Step-By-Step Problem Solving: A Practical Guide to Ensure Problems Get (And Stay) Solved

by Richard Y. Chang and P. Keith Kelly, P. Keith Kelly

You may have experienced problem solving as a one step process--do it! But there is more to it than that. For starters, you need to know what the problem really is, what's causing it, and look at new and creative ways of solving it. This guidebook covers these areas, providing you with a corporate-proven step-by-step model that you can use in a group, or on an individual basis, as a guide to solving problems in a systematic manner. It will train you to cover all the bases and help you ensure objectivity. Additionally, it can serve as a tool to help you successfully manage people in a problem solving team.

106 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 1993

Reviews

[Bibhu Ashish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book to structurally approach any problem at hand. Provides some great tools and a great framework for finding solution to any problem we face personally and professionally. The framework which the author has suggested is that all problem solving activity can be divided into following phases.
1-problem definition.
2-Root cause identification
3-Possible solution identification
4-Best solution identification
5-Action plan development
6-Solution implementation and progress evaluation
Each of the above phase has it's activities and sub activities which together form a powerful tool in the user's hand to solve very complex problems.

The section that I liked most in the book is the section where author has dealt with the problem definition phase. The two sub activities in the problem definition phase namely "Forming the problem statement" and "Desired state" will not only help to weed out the unnecessary noises while finding the right problem to solve, they will also make the complete activity of finding solutions to problems far better and effective.

Highly recommended!!!