraft against failure.
Your projects almost certainly have lower stakes than NASA, which means it will work even better for your needs. It is not a hard process to master, and it will improve your creative problem-solving skills each time you try it. The instructions below will work on almost any problem, but the more complex the problem, the better the process works.
1. State The Problem
As with every other problem-solving method, success is dependent on solving the correct problem. That means you need to be sure you know what the problem is and state it clearly and succinctly.
2. Ask What Happens If I Do ‘X’?
Fill in the blank for x. Select something you can change, whether it is something in the environment, an input, or something else, and try to figure out what will happen if you change it.
Do not just guess if you have any other options; many problems can be worked out on spreadsheets or using other simple simulations (spacecraft optional) and changes made to observe the results before putting it ‘X’ into practice.
As an easy example, what would happen to the amount of money you could save every month if you could cut your phone bill in half? This is easy to calculate. You do not have to guess. Do not worry about how you would do something like that right now; that comes later.
3. Write Down The Results
What did you find out? Was it good, bad, or neither? By how much? Would it be worthwhile to try a different version of ‘X’? Write it all down.
4. Repeat The Process
Do it again with a different ‘X’ and keep doing it until you run out of time or find a solution(s) you think might be workable. Keep note of all the latter as you are working.
5. Explore Potential Solutions
When you finish, you are going to take the potential solutions you noted earlier and explore them further to see if you have found a way to solve your problem. You might find only one potential solution, or you might be surprised to find a number that could work. That is what makes this skill so valuable.
Walk Away
What does walking away have to do with problem-solving? That sounds an awful lot like quitting, does it not? It is anything but quitting, though it does involve taking a break from trying to solve the problem you are working on.
The reason this works hinges on a key part of human psychology: the difference between conscious and unconscious processing. Your mind works on two separate levels, the conscious and the unconscious.
The former is the part you have control over, and when you are frustrated with a problem, it can seem like you are hitting your brain against a wall. You have absolutely no control over your unconscious brain, except for one crucial part: turning it loose to do its thing.
We do most of our thinking and processing in our subconscious, believe it or not. The majority of the things we do and come up with rise from the subconscious. We may or may not be aware of it, but that is where they come from.
Here is the one problem with getting things from the subconscious: it does not work well when our conscious brain is working. Sometimes it stops completely. It is as if your brain has two tracks and can only go down one of them at a time. When you are actively working on something, anything, your subconscious slows down or switches off.
It is when you are not consciously engaged in a task that your subconscious springs to life. When you are washing dishes, working out, taking a shower, and most of all, sleeping, is when your unconscious comes into its own. That is why you hear about people getting sudden bursts of inspiration while seemingly doing nothing.
How can you put this into action to help you solve problems creatively? It is simple. Walk away from the problem for a bit. Put it aside and work on something else. Take a short break. Go for a walk, have dinner, and do your best not to think about it for a while.
When you return, your brain will be refreshed, and your subconscious will have new information and connections that can help you solve the problem. You may even come up with the solution while you are away.
Walking away is not always viable, and it will not solve every problem, but is a great problem-solving skill, and you need to master it if you can.
Create a Problem Story
Another creative problem-solving skill that you should master is the creation of problem stories. These are not the same thing as story problems in math, so do not worry, though the idea is the same; put a problem into story format and use the story to solve it.
Here is how you create a problem story and use it to solve a (simple) problem.
1. Identify the Problem
What exactly is the problem? Has something quit working that should be working? Is something missing? Find a way to state the problem in sentence format. If the problem is a flat tire on your car, as an example, the problem sentence can be “The front passenger side tire is flat.”
2. Move Forward In Time – Why Is This a Problem?
You have stated the issue. Now move forward. Why is this an issue? What will happen or not happen if this problem is not resolved? Is it something that needs to be fixed, or can you live without it? Write this down, too.
For our flat tire example, the answer might be, “I cannot get home from work with a flat tire. The tire must be fixed for the car to drive properly.”
3. Move Backward In Time – What Caused the Problem?
Now look back and see if you can tell what caused the issue in the first place. Did something break down due to a lack of maintenance? Did the weather cause an issue? See if you can determine the cause of the problem.
Let us say you drove by a construction site on your way to work and picked up a nail, which resulted in the tire being flat. This answer is, “I drove by the construction site and got a nail in the tire. Now I have a flat.”
4. Solve the Problem and Prevent Recurrence
You now know what the problem is and what caused it. How can you fix it? Just as important, how can you prevent it from happening again? You do not want to be in the same place again.
With a flat tire, you can fix it in any of several ways. You may have to call a tire repair service, get a ride home from work, or have your car towed to a mechanic. All of these are solutions. As for recurrence, you can take a different route to work until the construction is finished, so you do not pick up any more nails.
Use Divergent-Convergent Thinking
Divergent-Convergent thinking is the formal name for the psychological process used in all forms of creative problem-solving, but there is a standalone process based on it as well. You should master it if you want to improve your creative problem-solving skills.
