problem solving workshop mixed problem solving

Back to Guides

How to run a problem-solving workshop.

problem solving workshop mixed problem solving

What is a problem-solving workshop?

A problem-solving workshop is a rapid session that helps you:

Understand the root cause of a problem
Quickly generate ideas to solve it
Evaluate the ideas to ensure they’re robust
Make a plan to test or implement the solution

This workshop critically assesses what’s going wrong and helps you find out what your options are to solve it, before you decide on the perfect solution.

Who should run a problem-solving workshop?

Product team leads, such as designers, product managers or engineers can run this type of workshop. There’s no one right person to lead something as important as this.

In fact, the core of your product development should start with the problem rather than the solution itself. It can be tempting to jump straight into features, but until you understand the problem well, you can’t begin to solve it.

When to run a problem-solving workshop

This workshop can be used in various circumstances:

A show-stopping problem that grinds everything to a halt
An intermittent problem that you want to get to the bottom of
A customer or user problem, such as a pain point when using a service or product
A high-level business problem, for example “too many customer complaints”, “conversion rate is too low”, or “operating costs are too high”

1. Get the right people together

2. identify the right problem.

3. Come up with ideas to solve the problem

4. Evaluate the ideas to ensure they’re robust

5. make a plan to test or implement the solution.

Read on to find out how to do all that, and more.

Get the right people in the room (and no one else!)

Invite all affected parties to a session. These are people that the problem has a direct impact on. Including those that aren’t impacted may offer a more objective view, but ultimately; more people equals more time. We want to solve problems with haste, so we can find out if it’s the right solution sooner rather than later!

The piston might have broken, but what caused the piston to break?

What may appear like the problem, could be one of many observable results of a deeper underlying problem. To identify the ‘right’ or ‘true’ problem, we need to delve into it. This method is often called “Root Cause Analysis”.

There are many ways to conduct a Root Cause Analysis, but the easiest and most pragmatic way is to use the Five Whys Analysis tactic .

Simply put, asking “why?” at least five times will lead you to the real problem. Solving this root problem subsequently solves all of the surface problems associated with it.

Learn how to run the Five Whys Analysis tactic

3. Come up with ideas to solve your problem

What normally follows identifying the right problem is a flurry of ideas. This usually takes the form of blurting them out at each other – but there are better, more structured ways to capture ideas. Generating ideas in a structured way gives you time and space to think, as well as building on others’ ideas. The result means more thorough and refined ideas, over a back of the napkin sketch that the loudest person in the room decides is the best thing to do.

Idea-generation tactics for problem solving:

Mind Map – Get your brain on to paper, so you can start to form ideas for the methods below.
Crazy Eights – Eight ideas in eight minutes
Reverse Brainstorm – Come up with ways to make the problem worse, then reverse it to get the solution
Round Robin – Generate an idea, then have the person next to you build on it
Storyboard – Turn your idea into a sequence of events to understand how it might actually work in reality

Once you have a suite of ideas, you’ll want to review them and try some evaluative tactics .

If you have a lot of ideas, you might want to prioritise the most promising ones to take forward with a decision tactic such as Priority Map or Blind Vote .

Kick the tyres of your idea to make sure it's robust

Once you have a shortlist of ideas it can be tempting to go with the one that appears most promising. If time is of the essence, and it’s low risk – it might be the right call to just try it out.

However, it’s vital to evaluate ideas for solutions that may be more costly or complicated. Kick the tyres, so to speak.

Evaluating ideas gives you the confidence that your promising idea truly is promising, and is worthy of taking forward to the next stage: prototyping and implementation.

Evaluation tactics for ideas:

Idea Beetle – a set of questions that help you assess if your idea is robust before you progress with it
Rose, Thorn, Bud – a way to review the good, the bad and the potential of an idea
SWOT Analysis – articulate an idea’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats

If you still have a lot of ideas, you might want to prioritise the most promising ones to take forward with a decision tactic such as Priority Map or Blind Vote .

Now you should have one or two (or more!) evaluated, robust and promising ideas that you want to try out to solve the problem.

Whether you need to work out how to prototype and test the idea, or go ahead and implement the solution right away – you need a plan.

To work out a plan, use the Sticky Steps tactic , which mentally starts you off at having the solution implemented or prototype tested, then works backwards to today in order to see what steps you need to take.

Once you have a solid plan, create accountability by creating a list of tasks to do, and assigning them to people with a deadline. You can do this with the Who, What, When tactic .

2 thoughts on “How to run a problem-solving workshop”

Hi I’d love to know approx about how long it should take to run one of these workshops. If you could include that in your very helpful summaries – I think that would be very helpful to plan and market these types of servies.

Appreciate all you do! R

All activities are very helpful.

Appreciate you Nazia Psychologist

Problem-solving workshop: Step-by-Step

A problem-solving workshop is held by the Agile Release Train and its purpose is to address systematic problems. The workshop that concentrates on identifying the problems, not just addressing the symptoms, is facilitated by the Release Train Engineer and time-boxed to maximum of two hours. What are the six steps of the workshop?

In SAFe® (Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprises®), problem-solving workshop is done during the Inspect & Adapt (I & A) event. I & A is held at the end of each Program Increment, and it forms the basis for relentless improvement, one of the four pillars of the SAFe House of Lean , and a dimension of the Continuous Learning Culture core competency.

During the three parts of I & A event (PI System Demo, Quantitative and Qualitative measurement, and Retrospective and problem-solving workshop), the ART demonstrates and evaluates the current state of the solution and teams reflect and identify improvement backlog items. In this article we are going to concentrate on the last part of the event, problem-solving workshop, during which teams systematically address the larger impediments that are limiting velocity.

Problem-solving workshop consists of 6 steps

Step 1: agree on the problem to solve.

Clearly stating the problem is key to problem identification and correction. It enables more focused investigation, time-saving, and avoids ‘ready, fire, aim’ approach. On the other hand, a problem that is not well defined, may result in failure to reach the proper countermeasure. To identify and agree on the problem to solve, the teams should spend a few minutes clearly stating the problem, highlighting the ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘impact’ as succinctly as they can.

Step 2: Apply root-cause analysis and 5 whys

The Root-cause analysis and the ‘5 Whys’ technique is used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. It helps to avoid assumptions and logic traps, trace the chain of causality in direct increments from the effect to a root cause.

The root cause analysis (fishbone or Ishikawa) diagram features 5 main ‘bones’ that represent typical sources of problems in development (tools, people, program, process, environment). Team members then brainstorm causes that they think contribute to the problem to be solved and group them into these categories. Once a cause is identified, its root cause is explored with the 5 Whys technique. By simply asking ‘why’ multiple times, the cause of the previous cause is uncovered, and added to the diagram. The process stops once a suitable root cause has been identified and the same process is then applied to the next cause (© Scaled Agile, Inc.).

Step 3: Identify the biggest root-cause using Pareto analysis

Team uses Pareto analysis (or 80/20 rule) to narrow down the number of actions that produce the most significant overall effect. It is based on the principle that 20% of root causes can cause 80% of problems and it has proved useful where many possible sources and actions are competing. Once the team writes down all the causes-of-causes, they identify the biggest root-cause using dot-voting – every team member has five dots on its disposal, and he can allocate them to one or more items he thinks are most problematic. Then they summarize votes in Pareto chart that shows collective consensus on the most significant root-cause.

Step 4: Restate the new problem for the biggest root-cause

Team picks the most voted item from Pareto chart. They restate it clearly as a problem and add economic impact of the problem to the description.

Step 5: Brainstorm solutions

During the brainstorming activity that lasts about 15 – 30 minutes, team brainstorms as many possible corrective actions as possible. The goal of activity is to generate as many ideas as possible, without criticism or debate. Team members should let their imagination soar and explore and combine all the ideas that arise and in the end dot-vote to identify top contenders.

Step 6: Identify improvement backlog items (NRFs)

In the end of the problem-solving workshop, up to three most voted solutions are identified. Solutions are then rephrased as improvement stories and features to be fed directly into the PI Planning event that follows the I & A event. During that event, the RTE helps ensure that the relevant work needed to deliver the identified improvements is planned. This closes the loop, thus ensuring that action will be taken, and that people and resources are dedicated as necessary to improve the current state. In this way, problem-solving becomes routine and systematic, and team members and ART stakeholders can be assured that the train is solidly on its journey of relentless improvement (© Scaled Agile, Inc. ).

Mastering SAFe: What Every Business Professional Should Know

Anti-patterns can seriously endanger an organization’s success.

Anti-Patterns in SAFe Implementation

Mastering Problem-Solving Workshops: A Comprehensive Guide

5 minutes read

Part 1. What Is a Problem-solving Workshop?

A problem-solving workshop is a meticulously structured gathering, designed to bring team members together in a collaborative environment. In this setting, participants work collectively to identify prevailing issues, brainstorm innovative solutions, and formulate a strategic action plan. This process not only encourages open communication but also fosters an atmosphere of creativity and critical thinking. It provides an opportunity for each participant to contribute their unique perspectives and ideas, thereby promoting diversity of thought and comprehensive problem-solving. Ultimately, these workshops serve as a catalyst for team synergy and effective resolution of challenges.

Part 2. How Can Problem-solving Workshop Help?

Problem-solving workshops are a powerful tool that can dramatically elevate team performance. By fostering an environment of collaboration, these workshops encourage team members to work together towards common goals. They enhance decision-making skills by providing a platform for open discussion and critical analysis of various solutions. Moreover, they stimulate creative thinking by encouraging participants to think outside the box and propose innovative solutions. The structured approach provided by these workshops ensures that challenges are tackled systematically and effectively, reducing the likelihood of oversight or missteps. Furthermore, problem-solving workshops contribute to creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the organization. They provide opportunities for individuals and teams to learn from their experiences, adapt their strategies, and continually strive for better results. This ongoing process of learning and development is crucial in today's fast-paced business environment where adaptability and resilience are key to success.

Part 3. What Are the Six Steps of Problem-Solving Workshop?

Identifying the Problem: This is the initial stage where team members collectively recognize and articulate the issue at hand. It's crucial to define the problem accurately to set a clear direction for the workshop.
Analyzing the Problem: Once identified, the problem is dissected and examined in detail. The goal here is to understand its root cause, its impact, and any underlying factors that may be contributing to it.
Generating Possible Solutions: In this creative phase, participants brainstorm a variety of potential solutions without judgment or evaluation. The aim is to encourage innovative thinking and generate as many ideas as possible.
Evaluating Solutions: Here, each proposed solution is critically assessed based on its feasibility, potential impact, resources required, and alignment with organizational goals. This step ensures that only viable solutions are considered for implementation.
Implementing the Best Solution: After careful evaluation, the most effective solution is selected and put into action. A detailed plan outlining tasks, responsibilities, timelines, and resources is developed for smooth execution.
Reviewing the Process: Finally, once the solution has been implemented, it's important to review and reflect on its effectiveness and learn from the experience. This step helps in continuous improvement and prepares teams better for future problem-solving endeavors.

Each step is crucial in ensuring that problems are thoroughly addressed and resolved effectively.

Part 4: How Boardmix Can Help Prepare a Problem-solving Workshop?

Boardmix is a cutting-edge online whiteboard tool, designed with innovation at its core. It offers a diverse range of templates tailored for different types of workshops, including those focused on problem-solving . This makes Boardmix an invaluable resource for teams seeking to streamline their collaborative efforts and enhance their problem-solving capabilities.

Here’s how you can use Boardmix for your next problem-solving workshop:

FAQs on Problem-Solving Workshop

1. what are the 4 styles of problem solvers.

The four styles of problem solvers are: a) Analytical Problem Solvers: These individuals approach problems with a logical, fact-based mindset. They rely on data and detailed analysis to arrive at solutions. b) Intuitive Problem Solvers: These people rely on their gut feelings and instincts when solving problems. They often come up with creative and out-of-the-box solutions. c) Practical Problem Solvers: These problem solvers prefer straightforward, practical solutions that can be implemented easily. They focus on what works in the real world. d) Emotional Problem Solvers: These individuals consider the emotional aspects and human elements of a problem. They tend to prioritize harmony and consensus in their solutions.

2. What are the 7 problem-solving strategies?

The seven problem-solving strategies include: a) Trial and Error b) Brainstorming c) Root Cause Analysis d) SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) e) The Five Whys Technique f) Cost-Benefit Analysis g) Decision Matrix

3. What are the 5 principles of problem solving?

The five principles of problem-solving are: a) Understand the Problem: Clearly define and understand the issue at hand. b) Devise a Plan: Develop a strategy or method to tackle the problem. c) Carry Out the Plan: Implement your strategy while being open to adjustments along the way. d) Review Your Solution: Once you've found a solution, review it to ensure it effectively solves the original problem. e) Learn from Experience: Reflect on what worked well and what didn't during your problem-solving process for future reference.

Problem-solving workshops provide a potent platform to confront challenges directly, while simultaneously nurturing teamwork and innovation within your organization. These workshops serve as a catalyst for creative thinking and collaborative problem-solving, fostering an environment conducive to growth and progress. With the advent of tools like Boardmix , preparing for such interactive sessions has become more streamlined than ever before. Boardmix's intuitive design and diverse range of templates make it an indispensable tool for all your collaborative needs. Embark on your journey towards enhanced team productivity and effective problem resolution by incorporating Boardmix into your workflow today!

Join Boardmix to collaborate with your team.

SWOT Analysis for Hospitals: Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Ultimate Guide of Gratitude Tree: Understanding, Creating, and Using

What is Value Chain Analysis: A Strategic Approach to Business Success

Shop Card Decks
Video Libary

Engineering , Leadership , User experience , User experience , Product management

Problem-Solving Workshop

A collaborative learning environment designed to help participants develop skills to identify and solve problems. product glossary problem-solving workshop also called: problem-solving session and problem-solving exercise see also: how might we , hypothesis statement , premortem , problem statement , swot analysis , affinity diagram , circles method , design thinking , jobs-to-be-done framework (jtbd) relevant metrics: attendance and engagement, pre- and post-workshop assessments, goal achievement, participant satisfaction, knowledge retention, application of skills, networking and collaboration, and commitment to continuous improvement in this article what is a problem-solving workshop.

A Problem-Solving Workshop is a collaborative event in which a group of people come together to identify and solve a problem. It is a structured process that involves brainstorming, analyzing, and developing solutions to a problem. A problem-solving workshop is a rapid session that helps you:

Unlocking the Core of the Issue . A problem-solving workshop serves as an accelerated session designed to delve into the underlying cause of a dilemma, enabling participants to better comprehend its complexities.
Generate ideas . With a deeper understanding of the problem at hand, participants rapidly brainstorm potential solutions. They then carefully assess these ideas, ensuring their feasibility and effectiveness in addressing the issue.
Evaluating ideas . Participants scrutinize their proposed ideas, determining their robustness and ability to withstand potential challenges to ensure that only the most viable and reliable solutions are considered for implementation, enhancing the likelihood of successfully resolving the problem.
Make a plan to test or implement . Equipped with a well-rounded perspective and carefully evaluated solutions, the workshop empowers attendees to devise a strategic plan for testing or implementing their chosen resolution, ultimately guiding them toward the ideal solution to their problem.

The workshop typically begins with a discussion of the problem and its context. Participants then brainstorm potential solutions and evaluate them based on their feasibility and potential impact. After the brainstorming session, the group works together to develop a plan of action to address the problem. This plan may include changes to existing processes, new procedures, or other solutions.

The Problem-Solving Workshop is an effective way to identify and solve problems in the context of Product Management and User Experience. It allows for a collaborative approach to problem-solving, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions. It also allows for a structured approach to problem-solving, which can help ensure that the problem is addressed in a timely and efficient manner.

Where did Problem-Solving Workshops come from?

The idea of coming together to solve problems can be traced back to ancient human societies that held gatherings to discuss issues and find solutions. In modern times, problem-solving workshops have been shaped by developments in various fields like psychology, education, management, design, and innovation.

Some significant influences on problem-solving workshops include:

Brainstorming . Alex Osborn, an advertising executive, introduced brainstorming in the 1940s as a group creativity technique to generate ideas and solve problems. This method encouraged people to share their ideas freely, no matter how wild, and suspend judgment during the idea-generation process. Brainstorming has since been incorporated into many problem-solving workshops.
Quality circles . In the 1960s, Japanese companies introduced quality circles, which are small groups of employees who meet regularly to discuss and solve work-related problems. These circles aimed to improve the quality of products and processes by involving employees in problem-solving and decision-making. The concept of quality circles has inspired many problem-solving workshops in various industries.
Design thinking . The design thinking methodology, pioneered by companies like IDEO and Stanford University’s d.school, has played a crucial role in shaping modern problem-solving workshops. Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving that encourages empathy, experimentation, and collaboration. It involves a series of steps, such as empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing, which can be adapted to various problem-solving workshop formats.
Lean and Agile methodologies . Lean and Agile methodologies, which originated in the manufacturing and software development sectors, respectively, have also influenced problem-solving workshops. These approaches emphasize collaboration, continuous improvement, and rapid iteration to achieve better results.
Facilitation techniques . The growth of professional facilitation has also impacted problem-solving workshops. Skilled facilitators use various tools and techniques to guide groups through problem-solving processes, ensuring that the workshop’s objectives are met and that participants stay engaged and focused.

Why should I conduct a problem-solving workshop?

Conducting a problem-solving exercise can be beneficial in several ways. It can help individuals or teams to:

Identify the root cause of a problem . By engaging in a structured problem-solving exercise, participants can gain a deeper understanding of the issue and identify the underlying causes.
Generate new ideas and solutions . By brainstorming and evaluating various solutions, individuals or teams can develop creative and effective solutions that they may not have thought of otherwise.
Encourage collaboration and teamwork . Collaborative problem-solving exercises can foster a sense of teamwork and create a shared sense of ownership and responsibility for the problem and the solution.
Improve decision-making . By evaluating various options and considering different perspectives, participants can make informed and effective decisions that take into account a wide range of factors.
Enhance learning and development . Problem-solving exercises can provide opportunities for individuals or teams to learn new skills, practice critical thinking, and develop problem-solving abilities that can be applied to future challenges.

How to run a problem-solving workshop

Step 1: assemble a well-rounded team.

Gather individuals with diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and perspectives who are relevant to the problem at hand. This may include team members, cross-functional collaborators, subject matter experts, or stakeholders. A diverse group will enhance the ideation process and facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.

Consider the following factors:

Diversity . Assemble a team with a mix of expertise, backgrounds, perspectives, and roles relevant to the problem. Diversity encourages creative thinking and helps avoid groupthink or blind spots.
Relevant stakeholders . Ensure that key stakeholders, including decision-makers, subject matter experts, and those directly affected by the problem, are included in the workshop. Their insights and buy-in are crucial for the success of the proposed solutions.
Size of the group . Aim for a group size that allows for effective collaboration and communication. Ideally, the group should be large enough to generate a variety of ideas but small enough to facilitate productive discussions. Typically, a group of 6-10 participants is considered optimal for a problem-solving workshop.
Team dynamics . Select participants who are open-minded, willing to collaborate, and capable of engaging in constructive discussions. The right balance of personalities is essential for fostering a positive atmosphere and effective teamwork.
Establish clear roles . Assign roles and responsibilities to participants, such as a facilitator to guide the workshop, a timekeeper to monitor progress, and a note-taker to document key points and decisions. Clearly defined roles help ensure the smooth flow of the workshop.
Preparation . Communicate the workshop’s purpose, goals, and expectations to participants beforehand. Encourage them to familiarize themselves with the problem and come prepared with any relevant data or insights. This will enable a more focused and productive discussion during the workshop.

