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Description of Levels

Level 1 - Simple equations where the solution can be found by performing one operation on both sides of the equation.

Example: $8n = 64$

Level 2 - Simple equations where the solution can be found in two steps.

Example: $9e + 6 = 78$

Level 3 - Equations where a multiple of the unknown and a constant are on both sides.

Example: $4y - 7 = 3y - 4$

Level 4 - Equations including brackets.

Example: $2(4r + 7) - 9 = 21$

Level 5 - More complex equations requiring multiple steps to find the solution.

Example: $6(10h + 3) + 4 = 7h + 287$

Solve to find Fractions - A four-level set of exercises in which all of the equations have solutions that are fractions.

Example: $ 5x+2=2x+4$

Equations with Fractions - A five-level set of exercises taking your equation solving skills one step further.

Example: $ \frac{6x-4}{2}=13 $

Old Equations - Solve these linear equations that appeared in a book called A Graduated Series of Exercises in Elementary Algebra by Rev George Farncomb Wright published in 1857.

Nevertheless - A two-player, equation-making game based on Level 2 type equations.

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See the National Curriculum page for links to related online activities and resources.

5 x + 3 = 3 x + 15 Subtract 3 from both sides 5 x = 3 x + 12 Subtract 3x from both sides 2 x = 12 Divide both sides by 2 x = 6

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Problem solving activities

Level 3 Problems

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The Lean Post / Articles / What Level of a Problem Requires an A3?

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Problem Solving

What Level of a Problem Requires an A3?

August 1, 2011

Here are some thoughts to help you determine what type of problem you have, and how to apply A3 thinking to it most productively. You may not always need a full A3 at all--just the underlying thinking.

Does every problem require an A3?

In short…no.

Here are some thoughts that may help you if you have just begun your journey with A3 thinking and problem-solving. During my time at Toyota I didn’t have a particular matrix or set standard that we followed. Our people and culture, however, shared a way of thinking that applied to different types of problems that could arise on a daily basis at many different levels. Here is how those problems were categorized in my experience.

This type of problem does not require someone to write a formal A3 report , but it’s important to recognize the importance of the thinking approach one takes nonetheless. In most instances a team member/associate can handle this problem on their own. The root cause is often apparent, and minimal resources are needed to implement a countermeasure. The value of A3 thinking here is to detail the actual work or process that the individual does. The individual can then identify the “problem” because they can see a discrepancy (even if there isn’t a standard defined necessarily).

Problems at this level can be immediately tested/solved, without necessarily producing a formal A3. Companies can track these problems with something like a tic-mark sheet, counter or some other visible indicator. Above all it’s important to see that these types of problems are not just things to be “fixed”, but opportunities to develop a way of thinking. These types of problems challenge associates to think constantly about when they are out of standard (and they should also force leaders to develop standards with them if none exist!) Interestingly, this is the level where most of the team members were at Toyota. They did a lot on their own and also participated in Quality Circles. The company culture empowered the associate to “think.”

My experience is that 60-70% of the problems will/should fall into this category. For this to happen, of course, the PDCA practice of asking the right questions must be practiced through the leadership. And remember one principle that is the foundation for this practice: establish standards, because this is the best way to make problems visible.

LEVEL TWO

These problems require an A3; or at the very least, detailed documentation that shares the learning with others (developing associates) as well as developing the ones responsible (supervisors). Remember, developing the correct thinking of PDCA is always the underlying priority behind the A3 process. And as I’ve been told, an A3 is only as strong as the dialogue that creates it. So the questions we ask to produce the facts and the countermeasures must be made clear to everyone.

So you may end up with a Level 2 problem when Level 1 problems resurface. The reason could be that the associate did not get to the correct root cause or ask enough “whys”. This could be a recurring problem that no one understands the root cause of. At the prior level, people may have only diagnosed the symptom and missed the deeper facts and chain of events.

Problems at this level may require stronger support and coaching , possibly from the next level of supervisor. They could require resources like maintenance, engineering, tool and die, and higher-level decision making authority. This level is more than likely affecting the key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company in some way.

At this level a deeper look into how the problem was defined is necessary. This means a disciplined analysis of the true “pain to the organization” caused by this problem. For example, we sometimes frame problems in the sense of “productivity issues”, but the bigger problem may be “scrap rate”. Decreasing the scrap rate would in turn improve productivity/ efficiency .

And so Level 2 problems are mainly for line supervisors/ group leaders and above, with the support of their associates. The supervisor would be responsible for the documentation of the 8-step problem-solving process. My experience is that 15-20% of the problems are Level 2.

LEVEL THREE

This is when a problem/defect may “flow out” to the customer (internal or external), creating downtime , quality, or safety issues for the customer which in turn can affect your own company indicators. This activity should engage a higher-level manager, who is responsible for the documentation of the A3, and also for getting support and buy-in from the line supervisors and associates. Engaging the plant manager/high level leadership should create the accountability at that level to be responsible for his/her production floor as well as developing their people to understand how this happened. Again, this process reminds us of the fundamental role of setting standards, which establish how things should be done, and enable everyone to better understand what has gone wrong.

