Improve your skills
Implementing Problem Solving:
To make sure that your problem is solved effectively and to everyone’s satisfaction you will need to monitor the implementation of your plan. To do this you will need to monitor the indicators of success. A good way to do this is to ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you seeing what you would expect from the indicators?
- Will the plan be done according to schedule?
- If the plan is not being followed as expected, then consider: Was the plan realistic? Are there sufficient resources to accomplish the plan on schedule? Should more priority be placed on various aspects of the plan? Should the plan be changed?
Once the plan has been fully carried out you will need to verify if the problem has been resolved or not. You will need to speak to people to find out what they think and whether anything has changed for them. You may also need to think about the following:
- What changes should be made to avoid this type of problem in the future? Consider changes to policies and procedures, training, etc.
- Consider "What did you learn from this problem solving?" Consider new knowledge, understanding and/or skills.
- Consider writing a brief memo/e-mail/letter that highlights the success of the problem solving effort, and what you learned as a result. Share it with the people involved.
This short unit should have given you some ideas on how you can tackle problems in your own life, both in work, in study and possibly at home too.
If you’d like to work more on your problem solving skills try the Open University’s OpenLearn course Problem Solving