Part 2: What's Problem Solving?
A Series on Problem Solving
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” - Albert Einstein
Problem solving is the act of defining a problem; determining the cause of the problem; identifying, prioritizing, and selecting alternatives for a solution; and implementing a solution - ASQ.
Fire fighting is not problem solving.
Fire fighting, according to the Business Dictionary, is Short-term 'fixing' of problems, or suppression of their symptoms, rather than understanding and addressing the factors that cause the problem.
In healthcare, diagnosis requires that you need to look at the clinical history, interview the patient, perform a physical exam, consider differential diagnoses, perform diagnostic tests, reach a final diagnosis, and sometimes consult with a specialist.
This can be applied to the business context; in this way, you are working with the history/context, subjective complaints, objective data, physical observations, and layers of expert opinion before reaching conclusions. This simple process ensures that your doctor isn't treating the wrong ailment.
Dr Russell Ackoff, a pioneer management thinker, discussed four approaches to solving problems:
1. Absolution - This is where we ignore the problem and hope that it goes away.
2. Resolution - This is where we dig into the past, figure out how we handled it in the past, and do the same again. This is a common-sense approach using trial and error and qualitative judgment.
3. Solution - This is where we use research, experimentation, and quantitative analysis to get optimized outcomes based on current constraints.
4. Dissolution - This is where we redesign the system, business, or its environment in a way that eliminates the problem and positions the business to function above current constraints.
“Successful problem solving requires finding the right solution to the right problem. We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.” - Russell Ackoff
These solutions might require that you:
Implement or change business strategies
Implement or change technologies
Create, improve, or fix products and/or services
Create, improve, or modify processes.
Change the organizational structure.
Change the organizational culture.
Get new capabilities: Capabilities are the ways people and resources are combined for a specific outcome.
Change materials or components.
One or more projects would usually have to be initiated when implementing solutions to most complex problems.