Any defect that got past an area/department and made it to the customer is unacceptable, and should trigger an immediate countermeasure to stop the bleeding and ensure that no other defective product flows out. This should also prompt the finding of a permanent countermeasure using the 8-step process by the plant manager. This individual must take the initiative, gathering the necessary resources necessary, involving their people to ensure this will not happen again, and overseeing the process so that everyone learns from it for the next A3.

Problems at this level could also be related to potential recalls, external customer complaints, missed orders etc. Also there could be situations in-house where there may be a major breakdown that shuts your customer down in turn. There could be an internal safety incident where someone was severely injured.

Problems of this level must be addressed by management. Their ability to lead responsibly is crucial. Remember the associate’s capability is only as strong as their leader’s capabilities. My experience is that 5-10% of the problems are Level 3.

This level of problem solving is more of the “raising the bar,” proactive problem solving. Some call this exercise purposely creating a gap. This approach ties into the process of DAMI (define-achieve-maintain-and improve.) Working on these problems helps one raise the bar from maintain to improve. I faced such a problem when a trainer of mine saw waste in my processes and told me to go from 10 team members to 9 team members. He was raising the bar on me, changing my current standard.

This is sometimes called a Jishuken event, or management driven continuous improvement event. I was involved with several of those at Toyota where we improved our productivity/efficiency by rebalancing manpower, and not hiring new people as a result. This is a practice in seeing waste, and asking the right questions. What should be happening vs. what is happening? Is this standard acceptable? Can we raise the bar to improve our company? It gets the people who are practicing level 1 problems to see deeper, think deeper and see how what they are doing is contributing to the company/business indicators.

Going back to problems is another way of defining job security. Doing so allows people to assist in the other levels of problem solving, and developing a better problem awareness, which can in turn prevent many Level 2 or 3 type problems from occurring in the first place. Jishuken should be part of your culture, not deemed as a “special activity”. Unfortunately most companies are always putting out fires. And so this level of problem, where companies actually create gaps on purpose, is a very LOW percentage. Less than five percent and closer to zero. Companies think it is crazy to purposely create a problem. Yet over the long term, those that don’t will end up far less sane…

Related books

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by Lean Enterprise Institute

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by Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko

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Three Levels of Problem Solving

This post by Laura McLay mentions three levels for modeling that applies to decision-making:

LEVEL 1: You solve the problem.
LEVEL 2: You solve the problem in a cost-effective manner (e.g., using heuristics to get a quick solution that is “good enough”)
LEVEL 3: You solve the problem in a cost-effective manner that a decision-maker will implement.

Academics spend most of their time on Level 1 and a jump to Level 2 and then Level 3 may take a few years if ever. Laura suggests: “ We should sometimes start with Level 3 as the goal and work backward by rethinking what the problem is and how we solve it .”

An interesting comment was tweeted by Paul A. Rubin: “ what about Level 0 (favorite of academics): you solve a problem vaguely related to the actual one ?”

Levels of Problem Solving Skills

Level 1 – Recognition

Students at this level have the ability to recognize characteristics of a previously solved problem in a new situation and believe that one can do again what one did before. Solvers operating at this level would not be able to anticipate sources of difficulty and would be surprised by complications that might occur as they attempted their solution. A student operating at this level would not be able to mentally run-through a solution method in order to confirm or reject its usefulness.

Level 2 – Re-presentation

Students at this level are able to run through a problem mentally and are able to anticipate potential sources of difficulty and promise. Solvers who operate at this level are more flexible in their thinking and are not only able to recognize similarities between problems, they are also able to notice the differences that might cause them difficulty if they tried to repeat a previously used method of solution. Such solvers could imagine using the methods and could even imagine some of the problems they might encounter but could not take the results as a given. At this level, the subject would be unable to think about potential methods of solution and the anticipated results of such activity.

Level 3 – Structural abstraction

Students at this level evaluates solution prospects based on mental run-throughs of potential methods as well as methods that have been used before. They are able to discern the characteristics that are necessary to solve the problem and are able to evaluate the merits of a solution method based on these characteristics. This level evidences considerable flexibility of thought.

Level 4 – Structural awareness

A solver operating at this level is able to anticipate the results of potential activity without having to complete a mental run-through of the solution activity. The problem structure created by the solver has become an object of reflection. The student is able to consider such structures as objects and is able to make judgments about them without resorting to physically or mentally representing methods of solution.

The levels of problem solving skills described above indicate that as solvers attain the higher levels they become increasingly flexible in their thinking. This framework is from the dissertation of Cifarelli but I read it from the paper The roles of reification and reflective abstraction in the development of abstract thought: Transitions from arithmetic to algebra by Tracy Goodson-Espy. Educational Studies in Mathematics 36: 219–245, 1998. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

You may also be interested on Levels of understanding of function in equation form based on my own research on understanding function.

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One thought on “ Levels of Problem Solving Skills ”

Great! Interesting trial to rank ‘The levels of appreciating, handling, problematics, then methods.’.

Too much weight on ‘methods’ at my sense (because – so often – the main difficulty is not there downstream, but upstream, at the analyse and comparative pace, in the capacity to analyse the datas, their linkage, the system as named in Physics.).

Eventhough this slight remark, THANK YOU, congratulations, and encouragements to continue!

Comments are closed.

5 Levels Of Problem Solving: A Framework For (First-Time) Managers

Leading people can be tough. Taking the reins for the first time? It can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded. Many first-time managers feel that pit in their stomach. Without the right guidance or training, they often turn, unintentionally, into micromanagers. Nobody's dream scenario. But, good news - help's at hand!