First, what are these two types of thinking? Divergent Thinking is the process of producing as many solutions to a problem as possible. Convergent Thinking is the process of narrowing down the options you generated to a single viable possibility. These two processes should be kept separate and performed sequentially.
How To Properly Perform Divergent Thinking
Decide how many ideas you want to have to work with. Come up with a number. It can be 15, 50, or 100. Do not stop generating new ideas until you have reached that number. Write down every idea that comes to mind.
Do not judge any of these ideas. That part comes later. This is the case even if some of the ideas sound crazy. Just write them down and move on.
Combine ideas to create new options. Look at the ones you have and use them as a basis for coming up with possible new solutions. Keep trying out new ideas and combinations of old ideas until you reach the number you selected. Only then do you move on to Convergent Thinking.
How To Properly Perform Convergent Thinking
Compare each idea to the problem you are trying to solve. Will it solve the problem? If not, are there any changes you could make that would improve it? If so, how well does it solve the problem? Will it create any new issues you are then going to have to solve?
Consider the most creative and radical ideas first. Look at them thoroughly; do not just toss them because they are different. Make sure you consider whether they will solve the problem. If so, keep them in the pool.
Once you have sorted out the ideas that will not solve your problem, make a new list containing the ideas that do present a solution. Go over each of these individually and figure out the pros and cons of each one. Narrow down your list to 3 to 5 options that all present good solutions.
Take this short list, refine each item as much as possible, get input from other stakeholders if necessary, and then select the solution that seems the best.
Use The Six Different Hats Method
This is a creative problem-solving method that lets you quickly switch from one perspective to another to see all the different sides of the problem and come up with a solution that helps everyone.
You go through this process one “hat” at a time, listing all the issues around the color hat you are currently using. In a group environment, each person takes a turn “wearing” each hat. If you are doing this by yourself, you just switch from one perspective to another.
The six hats are color-coded based on what perspective they stand for. Here’s a short description of each.
White Hat: This hat represents neutrality and objectivity. You use this hat to make a list of relevant facts and figures about the issue you are working on.
Red Hat: This is the subjective, or emotional hat. When you use this hat, everyone gets to express their emotions regarding the issue or problem. You can also use it for getting instinctive reactions to proposed solutions.
Black Hat: This is the devil’s advocate hat. You use it to get critical about ideas and proposed solutions so that you are less likely to make bad choices.
Yellow Hat: This is the positive hat. Everything is good to this hat, and you use it to find the positive features of the situation and/or proposed solutions.
Green Hat: Your Green Hat is your creative hat. It is what you wear when you are trying to generate new ideas or solutions. In some ways, it is the most important of the six hats.
Blue Hat: Organizing is the goal of the Blue Hat, and it is used both at the beginning and end of problem-solving sessions to decide on outlines, objectives, and definitions.
You use each of these hats in its turn to define the problem, create ideas and solutions, and determine which solution is best. Sometimes one go-round of the hats is enough and other times, you might have to do the method several times.
Using the Six Hats method lets you see different perspectives and compare ideas from different points of view, both of which are crucial problem-solving skills, whether you are trying to be creative!
This method also works great for teams to understand how each member thinks, to fix communication errors, and to come to an agreement on what will work best to solve the issue for all stakeholders.
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a creative problem-solving tool that let you bypass your conscious mind and its reaction to being presented with a problem to solve. If you are like most people, that reaction is to get stressed or anxious. Or both. Mind mapping avoids this issue.
A mind map is a visual map of an issue -in this case, a problem to be solved and all its constituent parts, that shows the linkages between all of them. It also shows connections between the problem and outside forces.
This visual ‘map’ lets you see a problem and all the things that go into it by simply glancing at it. It makes it easier to take in the information and see connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. Here is how to use mind mapping for problem-solving.
Create A Mind Map for the Problem
Start by writing down the central problem or idea in as few words as possible. It goes in the center of the map. Put additional issues down as keywords or short phrases in a separate location, and link them together with a line. This is known as a branch.
Do this for each component of the problem. You can use different colors or thicknesses of lines to indicate how important a branch is or how strong the connection between the problem and its component is. You can also use images instead of words. Add in outside forces before you are finished and connect them appropriately.
This visual map allows you to use word association, which is an important method of problem-solving that cannot be used when writing out problems in long form.
Create A Second Mind Map for Solutions
This one will be slightly different. The central idea will simply be the word ‘Solutions.’ Write it down. Now, add branches for every possible solution you can think of. Add subbranches to these to include resources, people, and other components you would need to have to implement this solution.
You can add more branches to ideas you need to explore further as well. When you are finished, look over all the proposed solutions and select the best one(s) of them to explore further. Create new branches with this information and the details needed to put it into action.
Mind mapping is an incredibly powerful tool for problem-solving, especially for those who process information best visually. It can help you find the best and most practical solution simply by looking at the visuals you have created.
