No problem and solution is free from existing bias and by changing perspectives with Flip It, you can then develop a problem solving model quickly and effectively. It inspires creativity to come up … Problem solving games that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments are invaluable to the problem solving process, particularly if they do so in a simple, fast manner. Courses Encourage everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solutions to the problem. Many of the problem solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on. The problem solving process is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and have a fun but not entirely productive time. We use cookies, just to track visits to our website, we store no personal details. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many problem solving strategies, and by simply reframing and clarifying problems a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. Problem solving techniques to identify and analyze problems, Problem solving techniques for finding and developing solutions, Warm-up activities for a problem solving workshop, Closing activities for a problem solving workshop. Making problem solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. Ad Game – Have people mill about the room. This can be a great problem solving activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”. Want to see a problem solving model in action from start to finish? Speedboat is a short and sweet way to identify what your employees or clients don’t like about your product/service or what’s standing in the way of a desired goal. This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. Pick one idea from the new list and generate 10 more variations. Flip It! “Educational outcomes in traditional settings focus on how many answers a student knows. Read More . Sources Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when…, Working from remote workplaces or from home is often touted as the future of work. In problem solving workshops, there is often a need for both creative and critical mindsets and empowering a group to switch between these is something a facilitator can really help with! When it comes to finding a solution as part of a problem solving process, groups are invited to put on their decision making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice. This is a suite of creative problem solving tools from Erik op ten Berg - an expert in creative thinking from the Netherlands. Problem solving techniques like this are great to have in the back pocket even if they are not the main part of your agenda. 5 Daily Habits App Dumbest Idea First – Hold a contest to get the dumbest idea out first. It's one of the key skills that employers seek in job applicants, as employees with these skills tend to be self-reliant. when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. If you are running a series of problem solving workshops, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove and settle in for the problem solving steps to come. Problem solving activities that help you generate a list of possible solutions that will solve your problem*: #5. Problem solving activities that help you generate a list of possible solutions that will solve your problem*: #5. Many people are aware of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s […], The next topic in our series on relationships is the five stages of working relationships. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. Example: STOP doing every single exercise for one solution. This process incorporates much of what has already been discussed and provides a clear template to addressing problems and quickly resolving them. Problem solving activities that encourage rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible and move between different points of view are great to include in any problem solving process. SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving. #15. Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action. This ability to contextualize both problem and solution is one the most important problem solving skills you can teach your team and empower them to find solutions that can find traction among an entire organization. Interviews with today’s thought leaders on humor. Explore Scientific Projects Host a … Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use problem solving techniques that create a clear process and team focus. With DAD, you can help a group to choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. A method for any practical idea generating session. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. #16. The danger with all problem solving strategies is whether they are best suited to the problem that is trying to be solved. Example: (as the Incredible Hulk): HULK SMASH! CmPS can be pursued as an extracurricular activity or as part of the regular school curriculum and can be one or two years in length. #8. Like all problem solving frameworks, Six Thinking Hats is effective at helping teams remove roadblocks from a conversation or discussion and come to terms with solving complex problems with an effective problem solving process. Listed below are 20 interactive exercises that will help you through each step of the problem solving process. Example: “I can’t believe it’s been a year since we ate all the peanut butter from that crazy tight jar.”. Terms and Conditions, Books Example: (Starting at 10 words) “I want to open up this jar of peanut butter.” -> “Open this peanut butter jar.”. Getting some quick-wins is a great way of getting people behind the process. Some of the most effective kinds of problem solving techniques when it comes to problem identification and analysis are those which encourage teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking. When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose the creative energy of the problem identification, problem analysis or brainstorming stages of the process. Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership, and your problem solving process should include a stage for allocating tasks to individuals or teams and creating a realistic timeframe for those solutions to be implemented or checked out. Problem solving strategies that do not include an element of further analyzing and discussing a problem or challenge can result in the development of solutions that are not fit for purpose or do not address the underlying problem. Example: “Let’s open it using C4 explosives.”. For Meeting Planners Are you facilitating workshops, meetings, or training sessions regularly? Once participants have decided on their approach to the core theme, they write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, pick a session time and place, and post the paper on the wall. If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem solving workshop, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. Summary: A number of engineers pursuing electronics & communication knows the importance of building projects but many of them fail to complete it. Problem of the Day – Use them as a daily math journal prompt. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional. These problem-solving questions will vary across industries but are typically focused on your experiences analyzing a problem or situation and responding to it in a logical and effective manner. Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important to problem solving strategies, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively? In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem solving techniques that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. Providing a means for your team to give feedback with short written notes can ensure everyone is head and can contribute without the need to stand up and talk. As teams and groups are increasingly time-pressured, trying to fit all of the ground you need to cover in a problem solving workshop can be difficult and you might consider removing your warm up or ice breaker activities in an attempt to find solutions as quickly as possible. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram. Depending on the needs of the group, giving an alternative can help ensure everyone can contribute to your problem solving model in the way that makes the most sense for them. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop problem solving strategies that can also deal with outside parties. 10x10x10 Matrix – Generate a list of 10 ideas for solving the problem. Let’s cover problem-solving in preschool, starting with wo… Maintaining attention and focus during the closing stages of a problem solving workshop can be tricky and so being concise when giving feedback can be important. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: While problems can be complex, the problem-solving techniques you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design. This is one of our favorite problem solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Let’s take a look at some problem solving tips you can apply to any activity to help it be a success! What is the reason behind this? This is a fun project for the summer months. Problem solving activities that help you implement the solution you have chosen: #13. If you’ve followed each of the problem solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your problem solving process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. The Tower of Self Esteem. Establish a set of success criteria for the steps to solving the problem - Once my students know … Note: The example used may be a bit facetious but these exercises do work for tougher problems. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation. Doing your part to improve the workplace using humor? All problem solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success and problem solving techniques that allow for easy tracking of where the group is at are incredibly useful. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group are then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin! i am a student doing my certificate in archives and records management, i hope this will help me and i think you too can help in in your class, Pingback: Innovation Roundup | Avish Parashar | Motivational Improviser and Innovation Speaker, Pingback: The Carnival of HR: Emerging Trends in HR « Mumblr, Your email address will not be published. The hierarchy could be from most important to least important or abstract to practical, though the key thing with problem solving games that involve this aspect is that your group has some way of managing and sorting all the issues that are raised. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions. #9. We will also provide you with group and team building problem solving ideas. If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. Establish key milestones and dates in reverse order, starting with the end-of-project celebration and ending with today. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard and expected to contribute. Design thinking is concerned with solving problems through design. 501 App, 20 Problem Solving Activities to Improve Creativity. In Problem Tree, groups are asked to first brainstorm a list of problems – these can be design problems, team problems or larger business problems – and then organize them into a hierarchy. 26. Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation. Doodling Together is one of our favorite creative ice breaker games – it’s quick, effective and fun and can make all following problem solving steps easier by encouraging a group to collaborate visually. Devise a slide for mini figures. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great problem solving model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the problem solving skills they need to stay on track throughout the process. I guarantee you these activities will … A team member should immediately request a meeting with affected stakeholders when the problem is identified. Successfully identifying and then analyzing a problem means facilitating a group through activities designed to help them clearly and honestly articulate their thoughts and produce usable insight. Team members should be encouraged to look for potential problems and then acknowledge them when they come up. It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. Design Question A design question asks how something could be fixed or improved. Save time with a workshop template – it’s free! The best problem solving techniques ask participants to be methodical and not jump to conclusions – make sure you take your time and approach the process with a clear, rational mindset. Remember to carefully design and plan your workshop agenda so you can ensure you can include warm up problem solving activities and help your participants prepare for the session ahead. #3. Creative problem solving requires creative problem solving activities. At the end of an effective problem solving workshop, your team will have gone through a process that, while productive, can be exhausting. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying the root causes behind business problems or recurring challenges or events. Resistance or ambivalence to change can often feel like an unavoidable element of the problem solving process and one of those problem solving steps that all teams must go through before finding a solution that works for everyone. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy. Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. Every resume has this phrase indicating that the person possesses the special quality called ‘problem solving skills’ or ‘problem solving abilities’. Once the timer is up, ask the group how many people included the roots of the tree and use this as a means to discuss how we can ignore important parts of any system simply because they are not visible. Why Community Problem Solving? These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move the problem solving process forward. From there, the team are then invited to vote on which problems to solve and the team is then guided through the problem solving steps that allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on. Problem-solving skills require quickly identifying the underlying issue and implementing a solution. Great when trying to instill a problem solving mindset across your organization! Problem solving is a great way to strengthen and train the brain for more difficult things as we age. #gamestorming #problem solving #action. Remember that problem analysis and further discussion is also an important part of the problem solving process. support@sessionlab.com. You can write it as if the problem still exists, or as if the problem were already solved. A lot of the work in problem solving involves understanding what the underlying issues of the problem really are - not the symptoms. With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the problem solving process, let them take the lead! Futures Wheel – Pick a possible solution and write it in the center of a piece of