A few weeks ago, I interviewed two workplace pioneers for one of our monthly live events (part of the Corporate Rebels Academy ). In this extremely insightful conversation, I had the pleasure of interviewing Edwin Jansen and Luz Iglesias. They both work at Raise (formerly known as Ian Martin Group).

The company employs over 450 people and has offices in the US, Canada, India, Ghana, and the Philippines. It is a certified B Corp and has been reinventing its management practices for about 8 years.

Its business? Recruitment.

Avoid becoming the all-mighty fixer

In 2017, Edwin and Luz took the lead on changing the company's way of working. They started in one of the company's subsidiaries and used it as a test ground for finding a better way to work.

When I asked Edwin, who was the leader of the subsidiary back then, what their biggest challenge was, his answer was clear:

"It was me. I had to change."

Edwin: "At the time, Luz pointed out a significant flaw in my approach: I had become a 'fixer'. To be clear, this wasn't a compliment.

"It highlighted a dangerous trajectory where I had become the go-to person for every problem, failing to empower my team members to think critically and solve issues independently.

"Doing so, I robbed people of the opportunity to learn and grow."

In a self-managing organization, leaders have to let go and give others the opportunity to step up. Edwin was very honest about his shortcomings:

"I simply didn't know how to do that. I had to let people find their own solutions, support them to take more ownership, and stop solving their problems for them."

Edwin and Luz decided to change.

5 levels of problem solving

Along the way, Edwin encountered a framework that helped him become a better leader.

The framework details 5 levels of problem solving - moving from highly dependent to highly independent. The clarity of the various 'levels' of problem solving helped him and his colleagues to create awareness on how they were operating, while also providing clear opportunities for growth (for all involved).

Here's how Edwin explained it:

To summarize, here are the 5 levels Edwin talked about:

Level 1: The individual doesn't recognize the problem and doesn't know how to solve it.
Level 2: The individual can identify the problem but doesn't know the solution.
Level 3: The individual recognizes the problem and has considered multiple solutions, but is unsure which to choose.
Level 4: The individual identifies the problem, has multiple solutions, and proposes one.
Level 5: The individual has already encountered a problem, found a solution, and acted on it, and now reports the resolution post-action.

Wanna improve? Here's Edwin's advice:

"At any point, if you're a manager and someone comes to you, whatever level they come to you at, ask them to go one level up.

"And if you're not a manager and you're coming with problems, make sure you're at the highest level that you possibly can be."

Solid (and practical) advice.

Start decentralizing decision-making now

Decision-making is an art, but with the right framework, it becomes a systematic process that fosters growth and innovation.

The '5 levels of problem solving' is one of those frameworks that has the power to change the way you work immediately. Print it out, share it with your team, and follow Edwin's advice.

Eager for more tips, tools, and frameworks to improve your decision-making? We've got you covered.

With an in-depth course, lots of pioneering practices, and powerful tools, our Academy has everything you need to radically reinvent the way you work.

Start now. Click here .

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Process Skills in Problem Solving, Level 3 (FAN-Math) Paperback

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Print length 120 pages
Language English
Publisher FAN-Math Education
ISBN-10 9810854854
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How to improve your problem solving skills and build effective problem solving strategies

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What is a problem solving process?

What are the problem solving steps I need to follow?

Problem solving strategies

What skills do i need to be an effective problem solver, how can i improve my problem solving skills.

Solving problems is like baking a cake. You can go straight into the kitchen without a recipe or the right ingredients and do your best, but the end result is unlikely to be very tasty!

Using a process to bake a cake allows you to use the best ingredients without waste, collect the right tools, account for allergies, decide whether it is a birthday or wedding cake, and then bake efficiently and on time. The result is a better cake that is fit for purpose, tastes better and has created less mess in the kitchen. Also, it should have chocolate sprinkles. Having a step by step process to solve organizational problems allows you to go through each stage methodically and ensure you are trying to solve the right problems and select the most appropriate, effective solutions.

What are the problem solving steps I need to follow?

All problem solving processes go through a number of steps in order to move from identifying a problem to resolving it.

Depending on your problem solving model and who you ask, there can be anything between four and nine problem solving steps you should follow in order to find the right solution. Whatever framework you and your group use, there are some key items that should be addressed in order to have an effective process.

We’ve looked at problem solving processes from sources such as the American Society for Quality and their four step approach , and Mediate ‘s six step process. By reflecting on those and our own problem solving processes, we’ve come up with a sequence of seven problem solving steps we feel best covers everything you need in order to effectively solve problems.

1. Problem identification

The first stage of any problem solving process is to identify the problem or problems you might want to solve. Effective problem solving strategies always begin by allowing a group scope to articulate what they believe the problem to be and then coming to some consensus over which problem they approach first. Problem solving activities used at this stage often have a focus on creating frank, open discussion so that potential problems can be brought to the surface.

2. Problem analysis

Though this step is not a million miles from problem identification, problem analysis deserves to be considered separately. It can often be an overlooked part of the process and is instrumental when it comes to developing effective solutions.

The process of problem analysis means ensuring that the problem you are seeking to solve is the right problem . As part of this stage, you may look deeper and try to find the root cause of a specific problem at a team or organizational level.

