1. Chapter 1
Problems, Opportunities and
Decisions
Aj. Sounay Phothisane

2. Problems, problems, problems!
• What is a problem?
– Problem solving is the art of finding ways to get
from where you are to where want to be. The
problem, therefore, is the gap between the
present situation and a more desirable one. –
Vincent Nolan (1989)
– A problem can defined as any situation in which a
gap is perceived to exist between what is and
what should be. - Arthur B. Van Gundy Jr. (1988)

3. Problems, problems, problems!
• What is a problem?
– A problem is any situation in which an expected level
of performance is not being achieved and in which the
cause of the unacceptable performance is unknown. –
Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe (1981)
– A problem is a situation in which a decision-making
individual or group has alternative courses of action
available, … the choice made can have a significant
effect, and … the decision-maker has some doubt as
to which alternative should be selected. – Russell
Ackoff (1981)

4. Do I have a problem? Recognizing a
problem
• A problem must be perceived or recognized by
somebody, otherwise, it is not a problem.
– Problems are everywhere, depending on one’s
perception to the problem that it is a problem.
• We may not realize that we have a
problem, but that does not stop us from
having one.

5. Do I have a problem? Recognizing a
problem (Cont.)
• Managing director to sales
manager:
“The performance of
your salespeople in our
south-east region was pretty
poor last month: you had
better do something about
it!”

6. Do I have a problem? Recognizing a
problem (Cont.)
• From the sentence above, we can see some
points about problems:
– We thought that things were fine about sales
– After the saying of the manager director, now we
have one!
• The problem could be: unexpected sales target, Market
share, Profits, Performance… etc.,
– We do not have to know about a problem in order
to have one but have to perceived a problem.

7. Can I solve this problem? Having the
power to act
• We may have 2 difficulties if we do not know
how to resolve the problem.
– Difficulty in defining what the problem is
– Difficulty in finding a possible solution
No matter what, we must be able to do something
about a problem situation once we have decided
what this should be

8. Can I solve this problem? Having the
power to act
• Authority and Resources is essential to implement our
solutions.
• Our perceptions play a key role in many aspects of problem
solving because they determine what we think about the way
we solve problem.
– Perception: Power to Act (skills and knowledge)
• Do we have the power to motivate people to act or solving problem
– Culture:
• Flat Organization Vs. bureaucratic organization

9. Who owns a problem? Problem
ownership
• Who is “dissatisfied” with the problem
situation is the owner.
• Recognition of the problem
• But what of situations where we are asked to
help somebody else who has a problem?
– Will we have the ownership of the problem too?
• Do not solve it for them. If we are called as a
consultant, our role is solely to help them resolve their
own problem or to facilitate the problem-resolving
process.

10. Are there different types of problem?
• This solution to this problem is 90, people
might say that it qualifies as a problem

11. Classifying Problems: Complex Vs
Simple
• Complex: Problems situation with lots of
interacting components
– Complex problems should be broken down into
manageable portions. Referred to “Restructuring”
the problem
– Ex: we might break down the problem into
bits, then solve all the bits and fail to realize that a
problem existed solely in the interaction between
these bits. We call it “Boundary problem”

12. Ex: Boundary Problems
• The marketing section of a company complains that
the production section is not effective. They feel
frustrated because after all their efforts seeking out
new customers and obtaining more orders than ever in
the past, they are being embarrassed by complaints
from these customers about the failure of orders to
arrive before agreed delivery dates. The production
section, on the other hand, claims that they are already
working to maximum capacity, and that impossible
demands and deadlines are being imposed on them by
unrealistic promises that the marketing section has
been making to customers.

13. Ex: Boundary Problems
The fault mat lie within a particular section
- Perhaps marketing is making unrealistic
promises
- Perhaps production is understaffed in
relation to the recent increase in business.
However, the problem may be one of bad
communications between the sections.
Thus, if this complex problem were to broken down
on a sectional basis it might never be solved

14. The problem of knowing what a
problem is! Redefining the problem
• Is the problem “well defined” or “ill defined”?
– The triangle problem is extremely well defined.
We knew exactly what we are dealing with: a
plane triangular structure some of whose
dimensions were known exactly
– When a problem is ill defined, and even when we
think we know what the problem is, we should try
to view the problem from many angles to ensure
that we are actually attempting to solve the right
or most appropriate one.
– This process of looking around the stated problem
is referred to as redefining the problem.

15. Breakdown: Redefining the problem
• You are traveling alone in your car to a very
important meeting. Fifteen minutes from your
destination (30 minutes before the
meeting), your car engine loses power, cuts
out and you glide to a standstill on a busy
clearway in the middle of a thunderstorm.
– You certainly have a problem. But what is it?

16. Breakdown: Redefining the problem
1. How to get the car started again.
2. How to reach my destination as quickly as
possible
3. How to find my alternative transport
4. I wish I had wings
5. I wish I could teleport to my destination
6. I wish it would stop raining
7. I wish I had stayed in bed today

17. Decisions, decisions!
• Problem solving Vs. decision making
Problem solving Decision making
• Identify and try to understand • Identify the objectives (goals) of
the problem the decision
• Collect relevant information • Find alternative ways of
and reflect on it meeting these objectives
• Generate some ideas • Determine evaluation
• Develop solutions criteria/techniques
• Select the best solution • Select best course of action
• Implement it • Implement it