Step 2: Establish the Objective and Scope

Clearly define the purpose and goals of the workshop. Ensure that all participants understand the problem to be addressed, its context, and any constraints or limitations. Set a time limit for the workshop to maintain focus and efficiency.

Consider the following:

Preparation and research . A facilitator should be well-prepared with a thorough understanding of the problem, its context, and the workshop’s objectives. This may involve conducting research, reviewing relevant materials, and consulting with key stakeholders or subject matter experts beforehand.
Active listening . Practice active listening during the workshop to ensure participants feel heard and understood. Encourage questions and clarifications to address any misunderstandings or ambiguities regarding the problem, scope, or objectives.
Flexibility and adaptability . Be prepared to adjust the workshop’s objectives or scope if new information or insights emerge during the discussion. Maintain an open-minded approach and adapt to the needs of the group while ensuring that the workshop remains focused and productive.
Time management . Monitor the workshop’s progress and allocate time appropriately for each stage. If necessary, intervene to refocus the discussion, maintain momentum, or transition to the next step in the problem-solving process.

Each of the following workshop exercises can contribute to the success of establishing a clear objective and scope by helping participants gain a deeper understanding of the problem, its context, and the needs of those affected, leading to a clearer definition of the objective and scope:

Six Thinking Hats . This exercise, developed by Edward de Bono, encourages participants to approach the problem from six different perspectives, represented by metaphorical “hats.” These perspectives are: facts and information (white hat), emotions and feelings (red hat), cautious and critical thinking (black hat), optimistic and positive thinking (yellow hat), creative and alternative thinking (green hat), and process and organization (blue hat). This technique can help the group establish a more comprehensive understanding of the problem, its context, and potential constraints, leading to a clearer definition of the objective and scope.
Stakeholder Mapping . In this exercise, participants identify and analyze the key stakeholders involved in or affected by the problem. This helps the group understand the different perspectives, priorities, and needs of these stakeholders, providing valuable context for the problem-solving process. By considering stakeholder needs and concerns, the workshop can better define the objective and scope while ensuring that potential solutions address relevant issues.
Empathy Mapping . This exercise helps participants gain insight into the needs, motivations, and challenges of the individuals affected by the problem, such as customers, users, or team members. By creating an empathy map, the group can better understand the problem from the perspective of those who are directly impacted. This understanding can help the group establish a clearer and more focused objective and scope for the workshop, ensuring that potential solutions address the most critical concerns of the affected individuals.

Step 3: Identify the Right Problem and Root Cause

Begin the workshop by collectively discussing the problem to gain a deeper understanding of its nuances. Use techniques like the 5 Whys or Fishbone Diagram to identify the root cause of the problem, ensuring that the team’s efforts are directed towards solving the underlying issue rather than merely addressing symptoms.

Approach this step with a well-defined strategy that guides participants through the process of understanding the problem and its underlying factors. The facilitator plays a pivotal role in creating an environment that encourages open and honest dialogue, allowing participants to share their insights and collectively work towards identifying the root cause.

Strike a balance between allowing sufficient time for discussions and ensuring that the workshop maintains momentum and stays on track. The facilitator may need to intervene occasionally to refocus the conversation or steer the group towards the desired outcome.

Be prepared to adapt to the evolving dynamics of the workshop. They must be flexible and responsive to new insights or challenges that emerge during the discussions. If necessary, the facilitator may need to adjust the workshop’s objectives, scope, or methodology to ensure that the group remains focused on addressing the problem’s root cause.

Consider using one of these workshop exercises to identify the right problem:

Five Whys . This technique involves asking “Why?” repeatedly to dig deeper into the problem and uncover the root cause. By using this approach in the workshop, participants can move beyond surface-level symptoms to identify the true source of the issue. The facilitator can guide the group through the Five Whys exercise, ensuring that the discussion stays focused and productive.
Fishbone Diagram . Also known as the Ishikawa or cause-and-effect diagram, this tool visually represents the relationship between a problem and its potential causes. Participants brainstorm and categorize potential causes into distinct branches, which can help the group identify the root cause. The facilitator can lead the group through the Fishbone Diagram exercise, encouraging them to consider various aspects of the problem and promoting a comprehensive understanding.
Round Robin . This brainstorming technique involves giving each participant a chance to contribute an idea or perspective on the problem in a structured and organized manner. This ensures equal participation and helps to gather diverse insights. Using the Round Robin method, the facilitator can facilitate discussions on the problem’s root cause by encouraging participants to share their thoughts and perspectives without interruption.
Force Field Analysis . This exercise helps participants identify the driving and restraining forces that influence a problem. By analyzing these forces, the group can gain a deeper understanding of the underlying factors contributing to the issue. The facilitator can guide participants through the Force Field Analysis, helping them to identify and assess the various forces at play and facilitating discussions on how these forces might relate to the root cause of the problem.

Step 4: Generate Ideas to Solve the Problem

Encourage participants to brainstorm solutions, emphasizing the importance of open-mindedness and creativity. Utilize techniques like mind mapping, round-robin, or the six thinking hats to foster an environment conducive to idea generation. Ensure that all participants have an opportunity to share their thoughts, and discourage judgment or criticism during this stage.

Make sure that all participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas, no matter how unconventional they may seem. This requires the facilitator to create a non-judgmental and supportive atmosphere that promotes inclusivity and equal participation.

One critical aspect for the facilitator is the use of various brainstorming techniques and ideation exercises that can stimulate creative thinking and encourage diverse perspectives. By employing a mix of individual and group activities, the facilitator can cater to different thinking styles and preferences, ensuring that everyone contributes to the ideation process.

These workshop exercises are great for generating ideas to solve the problem you identified:

Mind Mapping . This technique helps to visually organize information around a central concept, allowing participants to generate ideas in a structured manner. It encourages them to think about the problem from different perspectives and make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, which can lead to creative solutions.
Crazy Eights . In this exercise, participants are given eight minutes to sketch out eight different ideas on a piece of paper. The time constraint forces them to think quickly and encourages them to generate a wide variety of ideas. By sharing and discussing their sketches afterward, the group can build upon each other’s ideas and develop more innovative solutions.
Reverse Brainstorming . This technique prompts participants to think about the problem from an opposite perspective, by asking them to come up with ways to make the situation worse. By challenging conventional thinking, reverse brainstorming helps uncover new insights and approaches that may not have been considered otherwise.
How Might We . This exercise frames the problem as an open-ended question, starting with the phrase “How might we…?”. This positive and optimistic framing encourages participants to think creatively and generate ideas without constraints. The open-ended nature of the question also promotes collaboration, as participants can build on each other’s ideas to find innovative solutions.
Forced Analogy . In this exercise, participants are asked to draw analogies between the problem at hand and unrelated objects or scenarios. This encourages them to think about the problem from a new perspective and come up with creative ideas that they may not have considered otherwise. The forced analogy technique can reveal hidden connections and inspire innovative solutions.
SCAMPER . This is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. Participants are prompted to think about the problem and generate ideas using each of these seven approaches. The SCAMPER technique encourages participants to look at the problem from different angles and find unique solutions.

Step 5: Evaluate and Refine Ideas

Once a range of potential solutions has been generated, evaluate their robustness and viability. Encourage participants to consider potential challenges, drawbacks, and risks associated with each idea. Use a decision matrix, SWOT analysis, or other evaluation tools to help compare and prioritize the proposed solutions.

Seek to create an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas while also being open to constructive feedback. The facilitator must balance encouragement and critical thinking, promoting an atmosphere where ideas are assessed objectively, and their merits and drawbacks are examined thoroughly.

Be aware of any biases, power imbalances, or dominant personalities that may influence the evaluation process. By skillfully navigating these dynamics, the facilitator can ensure that all voices are heard and that the evaluation process remains objective and fair.

These workshop exercises are great for evaluating and refining ideas.

SWOT Analysis . This exercise requires participants to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with each proposed solution. By conducting a SWOT Analysis, the group can thoroughly evaluate the viability and potential impact of each idea, identifying potential challenges and opportunities.
Pros and Cons . In this exercise, participants list the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed solution. This method encourages participants to think critically about the potential outcomes of each idea, enabling the group to make a more informed decision.
Poster Session . In this exercise, each proposed solution is presented on a poster, and participants are given time to review and provide feedback on each idea. The Poster Session promotes thoughtful consideration of each solution and allows for open discussion and collaborative evaluation.
Plus/Delta . This exercise involves participants identifying the positive and negative aspects of an idea or solution. It can help to refine ideas by focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of each one.
Affinity Mapping . This exercise involves grouping similar ideas together and can help to identify common themes and patterns. It can help to refine ideas by clarifying the relationships between different solutions.
Assumptions Collection . This exercise involves identifying assumptions that have been made about the problem or solution and testing them to see if they are valid. It can help to refine ideas by identifying any flawed assumptions and correcting them.
Force Field Analysis . This exercise involves identifying the forces that are supporting and opposing a proposed solution. It can help to refine ideas by addressing the barriers and challenges that need to be overcome for the solution to be successful.

By incorporating these workshop exercises, participants can thoroughly evaluate the proposed ideas to ensure they are robust and viable. These

Step 6: Select the Best Solution

As a group, decide on the most promising solution(s) based on the evaluation process. Discuss the reasoning behind the selection and ensure that all participants are on board with the decision.

To promote objectivity, encourage the use of predefined criteria or frameworks for evaluating the proposed solutions. By providing a structured approach to decision-making, participants will be better equipped to weigh the pros and cons of each idea, ultimately leading to a more informed choice.

This will also help you maintain a neutral stance throughout the selection process, allowing the group to discuss and debate the merits of each solution without bias. As a facilitator, your goal is to ensure that the group focuses on the problem at hand and avoids getting sidetracked by personal preferences or interpersonal conflicts.

If you see that the group is struggling to reach a consensus, you might need to guide them toward a decision. By summarizing the key points of the discussion and highlighting the most promising solutions, the facilitator can help the group make a well-informed decision that best addresses the problem.

The following workshop exercises are great for facilitating the selection process:

Dot Voting . This method helps participants prioritize solutions by giving them a limited number of dots or stickers that they can distribute among the proposed ideas. The solutions with the most votes are considered the most promising and can be further discussed or refined.
Fist to Five . This technique allows the group to quickly gauge the level of support for each solution. Participants indicate their level of agreement by raising a certain number of fingers (1 to 5), with five fingers signifying strong support. The solutions with the highest average scores are deemed the most favorable.
Stack Ranking . In this exercise, participants rank the proposed solutions in order of preference, assigning a unique position to each idea. The facilitator then tallies the rankings and determines the overall order of preference for the group. This helps identify the top solutions based on collective input.
Trade-off Sliders . This method encourages participants to consider the pros and cons of each solution by using sliders to represent various criteria, such as cost, time, or quality. Participants adjust the sliders to visually represent the trade-offs they are willing to make, and the facilitator synthesizes the results to identify the most viable solutions.
SWOT Analysis . By evaluating each solution’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, participants can gain a comprehensive understanding of the potential outcomes and risks associated with each idea. This structured analysis helps the group make a more informed decision about which solution is best suited to address the problem.
Decision Matrix . The facilitator creates a matrix with the proposed solutions as rows and the evaluation criteria as columns. Participants then score each solution based on how well it meets the criteria. The solution with the highest total score is considered the best option. This method promotes objective decision-making and allows for a clear comparison of the proposed solutions.
Priority Mapping . This technique involves visually mapping ideas based on their importance and urgency. By using Priority Mapping, the group can quickly identify the most critical and time-sensitive ideas, ensuring that the most pressing solutions are prioritized for implementation.

Step 7: Develop a Plan for Implementation or Testing

With the chosen solution(s) in hand, create a detailed plan outlining the steps required for implementation or testing. Assign responsibilities, establish deadlines, and set milestones to ensure accountability and progress. Consider creating a pilot project or running tests to validate the effectiveness of the solution before a full-scale implementation.

Seek to guide the group in setting realistic timelines and defining clear roles and responsibilities. This involves promoting open communication, ensuring that everyone’s input is valued, and addressing any concerns that may emerge.

You might also consider to spend time establishing key metrics for monitoring success and setting up checkpoints to evaluate the success of the implementation, enabling the team to learn from their experiences and iterate on the solution as necessary.

The following workshop exercises work great for exploring an creating an implementation plan.

Project timeline . A project timeline is an effective way to help the team map out the key milestones, tasks, and deadlines involved in implementing the chosen solution. It allows the team to visualize the project’s overall progress and identify potential issues that may arise during the implementation process.
Future-Back Planning . Future-Back Planning is a technique that helps the team envision what success will look like in the future and work backward to identify the necessary steps to achieve that success. This approach can help the team develop a clear vision and strategy for implementing the solution.
RACI Matrix . A RACI Matrix is a tool that can be used to clarify roles and responsibilities during the implementation process. It helps ensure that each team member understands their role in the project and can help prevent confusion or misunderstandings.
Dependency Map . A Dependency Map is a visual tool that helps the team identify the interdependencies between different tasks or components of the project. This can help the team develop a more realistic and feasible plan for implementing the solution.
Sailboat . The Sailboat exercise can be used to help the team identify potential obstacles or challenges that may arise during the implementation process. It involves visualizing the solution as a sailboat and identifying the factors that may help or hinder its progress towards the desired destination. This exercise can help the team proactively address any potential roadblocks and develop a plan to overcome them.

Step 8: Follow Up and Iterate

After the workshop, monitor the progress of the solution’s implementation or testing. Gather feedback, evaluate results, and make any necessary adjustments or refinements. Encourage open communication among participants, and consider scheduling follow-up meetings to review progress and address any emerging challenges.

The solution that was chosen may need to be adjusted or refined based on feedback or unexpected challenges that arise. As a facilitator, you should encourage team members to share their thoughts and ideas and foster an environment where experimentation and iteration are encouraged.

Find ways celebrate successes and acknowledge the efforts of the team throughout the process. This can help maintain morale and motivation for continued improvement and innovation.

Typical pitfalls when running a Problem-Solving Workshop

Finding the Right Facilitator . Finding a facilitator who is knowledgeable and experienced in problem-solving techniques can be a challenge. It is important to find someone who can effectively lead the workshop and ensure that all participants are engaged and productive.
Establishing Clear Goals . Establishing clear goals for the workshop is essential for its success. Without a clear understanding of the objectives, it can be difficult to ensure that the workshop is productive and successful.
Creating an Engaging Environment . Creating an engaging environment for the workshop is key to its success. Participants need to feel comfortable and be able to focus on the task at hand.
Managing Time . Time management is essential for a successful workshop. It is important to ensure that the workshop is structured in a way that allows for productive discussion and problem-solving.
Ensuring Participation . Ensuring that all participants are actively engaged in the workshop is essential. It is important to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to contribute and share their ideas.

Google is known for its commitment to fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The company regularly conducts workshops, hackathons, and brainstorming sessions to encourage creative problem-solving among employees. Google’s “20% time” policy, which allowed employees to dedicate 20% of their time to side projects, has led to the development of successful products like Gmail and Google Maps.

IDEO, a global design consultancy, is renowned for its human-centered, collaborative approach to problem-solving called “design thinking.” The company conducts workshops, both internally and for clients, to tackle complex challenges and create innovative solutions. This approach has helped IDEO to develop breakthrough products, such as the Apple mouse and the Palm V PDA.

Procter & Gamble (P&G)

P&G is a consumer goods company that has leveraged problem-solving workshops and open innovation programs to drive growth. They have held workshops and innovation sessions, such as the “Clay Street Project,” where cross-functional teams come together to tackle complex challenges and create new products. The company’s innovation initiatives have resulted in successful products like Swiffer, Febreze, and Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

LEGO, the toy company known for its iconic plastic bricks, has used problem-solving workshops to foster innovation and drive business growth. The company has employed design thinking workshops to explore new product ideas and refine existing ones. LEGO’s commitment to problem-solving and innovation has led to the creation of successful product lines such as LEGO Mindstorms, LEGO Architecture, and LEGO Ideas.

What is the purpose of the workshop?
What are the objectives of the workshop?
Who will be attending the workshop?
What topics will be covered in the workshop?
What methods will be used to facilitate problem-solving?
What is the expected outcome of the workshop?
How will the success of the workshop be measured?
What is the timeline for the workshop?
What is the budget for the workshop?

Want to learn more?

Receive a hand picked list of the best reads on building products that matter every week. Curated by Anders Toxboe. Published every Tuesday.

No spam! Unsubscribe with a single click at any time.

Community events Product Loop

Product Loop provides an opportunity for Product professionals and their peers to exchange ideas and experiences about Product Design, Development and Management, Business Modelling, Metrics, User Experience and all the other things that get us excited.

Become a mentee
Become a mentor
Product Management glossary
User Experience glossary
Product playbooks
Product & UX video library
Privacy Policy
Terms and Conditions
Code of Ethics

Made with in Copenhagen, Denmark

Want to learn more about about good product development, then browse our product playbooks .

How To Prepare For A Problem-solving Workshop

Imagine sitting in a room with a firm of doctors. Each specialist carefully analyses every facet of a patient’s case. Everyone with their knowledge at play is geared to provide viable solutions to address the challenges they face.

Although the software design world may seem like a far cry from the medical field, they share a fundamental similarity: both revolve around problem-solving. Designers apply multiple practices to validate and authenticate solutions with our partners.

To align everyone, we set up Problem-Solving Workshops (PSWs). At its core, PSWs are a space to solve problems. Our team will dissect every aspect of the problem, identify potential challenges, and find the best solutions. Finally, we validate the process through testing.

Neil Webb, Design Producer and problem-solving workshop facilitator at MOHARA, shed light on how this process works by answering a few of our probing questions.

What Are Problem-Solving Workshops?

A problem-solving workshop is a collaborative event or session where participants come together to identify, analyse, and develop solutions for a specific problem or set of problems.

It could be a show-stopper of a problem that has stopped work or a way to identify improvement backlog items for your next sprint. The main goal of this process is to foster creative thinking, encourage teamwork, and facilitate learning by sharing ideas, experiences, and perspectives.

A typical problem-solving workshop can take many forms but include the following steps:

➡️ Define the problem: Clearly define and understand the problem(s) to be addressed.

➡️ Brainstorming: Encourage open discussion and the sharing of ideas, allowing participants to think freely and creatively.

➡️ Analysis and evaluation: Analyse and evaluate the proposed ideas, considering their feasibility, effectiveness, and potential impact.

➡️ Solution development: While considering available resources and constraints, develop and refine the most promising ideas into actionable solutions.

➡️ Implementation planning: Create a detailed plan for implementing the chosen solution(s), including timelines, responsibilities, and resource allocation.

At MOHARA, our problem-solving workshops are our take on a Google design sprint . It is a time-constrained, rapid five-stage process to answer essential product questions. It speeds up the design process and lets you quickly test and iterate your ideas.

As a result, you can shortcut the endless debate cycle and compress months of thinking and iteration into a single idea. Therefore, you are reducing risk at a basic level and saving a founder time and money.

What Are the Fundamentals of Setting Up a Problem-Solving Workshop?

Running a successful problem-solving workshop needs the founder’s support. Given that it is their idea and they have already devoted considerable time and effort to research, their insights are extremely valuable. Communicate the workshop’s objectives and deliverables to get the founder’s buy-in.

Assemble a workshop team of five to seven people including a Facilitator, a Lead Designer, a Lead Engineer, and possibly an Engagement Lead. In the case of a large organisation, including more than one stakeholder from the company – ideally subject matter experts – enriches the collaboration and decision-making process.

How Do You Facilitate a Problem-Solving Workshop?

The process should begin with a week of research, onboarding, and setup. To start with, one has to understand the most significant root cause of any given problem.

To achieve this, we interview the client and other key stakeholders and ask them to fill out a pre-workshop questionnaire. This information helps the MOHARA team understand the founder’s vision and long-term goals.