Remember that problem solving strategies should not only be focused on putting out fires in the short term but developing long term solutions that deal with the root cause of organizational challenges.

Whatever your approach, analyzing a problem is crucial in being able to select an appropriate solution and the problem solving skills deployed in this stage are beneficial for the rest of the process and ensuring the solutions you create are fit for purpose.

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 problem solving activities 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 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 likely to be 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 frontrunning 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

Nearly there! Once your group has reached consensus and selected a solution that applies to the problem at hand you have some decisions to make. You will 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.

The decision making stage is a part of the problem solving process that can get missed or taken as for granted. Fail to properly allocate roles and plan out how a solution will actually be implemented and it less likely to be successful in solving the problem.

Have clear accountabilities, actions, timeframes, and follow-ups. 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 strategies have the end goal of implementing a solution and solving a problem in mind.

Remember that in order for any solution to be successful, you need to help your group through all of the previous problem solving steps thoughtfully. Only then can you ensure that you are solving the right problem but also that you have developed the correct solution and can then successfully implement and measure the impact of that solution.

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.

7. Solution evaluation

So you and your team developed a great solution to a problem and have a gut feeling its 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 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. Data and insight is invaluable at every stage of the problem solving process and this one is no different.

Problem solving workshops made easy

Problem solving strategies are methods of approaching and facilitating the process of problem-solving with a set of techniques , actions, and processes. Different strategies are more effective if you are trying to solve broad problems such as achieving higher growth versus more focused problems like, how do we improve our customer onboarding process?

Broadly, the problem solving steps outlined above should be included in any problem solving strategy though choosing where to focus your time and what approaches should be taken is where they begin to differ. You might find that some strategies ask for the problem identification to be done prior to the session or that everything happens in the course of a one day workshop.

The key similarity is that all good problem solving strategies are structured and designed. Four hours of open discussion is never going to be as productive as a four-hour workshop designed to lead a group through a problem solving process.

Good problem solving strategies are tailored to the team, organization and problem you will be attempting to solve. Here are some example problem solving strategies you can learn from or use to get started.

Use a workshop to lead a team through a group process

Often, the first step to solving problems or organizational challenges is bringing a group together effectively. Most teams have the tools, knowledge, and expertise necessary to solve their challenges – they just need some guidance in how to use leverage those skills and a structure and format that allows people to focus their energies.

Facilitated workshops are one of the most effective ways of solving problems of any scale. By designing and planning your workshop carefully, you can tailor the approach and scope to best fit the needs of your team and organization.

Problem solving workshop

Creating a bespoke, tailored process
Tackling problems of any size
Building in-house workshop ability and encouraging their use

Workshops are an effective strategy for solving problems. By using tried and test facilitation techniques and methods, you can design and deliver a workshop that is perfectly suited to the unique variables of your organization. You may only have the capacity for a half-day workshop and so need a problem solving process to match.

By using our session planner tool and importing methods from our library of 700+ facilitation techniques, you can create the right problem solving workshop for your team. It might be that you want to encourage creative thinking or look at things from a new angle to unblock your groups approach to problem solving. By tailoring your workshop design to the purpose, you can help ensure great results.

One of the main benefits of a workshop is the structured approach to problem solving. Not only does this mean that the workshop itself will be successful, but many of the methods and techniques will help your team improve their working processes outside of the workshop.

We believe that workshops are one of the best tools you can use to improve the way your team works together. Start with a problem solving workshop and then see what team building, culture or design workshops can do for your organization!

Run a design sprint

Great for:

aligning large, multi-discipline teams
quickly designing and testing solutions
tackling large, complex organizational challenges and breaking them down into smaller tasks

By using design thinking principles and methods, a design sprint is a great way of identifying, prioritizing and prototyping solutions to long term challenges that can help solve major organizational problems with quick action and measurable results.

Some familiarity with design thinking is useful, though not integral, and this strategy can really help a team align if there is some discussion around which problems should be approached first.

The stage-based structure of the design sprint is also very useful for teams new to design thinking. The inspiration phase, where you look to competitors that have solved your problem, and the rapid prototyping and testing phases are great for introducing new concepts that will benefit a team in all their future work.

It can be common for teams to look inward for solutions and so looking to the market for solutions you can iterate on can be very productive. Instilling an agile prototyping and testing mindset can also be great when helping teams move forwards – generating and testing solutions quickly can help save time in the long run and is also pretty exciting!

Break problems down into smaller issues

Organizational challenges and problems are often complicated and large scale in nature. Sometimes, trying to resolve such an issue in one swoop is simply unachievable or overwhelming. Try breaking down such problems into smaller issues that you can work on step by step. You may not be able to solve the problem of churning customers off the bat, but you can work with your team to identify smaller effort but high impact elements and work on those first.

This problem solving strategy can help a team generate momentum, prioritize and get some easy wins. It’s also a great strategy to employ with teams who are just beginning to learn how to approach the problem solving process. If you want some insight into a way to employ this strategy, we recommend looking at our design sprint template below!

Use guiding frameworks or try new methodologies

Some problems are best solved by introducing a major shift in perspective or by using new methodologies that encourage your team to think differently.

