3 Problem-Solving Techniques You Need

What does a business do?

It presents customers with a solution to a problem they have. Sometimes, a business will even present a solution to a problem the customer didn’t know they had. After all, people got on fine with slicing their own bread until the bread slicing machine was invented.

Problem-solving is at the heart of what every business does but what many entrepreneurs miss is that problem-solving is also at the heart of how a business operates. You could be amazing at solving problems for customers but if you can’t find inhouse solutions for your own issues, you won’t get very far. 

So, here are a few problem-solving techniques to consider.

Go Back to Basics

Building on ideas is great but sometimes, going back to the original issues, simplifying and pruning as you go can present other solutions. For example, let’s say the wi-fi is slow. The first thing to check would be your provider; maybe you press the reset button. But only by going back to the fundamentals of how the internet works would it occur to you to look at the data cabling and consider an upgrade.

Going back to basics requires one simple question: what do we want to achieve? The answer can be complex and varied but if you keep applying the same simple question, you can clarify a lot in a short space of time. 

Think Outside the Box

When you know what you want, it’s a bit easier to come up with a novel solution. If you are thinking in terms of what is already available, you limit the potential your ideas can have. Thinking outside the box is about allowing your creativity to fill in the gaps, ignoring what is already there in favour of what could be there instead. You might come up with a long list of totally useless ideas but you can almost guarantee that you will find a gem at some point. 

Don’t allow your self-limiting beliefs to get in the way of some great thinking. Open your mind and allow yourself to fail over and over again until you have a brilliant solution. Remember: if the solution to a problem was obvious, it would probably already exist. You are reaching into the unknown here so be patient and give yourself time. 

Draw From Experience

People who are successful tend to have a broad range of interests and excellent reading habits. The more you read, the more you know and the more creative you can be when it comes to mashing up ideas and inventing something new. There are no rules for what you should read, just allow yourself to be exposed to a range of ideas and be critical about everything you come across. 

The best problem solvers are usually those who start by saying, ‘I read this thing once…’ and start from there. They are also the people who can correlate information in different ways, applying logic from one situation to another. Sometimes it’s as simple as digitizing a current system (see Amazon, Google and Facebook) but sometimes it’s about being brave enough to ask ‘what if?’