A traditional in-person workshop happens over four to five days. The activities on the first day are all about aligning ourselves as a team to understand the users, their needs, and the different challenges they may face during the product development cycle.

Several problem-solving techniques can be used to brainstorm solutions and get the best outcome. The idea is to choose your product’s most suitable and effective strategy.

How Does Conducting Remote Problem-Solving Workshops Impact the Process?

The shift to remote work has altered our approach to conducting workshops. While we at MOHARA are accustomed to working remotely, the absence of in-person sessions does pose some challenges.

Usually, we can go through the different phases within a week. But, remotely, it’s slightly different: you can’t have someone in a workshop call all day long; the sessions are intense and require a lot of focus.

We must slow things down for the sake of everyone taking part because these sessions help us understand whether users will receive a feature or product well.

We split the PSWs into one or two workshops a week. We then build the prototype, providing daily feedback and ensuring the founder understands what we’re doing, and why.

Having the Right Setup Is Essential for a Remote PSW

For a problem-solving workshop to be successful, the right setup is critical. When we are conducting a session remotely, we do the following:

➡️ Prebuilt templates: Templates are designed in advance for different sessions. The templates help guide all participants through multiple activities and checkpoints and revisit relevant information at any point.

➡️ Set up whiteboard software: We also use interactive whiteboard products to create a space for collaboration and review. Timelines, key deliverables, and communication are other significant factors in ensuring the process is smooth, and that the client feels comfortable and understands where we are going.

What Are the Next Steps?

Participants envision the solution to an identified problem during an ideation session where they sketch out ideas and concepts. The aim is to look for as many ideas as possible and examine examples and relevant cases they have come across elsewhere.

The team will then consider how certain features could resolve a critical challenge. There may be many ideas on how to solve the challenge faced, so the next decision-making stage is very valuable. The team and stakeholders decide which solution and critical features they would like to test and then turn that solution into a high-fidelity prototype.

The last part of the problem-solving workshop focuses on qualitative testing. We want to gain valuable feedback from actual users, so selecting them carefully is imperative. We ask participants to perform tasks, usually using specific user interfaces. While the participant completes each task, we observe the participant’s behaviour and listen for feedback.

What Role Does Prototyping Have in a Workshop Process?

Much of this process is about speed. We do not want to start building anything in code at this stage. Instead, using Figma – our prototyping tool of choice – the designer will lay out various screens and connect them with the specific steps we want users to take.

Based on some of the critical questions defined in our sessions, we will share a link with the users and then give them particular tasks we want them to carry out. We can then test which, if any, of our assumptions were correct, and start to think about some of the primary user journeys, the user experience, and other core features.

What Are the Most Overlooked Aspects of a Problem-Solving Workshop?

There are three aspects of a problem-solving workshop that is often overlooked:

🔶 It’s not a design sprint

It’s important to understand that the entire process is not just about design. There needs to be some technical expertise as well. That is why we don’t call these Design Sprints but rather PSWs. It’s about using design and engineering to solve a problem.

🔶 It’s essential to keep the energy up

One of the significant challenges regarding remote workshops is how much energy is required. If you’re in a room full of people like we used to be, you could generate solutions, get everyone together and build up the excitement.

However, doing it over a screen is tricky. It’s challenging to keep things energised and to avoid reviewing the same points and using valuable time.

🔶 Inclusion is also essential

The idea, especially with remote PSWs, is to ensure everyone has a voice. Only some people will speak up in a session. Naturally, some people are more vocal than others, and these people will generally lead the conversation.

If someone else, however, is given the opportunity to share even the slightest valuable insight, it could change the whole direction of the team’s solutions. It only takes one comment, or perhaps a note. For this reason, everyone must have a voice.

Are There Any Pitfalls?

Several things can go wrong during the process. Someone might drop off a call or have connectivity issues interrupting the flow. We’ve also had situations where the hardware doesn’t work correctly.

From a facilitation point of view, having a plan for each product-solving workshop and a clear outline of what will take place, are essential. That means mapping out the different activities and ensuring people know how long each activity will take. This plan keeps everyone aligned, and the PSW will only be successful with it completed ahead of time.

Lastly, user testing has to be qualitative rather than quantitative because, at this point, you’re asking for detailed information and feedback on the tasks they’ve had to do, particularly to identify any problems. You would need more than quantitative research to get that kind of data.

Do You Have to Check In with Various Stakeholders After the Workshop?

Yes. Client feedback is always valuable. It’s essential to get an update on how they are getting on from a product perspective, as well as gather their insights and feedback on the PSWs process.

Suppose we agree with the client to do further design work post-prototyping or engineering (or both). We would already have discussed those later-stage design phases in more detail during some of the sessions. By the way, this is another reason why having an engineering representative there during these sessions is so valuable.

During the PSWs, we would then compile a list of challenges to write up as questions that we aim to answer with our solution by the end of the workshops. After the PSWs have concluded, we provide feedback in the form of reports with user testing results, including data, a breakdown, and evidence of all the conducted activities.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Setting Up Problem-Solving Workshops?

It’s creative problem-solving at its finest! I enjoy engaging with founders and experiencing their passion for their products. It’s also great to work with the engineers, watch how they engage in the sessions, and identify solutions; having those different viewpoints is essential.

Setting up the workshop is enjoyable, too, because it involves using design tools that are constantly evolving; I am a designer at heart, after all.

Effective planning is the way to foresee risks and aim for success. Now that you have the lowdown on Problem-Solving Workshops, we suggest calling the relevant troops to get started.

It takes a team of experts to navigate challenges and produce a product that makes one proud. So get your tools packed; with Neil’s guidance and tips, you’re certainly off to a good start!

If you find you need more help with problem-solving, why not get in touch with MOHARA?

Related Insights

Exploring the Impact of AI in Fintech For Startup Entrepreneurs

12 months in AI: A Case Study of MOHARA’s AI Projects

Get Your Business Off the Ground: How To Approach Fintech Software Development

Pioneering together.

Laxmi Building 57 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3XJ

6th Floor, The Hudson 30 Hudson St De Waterkant Cape Town 8001

26th Floor, 246 Times Square Shopping Center Sukhumvit 12-14 Road Khlong Toei Thailand 10110

WeWork, 5th Ave, Manila, 1634 Metro Manila, Philippines

Guadalajara

Colabora Av Chapultepec Sur 480, 44140 Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

WeWork, 240 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON, M5V 1V6

Join our newsletter

We’ll bring you the latest updates from our ventures, share exciting news from MOHARA and offer insights from our latest blog posts.

Our Partners

How to Facilitate Creative Problem Solving Workshops

Posted in Blog , Create , Facilitation , Innovation , Virtual Facilitation by Jo North

This article gives you a comprehensive guide to creative problem solving, what it is and a brief history. It also covers how creative problem solving works, with a step-by-step guide to show you how to solve challenging opportunities and problems in your own organization through fresh approaches, and how to facilitate a creative problem solving workshop.

Here are The Big Bang Partnership we are expert facilitators of creative problem solving workshops . Please do comment or email us if you would like any further tips or advice, or if you’d like to explore having us design and facilitate a workshop for you.

What is Creative Problem Solving?

Creative problem solving, sometimes abbreviated to CPS, is a step-by-step process designed to spark creative thinking and innovative solutions for purposeful change.

The creative problem solving process is at the root of other contemporary creativity and innovation processes, such as innovation sprints and design sprints or design thinking . These methods have adapted and repackaged the fundamental principles of creative problem solving.

Creative Problem Solving Definition

Here are definitions of each component of the term creative problem solving process:

Creative – Production of new and useful ideas or options.
Problem – A gap between what you have and what you want.
Solving – Taking action.
Process – Steps; a method of doing something.

Source: Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change Puccio, Murdock, Mance (2007)

The definition of creative problem solving (CPS) is that it’s a way of solving challenges or opportunities when the usual ways of thinking have not worked.

The creative problem solving process encourages people to find fresh perspectives and come up with novel solutions. This means that they can create a plan to overcome obstacles and reach their goals by combining problem solving and creative thinking skills in one process.

Using creative problem-solving removes the haphazard way in which most organizations approach challenges and increases the probability of a successful solution that all stakeholders support.

For an overview of the history of the creative problem solving process, have a read of my article here .

Creative Problems to Solve

Just a few examples of creative problems to solve using the creative problem solving process are:

Shaping a strategy for your organization
Developing or improving a new product or service
Creating a new marketing campaign
Bringing diverse stakeholders together to collaborate on a joint plan
Formulating work-winning solutions for new business proposals, bids or tenders
Working on a more sustainable business model
Finding eco-innovation solutions
Social or community innovation
Co-creation leading to co-production

Messy, Wicked and Tame Problems

If your problem or challenge is ‘ messy ’ or ‘ wicked ’, using the creative problem solving process is an excellent method for getting key stakeholders together to work on it collaboratively. The creative problem solving process will help you to make progress towards improving elements of your challenge.

Messy Problems

In the field of innovation, a messy problem is made up of clusters of interrelated or interdependent problems, or systems of problems. For example, the problems of unemployment in a community, the culture in a workplace or how to reach new markets are likely to be caused by multiple factors.

It’s important to deconstruct messy problems and solve each key problem area. The creative problem solving process provides a valuable method of doing so.

Wicked Problems

Design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber introduced the term “ wicked problem ” in 1973 to describe the complexities of resolving planning and social policy problems.

Wicked problems are challenges that have unclear aims and solutions. They are often challenges that keep changing and evolving. Some examples of current wicked problems are tackling climate change, obesity, hunger, poverty and more.

Tame Problems

‘ Tame ’ problems are those which have a straightforward solution and can be solved through logic and existing know-how. There is little value in using the creative problem solving process to solve tame problems.

Creative Problem Solving Skills

Specific thinking skills are essential to various aspects of the creative problem solving process. They include both cognitive (or intellectual) skills and affective (or attitudinal, motivational) skills.

There are also three overarching affective skills that are needed throughout the entire creative problem solving Process. These creative problem solving skills are:

Openness to new things, meaning the ability to entertain ideas that at first seem outlandish and risky
Tolerance for ambiguity, which is the ability to deal with uncertainty without leaping to conclusions
Tolerance for complexity, defined as being able to stay open and persevere without being overwhelmed by large amounts of information, interrelated and complex issues and competing perspectives

They show an individual’s readiness to participate in creative problem solving activities.

Creative Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves reflecting analytically and more objectively on your learning experiences and working processes. Based on your reflection, you can identify opportunities for improvement and make more effective decisions.

Critical thinking is an important skill when using the creative problem solving process because it will drive you to seek clarity, accuracy, relevance and evidence throughout.

Strategies for Creative Problem Solving

One of the most successful strategies for creative problem solving process is to get a multi-disciplinary team of internal, and sometimes external, stakeholders together for a creative problem solving workshop. Here is a process that you can use to facilitate your own creative problem solving workshop.

How to Facilitate a Creative Problem Solving Workshop

Challenge or problem statement.

The first, potentially most important, stage of the creative problem solving process is to create a challenge statement or problem statement. This means clearly defining the problem that you want to work on.

A challenge or problem statement is usually a sentence or two that explains the problem that you want to address through your creative problem solving workshop.

How might we…?

A good way of expressing your challenge is to use the starting phrase “How might we …?” to produce a question that will form the core of your creative problem solving mission. Framing your problem as a question in this way helps people to begin to think about possibilities and gives scope for experimentation and ideation.

Why it’s important to have a clear problem statement

Defining your problem or challenge statement matters because it will give you and your colleagues clarity from the outset and set out a specific mission for your collaborative working.

If you begin the creative problem solving process without a clear problem or challenge statement, you’ll likely experience misunderstanding and misalignment, and need to retrace your steps. Taking time to get your challenge or problem statement right is time well spent. You can download my free resources on how to create a challenge statement for innovation and growth here .

Creative Problem Solving Process

Once you have defined your creative problem to solve, and the strategies for creative problem solving that you want to use, the next steps are to work through each stage of the creative problem solving process. You can do this on your own, with your team, working cross-functionally with people from across your organization and with external stakeholders. For every step in the creative problem solving process there is a myriad of different techniques and activities that you can use. You could literally run scores of creative problem solving workshops and never have to repeat the same format or techniques! The creative problem solving techniques that I’m sharing here are just a few examples to get you started.

Creative Problem Solving Workshop Agenda

To make the creative problem solving process more accessible to more people, I’ve built on the work by Osborn, Parnes, Puccio and others, to create our Creative Problem Solving Workshop Journey Approach that you can use and adapt to work on literally any problem or challenge statement that you have. I’ve used it in sectors as diverse as nuclear engineering, digital and tech, utilities, local government, retail and e-ecommerce, transport, financial services, not-for-profit and many, many more.

Every single workshop we design for our clients is unique, and our starting point is always our ‘go-to’ outline agenda that we can use to save ourselves time and know that our sessions are well-designed and put together.

The timings are just my suggestion, so please do change them to suit the specific needs of your creative problem-solving workshop.

All the activities I suggest are presented for in-person workshops, and they can be adapted super-easily for virtual workshops, using and online whiteboard such as Miro .

Keep the activities for each agenda item long enough to allow people to get into it, but not too long. You want the sessions to feel appropriately pacey, active and engaging. Activities that are allowed to go on too long drag and sap creative energy.

Outline Agenda

Welcome and Warm-up 0900-0930

Where do we want to be, and why? 0930-1000

Where are we today? 1000-1030

Break 1030-1045

Why are we where we are today? 1045-1115

Moving forward – Idea generation 1115-1230

Lunch 1230-1315

Energiser 1315-1330

Moving forward – Idea development 1330-1415

Break 1415-1445

Action Planning 1445-1530

Review, feedback and close 1530-1600

Here is the agenda with more detail, and suggested activities for each item.

Detailed Creative Problem Solving Workshop Agenda

Welcome and warm-up.

The welcome and warm-up session is important because:

For groups who don’t know each other, it’s essential that people introduce themselves and start to get to know who everyone is.
This session also helps people to transition from their other work and activities to focusing on the purpose of the day.
It sets the tone for the rest of the event.

Items to include in the welcome and warm-up are:

Welcome to the event.
Thank people for taking the time.
The purpose and objectives of the event, and an overview of the agenda for the day. Introduce your problem or challenge statement.
Ground rules in terms of phone usage, breaks, confidentiality.

It’s good to have the agenda and ground rules visible so that everyone can see them throughout the day, and don’t forget to inform people of any fire evacuation instructions that need to be shared, and information on refreshments, washrooms and so on.

Remember to introduce yourself and say a little bit about you as the workshop leader, keeping it brief.

Things to look out for are:

How people are feeling – energy, interest, sociability, nervousness and so on.
Cliques or groups of people who choose to sit together. Make a mental note to move the groups around for different activities so that people get to work with as many different people as possible to stimulate thinking and make new connections.

If you’d like some ideas for icebreakers and warmups, there are lots to choose from in these articles:

Icebreakers for online meetings

Creative warmups and energizers that you can do outside

Where do we want to be, and why?

The first session in your creative problem-solving workshop aims to start with thinking about what the group wants to achieve in the future. As well as setting the direction for your problem statement for the day, it allows delegates to stretch their thinking before they become too embedded in working through their current position, issues and concerns. It is positive and motivational to identify those aspirations that everyone shares, even if the reasons or details differ from person to person.

Suggested creative problem-solving techniques for Where do we want to be, and why ?

Horizon Scanning

Brief the delegates as follows:

Use the resources / idea generators provided [e.g. magazines, newspapers, scissors, glue, stickers, glitter, any other craft items you like, flip chart paper) and your own thoughts.
Identify a range of themes that are relevant to the challenge statement you are working on in this workshop. Feel free to use your imagination and be creative!
For each theme, explain why it is important to the challenge statement.

This activity can be adapted for virtual workshops using online whiteboards such as Miro.

WIFI – Wouldn’t It Be Fantastic If…

This creative problem solving technique opens up delegates’ thinking and frames challenges as a positive and motivational possibility.

Ask delegates to spend just a few minutes completing the following statement as many times as they can with real items relating to their challenge for the workshop:

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if… (‘wifi’)

Delegates should then select the wibfi statements that would make the most material difference to their challenge.

They might have a couple or more of connected statements that they want to combine into a new one. If so, that’s completely fine.

Ask them to write their final statement on a flipchart.

Where are we today?

After establishing the vision for the future, it is important to gain a collective view on the starting point, and gain different, individual perspectives on the current position.

Suggested creative techniques for Where are we today?

Rich pictures

Rich pictures provide a useful way of capturing the elements of messy, unstructured situations and ambiguous and complex problems.

A rich picture is intended to portray the unstructured situation that the delegates are working with.

Brief the activity in as follows, noting that they can assist in the construction of a rich picture which should initially be rich in content, but the meaning of which may not be initially apparent.

Ask delegates to consider the messy problem or situation that they are facing and dump all the elements of the scenario they are viewing in an unstructured manner using symbols and doodles.
Ask them to look for elements of structure such as buildings and so on, and elements of process such as things in a state of change. They may see ways in which the structure and process interact as they use hard factual data and soft subjective information in the picture.
If appropriate, ask the delegates to include themselves in the picture as participants or observers, or both, and to give the rich picture meaningful and descriptive title.
Without explanation, one group’s rich picture is often a mystery to another observer, so ask small working groups to talk through the, to the wider group. It is not meant to be a work of art but a working tool to assist your delegates in understanding an unstructured problem or change scenario.

Out of the box

Representing a problem in any new medium can help bring greater understanding and provide a rich vehicle for discussion and idea generation.

Collect a range of (clean and safe!) junk materials, such as cardboard boxes, empty packets, old magazines and newspapers etc.

You will also need some string, glue and tape.

Ask delegates to use the items around them to create (a) 3D vision(s) of the solution(s) to their challenge.

This provides a different perspective, as well as getting everyone engaged, active and conversing.

Why are we here?

This stage of the away day focuses on helping the group to understand the critical success factors that have driven positive outcomes, as well as any constraints, perceived or real, that are getting in the way of future progress. It identifies items that can be explored further in the idea generation, selection and development stages.

Suggested creative techniques for Why are we here?

Ishikawa Fish Bone

The fishbone diagram was developed by Professor Ishikawa of the University of Tokyo. It can encourage development of a comprehensive and balanced picture, involving everyone, keeping everyone on track, discouraging partial or premature solutions, and showing the relative importance and interrelationships between different parts of the challenge.

Ask the delegates to write their problem statement to the fish bone template, like the example shown here.

Then ask them to identify the major categories of causes of the problem. If they are stuck on this, suggest some generic categories to get them going, such as:

Delegates should then write the categories of causes as branches from the main arrow.

Next, they will identify all the possible causes of the problem, asking: “Why does this happen?”

As each idea is given, one of the delegates in each group writes it as a branch from the appropriate category. Causes can be written in several places if they relate to several categories.

Again, get the delegates to ask: “why does this happen?” about each cause, and write sub–causes branching off the causes.

If you have time, ask the delegates to carry on asking “Why?” and generating deeper levels of causes.

Mind mapping

The term mind mapping was devised by Tony Buzan for the representation of ideas, notes, information and so on in radial tree diagrams, sometimes also called spider diagrams.

These are now very widely used.

To brief in the mind map technique, the instructions below are usually best communicated via a quick demonstration by the facilitator, using an everyday, fun topic and asking delegates to shout out ideas for you to capture.

How to mind map:

Ask delegates to turn their paper to landscape format and write a brief title for the overall topic in the middle of the page.
For each major subtopic or cluster of materials ask them to start a new major branch from the central topic and label it.
Continue in this way for ever finer sub-branches.
Delegates may find that they want to put an item in more than one place. They could just copy it into each place or they could just draw a line to show the connections.
Encourage delegates to use colour, doodles and to have fun with their mind map. This stimulates more right brain, creative thinking.