Props and tools such as Methodkit , which uses a card-based toolkit for facilitation, or Lego Serious Play can be great ways to engage your team and find an inclusive, democratic problem solving strategy. Remember that play and creativity are great tools for achieving change and whatever the challenge, engaging your participants can be very effective where other strategies may have failed.

LEGO Serious Play

Improving core problem solving skills
Thinking outside of the box
Encouraging creative solutions

LEGO Serious Play is a problem solving methodology designed to get participants thinking differently by using 3D models and kinesthetic learning styles. By physically building LEGO models based on questions and exercises, participants are encouraged to think outside of the box and create their own responses.

Collaborate LEGO Serious Play exercises are also used to encourage communication and build problem solving skills in a group. By using this problem solving process, you can often help different kinds of learners and personality types contribute and unblock organizational problems with creative thinking.

Problem solving strategies like LEGO Serious Play are super effective at helping a team solve more skills-based problems such as communication between teams or a lack of creative thinking. Some problems are not suited to LEGO Serious Play and require a different problem solving strategy.

Card Decks and Method Kits

New facilitators or non-facilitators
Approaching difficult subjects with a simple, creative framework
Engaging those with varied learning styles

Card decks and method kids are great tools for those new to facilitation or for whom facilitation is not the primary role. Card decks such as the emotional culture deck can be used for complete workshops and in many cases, can be used right out of the box. Methodkit has a variety of kits designed for scenarios ranging from personal development through to personas and global challenges so you can find the right deck for your particular needs.

Having an easy to use framework that encourages creativity or a new approach can take some of the friction or planning difficulties out of the workshop process and energize a team in any setting. Simplicity is the key with these methods. By ensuring everyone on your team can get involved and engage with the process as quickly as possible can really contribute to the success of your problem solving strategy.

Source external advice

Looking to peers, experts and external facilitators can be a great way of approaching the problem solving process. Your team may not have the necessary expertise, insights of experience to tackle some issues, or you might simply benefit from a fresh perspective. Some problems may require bringing together an entire team, and coaching managers or team members individually might be the right approach. Remember that not all problems are best resolved in the same manner.

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, peer groups, coaches and mentors can also be invaluable at not only solving specific business problems, but in providing a support network for resolving future challenges. One great approach is to join a Mastermind Group and link up with like-minded individuals and all grow together. Remember that however you approach the sourcing of external advice, do so thoughtfully, respectfully and honestly. Reciprocate where you can and prepare to be surprised by just how kind and helpful your peers can be!

Mastermind Group

Solo entrepreneurs or small teams with low capacity
Peer learning and gaining outside expertise
Getting multiple external points of view quickly

Problem solving in large organizations with lots of skilled team members is one thing, but how about if you work for yourself or in a very small team without the capacity to get the most from a design sprint or LEGO Serious Play session?

A mastermind group – sometimes known as a peer advisory board – is where a group of people come together to support one another in their own goals, challenges, and businesses. Each participant comes to the group with their own purpose and the other members of the group will help them create solutions, brainstorm ideas, and support one another.

Mastermind groups are very effective in creating an energized, supportive atmosphere that can deliver meaningful results. Learning from peers from outside of your organization or industry can really help unlock new ways of thinking and drive growth. Access to the experience and skills of your peers can be invaluable in helping fill the gaps in your own ability, particularly in young companies.

A mastermind group is a great solution for solo entrepreneurs, small teams, or for organizations that feel that external expertise or fresh perspectives will be beneficial for them. It is worth noting that Mastermind groups are often only as good as the participants and what they can bring to the group. Participants need to be committed, engaged and understand how to work in this context.

Coaching and mentoring

Focused learning and development
Filling skills gaps
Working on a range of challenges over time

Receiving advice from a business coach or building a mentor/mentee relationship can be an effective way of resolving certain challenges. The one-to-one format of most coaching and mentor relationships can really help solve the challenges those individuals are having and benefit the organization as a result.

A great mentor can be invaluable when it comes to spotting potential problems before they arise and coming to understand a mentee very well has a host of other business benefits. You might run an internal mentorship program to help develop your team’s problem solving skills and strategies or as part of a large learning and development program. External coaches can also be an important part of your problem solving strategy, filling skills gaps for your management team or helping with specific business issues.

Now we’ve explored the problem solving process and the steps you will want to go through in order to have an effective session, let’s look at the skills you and your team need to be more effective problem solvers.

Problem solving skills are highly sought after, whatever industry or team you work in. Organizations are keen to employ people who are able to approach problems thoughtfully and find strong, realistic solutions. Whether you are a facilitator , a team leader or a developer, being an effective problem solver is a skill you’ll want to develop.

Problem solving skills form a whole suite of techniques and approaches that an individual uses to not only identify problems but to discuss them productively before then developing appropriate solutions.

Here are some of the most important problem solving skills everyone from executives to junior staff members should learn. We’ve also included an activity or exercise from the SessionLab library that can help you and your team develop that skill.

If you’re running a workshop or training session to try and improve problem solving skills in your team, try using these methods to supercharge your process!

Active listening

Active listening is one of the most important skills anyone who works with people can possess. In short, active listening is a technique used to not only better understand what is being said by an individual, but also to be more aware of the underlying message the speaker is trying to convey. When it comes to problem solving, active listening is integral for understanding the position of every participant and to clarify the challenges, ideas and solutions they bring to the table.

