This presentation explains problem solving techniques

1. PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

2. TYPES OF MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

3. Employees need to know what the
stakes are, what the game is and how
it’s played
This is often difficult for a new mid-level manager who has
never quite understood herself. As a new manager or with a
new manager reporting to you, remember that your
company can support managers by having a clear vision and
communicating it well and often. The CEO should be able to
tell a great story about how the company came to be, what it
stands for, where it wants to go, and what it honestly values.
HR should help new employees understand why this
company exists and what it strives for. Does everyone in
your organization understand the company business goals,
it’s unique selling position, brand promise(s), operating
environment, and marketplace realities?

4. Employees need to understand how they can
make the biggest contribution to the vision
All employees do not need to agree with the vision, but
they should be able to align their work with the
institution’s goals. Performance evaluations should be
conducted with an eye towards contributing to those
goals. As a manager, you may have to bring the vision
down from thirty-thousand feet to a more targeted level.
Let your staff know how their work fits into the larger
picture for your organization and for your consumer,
client, or other audience.

5. Employees need a reason to care about
contributing
A paycheck is not a reason to care. People do have a
need to belong and to feel like they matter. Does your
employee’s contribution matter? Do you care about his
contribution? Do you understand how he wants to be
rewarded or what will make him feel productive? Are
you as a manager engaged in your work? How good
are your communication skills in terms of inspiring
and thanking?

6. Managers need to create a positive
environment
Managers need to create a positive
environment that fosters the traits you want
employees to display. You may need to experiment
a bit here. Some teams will have different needs.
For example a team that is largely C’s will feel
rewarded by challenges, but not necessarily
personal recognition while an S team may value
a structure that supports work-life balance.

7. Employees don’t want to feel set up
for failure
Do you know what feels like failure to your
employees? Do they have the resources they need
to fully contribute? Are you second-guessing them
or getting in their way? Do the rules of the game
change so often that an employee might be playing
by old rules? How do you as a manager deal
with failure? Do employees know what your
reaction to their failure will be? Will you punish or
help them learn?

8. Employees see bad behavior and
poor performance going unnoticed or
unchallenged
Nothing demotivates like watching a team member
goof off while others strive for excellence. Do
employees say or think “What are they going to do?
Fire me?” because no one has witnessed a reprimand,
let alone a dismissal? Is there a clear understanding of
what constitutes appropriate behavior and excellent
performance? Are you as a manager modeling both?

9. Employees feel ignored and/or
unappreciated
Do you understand what type of attention is beneficial to
offer each of your employees or teams? Do you understand
what each employee needs to feel appreciated or is she
basing her behaviors on her own preferences?
If you’re a manager, how well do you do? Have you gone
through a 360 review? If you train managers, how are you
measuring your success? If you’re a leader, how are you
providing your managers with a clear understanding of
your vision so they can align their resources with it and
execute the appropriate tactics?

10. Problem solving techniques

11. STEPS OF SLOVING PROBLEM
1. First, you must define the problem. What is its
cause? What are the signs there's a problem at all?
2. Next, you identify various options for
solutions. What are some good ideas to solve this?
3. Then, evaluate your options and choose from
among them. What is the best option to solve the
problem? What's the easiest option? How should
you prioritize?
4. Finally, implement the chosen solution. Does
it solve the problem? Is there another option you
need to try?

12. Creative Problem Solving Techniques
• Separate ideation from evaluation. When you brainstorm
creative ideas, have a separate time for listing it all down. Focus on
generating lots of ideas. Don't prioritize or evaluate them until
everything is captured.
• Judging will shut it down. Nothing stops the flow of creative
ideas faster than judging them on the spot. Wait until the
brainstorming is over before you evaluate.
• Restate problems as questions. It's easier to entice a group into
thinking of creative ideas when challenges are stated as open-ended
questions.
• Use "Yes and" to expand ideas. Here's one of the basic tenets of
improv comedy. It's way too easy to shut down and negate ideas by
using the word "but." (i.e. "But I think this is better...") Avoid this at
all costs. Instead, expand on what was previously introduced by
saying "Yes, and..." to keep ideas flowing and evolving.

13. Problem Solving Tips From Psychology
• Take it from Experience : In 1911, the American
psychologist Edward Thorndike observed cats figuring
out how to escape from the cage he placed them in. From
this, Thorndike developed his law of effect, which is
basically: if you succeed via trial-and-error, you're more
likely to use those same actions and ideas that led to your
previous success when you face the problem again.
• Barriers to Reproductive Thinking : And then there
were the Gestalt psychologists who built from
Thorndike's ideas when they proposed that problem
solving can happen via reproductive thinking, which is
not about sex, but rather solving a problem by using past
experience and reproducing that experience to solve the
current problem.

14. What's interesting about Gestalt psychology is how they view
barriers to problem solving. Here are two such barriers:
1. Are you entrenched? Look up mental set or entrenchment.
This is when you're so fixated on a solution that used to work
well in the past but has no bearing to your current problem. Are
you so entrenched with a method or idea that you use it even
when it doesn't work? As Queen Elsa sang, "Let it go!"
2. Are you thinking of alternative uses? There is a
cognitive bias called functional fixedness which could thwart
any of your critical thinking techniques by having you only see
an object's conventional function.
For example: if you need to cut a piece of paper in half but only
have a ruler, functional fixedness would lead you to think the
ruler is only good for measuring things. (You could also use the
ruler to crease the paper, making it easier to tear it in half.)

15. More Problem Solving Tools

16. Use Hurson's Productive Thinking
Model
Ask, "What is going on?" Define the problem and its
impact on your company, then clarify your vision for the
future.
Ask, "What is success?" Define what the solution must do,
what resources it needs, its scope, and the values it must
uphold.
Ask, "What is the question?" Generate a long list of
questions that, when answered, will solve the problem.
Generate answers. Answer the questions from step
Forge the solution. Evaluate the ideas with potential based
on the criteria from step 2. Pick a solution.
Align resources. Identify people and resources to execute
the solution.

17. Use Analogies to Get to a Solution
o Another tool you can use is analogies. Analogical thinking uses
information from one area to help with a problem in a different
area. In short, solving a different problem can lead you to find a
solution to the actual problem. Watch out though! Analogies are
difficult for beginners and take some getting used to.
o An example: in the Radiation Problem, a doctor has a patient
with a tumor that cannot be operated on. The doctor can use
rays to destroy the tumor but it also destroys healthy tissue.
o Two researchers, Gick and Holyoak noted that people solved the
radiation problem much more easily after being asked to read a
story about an invading general who must capture the fortress of
a king but must be careful to avoid landmines that will detonate
if large forces traverse the streets. The general then sends small
forces of men down different streets so the army can converge at
the fortress at the same time and can capture it at full force.

18. • Don't start by trying to solve the problem. First, aim
to understand the root of the problem.
• Use questions to generate ideas for solving the
problem.
• Look to previous problems to find the answers to
new ones.
• Clear your preconceived ideas and past experiences
before attempting to tackle the problem.
4 different takeaways to use the next time
a problem gets you tangled up