Moving forward – Idea generation

The next sessions are all about coming up with ideas, potential solutions to get from your starting position to the vision for the future that you all created earlier.

I recommend that you use at least two, or preferably all three of the idea generation techniques I have provided here because if you only use one, you are more likely to only get the most obvious, top of mind ideas from your team.

By looking at your challenge or opportunity from different perspectives using a range of techniques, you are more likely to create greater diversity of ideas.

This technique is really good for almost any subject, and especially…

…getting input from everyone. The noisy ones have much less opportunity to dominate!

…getting all the thoughts that people have out of their heads and onto paper.

…getting you started. This is a really accessible technique that is easy to run.

…getting people talking and engaged.

You will need plenty of sticky notes and pens.

Clustering with sticky notes – step-by-step guide

Ask people to focus on the challenge that is the subject of the session.
Each person is to work individually at first. They will take a pile of post-it notes and a pen, and get as many items down on the post-it notes as they can, writing only one item on each post-it note so that each person has a pile of written notes in front of them (12-15 each would be great).
Say to the group that if they think they have finished, it probably is just a mental pause. The best thing for them to do is to look out of the window or move around briefly (but not look at their phones, laptop or disturb other people!) because they are likely to have a second burst of thinking. This is really important because it means you will get more thoughts down than just the obvious front-of-mind ones that come out early on. Allow 5-10 minutes for this step.
Make sure that people don’t put more than one item on a post-it note.
When everyone has got a pile of sticky notes and generally have run out of steam, ask them to “cluster” their notes as a group into similar themes on the flip chart paper, a bit like playing the card game “Snap”. Things that no-one else has should be included as a cluster of one item.
Ask the groups to put a ring around each cluster and give it a name that summarises the content.
Ask each group to feedback on the contents of their clusters, note similarities and differences and agree your next steps, writing them up on the flip chart for everyone to see.

Force-fitting with pictures

Force-fitting is about using dissimilar, or apparently unrelated, objects, elements, or ideas to obtain fresh new possibilities for a challenge or opportunity. You will need some magazines, photos or newspapers for this activity.

It is a very useful and fun-filled method of generating ideas. The idea is to compare the problem with something else that has little or nothing in common and gain new insights as a result.

You can force a relationship between almost anything, and get new insights – companies and whales, management systems and data networks, or your relationship and a hedgehog. Forcing relationships is one of the most powerful ways to develop ways to develop new insights and new solutions.

The following activity – Random Stimulus, a useful way of generating ideas through a selection of objects or cards with pictures – takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete in total.

It is important to brief delegates to work intuitively through this process rather than over-thinking it. Just follow each of the simple steps outlined here in order.

Force-fitting with pictures step-by-step guide

Step 1 : Choose an image from the ones below at random. It really does not matter which one you choose, so just pick one that you think is interesting. This should take you no longer than a few seconds! Do this first before you move to the next steps.

Step 2: Now look at the image that you have selected. Feel free to pull it out so you can have it in front of you as you work. Write down as many interesting words as you can that come to mind when you look at the picture you have selected.

Step 3 : Now go back and “force fit” each of your interesting words into a potential solution for your challenge. If you have a negative word, turn it into a positive solution. Do this for every word on your list. You don’t have to work through the list in order – if you get stuck on a word, do another one and then come back to it when you’re ready. Don’t forget – premature evaluation stifles creativity. Just write stuff down without judging anything. You will have the opportunity to go back and select what you want / don’t want to use later.

Step 4 : Look at your outputs from this activity and highlight the things that resonate with you in terms of making progress with your challenge.

The SCAMPER technique is based very simply on the idea that anything new is actually a modification of existing old things around us.

SCAMPER was first introduced by Bob Eberle to address targeted questions that help solve problems or ignite creativity during creative meetings.

The name SCAMPER is acronym for seven thinking activities: ( S ) substitute, ( C ) combine, ( A ) adapt, ( M ) modify, ( P ) put to another use, ( E ) eliminate and ( R ) reverse. These keywords represent the necessary questions addressed during the creative thinking meeting. Ask you delegates to work through each one.

S —Substitute (e.g., components, materials, people)
C —Combine (e.g., mix, combine with other assemblies or services, integrate)
A —Adapt (e.g., alter, change function, use part of another element)
M —Magnify/Modify (e.g., increase or reduce in scale, change shape, modify attributes)
P —Put to other uses
E —Eliminate (e.g., remove elements, simplify, reduce to core functionality)
R —Rearrange/Reverse (e.g., turn inside out or upside down)

Moving forward – Idea development

The objective of this session is to select the most useful or interesting ideas that you have come up with in the earlier idea generation activities, and shape them into a useful solution.

Suggested creative techniques for Moving forward – Idea development:

This is a useful exercise to help your delegates to quickly prioritise their ideas as a team.

Ask delegates to use the grid shown here to plot their ideas, using sticky notes/
They should then write a question for each of their ‘yes’ and perhaps some of your ‘maybe’ items that begins with the words ‘ How could we …? ’
Then ask them to work on each of their questions, capturing their work a flipchart.

Sticky dot voting

Sticky dot voting is a quick, widely used voting method. Once all the ideas are on display give each group member a number of sticky dots (for example 5 each) to ‘vote’ for their favourite solution or preferred option. The number of sticky dots can vary according to what you think will work.

Give everyone a few minutes of quiet planning time so that they can privately work out their distribution of votes.
They may distribute their votes as they wish, for example: 2 or 3 on one idea, one each on a couple of others, all on one idea or one each on a whole series of ideas.
To minimise the risk of people being influenced by one another’s votes, no votes are placed until everyone is ready. When everyone is finished deciding, they go up to the display and place their votes by sticking dots beside the items of their choice.
As facilitator, lead a discussion on the vote pattern, and help the group to translate it into a shortlist for further development.

Once your delegates have selected their most promising ideas, choose from these creative problem solving techniques to help your group develop their thinking.

Assumption surfacing

Assumption surfacing is all about making underlying assumptions more visible.

Ask the group to identify the key choices they have made, thinking about what assumptions have guided these choices and why they feel they are appropriate.
Delegates should list the assumptions, and then add in a possible counter-assumption for each one.
They should then work down the list and delete any assumption / counter assumption pairs that do not materially affect the outcome of the choice.
Finally, ask delegates to reflect on the remaining assumptions, consider how these assumptions potentially impact their thinking and whether anything needs to be done as a result.

The words who, why, what, where, when, how are known as 5Ws and H, or Kipling’s list.

They provide a powerful checklist for imagination or enquiry that is simple enough to prompt thinking but not get in the way.

Ask delegates to:

Create a list of key questions relating to their challenge, using 5Ws and H as prompts.
Then ask them to answer of their questions as a way of info gathering and solution-finding for their challenge.

Force field analysis

Force field analysis represents the opposing driving and restraining forces in situation.

For example, it can help to map out the factors involved in a problematic situation at the problem exploration stage, or to understand factors likely to help or hinder the action planning and implementation stages.

The process is as follows:

Delegates identify a list of the driving and restraining forces and discuss their perceptions of them.
All the driving forces are arrows propelling the situation, and all the restraining forces are arrows that push back against the direction of the current situation.
Delegates can use arrow thickness to indicate strength of the force, and arrow lengths to indicate either how difficult the force would be to modify, although these elements are optional.
Delegates can then use the diagrams to generate ideas around possible ways to move in the desired direction by finding ways to remove the restraining forces and by increasing the driving forces.

Wizard of Oz prototyping

In the classic story of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends go to see the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz only to discover that he’s a fraud with no real magic.

Wizard of Oz Prototyping means creating a user experience that looks and feels very realistic, but is an illusion created to test an idea and generate a lot of really useful feedback very quickly and early on in your design process. The approach also means that you avoid incurring the cost of having to build the real solution.

In the workshop, ask delegates to consider how they could create a Wizard of Oz prototype through rough design sketches, lego or modelling clay.

Action Planning

I’m sure that many of us have been to meetings or events that have been interesting and maybe even fun at the time, but quickly forgotten due to lack of follow up or commitment to take action once the workshop is over.

The action planning phase is an essential part of mobilising the thinking from the workshop into meaningful, pragmatic activity and progress in the organisation. Getting commitment to deliver specific actions within agreed timescales from individuals at the workshop is as essential part of any event.

Suggested creative technique for Action Planning :

Blockbusters

You may remember the 80s quiz show called Blockbusters? Teenage contestants had to get from one side of the board to the other by answering questions.

This technique is based on a similar (sort of!) principle, and it is useful for action planning and helping delegates to visualise moving from where they are now to where they want to be.

First ask delegates to write down the key aspects of where they are now on sticky notes (one item per sticky note) and put them down the left-hand side of a piece of flipchart paper, landscape.
Then delegates are to do the same for the key aspects of where they would like to be, this time placing the sticky notes on the right-hand side of the paper, each one aligned to a relevant note on the left-hand side. For example, of they have a sticky note that says ‘struggling for sales’ on the left, they might have one that says ‘increase turnover by 35%’ on the right, both positioned level with each other.
The final step is for delegates to fill in the space between with the 5 key actions for each item that will get them from where they are now to where they want to be. These can be different and separate actions, and don’t have to be in chronological order.
You can ask delegates to add in target timescales and owners for each action as well.

Review, feedback and close

At the end of the day, it’s essential to bring everything together, review the progress and thank attendees.

It’s also a great opportunity to gain some feedback on the participants’ experience of the session.

Suggested creative technique for Review, feedback and close :

Goldfish Bowl

The general idea of this technique is that a small group (the core) is the focus of the wider group. The small group discusses while the rest of the participants sit around the outside and observe without interrupting. Facilitation is focused on the core group discussion.

A variation is to invite people from the outside group to ‘jump in’ and replace a member of the core group. It sounds a bit odd on paper, but it works very well and can be great fun.

Sometimes people in the core group are quite pleased to be ‘relieved’ of their duties!

In smaller events, it is also a good idea to make it a game. Make sure that everyone jumps into the core group at least once.

This can really help people focus on active listening, and on building on each other’s points.

Often the best way to brief this in is by demonstrating it with a willing volunteer.

For more facilitation tips, techniques and ideas, have a look at my articles here:

How to design a virtual innovation sprint

How to facilitate a virtual brainstorming session

How to facilitate a goal setting workshop

How to be a great facilitator

I’d love to hear from you, whether you’re facilitating your own creative problem solving workshops, or would like some help from us to design and facilitate them for you. I hope you’ve found this article helpful. If you’d like to join my free, private Facebook group, Idea Time for Workshop Facilitators , for even more ideas and resources, please do come and join us.

Privacy Overview

My Workshop Structure for Creative Problem Solving

Type of Problems

Good Understanding, Few Solutions : This is for problems where the path is pretty clear and it just has to be done. An example is solving a mathematical equation.
Good Understanding, Many Solutions : You have a reasonable understanding of the problem and can estimate the impact of your changes onto the system, but there are many different possible solutions that have to be explored.
Little Understanding, Many Solutions : These are problems where you don’t even know what the problem is exactly. Examples are machine breakdowns or quality problems. You known the problem, but you don’t really know the root cause. In this case, you need to put the majority of your time into root-cause analysis.
Little Understanding, Few Solutions : You don’t really know what is going on, although there are only a few solutions. Since you don’t understand the problem well, you don’t know the number of possible solutions. Hence this is overlapping with the “ little understanding, many solutions. ” It may be that the quality problem or machine breakdown has only one cause and you have to find it. You probably also would need to invest time into the understanding of the problem.

In any case, the following workshop structure is designed for problems where the group understands the problem reasonably well and can estimate how changes to the system influence the system, although there are still solutions hidden that they cannot (yet) imagine. Yet the many different possible solutions present a challenge.

A common example is a layout workshop to create a new layout for a production system. There are almost unlimited different ways for how to place the machines and materials on the shop floor. The workshop group knows at least somewhat how the placement affects the performance, but has trouble choosing one out of the many different ways to do it. This is where this workshop structure can help.

The Workshop Sequence

Introduction.

First Round of Solutions

Also, if possible, put the sub-teams in separate areas or even separate nearby rooms so they can work independently. Provide them with the necessary materials to work the problem, ideally based on paper. For example, for a layout workshop, give them a large printout of the shop floor map, plenty of paper in different colors, scissors, tape, glue, and so on. Let them work on the problem without giving much instruction on the problem-solving method. This first round usually serves more as a learning curve for the team and rarely generates the final solution. Another important point is that even though you as the moderator may be eager to step in and contribute, restrain yourself. Observe the teams, observe their ideas, and, most importantly, observe with which aspects of the problem they struggle.

After the thirty minutes are over, bring the teams back into the main room, have them present each other their solutions, and allow for some discussion. The entire group should list a few benefits and problems with each of these solution. This may take another fifteen to thirty minutes. Hang the solutions including their pro/cons on the wall, as they will be relevant later.

Second Round of Solutions

The team may grumble a bit, but have them again separately do another solution within thirty minutes. This second round is not a refinement of the first solution, but instead a completely new solution. Optionally, you can shuffle the teams around a bit and move, for example, one team member in each group to another group. After thirty minutes get them together again and have them present to each other and list the pros and cons of the different ideas. Hang the results on the wall again.

If the problem needs more ideas and if you have the time, you can repeat this in a third round, with or without a creative provocation.

In preparation for the last round, the team again looks at all previous solutions (which should be hanging on the wall), and as a group discusses the benefits and disadvantages of each solution. Steer the discussion toward a solution that includes all of the benefits but none of the disadvantages. Eventually ask the team if they want to generate another solution based on what they have learned. Almost always they say yes (if not, one solution is probably good enough already).

Hence they work out another solution. However, this time the team works as one group, creating only one solution. Also, do not give any restrictions on the solution space. If necessary, allow for more time, maybe up to sixty minutes. Afterward, there is no need to present, since everybody knows the solution already, but you still should list pros and cons.

For selecting the solution to be implemented, ask the team which one of these (now five to ten solutions) they like best and want to apply to the problem. Almost always, it is the solution from the last round. In some cases the team may indicate the desire for another round. In this case – time permitting – repeat the last round once more. But at the end you should have one solution with which the team is happy and which can then be finalized for implementation.

So there you have it. This is the basic structure for my workshops for problems that have many possible solutions. I have had quite some positive experiences with these in the past. Keys for success are many different solutions, some creative provocation, and a multifunctional team. Hopefully this will also help you to solve similar problems in your location. Now go out, gather your team, create solutions, and organize your industry!

1 thought on “My Workshop Structure for Creative Problem Solving”

Impressive improvement guide, example is apt prior to tackling a FMCC enterprise. As a QC Facilitator I successfully used this approach in the 70 and 80s, known as “Quality Circles’ to improve productivity and save £Ms for Car Industry and supplier network

Notify me of new posts by email.

Destination & venue discovery
Team trip management

How it works

Team trip planners
Team trip attendees
Budget estimator
Visa requirements
Featured venues for teams
Destinations for teams

What is a Problem Solving Workshop And How It Can Help Your Team Achieve Goals Easily

Problems arise within any company or startup and in many forms. Whether in production, services, implementation or within teams, problems not addressed only get bigger. Problem solving is designed to target a problem’s root causes and move toward a solution while improving the solving process skills of a team.

What is a Problem Solving Workshop And How It Can Help Your Team Achieve Goals Easily

The advantages for teams in this workshop are obvious. Not only will they learn new problem solving methods for future use and actually solve a problem, the team building aspect is considerable. Communication through group brainstorming and co-development of the solution include everyone, making for closer-knit members and higher morale through achievement.

What is problem solving workshop?

Problem solving workshops are managed discussion, in which a neutral facilitator, with no stake in the outcome, helps participants to achieve an agreed goal. It is structured process of using Lean Six Sigma techniques and approach and ensure a team-based discussion, commitment of participants and buy-in to the outcome.

It has been proven that Facilitation is the most effective and productive way of achieving results while having matured and goal aiming communication. More and more organisations achieve success by collaboration, interaction and teamwork through Problem solving workshops/facilitation.

Challenges you can resolve together at NextRetreat

Create Strategy / Business Plan

Would you like to expand your business? Explore the best ideas how to get more clients or find new segments. Looking for improving your marketing strategy? Do you need to set a new product or service while maintaining your quality? Set the priorities for the next period or stage of your business.

Improvements / Innovation

Would you like to set up faster delivery? Decrease error rate and failures? Get ideas on how to make internal processes more effective? Define what the most critical quality factor for your customer and how to improve it? Improve operational efficiencies?

Problem solving

Do you know that something is wrong but you don´t know exactly what is it? Do you feel like number of customer complaints is going up? Do you feel lack of engagement and / or misunderstanding at your firm?

Set up new processes

Set up processes for new products, services, applications or changes in cooperation with third parties.

Decomposition of key management goals

Would you like to define specific actions, metrics, KPI for teams/processes? How to effectively gather requirements and make important decisions.

Why workshops and facilitation

During usual discussions, most of ideas are lost or not recorded; people switch from one idea to another, turn away from the main topic and sometimes develop ideas, that doesn’t have high added value. Sometimes they follow up with actions that are not accurate and people assume that “somebody” will do the the necessary execution, but the result is often waste of time and money.

Problem solving workshops are..

An effective, structured and managed way of communication
Focusing on the goal while giving everyone the necessary space & time for explaining opinions and co-developing solutions
Stop turning away, external disturbances and developing non productive topics/ideas
Only ideas that have the biggest value and lowest cost are developed
Building consensus, better understanding, avoiding disagreements, assumptions, directivity and dissatisfaction
All participants develop ideas together, get and share all the information, see how the ideas are developed, the benefits, possibilities and limitations
The workshop benefits result in participants building on each other’s ideas and gaining a better understanding of each other’s viewpoints, all while reducing paradigm effect and misunderstanding as everything is visually recorded
An opportunity for participants to discuss issues and problems, and reach a consensus on important decisions in a safe environment managed by the facilitator
Buy-in from all stakeholders – participants feel engaged, involved and committed to the result, contributing to both content and decisions that will be made
Task list with specific actions points (who-when-what) is developed in order to achieve the goal after workshop
Team work and cooperation– spend effective time together as a team, with one common and agreed upon target

Tools and techniques used during workshops

Facilitation, tools of Lean Six Sigma and project management will be used exactly according to your needs and specific challenges.

Brainstorming as many ideas as possible ( different types of managed brainstorming/brainwriting, discussion,…), visually recorded and grouped (affinity diagram)
Filtering and reducing the list of ideas in order to ensure important ones are developed and time is not wasted (impact/effort matrix, voting, 1-3-9 evaluation, …)
Developing selected ideas in mind map
Project management (task list creation, Who-when-what do, tracking)
Assessing waste (value stream map, 8 wastes of lean, Added Value/not added value analyses); Risk analysis (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis); Root causes analyses of problem (5 why, fishbone); mapping process/change, sipoc

Brainstorming is one of the techniques used at a problem solving workshop.

More from blog

15 Check In Questions for Team Meetings

Team meetings are crucial for collaboration, problem-solving, and driving projects forward. However, making these meetings effective and engaging…

12 Spirit Week Ideas for Work

Organizing a spirit week at work is a fantastic way to boost morale, encourage team bonding, and inject…

Games for Large Groups: 23 Fun Activities for 20+ People

Organizing an event for a large group of 20 or more people can be both exciting and challenging….

How a Scrum Master Can Support a Problem-Solving Workshop

Understanding how a Scrum Master can support a problem-solving workshop is crucial for an Agile team’s success.