Some active listening skills include:

Paying complete attention to the speaker.
Removing distractions.
Avoid interruption.
Taking the time to fully understand before preparing a rebuttal.
Responding respectfully and appropriately.
Demonstrate attentiveness and positivity with an open posture, making eye contact with the speaker, smiling and nodding if appropriate. Show that you are listening and encourage them to continue.
Be aware of and respectful of feelings. Judge the situation and respond appropriately. You can disagree without being disrespectful.
Observe body language.
Paraphrase what was said in your own words, either mentally or verbally.
Remain neutral.
Reflect and take a moment before responding.
Ask deeper questions based on what is said and clarify points where necessary.

Active Listening #hyperisland #skills #active listening #remote-friendly This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.

Analytical skills

All problem solving models require strong analytical skills, particularly during the beginning of the process and when it comes to analyzing how solutions have performed.

Analytical skills are primarily focused on performing an effective analysis by collecting, studying and parsing data related to a problem or opportunity.

It often involves spotting patterns, being able to see things from different perspectives and using observable facts and data to make suggestions or produce insight.

Analytical skills are also important at every stage of the problem solving process and by having these skills, you can ensure that any ideas or solutions you create or backed up analytically and have been sufficiently thought out.

Nine Whys #innovation #issue analysis #liberating structures With breathtaking simplicity, you can rapidly clarify for individuals and a group what is essentially important in their work. You can quickly reveal when a compelling purpose is missing in a gathering and avoid moving forward without clarity. When a group discovers an unambiguous shared purpose, more freedom and more responsibility are unleashed. You have laid the foundation for spreading and scaling innovations with fidelity.

Collaboration

Trying to solve problems on your own is difficult. Being able to collaborate effectively, with a free exchange of ideas, to delegate and be a productive member of a team is hugely important to all problem solving strategies.

Remember that whatever your role, collaboration is integral, and in a problem solving process, you are all working together to find the best solution for everyone.

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing #teamwork #team #leadership #collaboration In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

Communication

Being an effective communicator means being empathetic, clear and succinct, asking the right questions, and demonstrating active listening skills throughout any discussion or meeting.

In a problem solving setting, you need to communicate well in order to progress through each stage of the process effectively. As a team leader, it may also fall to you to facilitate communication between parties who may not see eye to eye. Effective communication also means helping others to express themselves and be heard in a group.

Bus Trip #feedback #communication #appreciation #closing #thiagi #team This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

Creative problem solving skills can be some of the best tools in your arsenal. Thinking creatively, being able to generate lots of ideas and come up with out of the box solutions is useful at every step of the process.

The kinds of problems you will likely discuss in a problem solving workshop are often difficult to solve, and by approaching things in a fresh, creative manner, you can often create more innovative solutions.

Having practical creative skills is also a boon when it comes to problem solving. If you can help create quality design sketches and prototypes in record time, it can help bring a team to alignment more quickly or provide a base for further iteration.

The paper clip method #sharing #creativity #warm up #idea generation #brainstorming The power of brainstorming. A training for project leaders, creativity training, and to catalyse getting new solutions.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is one of the fundamental problem solving skills you’ll want to develop when working on developing solutions. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, rationalize and evaluate while being aware of personal bias, outlying factors and remaining open-minded.

Defining and analyzing problems without deploying critical thinking skills can mean you and your team go down the wrong path. Developing solutions to complex issues requires critical thinking too – ensuring your team considers all possibilities and rationally evaluating them.

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.

Data analysis

Though it shares lots of space with general analytical skills, data analysis skills are something you want to cultivate in their own right in order to be an effective problem solver.

Being good at data analysis doesn’t just mean being able to find insights from data, but also selecting the appropriate data for a given issue, interpreting it effectively and knowing how to model and present that data. Depending on the problem at hand, it might also include a working knowledge of specific data analysis tools and procedures.

Having a solid grasp of data analysis techniques is useful if you’re leading a problem solving workshop but if you’re not an expert, don’t worry. Bring people into the group who has this skill set and help your team be more effective as a result.

Decision making

All problems need a solution and all solutions require that someone make the decision to implement them. Without strong decision making skills, teams can become bogged down in discussion and less effective as a result.

Making decisions is a key part of the problem solving process. It’s important to remember that decision making is not restricted to the leadership team. Every staff member makes decisions every day and developing these skills ensures that your team is able to solve problems at any scale. Remember that making decisions does not mean leaping to the first solution but weighing up the options and coming to an informed, well thought out solution to any given problem that works for the whole team.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

Dependability

Most complex organizational problems require multiple people to be involved in delivering the solution. Ensuring that the team and organization can depend on you to take the necessary actions and communicate where necessary is key to ensuring problems are solved effectively.

Being dependable also means working to deadlines and to brief. It is often a matter of creating trust in a team so that everyone can depend on one another to complete the agreed actions in the agreed time frame so that the team can move forward together. Being undependable can create problems of friction and can limit the effectiveness of your solutions so be sure to bear this in mind throughout a project.

Team Purpose & Culture #team #hyperisland #culture #remote-friendly This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is an important skill for any successful team member, whether communicating internally or with clients or users. In the problem solving process, emotional intelligence means being attuned to how people are feeling and thinking, communicating effectively and being self-aware of what you bring to a room.