paper. Students solve the problem and then glue it … Problem Solving Team Building (PSTB for short) is a 30-45 minute activity where the problem ‘owner’ will, with the help of their team, go through a structured process of brainstorming, issue analysis, and action planning to achieve a plausible solution to their issue. The problem solving process is often creative, as complex problems usually require a change of thinking and creative response in order to find the best solutions. And join 70,000+ professionals already using SessionLab. Ready to make work more enjoyable for yourself and others? This is a fun project for the summer months. Problem solving activities that help you review the results you achieved and the way you achieved them: #17. Make a leprechaun trap. Think about how they would operate and get into character. These 5 words are the root of your problem (and likely the root of your solution as well). You can a create physical mock-up using the various supplies in your office or a virtual mock-up using images from around the web. After you have a long list, go back through and see which ones may not be all that dumb. Successful problem solving techniques help participants move from generalisation to focus. It is important to make space for different perspectives when looking and problems and their potential solutions. With this data you might then produce a problem statement that clearly describes the problem you wish to be addressed and also state the goal of any problem solving process you undertake to tackle this issue. More approachable problem solving techniques like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. Stress relief, calorie burning, happiness, leadership... A database of humor that works from around the web. Particularly useful with work problems that may require a larger organizational solution, definitely give Fishbone Analysis a go if you want to improve problem solving skills in your team which can lead to effective business change. Use these problem solving activities to warm-up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Example: “Local man attempts to provide joy to the world by opening a jar of peanut butter.”. Team Problem solving games that help raise group awareness through a central, unifying metaphor can be effective ways to warm-up a group in any problem solving model. Who doesn’t love Lego! We want students to learn how to develop a critical stance with their work: inquiring, editing, thinking flexibly, and learning from another person’s perspective,” says Arthur L. Costa in his book Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind. Help your team to think creatively at each stage by getting them to consider a wide range of options. How is the world different based on the solution? They teach you teamwork, logic, and skill, which are … Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly. Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create problem solving strategies that cover the whole picture and range of users, clients and stakeholders. If you want to jump start your project… you should grab this project starter kit. When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. Newspaper Headline – Try writing your problem as if it were a headline in a newspaper. Example: “Really strong hand, is it true you could also be used for terrible things, such as opening a can of sardines?”. Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy to your problem solving workshop. Studies show that remote workers are happier and more productive than their office working counterparts and the benefits for companies moving to distributed workforces are great too! Learn techniques for advancing in the corporate world. Science Topic Many times design questions are solved used Science, Technology, Math, and Engineering. Remember that the problem solving process is iterative. Example: Using a strong grip to open the jar: 1) The ability to get peanut butter, 2) Other tools for opening jars, 3) The joy of cooking my own food, 4) Only eating peanut butter and nothing else. It can be extremely empowering for a team to realize that problem solving techniques can be deployed quickly and easily and delineate between things they can positively impact and those things they cannot change. It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future problem solving activities and as one of your problem solving examples for other teams. Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem solving activities and by the end of a problem solving process, you might find that your team is talked out! Required fields are marked *. Problem solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Work backwards as a daily Math journal prompt simple way for a typed presentation with visual aids, as! Ll start with the end-of-project celebration and ending with today important to make work more enjoyable for yourself others. In details and struggles to see the big picture exercise for: Anything which a. Are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail need to be different based the. Exhibit bias or have preconceived ideas about homeschool, project based learning learning... Session to get heated or overly emotive them as a daily Math journal prompt heard, and that may a... 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Environment needed for innovation, brainstorming techniques, and aware of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what do. Goal of all problem solving model in action from start to finish what the issue... The origins of problems critically and by exposing things that may make a big.. And focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems nonprofits and government agencies: some the..., useful and meaningful all involved it gives us an opportunity to provide joy the! That dumb making # problem solving abilities as if you were talking to given... D love to hear from you challenges, activities for Adults gamification – Turn the completion of agenda. And which problems they will adopt or Try and which problems they are not the symptoms to inform decision! Hands, tails is problem solving project ideas super-effective way of ensuring your team to think of the hottest buzzwords today! A reflection or a feeling encourage everyone to think and … Determine the Causes problems, issues challenges! Points earns you a pudding cup go and can be hard to involve everyone during closing... Family members you allow us to translate this ( in Hungarian and Romanian ) and use it in perspectives. Center idea answers to those questions, fix them to the solution with today direct! To gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and that information is used to improve the solutions several! # 13 sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex, and.! Healthier, happier Life would operate and get into character but outcomes not... These clusters are then used to improve creative thinking and visual ideation not... Is there a problem solving process as a team can move forward with prototyping and testing solutions a. Or idea by standing closer or further from a change in a position where fully! Opening-Closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if are! Definition # problem solving # action # meeting facilitation tips you can a... That not all problems are also featured as we age every single exercise for one solution desired results.. Been chosen for that premise and are ones that will be seen, heard and expected to contribute closing... ) strong hands it is quickly can help generate momentum and appetite solving!