As leaders and facilitators, Scrum Masters play a pivotal role in helping teams navigate through challenges, ensuring the principles of Agile are faithfully upheld, and ultimately steering Initiatives towards successful outcomes.

This article uncovers the various ways a Scrum Master supports problem-solving workshops and how they can enhance their problem-solving assistive skills to contribute more effectively to their Agile teams.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this read, you should walk away with:

A clearer understanding of the Scrum Master’s role.
A broadened perspective of the importance of problem-solving in Agile.
Insight on how a Scrum Master can facilitate and support problem-solving.
The toolkit Scrum Masters can employ to aid problem-solving.

How a Scrum Master Can Support a Problem-Solving Workshop?

Scrum Masters can employ several effective methods that facilitate the generation of quality solutions. Here are four key methods:

Quick Overview In supporting problem-solving, Scrum Masters:

Foster open communication and collaboration.
Utilize Agile techniques to expedite the process.
Employ conflict resolution strategies.
Assist in prioritizing critical issues for the team.

1. Encouraging Open Communication and Collaboration:

Scrum Masters foster trust and transparency, encouraging team members to freely express ideas and concerns. They employ techniques such as regular meetings and clear communication protocols to ensure effective teamwork.

2. Promoting Agile Techniques:

By the end of Sprint Planning, the team has a clear and actionable sprint backlog, a shared understanding of the sprint’s goals, and a collective commitment to achieving those goals. This clarity and alignment are crucial for maintaining momentum and ensuring a successful sprint outcome.

3. Implementing Conflict Resolution Strategies:

The Daily Scrum is a brief yet powerful touchpoint amid the sprint’s hustle and bustle. Lasting no more than 15 minutes, this daily ritual ensures that the team remains synchronized, obstacles are swiftly identified, and momentum is maintained.

4. Helping Prioritize Critical Issues:

Scrum Masters aid teams in focusing on high-priority issues first. They use techniques like backlog grooming and MoSCoW prioritizing to aid decision-making and concentration.

In using these methods, Scrum Masters guide their teams toward solution-focused outcomes and a capable problem-solving culture.

What is a Problem-Solving Workshop?

The workshop is a highly interactive session where team members collaboratively explore and address pressing issues or challenges faced in the course of their work. The primary objective is to ideate, discuss, analyze, and devise effective solutions or action plans.

The main goal is generating, discussing, and implementing effective solutions or plans.
Its structure facilitates group thinking, creativity, and handling of complex issues in smaller chunks.

Importance in Agile Initiative Management

In Agile, these workshops are essential. They embody the Agile core value of reflective adaptation for productivity.
Workshops promote teamwork. The process involves understanding the problem as a unit, brainstorming, and selecting the best way forward.

They encourage engagement, experiencing-based learning, and innovative problem-solving. Given their inherent ability to foster team engagement, encourage learning, and spur innovative problem-solving, these workshops play an instrumental role in Agile

Roles and Responsibilities of a Scrum Master in a PSW

A Scrum Master’s role extends beyond mere management; they are leaders who guide their team through the problem-solving process:

They set the tone for collaborative and open communication within the team.
They ensure that the principles of Agile are understood and practiced.
They promote and stick to the ‘inspect-and-adapt’ philosophy of Agile, adapting on the fly to changes as required.

Facilitating the Problem-Solving Process

While facilitating a workshop, the Scrum Master is instrumental in:

Setting the agenda, explaining the problem at hand, and orienting the team towards finding effective solutions.
Encouraging active participation from all team members to ensure diverse perspectives are considered.
Keeping the discussion focused and preventing it from veering off into unrelated terrains.
Helping to break down complex problems into manageable chunks that the team can tackle effectively.
Driving the team towards consensus and ensuring that a clear action plan is developed.
Following up on the implementation of the solutions decided upon in the workshop.

In essence, the Scrum Master’s role is all about leading proactively, facilitating open communication, and making sure the team is poised to find and implement effective solutions.

What Tools Can A Scrum Master Use During Workshops?

Scrum Masters have a variety of tools at their disposal to facilitate effective problem-solving. These include both Scrum-specific tools and various digital platforms.

Scrum-Specific Tools

Sprint Planning: Sprint Planning involves the team discussing and deciding upon the work to be accomplished in the next sprint. This tool can be used in a problem-solving context to set clear, realistic targets for problem resolution.

Scrum Boards: Scrum boards visually represent the workflow and progress of the Scrum team. This tool aids in analyzing bottlenecks and problem areas, fostering a clear understanding of the issues at hand.
Product Backlog: As a prioritized list of tasks, product backlogs can be used to identify problem areas that the team needs to focus on.
Burndown Charts: These are graphical representations of work left to do versus time. It can help assess the pace of problem-solving and highlight if the team is lagging behind.

Digital Tools

Beyond these traditional tools, Scrum Masters also incorporate digital tools to facilitate problem-solving:

Jira: A project management tool used for issue tracking, product management, and bug tracking. It helps in managing and keeping track of problem-solving actions.
Trello: A web-based Kanban-style list-making application. It is excellent for organizing tasks, setting due dates, and keeping track of problem-solving progress.
Slack: A communication platform that allows real-time collaboration. It helps keep discussions focused, stores important conversations, and aids in speedy communication during problem-solving.

These tools, when combined efficiently, can enhance the capability of Scrum Masters to conduct productive and solution-oriented workshops.

Looking For An Agile Community?

Join hundreds of other Agilist’s as we build a network of motivated and passionate tech professionals. Join for free and attend free events, groups, and learn from Agile leadership coaches.

Case Studies of Effective Problem-Solving in Agile Teams

Examination of real-world scenarios can provide potent insights into the actual application and effectiveness of the problem-solving process in Agile teams. Let’s delve into two such instances.

Case Study 1: The Online Retail Store

An Agile team at an online retail store was faced with the challenge of continually missing delivery due dates. The team was constantly falling behind, leading to customer dissatisfaction.

Scrum Master’s Approach: The Scrum Master organized a problem-solving workshop to understand the origins of these delays. Through open communication, they identified that unclear sprint goals and last-minute scope changes were the primary culprits.

The Solution: The Scrum Master encouraged the team to adopt stricter sprint planning protocols and implemented a sprint backlog freeze to discourage scope changes within an ongoing sprint. Burndown charts were leveraged to monitor progress.

The Outcome: Following the implementation of these strategies, the team saw a significant improvement in their on-time delivery rate, leading to greater customer satisfaction levels.

Case Study 2: The Software Development Team

A software development team using Agile was experiencing frequent clashes between team members, affecting their productivity and output.

Scrum Master’s Approach: Recognizing this, the Scrum Master facilitated a workshop. Through discussions, it was revealed that overlapping work areas and weakly defined roles were instigating these conflicts.

The Solution: The Scrum Master led the team in redefining their roles more distinctly and implementing an effective conflict resolution strategy. They utilized Trello for clear task assignments and tracking.

The Outcome: Post adjustments, the team conflicts were reduced dramatically, leading to an improved working environment and increased productivity.

These cases illustrate how methodological problem-solving led by a Scrum Master can significantly enhance team performance and result in successful outcomes.

Common Challenges and How a Scrum Master Can Address Them

Scrum Masters often encounter several common challenges while conducting workshops in Agile teams. However, with appropriate strategies, they can effectively manage these roadblocks:

1. Lack of Effective Communication:

Challenge: Ineffective communication may lead to misunderstanding, and confusion and hinder the problem-solving process.
Strategy: Scrum Masters can reinforce open dialogue, employ clear and concise language, and ensure every team member’s view is heard and respected.

2. Resistance to Change:

Challenge: Team members may resist change, preferring traditional methods over new strategies, which can stagnate progress.
Strategy: Scrum Masters can foster a culture of adaptability, emphasizing the benefits of change and introducing new approaches gradually.

3. Incomplete Problem Understanding:

Challenge: A poor understanding of the problem can derail the problem-solving process.
Strategy: Scrum Masters can devote ample time to explaining the problem, encouraging questions, and ensuring everyone is on the same page before moving on to solution discussions.

4. Difficulty Prioritizing Issues:

Challenge: Teams may struggle to prioritize problems, leading to a scattered focus.
Strategy: Scrum Masters can guide teams in using prioritization techniques like MoSCoW, ensuring focus is given to the most critical issues first.

By identifying these potential pitfalls early and adopting suitable tactics, Scrum Masters can navigate their teams through effective problem-solving exercises and foster an environment of continuous improvement.

Mastering how a Scrum Master can support a problem-solving workshop is now more critical than ever.

Not merely team members, Scrum Masters are transformational leaders. But how exactly do they leverage this influence in problem-solving?

They cultivate an atmosphere ripe for open communication, incorporate Agile techniques to refine the process, and deploy strategic conflict resolution mechanisms. They guide team focus, helping prioritize what really matters.

As we navigate through an era where Initiatives drive business progress, and effective problem-solving is of cardinal importance, the Scrum Master’s role in leading teams toward successful solutions is unquestionably vital.

But are we recognizing and leveraging this potential effectively? Now there’s a problem worth solving.

Join our diverse community of Agile practitioners , and reap the benefits of knowledge, free events, group sessions, and much more.

Nelson Ingle | Founder of Simply Agile

Coach Nelson has 10+ years of experience leading software development teams. As a lifelong learner, he’s passionate about helping community members discover and pursue their ikigai every day.

The Scrum Master isn’t a personal conflict resolver, task assigner, or organizational fixer. They focus on facilitating Scrum, not micromanaging. Their role is to remove impediments for the team, not to become an additional one by overstepping boundaries.

Active listening and empowerment are key. The Scrum Master listens more than they speak and empowers the team to find their own solutions. This creates a culture of trust and collaboration, where team members feel valued and motivated.

In the SAFe framework, the Scrum Master also has responsibilities toward the organization, not just the Scrum team. They help in scaling Scrum across the organization and work closely with other Scrum Masters to ensure alignment. This broader scope helps in creating a unified agile culture across different teams.

Focusing on daily and iteration goals keeps the team aligned and drives productivity. It’s like having a GPS for the project; you know where you’re going and how to get there efficiently. This focus helps in delivering value incrementally and keeps the team from veering off course.

17 Creative Ideas for Employee Development And Professional Success

Table of Contents Companies that championed creative ideas for employee development over the last year didn’t just do good; they soared, boasting a 15% higher…

How the 5 Scrum Events Fuel Agile Triumph: Secrets Unveiled

Table of Contents Scrum events are more than just meetings; they’re the heartbeat of Agile Initiatives, setting the rhythm for success. Have you ever wondered…

Scrum Master vs Product Owner: Who Really Holds The Power?

Table of Contents Are you navigating the complex world of Agile project management? Understanding the roles between a Scrum Master vs Product Owner is crucial,…

The Most In-Demand Jobs for 2030 – Future of Work

Table of Contents The landscape of future jobs is set to be vastly different from what we’ve known, marked by an exciting yet challenging transition…

The Best Career Advice Questions to Ask A Mentor for Growth

Table of Contents Asking the right career advice questions to ask a mentor can significantly influence your professional trajectory. A mentor possesses the experience and…

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Absolutely @Nelson , Scrum Masters are Agile’s guiding lights, fostering collaboration and problem-solving. ???? #ScrumMastery #AgileSuccess

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

See blocked member's posts
Mention this member in posts
Invite this member to groups
Message this member
Add this member as a connection

Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Supercharge Your Agile Skills

Subscribe for expert tips, trends, and the latest content to stay ahead of the agile curve.

Problem-Solving Workshop

The Problem Solving Workshop is an Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event that provides a structured approach to identifying the root cause and actions to address systemic problems.

Join our FREE training and learn the 5 things you can do to become a top 1% facilitator

What is problem-solving and how to do it right steps, processes, exercises.

The better your problem-solving skills are, the better (and easier!) your life will be. Organized problem-solving is a killer career skill - learn all about it here.

Whether we’re trying to solve a technical problem at work, or trying to navigate around a roadblock that Google Maps doesn’t see – most people are problem-solving every single day .

But how effective are you at tackling the challenges in your life? Do you have a bullet-proof process you follow that ensures solid outcomes, or... Do you act on a whim of inspiration (or lack thereof) to resolve your pressing problems?

Here’s the thing: the better your problem-solving skills are - the better (and easier!) your life will be (both professionally and personally). Organized problem-solving is a killer career (and life!) skill, so if you want to learn how to do it in the most efficient way possible, you’ve come to the right place.

Read along to learn more about the steps, techniques and exercises of the problem-solving process.

1. Do you want a Career in UX?
Learn the Principles of UX Design
Master a UX Design Tool ‍

What is Problem-Solving?

We’re faced with the reality of having to solve problems every day, both in our private and professional lives. So why do we even need to learn about problem-solving? Aren’t we versed in it well enough already?

Well, what separates problem-solving from dealing with the usual day-to-day issues is that it’s a distinct process that allows you to go beyond the standard approaches to solving a problem and allows you to come up with more effective and efficient solutions. Or in other words, problem-solving allows you to knock out those problems with less effort.

Just like with any other skill, there’s an efficient way to solve problems, and a non-efficient one. While it might be tempting to go for the quickest fix for your challenge without giving it much thought, it will only end up costing you more time down the road. Quick fixes are rarely (if ever!) effective and end up being massive time wasters.

What separates problem-solving from dealing with the usual day-to-day issues is that it’s a distinct process that allows you to go beyond the standard approaches to solving a problem and allows you to come up with more effective and efficient solutions.

On the other hand, following a systemized clear process for problem-solving allows you to shortcut inefficiencies and time-wasters, turn your challenges into opportunities, and tackle problems of any scope without the usual stress and hassle.

What is the process that you need to follow, then? We’re glad you asked...

The Five Stages of Problem-Solving

So what’s the best way to move through the problem-solving process? There’s a 5-step process that you can follow that will allow you to solve your challenges more efficiently and effectively. In short, you need to move through these 5 steps:

Defining a problem
Ideating on a solution
Committing to a course of action
Implementing your solution
And finally – analyzing the results.

Let’s look at each of those stages in detail.

Step 1: Defining The Problem

The first step might sound obvious, but trust us, you don’t want to skip it! Clearly defining and framing your challenge will help you guide your efforts and make sure you’re focussing on the things that matter, instead of being distracted by a myriad of other options, problems and issues that come up.

For once, you have to make sure you’re trying to solve the root cause, and not trying to mend the symptoms of it. For instance, if you keep losing users during your app onboarding process, you might jump to the conclusion that you need to tweak the process itself: change the copy, the screens, or the sequence of steps.

But unless you have clear evidence that confirms your hypothesis, your challenge might have an entirely different root cause, e.g. in confusing marketing communication prior to the app download.

Clearly defining and framing your challenge will help you guide your efforts and make sure you’re focussing on the things that matter, all the while ensuring that you’re trying to solve the root cause, and not trying to mend the symptoms of it

That’s why it’s essential you take a close look at the entire problem, not just at a fraction of it.

There are several exercises that can help you get a broader, more holistic view of the problem, some of our all-time favorites include Expert Interviews, How Might We, or The Map. Check out the step-by-step instructions on how to run them (along with 5 more exercises for framing your challenge!) here.

When in doubt, map out your challenge, and always try to tackle the bottlenecks that are more upstream - it’s likely that solving them will solve a couple of other challenges down the flow.

You also have to be mindful of how you frame the challenge: resist the urge to include a pre-defined solution into your problem statement. Priming your solutions to a predestined outcome destroys the purpose of following a step-by-step process in the first place!

Steer clear of formulations like:

We need to change the onboarding process... or We need to improve ad copy to increase conversions.

Instead, opt for more neutral, problem-oriented statements that don’t include a solution suggestion in them:

The drop off rate during the onboarding process is too high or Our ad conversion rates are below the norm.

Pro tip: Reframing your challenge as a ‘How Might We’ statement is a great way to spark up new ideas, opening your problem to a broader set of solutions, and is just a great way to reframe your problem into a more positive statement (without implying the possible solution!)

For example, following the onboarding drop-off rate problem we mentioned earlier, instead of framing it as a problem, you could opt for:

How Might We decrease the drop-off rate during the onboarding process?

Find out more about the best exercises for problem framing here!

Now that you have a clear idea of what you’re trying to solve, it’s move on to the next phase of the problem-solving process.

Learn more about facilitation and workshopping in our FREE FACILITATION COMMUNITY

Step 2: ideating a solution.

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and challenge the status quo! This step of the problem-solving process is all about thinking outside of the box, challenging old assumptions, and thinking laterally.

This stage is the one that tends to cause the most overwhelm in teams because it requires just the right balance of creativity and critical thinking, which tends to cause a lot of friction.

Our best advice?

Let go of the pressure to produce a polished, thought-through solution at this stage. You can hash out the details at a later point. Our goal right now is to come up with a direction, a prototype if you may, of where we want to move towards.

Embrace the “quantity over quality” motto, and let your creative juices flow! Now, we’re not saying you should roll with sub-par ideas. But you shouldn’t get too fixated on feasibility and viability just yet .

Your main goal during this step is to spark ideas, kick off your thinking process in the right direction, venture out of the familiar territories and think outside the box.

For the ideation to be the most effective your team will have to feel safe to challenge the norm and wide-spread assumptions. So lay judgment by side, there is no space for “that’s the way it’s always been done” in this step.

For your ideation sessions to be as efficient as possible, we highly recommend to run them in a workshop setting: this helps reduce the usual drawbacks of open discussions in teams (i.e. groupthink & team politics!)

Our favorite exercises to run during this phase include Lightning Demos, Sketching, and variations of Brainstorming. We crafted an entire article on how to run and facilitate these exercises in a separate article, so check it out of you’re going to be running an ideation session anytime soon!

Step 3: Choosing the Best Strategy & Committing

It’s time to decide which of the ideas that you generated in the last step will be the one you’ll implement.

This step is arguably the hardest one to complete smoothly: groupthink, team politics, differences in opinions and communication styles all make it very hard to align a team on a common course of action.

If you want to avoid the usual pitfalls of team decision-making, we recommend you steer clear of open unstructured discussion. While it’s useful in some scenarios, it’s a poor choice for when you need to make a decision, because it tends to reward the loudest people in the room, rather than give way to the best ideas.

It’s crucial you not only commit to a course of action but get full buy-in from the team. If your team members don’t understand the reasons for a decision, or are not fully onboard, the implementation of your decision will be half-hearted, and that’s definitely not what you want!

To achieve that, opt for anonymized, multi-layered voting, and include guided exercises like Storyboarding to prioritize your ideas.

We’ve gathered the list of our top-rated decision-making exercises, along with step-by-step instructions on how to run them in this article!

As a bonus tip, we recommend you involve a facilitator throughout the entire process. They will help align the team, and guide them through prioritizing and de-prioritizing solutions, as well as defining the next steps.

Pro tip : If you’re not the ultimate decision maker on the issue you’re trying to solve, make sure they’re in the room when the call is being made! Having a Decider in the room ensures that the decisions you come to will actually get executed on after, instead of getting shut down by your superiors after.

Join our FREE community and connect with other Facilitators and Workshoppers

Step 4: implementing your solution.

Here’s a truth that might be hard to swallow: it doesn’t matter how innovative, creative, or original your idea is, if your execution is weak.

One of our favourite illustrations of how this works in practice comes from the book “ Anything you want ” by Derek Sivers. He reveals that ideas should be treated as multipliers of execution. What this means is that a mediocre, “so-so” idea could be worth millions if executed well, while a “brilliant” idea can completely flop with bad execution.

That’s why this step is crucial if you want to really master the problem-solving process.

What do we mean by execution? Everything that happens after the whiteboards are wiped clean and your team starts to action the outcomes of your sessions, be it prototyping, development, or promotion.