There are often differences of opinion when working through problem solving processes, and it can be easy to let things become impassioned or combative. Developing your emotional intelligence means being empathetic to your colleagues and managing your own emotions throughout the problem and solution process. Be kind, be thoughtful and put your points across care and attention.

Being emotionally intelligent is a skill for life and by deploying it at work, you can not only work efficiently but empathetically. Check out the emotional culture workshop template for more!

Facilitation

As we’ve clarified in our facilitation skills post, facilitation is the art of leading people through processes towards agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership, and creativity by all those involved. While facilitation is a set of interrelated skills in itself, the broad definition of facilitation can be invaluable when it comes to problem solving. Leading a team through a problem solving process is made more effective if you improve and utilize facilitation skills – whether you’re a manager, team leader or external stakeholder.

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.

Flexibility

Being flexible is a vital skill when it comes to problem solving. This does not mean immediately bowing to pressure or changing your opinion quickly: instead, being flexible is all about seeing things from new perspectives, receiving new information and factoring it into your thought process.

Flexibility is also important when it comes to rolling out solutions. It might be that other organizational projects have greater priority or require the same resources as your chosen solution. Being flexible means understanding needs and challenges across the team and being open to shifting or arranging your own schedule as necessary. Again, this does not mean immediately making way for other projects. It’s about articulating your own needs, understanding the needs of others and being able to come to a meaningful compromise.

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.

Working in any group can lead to unconscious elements of groupthink or situations in which you may not wish to be entirely honest. Disagreeing with the opinions of the executive team or wishing to save the feelings of a coworker can be tricky to navigate, but being honest is absolutely vital when to comes to developing effective solutions and ensuring your voice is heard.

Remember that being honest does not mean being brutally candid. You can deliver your honest feedback and opinions thoughtfully and without creating friction by using other skills such as emotional intelligence.

Explore your Values #hyperisland #skills #values #remote-friendly Your Values is an exercise for participants to explore what their most important values are. It’s done in an intuitive and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitive feeling rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values. It is a good exercise to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values.

Initiative

The problem solving process is multi-faceted and requires different approaches at certain points of the process. Taking initiative to bring problems to the attention of the team, collect data or lead the solution creating process is always valuable. You might even roadtest your own small scale solutions or brainstorm before a session. Taking initiative is particularly effective if you have good deal of knowledge in that area or have ownership of a particular project and want to get things kickstarted.

That said, be sure to remember to honor the process and work in service of the team. If you are asked to own one part of the problem solving process and you don’t complete that task because your initiative leads you to work on something else, that’s not an effective method of solving business challenges.

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.

Impartiality

A particularly useful problem solving skill for product owners or managers is the ability to remain impartial throughout much of the process. In practice, this means treating all points of view and ideas brought forward in a meeting equally and ensuring that your own areas of interest or ownership are not favored over others.

There may be a stage in the process where a decision maker has to weigh the cost and ROI of possible solutions against the company roadmap though even then, ensuring that the decision made is based on merit and not personal opinion.

Empathy map #frame insights #create #design #issue analysis An empathy map is a tool to help a design team to empathize with the people they are designing for. You can make an empathy map for a group of people or for a persona. To be used after doing personas when more insights are needed.

Being a good leader means getting a team aligned, energized and focused around a common goal. In the problem solving process, strong leadership helps ensure that the process is efficient, that any conflicts are resolved and that a team is managed in the direction of success.

It’s common for managers or executives to assume this role in a problem solving workshop, though it’s important that the leader maintains impartiality and does not bulldoze the group in a particular direction. Remember that good leadership means working in service of the purpose and team and ensuring the workshop is a safe space for employees of any level to contribute. Take a look at our leadership games and activities post for more exercises and methods to help improve leadership in your organization.

Leadership Pizza #leadership #team #remote-friendly This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development and initiate goal setting.

In the context of problem solving, mediation is important in keeping a team engaged, happy and free of conflict. When leading or facilitating a problem solving workshop, you are likely to run into differences of opinion. Depending on the nature of the problem, certain issues may be brought up that are emotive in nature.

Being an effective mediator means helping those people on either side of such a divide are heard, listen to one another and encouraged to find common ground and a resolution. Mediating skills are useful for leaders and managers in many situations and the problem solving process is no different.

Conflict Responses #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.

Planning

Solving organizational problems is much more effective when following a process or problem solving model. 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. Taking the time to plan carefully can save time and frustration later in the process and is valuable for ensuring a team is positioned for success.

3 Action Steps #hyperisland #action #remote-friendly This is a small-scale strategic planning session that helps groups and individuals to take action toward a desired change. It is often used at the end of a workshop or programme. The group discusses and agrees on a vision, then creates some action steps that will lead them towards that vision. The scope of the challenge is also defined, through discussion of the helpful and harmful factors influencing the group.

Prioritization

As organisations grow, the scale and variation of problems they face multiplies. Your team or is likely to face numerous challenges in different areas and so having the skills to analyze and prioritize becomes very important, particularly for those in leadership roles.

A thorough problem solving process is likely to deliver multiple solutions and you may have several different problems you wish to solve simultaneously. Prioritization is the ability to measure the importance, value, and effectiveness of those possible solutions and choose which to enact and in what order. The process of prioritization is integral in ensuring the biggest challenges are addressed with the most impactful solutions.

