Koberg & Bagnall, the authors of “The Universal Traveler”, propose a methodical problem solving process. Their process closely resembles the systems approach to problem-solving, an example of which I’ll include below for comparison.
K&B’s process has seven stages:
- Accept – accept the challenge of solving the problem (this is unique to K&B I think)
- Analyse – familiarise yourself with the problem; understand its ins and outs
- Define – determine the main issues; conceptualise and clarify the aims and goals
- Ideate – generate possible solutions to the problem
- Select – compare the alternative solutions and select the best one
- Implement – take action to implement the solution
- Evaluate – measure success; check how well the problem has been solved. In addition, reflect on the experience and learn what you can from it for future applications.
To compare, here’s a typical approach for a ‘hard’ systems engineering approach, taken from Zust and Troxler’s “No More Muddling Through”:
- Situation analysis – similar to the ‘Analyse’ section of K&B
- Goal definition – define the parameters of what we want to achieve
- Concept synthesis – development of alternative solutions. Same as K&B’s ‘Ideate’
- Concept analysis – analysis and evaluation of the generated alternative solutions. Same as the first part of ‘Select’ in K&B
- Evaluation – comparison of the alternatives (when none appear to be the obvious best choice)
- Decision – selection of the solution
The most obvious difference is that K&B’s covers more ground: it treats acceptance of the problem as part of the process. At the other end, it adds two stages: Implement, and Evaluate.
Come to think of it, if you only select a solution and not yet implemented it, you have not yet begun to resolve the problem. It’s therefore hard to think of Zust and Troxler’s ‘Problem-Solving Cycle’ as a complete problem solving process (it’s still an excellent book and one of my favourites for systems engineering).
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