But don’t just take our word for it, look at the example of how execution affected Nintendo’s sales:

In the past few years, Nintendo has come up with 3 products: the Wii, the Wii U and the Switch. Check out their sales figures on the graph below - Wii is the clear-cut leader, followed by Switch, and finally Wii U lagging behind.

The Wii was unbelievably successful - it was a genuinely unique, “brilliant”-level idea and it had a “brilliant” execution (20x $10 million = $200 million). It is one of the fastest selling game consoles of all time and it completely took over the market.

The next product was called Wii U and it was a “great” concept but the execution was absolutely terrible. So even though this product was very interesting and innovative, the end result was 15x $1,000 = $15,000.

Finally, Nintendo took the Wii U concept and tried it again with the Switch. The idea was “so so” as it was already done before, but the execution was “brilliant”. So, 5x $10 million = $50 million! Much better.

Excellent execution is more important than a good idea.

Bottom line?

The same idea can either make no dent in the market and damage your share price OR become a market hit and increase your share price dramatically. The only difference between the two scenarios – execution.

So shift your focus from coming up with crazy, innovative, outlandish ideas that will disrupt the market, and concentrate on really nailing down your execution instead.

This is likely the least “workshoppy” step out of the entire problem-solving process because it requires less alignment and decision-making and more..well.. Execution!

But hey, we wouldn’t be called “Workshopper” if we didn't offer you at least one way to optimize and workshopify (yup, we’re making it a thing) your execution process.

Cue in….prototyping.

We’re huge fans of prototyping all big solutions (and testing them!) The main reason?

This saves us time AND money! Prototyping and testing your solutions (especially if they’re time and investment-demanding) is a great way to make sure you’re creating something that is actually needed.

The key with prototyping the right way is to keep it simple. Don’t invest too much time, or resources into it. The goal is to gather data for your future decisions, not to create a near-to-perfect mockup of your solution.

There are LOADS of prototyping forms and techniques, and if you’d like to learn more on the subject you should definitely check out our extensive prototyping guide.

Step 5: Analyzing the Results

You’re nearly done, woo! Now that you have defined the right problem to tackle, brainstormed the solutions, aligned your team on the course of action, and put your plan into action it’s time to take stock of your efforts.

Seek feedback from all involved parties, analyze the data you’ve gathered, look at the bottom line of your efforts, and take a hard look at your problem: did it get solved? And even more than that, did the process feel smoother, easier, and more efficient than it normally is?

Running a retrospective is a great way to highlight things that went well and that you should keep for your next round of problem.solving, as well as pinpoint inefficiencies that you can eliminate.

‍ But which kind of retrospective should you run? There are loads of options, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by them all, so we gathered our favorite retrospective variations in this article.

And there you have it, you just completed the cycle of problem-solving. We highly recommend you follow through with all the steps, without leaving any out. They all complement and build on each other, and it’s the combination of all 5 of them that makes the process effective.

Now that you have the problem solving process down, you might be wondering…

Do I need any special skills in order to be able to move through that process?

And the answer is… sort of! More in this in the next section.

Problem-Solving Skills

While your skill set will need to adapt and change based on the challenges you’ll be working on, most efficient problem-solvers have a solid foundation of these key skills:

Active listening. While you might be the expert in the area of your challenge, there’s not a single person on Earth that knows it all! Being open to others’ perspectives and practicing active listening will come in very handy during step 1 of the process, as you’re trying to define the scope and the exact angle of the problem you’re working on.
Analytical approach. Your analytical skills will help you understand problems and effectively develop solutions. You will also need analytical skills during research to help distinguish between effective and ineffective solutions.
Communication. Is there a single area of expertise that DOESN’T require strong communication skills? We honestly don’t think so! Just like with any other life area, clear communication can make or break your problem-solving process. Being able to clearly communicate why you need to solve this challenge to your team, as well as align your team on the course of action are crucial for the success of the process.
Decision-making. Ultimately, you will need to make a decision about how to solve problems that arise. A process without outcomes–regardless of how well thought-out and elaborate–is useless! If you want your problem-solving huddles to be effective, you have to come to grips with prioritization techniques and decision-making frameworks.
Facilitation. Problem-solving revolves around being able to guide a group or a team to a common decision, and facilitation skills are essential in making that happen. Knowing how to facilitate will make it easy to keep the group focussed on the challenge, shortcut circular discussions, and make sure you’re moving along to solving the problem instead of just treading waters with fruitless discussions.

Not checking every single skill of your list just yet? Not to worry, the next section will give you practical tools on how to level up and improve your problem-solving skills.

How to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills

Just like with any other skill, problem-solving is not an innate talent that you either have or you don’t. There are concrete steps you can take to improve your skills.

Here are some things that will get you closer to mastering the problem-solving process:

Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice makes perfect, and problem-solving skills are no exception! Seek opportunities to utilize and develop these skills any time you can.

If you don’t know where or how to start just yet, here’s a suggestion that will get you up and running in no time: run a quick problem-solving session on a challenge that has been bothering your team for a while now.

It doesn’t need to be the big strategic decision or the issue defining the future of the company. Something easy and manageable (like optimizing office space or improving team communication) will do.

As you start feeling more comfortable with the problem-solving techniques, you can start tackling bigger challenges. Before you know it, you’ll master the art of creative problem-solving!

Use a tried and tested problem-solving workshop

Facilitation is one of the essential skills for problem-solving. But here’s the thing… Facilitation skills on their own won’t lead you to a solved challenge.

While being able to shortcut aimless discussions is a great skill, you have to make sure your problem-solving session has tangible outcomes. Using a tried and tested method, a workshop, is one of the easiest ways to do that.

Our best advice is to get started with a tried and tested problem-solving workshop like the Lightning Decision Jam . The LDJ has all the right ingredients for quick, effective problem solving that leads to tangible outcomes. Give it a go!

Learn from your peers

You may have colleagues who are skilled problem solvers. Observing how those colleagues solve problems can help you improve your own skills.

If possible, ask one of your more experienced colleagues if you can observe their techniques. Ask them relevant questions and try to apply as many of the new found skills i your career as possible.

Learn & Practice the best problem-solving exercises

Having a toolbox of problem-solving exercises to pull from that can fit any type of challenge will make you a more versatile problem-solver and will make solving challenges that much easier for you!

Once you get used to the groove of learning how to combine them into effective sessions or workshops, there’ll be no stopping you. What are some of the most effective problem-solving exercises? Glad you asked! We’ve gathered our favorite ones here, check it out!

And there you have it, you’re now fully equipped for running creative problem-sessions with confidence and ease! Whichever method or exercise you choose, remember to keep track of your wins, and learn as much as you can from your losses!

Anastasia Ushakova

Brand Strategist, Digital Marketer, and a Workshopper.

When Do You Need a Facilitator?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus.

The Ultimate Facilitation Glossary: 50 Facilitation Terms You Should Know (From A-Z)

How To Improve Team Collaboration

40 problem-solving techniques and processes

All teams and organizations encounter challenges. Approaching those challenges without a structured problem solving process can end up making things worse.

Proven problem solving techniques such as those outlined below can guide your group through a process of identifying problems and challenges , ideating on possible solutions , and then evaluating and implementing the most suitable .

In this post, you'll find problem-solving tools you can use to develop effective solutions. You'll also find some tips for facilitating the problem solving process and solving complex problems.

Design your next session with SessionLab

Join the 150,000+ facilitators  using SessionLab.

What is problem solving?

Problem solving is a process of finding and implementing a solution to a challenge or obstacle. In most contexts, this means going through a problem solving process that begins with identifying the issue, exploring its root causes, ideating and refining possible solutions before implementing and measuring the impact of that solution.

For simple or small problems, it can be tempting to skip straight to implementing what you believe is the right solution. The danger with this approach is that without exploring the true causes of the issue, it might just occur again or your chosen solution may cause other issues.

Particularly in the world of work, good problem solving means using data to back up each step of the process, bringing in new perspectives and effectively measuring the impact of your solution.

Effective problem solving can help ensure that your team or organization is well positioned to overcome challenges, be resilient to change and create innovation. In my experience, problem solving is a combination of skillset, mindset and process, and it’s especially vital for leaders to cultivate this skill.

A group of people looking at a poster with notes on it

What is the seven step problem solving process?

A problem solving process is a step-by-step framework from going from discovering a problem all the way through to implementing a solution.

With practice, this framework can become intuitive, and innovative companies tend to have a consistent and ongoing ability to discover and tackle challenges when they come up.

You might see everything from a four step problem solving process through to seven steps. While all these processes cover roughly the same ground, I’ve found a seven step problem solving process is helpful for making all key steps legible.

We’ll outline that process here and then follow with techniques you can use to explore and work on that step of the problem solving process with a group.

The seven-step problem solving process is:

1. Problem identification

The first stage of any problem solving process is to identify the problem(s) you need to solve. This often looks like using group discussions and activities to help a group surface and effectively articulate the challenges they’re facing and wish to resolve.

Be sure to align with your team on the exact definition and nature of the problem you’re solving. An effective process is one where everyone is pulling in the same direction – ensure clarity and alignment now to help avoid misunderstandings later.

2. Problem analysis and refinement

The process of problem analysis means ensuring that the problem you are seeking to solve is the right problem . Choosing the right problem to solve means you are on the right path to creating the right solution.

At this stage, you may look deeper at the problem you identified to try and discover the root cause at the level of people or process. You may also spend some time sourcing data, consulting relevant parties and creating and refining a problem statement.

Problem refinement means adjusting scope or focus of the problem you will be aiming to solve based on what comes up during your analysis. As you analyze data sources, you might discover that the root cause means you need to adjust your problem statement. Alternatively, you might find that your original problem statement is too big to be meaningful approached within your current project.

Remember that the goal of any problem refinement is to help set the stage for effective solution development and deployment. Set the right focus and get buy-in from your team here and you’ll be well positioned to move forward with confidence.

3. Solution generation

Once your group has nailed down the particulars of the problem you wish to solve, you want to encourage a free flow of ideas connecting to solving that problem. This can take the form of problem solving games that encourage creative thinking or techniquess designed to produce working prototypes of possible solutions.

The key to ensuring the success of this stage of the problem solving process is to encourage quick, creative thinking and create an open space where all ideas are considered. The best solutions can often come from unlikely places and by using problem solving techniques that celebrate invention, you might come up with solution gold.

4. Solution development

No solution is perfect right out of the gate. It’s important to discuss and develop the solutions your group has come up with over the course of following the previous problem solving steps in order to arrive at the best possible solution. Problem solving games used in this stage involve lots of critical thinking, measuring potential effort and impact, and looking at possible solutions analytically.

During this stage, you will often ask your team to iterate and improve upon your front-running solutions and develop them further. Remember that problem solving strategies always benefit from a multitude of voices and opinions, and not to let ego get involved when it comes to choosing which solutions to develop and take further.

Finding the best solution is the goal of all problem solving workshops and here is the place to ensure that your solution is well thought out, sufficiently robust and fit for purpose.

5. Decision making and planning

Nearly there! Once you’ve got a set of possible, you’ll need to make a decision on which to implement. This can be a consensus-based group decision or it might be for a leader or major stakeholder to decide. You’ll find a set of effective decision making methods below.

Once your group has reached consensus and selected a solution, there are some additional actions that also need to be decided upon. You’ll want to work on allocating ownership of the project, figure out who will do what, how the success of the solution will be measured and decide the next course of action.

Set clear accountabilities, actions, timeframes, and follow-ups for your chosen solution. Make these decisions and set clear next-steps in the problem solving workshop so that everyone is aligned and you can move forward effectively as a group.

Ensuring that you plan for the roll-out of a solution is one of the most important problem solving steps. Without adequate planning or oversight, it can prove impossible to measure success or iterate further if the problem was not solved.

6. Solution implementation

This is what we were waiting for! All problem solving processes have the end goal of implementing an effective and impactful solution that your group has confidence in.

Project management and communication skills are key here – your solution may need to adjust when out in the wild or you might discover new challenges along the way. For some solutions, you might also implement a test with a small group and monitor results before rolling it out to an entire company.

You should have a clear owner for your solution who will oversee the plans you made together and help ensure they’re put into place. This person will often coordinate the implementation team and set-up processes to measure the efficacy of your solution too.

7. Solution evaluation

So you and your team developed a great solution to a problem and have a gut feeling it’s been solved. Work done, right? Wrong. All problem solving strategies benefit from evaluation, consideration, and feedback.

You might find that the solution does not work for everyone, might create new problems, or is potentially so successful that you will want to roll it out to larger teams or as part of other initiatives.

None of that is possible without taking the time to evaluate the success of the solution you developed in your problem solving model and adjust if necessary.

Remember that the problem solving process is often iterative and it can be common to not solve complex issues on the first try. Even when this is the case, you and your team will have generated learning that will be important for future problem solving workshops or in other parts of the organization.

It’s also worth underlining how important record keeping is throughout the problem solving process. If a solution didn’t work, you need to have the data and records to see why that was the case. If you go back to the drawing board, notes from the previous workshop can help save time.

What does an effective problem solving process look like?

Every effective problem solving process begins with an agenda . In our experience, a well-structured problem solving workshop is one of the best methods for successfully guiding a group from exploring a problem to implementing a solution.

The format of a workshop ensures that you can get buy-in from your group, encourage free-thinking and solution exploration before making a decision on what to implement following the session.

This Design Sprint 2.0 template is an effective problem solving process from top agency AJ&Smart. It’s a great format for the entire problem solving process, with four-days of workshops designed to surface issues, explore solutions and even test a solution.

Check it for an example of how you might structure and run a problem solving process and feel free to copy and adjust it your needs!

For a shorter process you can run in a single afternoon, this remote problem solving agenda will guide you effectively in just a couple of hours.

Whatever the length of your workshop, by using SessionLab, it’s easy to go from an idea to a complete agenda . Start by dragging and dropping your core problem solving activities into place . Add timings, breaks and necessary materials before sharing your agenda with your colleagues.

The resulting agenda will be your guide to an effective and productive problem solving session that will also help you stay organized on the day!

Complete problem-solving methods

In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem-solving methods that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. These will help guide your team from the discovery and definition of a problem through to delivering the right solution.

If you’re looking for an all-encompassing method or problem-solving model, these processes are a great place to start. They’ll ask your team to challenge preconceived ideas and adopt a mindset for solving problems more effectively.

Six Thinking Hats

Individual approaches to solving a problem can be very different based on what team or role an individual holds. It can be easy for existing biases or perspectives to find their way into the mix, or for internal politics to direct a conversation.

Six Thinking Hats is a classic method for identifying the problems that need to be solved and enables your team to consider them from different angles, whether that is by focusing on facts and data, creative solutions, or by considering why a particular solution might not work.

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 all the aspects necessary to solve complex problems.

The Six Thinking Hats #creative thinking #meeting facilitation #problem solving #issue resolution #idea generation #conflict resolution The Six Thinking Hats are used by individuals and groups to separate out conflicting styles of thinking. They enable and encourage a group of people to think constructively together in exploring and implementing change, rather than using argument to fight over who is right and who is wrong.

Lightning Decision Jam

Featured courtesy of Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart Berlin, Lightning Decision Jam is one of those strategies that should be in every facilitation toolbox. Exploring problems and finding solutions is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and get lost.

Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use a method that creates a clear process and team focus.

In Lightning Decision Jam, participants are invited to begin by writing challenges, concerns, or mistakes on post-its without discussing them before then being invited by the moderator to present them to the group.

From there, the team vote on which problems to solve and are guided through steps that will allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on.

By deciding the problems that need to be solved as a team before moving on, this group process is great for ensuring the whole team is aligned and can take ownership over the next stages.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly It doesn’t matter where you work and what your job role is, if you work with other people together as a team, you will always encounter the same challenges: Unclear goals and miscommunication that cause busy work and overtime Unstructured meetings that leave attendants tired, confused and without clear outcomes. Frustration builds up because internal challenges to productivity are not addressed Sudden changes in priorities lead to a loss of focus and momentum Muddled compromise takes the place of clear decision- making, leaving everybody to come up with their own interpretation. In short, a lack of structure leads to a waste of time and effort, projects that drag on for too long and frustrated, burnt out teams. AJ&Smart has worked with some of the most innovative, productive companies in the world. What sets their teams apart from others is not better tools, bigger talent or more beautiful offices. The secret sauce to becoming a more productive, more creative and happier team is simple: Replace all open discussion or brainstorming with a structured process that leads to more ideas, clearer decisions and better outcomes. When a good process provides guardrails and a clear path to follow, it becomes easier to come up with ideas, make decisions and solve problems. This is why AJ&Smart created Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ). It’s a simple and short, but powerful group exercise that can be run either in-person, in the same room, or remotely with distributed teams.

Problem Definition Process

While problems can be complex, the problem-solving methods you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design.

By taking the time to truly identify and define a problem before asking the group to reframe the challenge as an opportunity, this method is a great way to enable change.

Begin by identifying a focus question and exploring the ways in which it manifests before splitting into five teams who will each consider the problem using a different method: escape, reversal, exaggeration, distortion or wishful. Teams develop a problem objective and create ideas in line with their method before then feeding them back to the group.

This method is great for enabling in-depth discussions while also creating space for finding creative solutions too!

Problem Definition #problem solving #idea generation #creativity #online #remote-friendly A problem solving technique to define a problem, challenge or opportunity and to generate ideas.

The 5 Whys

Sometimes, a group needs to go further with their strategies and analyze the root cause at the heart of organizational issues. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying what is at the heart of business problems or recurring challenges.

The 5 Whys is a simple and effective method of helping a group go find the root cause of any problem or challenge and conduct analysis that will deliver results.

By beginning with the creation of a problem statement and going through five stages to refine it, The 5 Whys provides everything you need to truly discover the cause of an issue.

The 5 Whys #hyperisland #innovation This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

World Cafe is a simple but powerful facilitation technique to help bigger groups to focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems.

World Cafe enables this approach by creating a relaxed atmosphere where participants are able to self-organize and explore topics relevant and important to them which are themed around a central problem-solving purpose. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the method, let them take the lead!

Making problem-solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. More approachable formats like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold.

World Cafe #hyperisland #innovation #issue analysis World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

One of the best approaches is to create a safe space for a group to share and discover practices and behaviors that can help them find their own solutions.

With DAD, you can help a group choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. It’s great at helping remove resistance to change and can help get buy-in at every level too!

This process of enabling frontline ownership is great in ensuring follow-through and is one of the methods you will want in your toolbox as a facilitator.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly DADs make it easy for a group or community to discover practices and behaviors that enable some individuals (without access to special resources and facing the same constraints) to find better solutions than their peers to common problems. These are called positive deviant (PD) behaviors and practices. DADs make it possible for people in the group, unit, or community to discover by themselves these PD practices. DADs also create favorable conditions for stimulating participants’ creativity in spaces where they can feel safe to invent new and more effective practices. Resistance to change evaporates as participants are unleashed to choose freely which practices they will adopt or try and which problems they will tackle. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions.

Design Sprint 2.0

Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? The Design Sprint 2.0 template from Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, is a complete agenda for a with proven results.

Developing the right agenda can involve difficult but necessary planning. Ensuring all the correct steps are followed can also be stressful or time-consuming depending on your level of experience.

Use this complete 4-day workshop template if you are finding there is no obvious solution to your challenge and want to focus your team around a specific problem that might require a shortcut to launching a minimum viable product or waiting for the organization-wide implementation of a solution.

Open space technology

Open space technology- developed by Harrison Owen – creates a space where large groups are invited to take ownership of their problem solving and lead individual sessions. Open space technology is a great format when you have a great deal of expertise and insight in the room and want to allow for different takes and approaches on a particular theme or problem you need to be solved.

