Problem Solving in Organizations

How to Tackle Problems

1. Increase your knowledge. Remember that expertise is one of the components of creativity. An expert can think ahead and plan better.
2. "Automate some components" of the solution. This could mean relying, in part, on technology or on personal habits, depending on the problem.
3. Follow a systematic plan (recall "The Creative Process" above). Even creativity has to have boundaries and a focus for it to be useful.
4. Draw inferences from both explicit (obvious) and implicit (tacit, implied) information. Remember Sherlock Holmes, who could tell a person's features by merely studying a pattern of dust on the floor and writing on the wall. Put those imaginative thinking skills to good use.
5. Develop subgoals by breaking the problem down.
6. Work backwards. What is it that you want to achieve? What things are needed to achieve that, in terms of money, skills, materials, etc.? Work your way down the problem in this manner, and you may find a comprehensive plan waiting at the bottom. This will probably not help you with the creative component, but it can make you more aware and alert of the potential solutions.
7. Search for contradictions. It can help eliminate choices to problems.

Team Work
Creativity often occurs as a group effort. Individuals can build upon the ideas of others and, through their collective knowledge and experience, come up with truly novel solutions. To be an effective team leader, a manager should become familiar with the dynamics of imagination as a group process.

When tackling a project, the first step is to examine what opportunities for change exist, through what Rees (1991) calls the 4-box analysis:

While it is easy for a team to concentrate on assets or complain about the persisting negatives, the manager must focus his or her team's creative efforts on the things that can be changed. Only then will constructive change begin to occur.

Remember that By engaging people in the creative process, the organization will make them more receptive to change. It is very unpleasant for a volunteer to walk in one day and find out that a major component of their work has been altered without any consultation to him or her.

If you would like to share your experience with problem-solving in your organization, please post a message on the discussion board or e-mail me at merlochy@xoommail.com.

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