Problem Solving and Decision Making

Problem Solving :

The process of working through details of a problem to reach a solution. Problem solving may include mathematical or systematic operations and can be a gauge of an individual's critical thinking skills.

 It looks very simple from the definition but actually its not. There are certain steps before we actually come to a solution. we might have done this but generally dont recognizes it while coming to a solution.

Following are the steps in problem solving:

1. Situation Analysis
• Valuing - valuing each of the option we have. 
• Priority setting - as per the valuing we can decide the priority or the importance to the option we have.
2. Problem Solving 

• Information gathering - Collecting all the information we require to make a consensus.
• Problem Definition - Formulating problem definition will help us to narrow down our work to perform.
3. Solution Analysis
• Ideas getting - we can collect the various ideas from the team and understand each of them.
• Decision making - Once all the ideas been understood, we can easily choose the one which suits best for our problem statement.
4. Implementation 
• Involving others - we shall discuss the solution we have got within the team so as to know whether their views on the solution are same as us or different.
• Planning - we must plan how the solution we have finalized should be implemented.
  
  
  Thus we can say that a manager has to play different roles at different point of time.
  
  
  
  
  

Following are the types of problems generally a manager has to face.

1. Rich & Poor problems: Manager generally tends to address the rich problems first and then the poor's problem.
2. Simple &Difficult : Each problem is simple , it totally depends upon the managers ability to view the problem statement as difficult or simple.

QUOTE : “The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.” 

― Albert Einstein

Thanks for reading... !!!