Start by bringing your participants together to align around a central theme and focus their efforts. Explain the ground rules to help guide the problem-solving process and then invite members to identify any issue connecting to the central theme that they are interested in and are prepared to take responsibility for.

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. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group is then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin!

Everyone joins the problem-solving group they’ve signed up to, record the discussion and if appropriate, findings can then be shared with the rest of the group afterward.

Open Space Technology #action plan #idea generation #problem solving #issue analysis #large group #online #remote-friendly Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

Using a problem-solving method to help a team identify and analyze a problem can be a quick and effective addition to any workshop or meeting.

While further actions are always necessary, you can generate momentum and alignment easily, and these activities are a great place to get started.

We’ve put together this list of techniques to help you and your team with problem identification, analysis, and discussion that sets the foundation for developing effective solutions.

Let’s take a look!

Fishbone Analysis

Organizational or team challenges are rarely simple, and it’s important to remember that one problem can be an indication of something that goes deeper and may require further consideration to be solved.

Fishbone Analysis helps groups to dig deeper and understand the origins of a problem. It’s a great example of a root cause analysis method that is simple for everyone on a team to get their head around.

Participants in this activity are asked to annotate a diagram of a fish, first adding the problem or issue to be worked on at the head of a fish before then brainstorming the root causes of the problem and adding them as bones on the fish.

Using abstractions such as a diagram of a fish can really help a team break out of their regular thinking and develop a creative approach.

Fishbone Analysis #problem solving ##root cause analysis #decision making #online facilitation A process to help identify and understand the origins of problems, issues or observations.

Problem Tree

Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many strategies. By simply reframing and clarifying problems, a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them.

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. 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.

Once you have a list of problems that need to be solved and have organized them accordingly, you’re then well-positioned for the next problem solving steps.

Problem tree #define intentions #create #design #issue analysis A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it represents high level problems or related sublevel problems.

SWOT Analysis

Chances are you’ve heard of the SWOT Analysis before. This problem-solving method focuses on identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a tried and tested method for both individuals and teams.

Start by creating a desired end state or outcome and bare this in mind – any process solving model is made more effective by knowing what you are moving towards. Create a quadrant made up of the four categories of a SWOT analysis and ask participants to generate ideas based on each of those quadrants.

Once you have those ideas assembled in their quadrants, cluster them together based on their affinity with other ideas. These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move things forward.

SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing technique of looking at what we have, with respect to the desired end state, as well as what we could improve on. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. When we understand those conditions, we can influence what comes next.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix

Not every problem-solving approach is right for every challenge, and deciding on the right method for the challenge at hand is a key part of being an effective team.

The Agreement Certainty matrix helps teams align on the nature of the challenges facing them. By sorting problems from simple to chaotic, your team can understand what methods are suitable for each problem and what they can do to ensure effective results.

If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem-solving strategy, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. We’ve found it particularly if you are having issues with recurring problems in your organization and want to go deeper in understanding the root cause.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix #issue analysis #liberating structures #problem solving You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic . A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably. A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail. Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward. 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.” The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the skills they need to stay on track throughout the process.

Begin with two different colored sticky notes – one for questions and one for answers – and with your central topic (the head of the squid) on the board. Ask the group to first come up with a series of questions connected to their best guess of how to approach the topic. Ask the group to come up with answers to those questions, fix them to the board and connect them with a line. After some discussion, go back to question mode by responding to the generated answers or other points on the board.

It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future effort and as an example for other teams.

SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram.

To continue with our nautical theme, Speed Boat is a short and sweet activity that can help a team quickly identify what employees, clients or service users might have a problem with and analyze what might be standing in the way of achieving a solution.

Methods that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments quickly are invaluable when trying to solve complex problems.

In Speed Boat, the approach is to first consider what anchors and challenges might be holding an organization (or boat) back. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop ideas that can also deal with competitors!

Speed Boat #gamestorming #problem solving #action 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.

The Journalistic Six

Some of the most effective ways of solving problems is by encouraging teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking.

Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create teams to see the whole picture. By using who, what, when, where, why, and how to facilitate the conversation and encourage creative thinking, your team can make sure that the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the are covered exhaustively and thoughtfully. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional.

The Journalistic Six – Who What When Where Why How #idea generation #issue analysis #problem solving #online #creative thinking #remote-friendly A questioning method for generating, explaining, investigating ideas.

Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively?

Flip It is a method we love because it is both simple to understand and run, and allows groups to understand how their perspectives and biases are formed.

Participants in Flip It are first invited to consider concerns, issues, or problems from a perspective of fear and write them on a flip chart. Then, the group is asked to consider those same issues from a perspective of hope and flip their understanding.

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.

Flip It! #gamestorming #problem solving #action Often, a change in a problem or situation comes simply from a change in our perspectives. Flip It! is a quick game designed to show players that perspectives are made, not born.

LEGO Challenge

Now for an activity that is a little out of the (toy) box. LEGO Serious Play is a facilitation methodology that can be used to improve creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

The LEGO Challenge includes giving each member of the team an assignment that is hidden from the rest of the group while they create a structure without speaking.

What the LEGO challenge brings to the table is a fun working example of working with stakeholders who might not be on the same page to solve problems. Also, it’s LEGO! Who doesn’t love LEGO!

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

What, So What, Now What?

If not carefully managed, the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the problem-solving process can actually create more problems and misunderstandings.

The What, So What, Now What? problem-solving activity is designed to help collect insights and move forward while also eliminating the possibility of disagreement when it comes to identifying, clarifying, and analyzing organizational or work problems.

Facilitation is all about bringing groups together so that might work on a shared goal and the best problem-solving strategies ensure that teams are aligned in purpose, if not initially in opinion or insight.

Throughout the three steps of this game, you give everyone on a team to reflect on a problem by asking what happened, why it is important, and what actions should then be taken.

This can be a great activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. This is one of the most important problem-solving skills you can bring to your organization.

W³ – What, So What, Now What? #issue analysis #innovation #liberating structures You can help groups reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. It is possible for every voice to be heard while simultaneously sifting for insights and shaping new direction. Progressing in stages makes this practical—from collecting facts about What Happened to making sense of these facts with So What and finally to what actions logically follow with Now What . The shared progression eliminates most of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what to do. Voila!

Journalists

Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward.

Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.

In Journalists, the group is invited to draft the front page of a fictional newspaper and figure out what stories deserve to be on the cover and what headlines those stories will have. By reframing how your problems and challenges are approached, you can help a team move productively through the process and be better prepared for the steps to follow.

Journalists #vision #big picture #issue analysis #remote-friendly This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.

Problem-solving techniques for brainstorming solutions

Now you have the context and background of the problem you are trying to solving, now comes the time to start ideating and thinking about how you’ll solve the issue.

Here, you’ll want to encourage creative, free thinking and speed. Get as many ideas out as possible and explore different perspectives so you have the raw material for the next step.

Looking at a problem from a new angle can be one of the most effective ways of creating an effective solution. TRIZ is a problem-solving tool that asks the group to consider what they must not do in order to solve a challenge.

By reversing the discussion, new topics and taboo subjects often emerge, allowing the group to think more deeply and create ideas that confront the status quo in a safe and meaningful way. If you’re working on a problem that you’ve tried to solve before, TRIZ is a great problem-solving method to help your team get unblocked.

Making Space with TRIZ #issue analysis #liberating structures #issue resolution You can clear space for innovation by helping a group let go of what it knows (but rarely admits) limits its success and by inviting creative destruction. TRIZ makes it possible to challenge sacred cows safely and encourages heretical thinking. The question “What must we stop doing to make progress on our deepest purpose?” induces seriously fun yet very courageous conversations. Since laughter often erupts, issues that are otherwise taboo get a chance to be aired and confronted. With creative destruction come opportunities for renewal as local action and innovation rush in to fill the vacuum. Whoosh!

Mindspin

Brainstorming is part of the bread and butter of the problem-solving process and all problem-solving strategies benefit from getting ideas out and challenging a team to generate solutions quickly.

With Mindspin, participants are encouraged not only to generate ideas but to do so under time constraints and by slamming down cards and passing them on. By doing multiple rounds, your team can begin with a free generation of possible solutions before moving on to developing those solutions and encouraging further ideation.

This is one of our favorite problem-solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Remember the importance of helping people become engaged in the process – energizing problem-solving techniques like Mindspin can help ensure your team stays engaged and happy, even when the problems they’re coming together to solve are complex.

MindSpin #teampedia #idea generation #problem solving #action A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

The Creativity Dice

One of the most useful problem solving skills you can teach your team is of approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility, and openness. Games like The Creativity Dice allow teams to overcome the potential hurdle of too much linear thinking and approach the process with a sense of fun and speed.

In The Creativity Dice, participants are organized around a topic and roll a dice to determine what they will work on for a period of 3 minutes at a time. They might roll a 3 and work on investigating factual information on the chosen topic. They might roll a 1 and work on identifying the specific goals, standards, or criteria for the session.

Encouraging rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible are great skills to cultivate. Having a stage for idea incubation in this game is also important. Moments of pause can help ensure the ideas that are put forward are the most suitable.

The Creativity Dice #creativity #problem solving #thiagi #issue analysis Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

Idea and Concept Development

Brainstorming without structure can quickly become chaotic or frustrating. In a problem-solving context, having an ideation framework to follow can help ensure your team is both creative and disciplined.

In this method, you’ll find an idea generation process that encourages your group to brainstorm effectively before developing their ideas and begin clustering them together. By using concepts such as Yes and…, more is more and postponing judgement, you can create the ideal conditions for brainstorming with ease.

Idea & Concept Development #hyperisland #innovation #idea generation Ideation and Concept Development is a process for groups to work creatively and collaboratively to generate creative ideas. It’s a general approach that can be adapted and customized to suit many different scenarios. It includes basic principles for idea generation and several steps for groups to work with. It also includes steps for idea selection and development.

Problem-solving techniques for developing and refining solutions

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to develop and refine your ideas in order to bring them closer to a solution that actually solves the problem.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team think through their ideas and refine them as part of your problem solving process.

Improved Solutions

After a team has successfully identified a problem and come up with a few solutions, it can be tempting to call the work of the problem-solving process complete. That said, the first solution is not necessarily the best, and by including a further review and reflection activity into your problem-solving model, you can ensure your group reaches the best possible result.

One of a number of problem-solving games from Thiagi Group, Improved Solutions helps you go the extra mile and develop suggested solutions with close consideration and peer review. By supporting the discussion of several problems at once and by shifting team roles throughout, this problem-solving technique is a dynamic way of finding the best solution.

Improved Solutions #creativity #thiagi #problem solving #action #team You can improve any solution by objectively reviewing its strengths and weaknesses and making suitable adjustments. In this creativity framegame, you improve the solutions to several problems. To maintain objective detachment, you deal with a different problem during each of six rounds and assume different roles (problem owner, consultant, basher, booster, enhancer, and evaluator) during each round. At the conclusion of the activity, each player ends up with two solutions to her problem.

Four Step Sketch

Creative thinking and visual ideation does not need to be confined to the opening stages of your problem-solving strategies. Exercises that include sketching and prototyping on paper can be effective at the solution finding and development stage of the process, and can be great for keeping a team engaged.

By going from simple notes to a crazy 8s round that involves rapidly sketching 8 variations on their ideas before then producing a final solution sketch, the group is able to iterate quickly and visually. Problem-solving techniques like Four-Step Sketch are great if you have a group of different thinkers and want to change things up from a more textual or discussion-based approach.

Four-Step Sketch #design sprint #innovation #idea generation #remote-friendly The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper, Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

Ensuring that everyone in a group is able to contribute to a discussion is vital during any problem solving process. Not only does this ensure all bases are covered, but its then easier to get buy-in and accountability when people have been able to contribute to the process.

1-2-4-All is a tried and tested facilitation technique where participants are asked to first brainstorm on a topic on their own. Next, they discuss and share ideas in a pair before moving into a small group. Those groups are then asked to present the best idea from their discussion to the rest of the team.

This method can be used in many different contexts effectively, though I find it particularly shines in the idea development stage of the process. Giving each participant time to concretize their ideas and develop them in progressively larger groups can create a great space for both innovation and psychological safety.

1-2-4-All #idea generation #liberating structures #issue analysis With this facilitation technique you can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance. Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified. No buy-in strategies needed! Simple and elegant!

15% Solutions

Some problems are simpler than others and with the right problem-solving activities, you can empower people to take immediate actions that can help create organizational change.

Part of the liberating structures toolkit, 15% solutions is a problem-solving technique that focuses on finding and implementing solutions quickly. A process of iterating and making small changes quickly can help generate momentum and an appetite for solving complex problems.

Problem-solving strategies can live and die on whether people are onboard. Getting some quick wins is a great way of getting people behind the process.

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.

15% Solutions #action #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

Problem-solving techniques for making decisions and planning

After your group is happy with the possible solutions you’ve developed, now comes the time to choose which to implement. There’s more than one way to make a decision and the best option is often dependant on the needs and set-up of your group.

Sometimes, it’s the case that you’ll want to vote as a group on what is likely to be the most impactful solution. Other times, it might be down to a decision maker or major stakeholder to make the final decision. Whatever your process, here’s some techniques you can use to help you make a decision during your problem solving process.

How-Now-Wow Matrix

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. While it’s common for the first stages to encourage creative thinking, groups can often gravitate to familiar solutions when it comes to the end of the process.

When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose your creative energy! The How-Now-Wow Matrix from Gamestorming is a great problem-solving activity that enables a group to stay creative and think out of the box when it comes to selecting the right solution for a given problem.

Problem-solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud.

How-Now-Wow Matrix #gamestorming #idea generation #remote-friendly When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.

Impact and Effort Matrix

All problem-solving techniques hope to not only find solutions to a given problem or challenge but to find the best solution. When it comes to finding a solution, groups are invited to put on their decision-making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice.

The Impact and Effort Matrix is one of the problem-solving techniques that fall into this camp, empowering participants to first generate ideas and then categorize them into a 2×2 matrix based on impact and effort.

Activities that invite critical thinking while remaining simple are invaluable. Use the Impact and Effort Matrix to move from ideation and towards evaluating potential solutions before then committing to them.

Impact and Effort Matrix #gamestorming #decision making #action #remote-friendly In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

If you’ve followed each of the problem-solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. But how do you help a group go from ideation to putting a solution into action?

Dotmocracy – or Dot Voting -is a tried and tested method of helping a team in the problem-solving process make decisions and put actions in place with a degree of oversight and consensus.

One of the problem-solving techniques that should be in every facilitator’s toolbox, Dot Voting is fast and effective and can help identify the most popular and best solutions and help bring a group to a decision effectively.

Dotmocracy #action #decision making #group prioritization #hyperisland #remote-friendly Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. The options or ideas are written on post-its and stuck up on a wall for the whole group to see. Each person votes for the options they think are the strongest, and that information is used to inform a decision.

Straddling the gap between decision making and planning, MoSCoW is a simple and effective method that allows a group team to easily prioritize a set of possible options.

Use this method in a problem solving process by collecting and summarizing all your possible solutions and then categorize them into 4 sections: “Must have”, “Should have”, “Could have”, or “Would like but won‘t get”.

This method is particularly useful when its less about choosing one possible solution and more about prioritorizing which to do first and which may not fit in the scope of your project. In my experience, complex challenges often require multiple small fixes, and this method can be a great way to move from a pile of things you’d all like to do to a structured plan.

MoSCoW #define intentions #create #design #action #remote-friendly MoSCoW is a method that allows the team to prioritize the different features that they will work on. Features are then categorized into “Must have”, “Should have”, “Could have”, or “Would like but won‘t get”. To be used at the beginning of a timeslot (for example during Sprint planning) and when planning is needed.

When it comes to managing the rollout of a solution, clarity and accountability are key factors in ensuring the success of the project. The RAACI chart is a simple but effective model for setting roles and responsibilities as part of a planning session.

Start by listing each person involved in the project and put them into the following groups in order to make it clear who is responsible for what during the rollout of your solution.

Responsibility (Which person and/or team will be taking action?)
Authority (At what “point” must the responsible person check in before going further?)
Accountability (Who must the responsible person check in with?)
Consultation (Who must be consulted by the responsible person before decisions are made?)
Information (Who must be informed of decisions, once made?)

Ensure this information is easily accessible and use it to inform who does what and who is looped into discussions and kept up to date.

RAACI #roles and responsibility #teamwork #project management Clarifying roles and responsibilities, levels of autonomy/latitude in decision making, and levels of engagement among diverse stakeholders.

Problem-solving warm-up activities

All facilitators know that warm-ups and icebreakers are useful for any workshop or group process. Problem-solving workshops are no different.

Use these problem-solving techniques to warm up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Activating your group by tapping into some of the top problem-solving skills can be one of the best ways to see great outcomes from your session.

Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process. Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute.

If you are running a series of meetings, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove. We recommend this opening-closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if they’re disciplined!

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

Doodling Together

Thinking creatively and not being afraid to make suggestions are important problem-solving skills for any group or team, and warming up by encouraging these behaviors is a great way to start.

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. By passing cards and adding additional items as they go, the workshop group gets into a groove of co-creation and idea development that is crucial to finding solutions to problems.

Doodling Together #collaboration #creativity #teamwork #fun #team #visual methods #energiser #icebreaker #remote-friendly Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group’s creative confidence.

Show and Tell

You might remember some version of Show and Tell from being a kid in school and it’s a great problem-solving activity to kick off a session.

Asking participants to prepare a little something before a workshop by bringing an object for show and tell can help them warm up before the session has even begun! Games that include a physical object can also help encourage early engagement before moving onto more big-picture thinking.

By asking your participants to tell stories about why they chose to bring a particular item to the group, you can help teams see things from new perspectives and see both differences and similarities in the way they approach a topic. Great groundwork for approaching a problem-solving process as a team!

Show and Tell #gamestorming #action #opening #meeting facilitation Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

Constellations

Who doesn’t love stars? Constellations is a great warm-up activity for any workshop as it gets people up off their feet, energized, and ready to engage in new ways with established topics. It’s also great for showing existing beliefs, biases, and patterns that can come into play as part of your session.

Using warm-up games that help build trust and connection while also allowing for non-verbal responses can be great for easing people into the problem-solving process and encouraging engagement from everyone in the group. Constellations is great in large spaces that allow for movement and is definitely a practical exercise to allow the group to see patterns that are otherwise invisible.

Constellations #trust #connection #opening #coaching #patterns #system Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

Draw a Tree

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.

Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy. Start by asking your participants to draw a tree in just 45 seconds – they can choose whether it will be abstract or realistic.

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.

All problem-solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Warm-up games like Draw a Tree are great in that they quickly demonstrate some key problem-solving skills in an accessible and effective way.

Draw a Tree #thiagi #opening #perspectives #remote-friendly With this game you can raise awarness about being more mindful, and aware of the environment we live in.

Closing activities for a problem-solving process

Each step of the problem-solving workshop benefits from an intelligent deployment of activities, games, and techniques. Bringing your session to an effective close helps ensure that solutions are followed through on and that you also celebrate what has been achieved.

Here are some problem-solving activities you can use to effectively close a workshop or meeting and ensure the great work you’ve done can continue afterward.

One Breath Feedback

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 easy to incur “death by feedback” should some team members go on for too long sharing their perspectives in a quick feedback round.

One Breath Feedback is a great closing activity for workshops. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. This keeps feedback short and to the point and means that everyone is encouraged to provide the most important piece of feedback to them.

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

Who What When Matrix

Matrices feature as part of many effective problem-solving strategies and with good reason. They are easily recognizable, simple to use, and generate results.

The Who What When Matrix is a great tool to use when closing your problem-solving session by attributing a who, what and when to the actions and solutions you have decided upon. The resulting matrix is a simple, easy-to-follow way of ensuring your team can move forward.

Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership. 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. Use this method to keep the solution implementation process clear and simple for all involved.

Who/What/When Matrix #gamestorming #action #project planning With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to.

Response cards

Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem-solving activities and by the end of the process, you might find that your team is talked out!

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. 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.

Response Cards is a great way to close a workshop if you are looking for a gentle warm-down and want to get some swift discussion around some of the feedback that is raised.

Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. However, with the use of Response Cards, everyone will be involved in providing feedback or clarify questions at the end of a session.

Tips for effective problem solving

Problem-solving activities are only one part of the puzzle. While a great method can help unlock your team’s ability to solve problems, without a thoughtful approach and strong facilitation the solutions may not be fit for purpose.

Let’s take a look at some problem-solving tips you can apply to any process to help it be a success!

Clearly define the problem

Jumping straight to solutions can be tempting, though without first clearly articulating a problem, the solution might not be the right one. Many of the problem-solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on.

This is a vital part of the problem-solving process and taking the time to fully define an issue can save time and effort later. A clear definition helps identify irrelevant information and it also ensures that your team sets off on the right track.

Don’t jump to conclusions

It’s easy for groups to exhibit cognitive bias or have preconceived ideas about both problems and potential solutions. Be sure to back up any problem statements or potential solutions with facts, research, and adequate forethought.

The best techniques ask participants to be methodical and challenge preconceived notions. Make sure you give the group enough time and space to collect relevant information and consider the problem in a new way. By approaching the process with a clear, rational mindset, you’ll often find that better solutions are more forthcoming.

Try different approaches

Problems come in all shapes and sizes and so too should the methods you use to solve them. If you find that one approach isn’t yielding results and your team isn’t finding different solutions, try mixing it up. You’ll be surprised at how using a new creative activity can unblock your team and generate great solutions.

Don’t take it personally

Depending on the nature of your team or organizational problems, it’s easy for conversations to get heated. While it’s good for participants to be engaged in the discussions, ensure that emotions don’t run too high and that blame isn’t thrown around while finding solutions.

You’re all in it together, and even if your team or area is seeing problems, that isn’t necessarily a disparagement of you personally. Using facilitation skills to manage group dynamics is one effective method of helping conversations be more constructive.

Get the right people in the room

Your problem-solving method is often only as effective as the group using it. Getting the right people on the job and managing the number of people present is important too!

If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. If the group is too large, you can go round and round during the ideation stages.

Creating the right group makeup is also important in ensuring you have the necessary expertise and skillset to both identify and follow up on potential solutions. Carefully consider who to include at each stage to help ensure your problem-solving method is followed and positioned for success.

Create psychologically safe spaces for discussion

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner.

It can be tough for people to stand up and contribute if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions and where possible, create regular opportunities for challenges to be brought up organically.

Document everything

The best solutions can take refinement, iteration, and reflection to come out. Get into a habit of documenting your process in order to keep all the learnings from the session and to allow ideas to mature and develop. Many of the methods below involve the creation of documents or shared resources. Be sure to keep and share these so everyone can benefit from the work done!

Bring a facilitator

Facilitation is all about making group processes easier. With a subject as potentially emotive and important as problem-solving, having an impartial third party in the form of a facilitator can make all the difference in finding great solutions and keeping the process moving. Consider bringing a facilitator to your problem-solving session to get better results and generate meaningful solutions!

Develop your problem-solving skills

It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. While some roles or participants might more naturally gravitate towards problem-solving, it can take development and planning to help everyone create better solutions.

You might develop a training program, run a problem-solving workshop or simply ask your team to practice using the techniques below. Check out our post on problem-solving skills to see how you and your group can develop the right mental process and be more resilient to issues too!

Design a great agenda

Workshops are a great format for solving problems. With the right approach, you can focus a group and help them find the solutions to their own problems. But designing a process can be time-consuming and finding the right activities can be difficult.

Check out our workshop planning guide to level-up your agenda design and start running more effective workshops. Need inspiration? Check out templates designed by expert facilitators to help you kickstart your process!

Save time and effort creating an effective problem solving process

A structured problem solving process is a surefire way of solving tough problems, discovering creative solutions and driving organizational change. But how can you design for successful outcomes?

With SessionLab, it’s easy to design engaging workshops that deliver results. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically , saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective problem solving workshops or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

The problem-solving process can often be as complicated and multifaceted as the problems they are set-up to solve. With the right problem-solving techniques and a mix of exercises designed to guide discussion and generate purposeful ideas, we hope we’ve given you the tools to find the best solutions as simply and easily as possible.

Is there a problem-solving technique that you are missing here? Do you have a favorite activity or method you use when facilitating? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

James Smart is Head of Content at SessionLab. He’s also a creative facilitator who has run workshops and designed courses for establishments like the National Centre for Writing, UK. He especially enjoys working with young people and empowering others in their creative practice.

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

Your list of techniques for problem solving can be helpfully extended by adding TRIZ to the list of techniques. TRIZ has 40 problem solving techniques derived from methods inventros and patent holders used to get new patents. About 10-12 are general approaches. many organization sponsor classes in TRIZ that are used to solve business problems or general organiztational problems. You can take a look at TRIZ and dwonload a free internet booklet to see if you feel it shound be included per your selection process.

Design your next workshop with SessionLab

Join the 150,000 facilitators using SessionLab

Workshop Structure for Problem Solving

This framework provides a structure for designing workshops to help teams delve into challenges and get real work done at pace.

Although we're normally pretty good at generating ideas during brainstorming, we often end our workshops without any tangible progress or actionable next steps. By employing the AJ&Smart '4 Cs' workshop structure and a variety of templates for each phase, you can thoroughly explore both the problem and solution domains.

By harnessing the collective intelligence of the team, you can make rapid progress and align to awesome outcomes.

Just follow the sequential steps from left to right, choosing templates that resonate with the particular challenges you're facing.

Watch a video

Meetings & Workshops
Retrospectives
Facilitator
Strategy & Planning

Submit your template →

Do you have a great board to share with the world? We' ll help you turn it into a template to share with the community.

Similar templates

After Meeting Check

Start Within: Find Your Alignment

Create Your Superhero

Attention! Your ePaper is waiting for publication!

By publishing your document, the content will be optimally indexed by Google via AI and sorted into the right category for over 500 million ePaper readers on YUMPU.

This will ensure high visibility and many readers!

Your ePaper is now published and live on YUMPU!

You can find your publication here:

Share your interactive ePaper on all platforms and on your website with our embed function

Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving - MathnMind

mathnmind.com

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

More documents
Recommendations

Copyright © Holt McDougal Math. All rights reserved. Name ——————————————————————— Date ———————————— LESSONS 1.1–1.4 Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving For use with pages 2–32 1. Multi-Step Problem You are going to a bowling alley and have $10 to spend. Renting bowling shoes costs $1.50. Each game you bowl costs $2. a. Write an equation to fi nd the number of games you can bowl. b. Solve the equation. 2. Multi-Step Problem You buy a DVD player for $129 and plan to rent DVDs each month. Each rental costs $1.95. You plan to rent the same number of DVDs each month. a. Write an expression for the total amount you spend during the fi rst 12 months that you own the DVD player. Include the price of the DVD player. b. Evaluate the expression for 6 DVD rentals per month. 3. Gridded Response You are taking part in a 10 kilometer charity walk. It takes you 3.25 hours to complete the walk. What was your average walking speed, in kilometers per hour? Round your answer to the nearest tenth. r 5 d } t r 5 4. Open-Ended One pound of ground beef costs $1.50 and one pound of chicken costs $2. Write an equation for the total cost of buying ground beef and chicken. Then fi nd three different amounts of ground beef and chicken you can buy with $30. 5. Gridded Response Some sunfl owers can grow to a height of 10 feet. Use the fact that 1 in. 5 2.54 cm to convert the length of 10 feet to centimeters. Round your answer to the nearest centimeter. Remember to convert feet to inches. 6. Short Response The lowest temperatures ever recorded in various cities are shown. List the cities in order from least to greatest temperature. Which city has the greatest lowest temperature? Explain. City Low temp. (°F) Denver, CO 230 Miami, FL 30 Chicago, IL 227 Charlotte, NC 25 Houston, TX 7 7. Extended Response The average weight of the saltwater crocodile is 1.1 tons and the average weight of the dwarf gecko is 0.007 ounces. a. Convert the weight of the saltwater crocodile from tons to pounds. Convert the weight of the dwarf gecko from ounces to pounds. b. About how many times as heavy as the dwarf gecko is the saltwater crocodile? Algebra 2 IDEA! Works LESSON 1.4 7

Page 2: ANSWERS A2 Lesson 1.4, continued Pr

Extended embed settings

Inappropriate

You have already flagged this document. Thank you, for helping us keep this platform clean. The editors will have a look at it as soon as possible.

Mail this publication

Delete template.

Are you sure you want to delete your template?

DOWNLOAD ePAPER

This ePaper is currently not available for download. You can find similar magazines on this topic below under ‘Recommendations’.

Save as template?

Help & Support
tuxbrain.com
ooomacros.org
nubuntu.org
Terms of service
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Cookie settings

Choose your language

Main languages

Further languages

Bahasa Indonesia

Performing this action will revert the following features to their default settings:

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!

IMAGES

Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving
What Is Problem-Solving? Steps, Processes, Exercises to do it Right
What Is A Problem Solving Workshop And How It Can Help Your Team
Problem Solving Workshop
What Is Problem-Solving? Steps, Processes, Exercises to do it Right
Problem solving strategies workshop

VIDEO

Maths|Class-3|Chapter-9
Creative Problem-Solving using MECE
LIVE Problem Solving Workshop
Problem Solving Workshop #ScooterProblem
The Deliberate Problem Solving Workshop Model
Comment réussir le Problem-Solving Workshop de SAFe en utilisant Lego Serious Play

COMMENTS

Inspect and Adapt
Problem-Solving Workshop. The ART holds a structured, root-cause problem-solving workshop to address systemic problems. Root cause analysis provides a set of problem-solving tools used to identify the actual causes of a problem rather than just fixing the symptoms. The RTE typically facilitates the session in a timebox of two hours or less.
How to run a problem-solving workshop
Come up with ideas to solve the problem. 4. Evaluate the ideas to ensure they're robust. 5. Make a plan to test or implement the solution. Read on to find out how to do all that, and more. 1. Get the right people together. Invite all affected parties to a session.
Problem-solving workshop: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Agree on the problem to solve. Clearly stating the problem is key to problem identification and correction. It enables more focused investigation, time-saving, and avoids 'ready, fire, aim' approach. On the other hand, a problem that is not well defined, may result in failure to reach the proper countermeasure.
[2024] What Are Problem Solving Workshops and How to Run?
Here's how you can use Boardmix for your next problem-solving workshop: 1) Sign up or login to Boardmix and go to workspace. 2) Go to Templates and select the Problem Solving Workshop template. 3) Click Use to apply this template. 4) You can then write down your problems and other thoughts there.
Problem-Solving Workshop. What it is, How it Works, Examples
This plan may include changes to existing processes, new procedures, or other solutions. The Problem-Solving Workshop is an effective way to identify and solve problems in the context of Product Management and User Experience. It allows for a collaborative approach to problem-solving, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions.
How To Prepare For A Problem-solving Workshop
A typical problem-solving workshop can take many forms but include the following steps: ️ Define the problem: Clearly define and understand the problem (s) to be addressed. ️ Brainstorming: Encourage open discussion and the sharing of ideas, allowing participants to think freely and creatively. ️ Analysis and evaluation: Analyse and ...
How to Facilitate Creative Problem Solving Workshops
Just a few examples of creative problems to solve using the creative problem solving process are: Shaping a strategy for your organization. Developing or improving a new product or service. Creating a new marketing campaign. Bringing diverse stakeholders together to collaborate on a joint plan.
My Workshop Structure for Creative Problem Solving
Provide them with the necessary materials to work the problem, ideally based on paper. For example, for a layout workshop, give them a large printout of the shop floor map, plenty of paper in different colors, scissors, tape, glue, and so on. Let them work on the problem without giving much instruction on the problem-solving method.
What is a Problem Solving Workshop And How It Can Help Your Team
Problem solving is designed to target a problem's root causes and move toward a solution while improving the solving process skills of a team. The advantages for teams in this workshop are obvious. Not only will they learn new problem solving methods for future use and actually solve a problem, the team building aspect is considerable.
How a Scrum Master Can Support a Problem-Solving Workshop
1. Lack of Effective Communication: Challenge: Ineffective communication may lead to misunderstanding, and confusion and hinder the problem-solving process. Strategy: Scrum Masters can reinforce open dialogue, employ clear and concise language, and ensure every team member's view is heard and respected. 2.
Problem Solving Workshop Activities
hyperisland team issue resolution. A workshop for a team to reflect on past conflicts, and use them to generate guidelines for effective conflict handling. The workshop uses the Thomas-Killman model of conflict responses to frame a reflective discussion. Use it to open up a discussion around conflict with a team. 292.
Problem-Solving Workshop
The Problem Solving Workshop is an Inspect and Adapt (I&A) event that provides a structured approach to identifying the root cause and actions to address systemic problems. Share Post Previous Post ART Predictability Measure. Next Post ART PI Risks Subscribe to the SAFe Blog.
PDF Practical Problem Solving 1 Day Workshop Facilitation Guide
1. Problem solving has 4 key elements. First is we need to do it now while the evidence is fresh •"Go and See" at the workplace or Gemba in Japanese •Will not solve problems in the office or behind the computer •Just like CSI ! •Maximise the chance of seeing the problem and getting the best data /evidence you can 2.
How to improve your problem solving skills and strategies
Planning skills are vital in order to structure, deliver and follow-through on a problem solving workshop and ensure your solutions are intelligently deployed. Planning skills include the ability to organize tasks and a team, plan and design the process and take into account any potential challenges.
How to Improve Team Problem-Solving and Decision-Making with Workshops
3. Prepare the materials. 4. Facilitate the workshop. 5. Follow up on the workshop. 6. Here's what else to consider. Problem-solving and decision-making are essential skills for any team ...
PDF Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving
Multi-Step Problem The table below shows the results of a survey in which students at a school were asked to name their favorite pizza topping. a. There are 984 students in the school. Write a proportion that you can use to predict the number of students at the school who named mushrooms as their favorite pizza topping. b. Solve the proportion.
What Is Problem-Solving? Steps, Processes, Exercises to do it Right
There's a 5-step process that you can follow that will allow you to solve your challenges more efficiently and effectively. In short, you need to move through these 5 steps: Defining a problem. Ideating on a solution. Committing to a course of action. Implementing your solution. And finally - analyzing the results.
Problem Solving Workshop Activities
Draw toast. problem solving opening design gamestorming idea generation. You can use the Draw Toast exercise to introduce people to the concepts of visual thinking, working memory, mental models and/or systems thinking. This also works as a nice warm-up exercise to get people engaged with each other and thinking visually.
40 problem-solving techniques and processes
7. Solution evaluation. 1. Problem identification. The first stage of any problem solving process is to identify the problem (s) you need to solve. This often looks like using group discussions and activities to help a group surface and effectively articulate the challenges they're facing and wish to resolve.
PDF Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving
Multi-Step Problem2. In NCAA men's basketball tournaments from 1985 to 2004, teams seeded, or ranked, number one have won 266 games and lost 69 games in the ... Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving For use with the lessons "Find Probabilities and Odds", "Find Probabilities Using Permutations", "Find Probabilities ...
Workshop Structure for Problem Solving
Although we're normally pretty good at generating ideas during brainstorming, we often end our workshops without any tangible progress or actionable next steps. By employing the AJ&Smart '4 Cs' workshop structure and a variety of templates for each phase, you can thoroughly explore both the problem and solution domains.
PDF Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving
Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving For use with the lessons "Write Equations of Parallel and Perpendicular Lines", "Fit a Line to Data", and "Predict with Linear Models" 1. Multi-Step Problem The table shows the total goods imported (in billions of dollars) into the U.S. from 1998 through 2003. Year Total Goods Imported
Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving
Problem Solving Workshop: Mixed Problem Solving - MathnMind. EN. English Deutsch Français Español Português Italiano Român Nederlands Latina Dansk Svenska Norsk Magyar Bahasa Indonesia Türkçe Suomi Latvian Lithuanian česk ...

Back to Guides

What is a problem-solving workshop?

When to run a problem-solving workshop

1. Get the right people together

4. Evaluate the ideas to ensure they’re robust

3. Come up with ideas to solve your problem

2 thoughts on “How to run a problem-solving workshop”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Problem-solving workshop: Step-by-Step

Problem-solving workshop consists of 6 steps

Step 2: Apply root-cause analysis and 5 whys

Step 3: Identify the biggest root-cause using Pareto analysis

Step 4: Restate the new problem for the biggest root-cause

Step 5: Brainstorm solutions

Step 6: Identify improvement backlog items (NRFs)

You may also like

Mastering SAFe: What Every Business Professional Should Know

Anti-Patterns in SAFe Implementation

Mastering Problem-Solving Workshops: A Comprehensive Guide

Part 1. What Is a Problem-solving Workshop?

Part 2. How Can Problem-solving Workshop Help?

Part 3. What Are the Six Steps of Problem-Solving Workshop?

Part 4: How Boardmix Can Help Prepare a Problem-solving Workshop?

FAQs on Problem-Solving Workshop

2. What are the 7 problem-solving strategies?

3. What are the 5 principles of problem solving?

Join Boardmix to collaborate with your team.

SWOT Analysis for Hospitals: Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Ultimate Guide of Gratitude Tree: Understanding, Creating, and Using

What is Value Chain Analysis: A Strategic Approach to Business Success

Problem-Solving Workshop

Where did Problem-Solving Workshops come from?

Why should I conduct a problem-solving workshop?

How to run a problem-solving workshop

Step 2: Establish the Objective and Scope

Step 3: Identify the Right Problem and Root Cause

Step 4: Generate Ideas to Solve the Problem

Step 5: Evaluate and Refine Ideas

Step 6: Select the Best Solution

Step 7: Develop a Plan for Implementation or Testing

Step 8: Follow Up and Iterate

Typical pitfalls when running a Problem-Solving Workshop

Procter & Gamble (P&G)

You might also be interested in reading up on:

Want to learn more?

Community events Product Loop

How To Prepare For A Problem-solving Workshop

What Are Problem-Solving Workshops?

What Are the Fundamentals of Setting Up a Problem-Solving Workshop?

How Do You Facilitate a Problem-Solving Workshop?

How Does Conducting Remote Problem-Solving Workshops Impact the Process?

Having the Right Setup Is Essential for a Remote PSW

What Are the Next Steps?

What Role Does Prototyping Have in a Workshop Process?

What Are the Most Overlooked Aspects of a Problem-Solving Workshop?

🔶 It’s not a design sprint

🔶 It’s essential to keep the energy up

🔶 Inclusion is also essential

Are There Any Pitfalls?

Do You Have to Check In with Various Stakeholders After the Workshop?

What Do You Enjoy Most About Setting Up Problem-Solving Workshops?

Related Insights

Exploring the Impact of AI in Fintech For Startup Entrepreneurs

12 months in AI: A Case Study of MOHARA’s AI Projects

Get Your Business Off the Ground: How To Approach Fintech Software Development

Guadalajara

Join our newsletter

How to Facilitate Creative Problem Solving Workshops

What is Creative Problem Solving?

Creative Problem Solving Definition

Creative Problems to Solve

Messy, Wicked and Tame Problems

Messy Problems

Wicked Problems

Tame Problems

Creative Problem Solving Skills

Creative Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Strategies for Creative Problem Solving

How to Facilitate a Creative Problem Solving Workshop

How might we…?