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.

Project management

Some problem solving skills are utilized in a workshop or ideation phases, while others come in useful when it comes to decision making. Overseeing an entire problem solving process and ensuring its success requires strong project management skills.

While project management incorporates many of the other skills listed here, it is important to note the distinction of considering all of the factors of a project and managing them successfully. Being able to negotiate with stakeholders, manage tasks, time and people, consider costs and ROI, and tie everything together is massively helpful when going through the problem solving process.

Record keeping

Working out meaningful solutions to organizational challenges is only one part of the process. Thoughtfully documenting and keeping records of each problem solving step for future consultation is important in ensuring efficiency and meaningful change.

For example, some problems may be lower priority than others but can be revisited in the future. If the team has ideated on solutions and found some are not up to the task, record those so you can rule them out and avoiding repeating work. Keeping records of the process also helps you improve and refine your problem solving model next time around!

Personal Kanban #gamestorming #action #agile #project planning Personal Kanban is a tool for organizing your work to be more efficient and productive. It is based on agile methods and principles.

Research skills

Conducting research to support both the identification of problems and the development of appropriate solutions is important for an effective process. Knowing where to go to collect research, how to conduct research efficiently, and identifying pieces of research are relevant are all things a good researcher can do well.

In larger groups, not everyone has to demonstrate this ability in order for a problem solving workshop to be effective. That said, having people with research skills involved in the process, particularly if they have existing area knowledge, can help ensure the solutions that are developed with data that supports their intention. Remember that being able to deliver the results of research efficiently and in a way the team can easily understand is also important. The best data in the world is only as effective as how it is delivered and interpreted.

Customer experience map #ideation #concepts #research #design #issue analysis #remote-friendly Customer experience mapping is a method of documenting and visualizing the experience a customer has as they use the product or service. It also maps out their responses to their experiences. To be used when there is a solution (even in a conceptual stage) that can be analyzed.

Risk management

Managing risk is an often overlooked part of the problem solving process. Solutions are often developed with the intention of reducing exposure to risk or solving issues that create risk but sometimes, great solutions are more experimental in nature and as such, deploying them needs to be carefully considered.

Managing risk means acknowledging that there may be risks associated with more out of the box solutions or trying new things, but that this must be measured against the possible benefits and other organizational factors.

Be informed, get the right data and stakeholders in the room and you can appropriately factor risk into your decision making process.

Decisions, Decisions… #communication #decision making #thiagi #action #issue analysis When it comes to decision-making, why are some of us more prone to take risks while others are risk-averse? One explanation might be the way the decision and options were presented. This exercise, based on Kahneman and Tversky’s classic study , illustrates how the framing effect influences our judgement and our ability to make decisions . The participants are divided into two groups. Both groups are presented with the same problem and two alternative programs for solving them. The two programs both have the same consequences but are presented differently. The debriefing discussion examines how the framing of the program impacted the participant’s decision.

Team-building

No single person is as good at problem solving as a team. Building an effective team and helping them come together around a common purpose is one of the most important problem solving skills, doubly so for leaders. By bringing a team together and helping them work efficiently, you pave the way for team ownership of a problem and the development of effective solutions.

In a problem solving workshop, it can be tempting to jump right into the deep end, though taking the time to break the ice, energize the team and align them with a game or exercise will pay off over the course of the day.

Remember that you will likely go through the problem solving process multiple times over an organization’s lifespan and building a strong team culture will make future problem solving more effective. It’s also great to work with people you know, trust and have fun with. Working on team building in and out of the problem solving process is a hallmark of successful teams that can work together to solve business problems.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity #ice breaker #teambuilding #team #remote-friendly 9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Time management

The problem solving process is designed to lead a team from identifying a problem through to delivering a solution and evaluating its effectiveness. Without effective time management skills or timeboxing of tasks, it can be easy for a team to get bogged down or be inefficient.

By using a problem solving model and carefully designing your workshop, you can allocate time efficiently and trust that the process will deliver the results you need in a good timeframe.

Time management also comes into play when it comes to rolling out solutions, particularly those that are experimental in nature. Having a clear timeframe for implementing and evaluating solutions is vital for ensuring their success and being able to pivot if necessary.

Improving your skills at problem solving is often a career-long pursuit though there are methods you can use to make the learning process more efficient and to supercharge your problem solving skillset.

Remember that the skills you need to be a great problem solver have a large overlap with those skills you need to be effective in any role. Investing time and effort to develop your active listening or critical thinking skills is valuable in any context. Here are 7 ways to improve your problem solving skills.

Share best practices

Remember that your team is an excellent source of skills, wisdom, and techniques and that you should all take advantage of one another where possible. Best practices that one team has for solving problems, conducting research or making decisions should be shared across the organization. If you have in-house staff that have done active listening training or are data analysis pros, have them lead a training session.

Your team is one of your best resources. Create space and internal processes for the sharing of skills so that you can all grow together.

Ask for help and attend training

Once you’ve figured out you have a skills gap, the next step is to take action to fill that skills gap. That might be by asking your superior for training or coaching, or liaising with team members with that skill set. You might even attend specialized training for certain skills – active listening or critical thinking, for example, are business-critical skills that are regularly offered as part of a training scheme.

Whatever method you choose, remember that taking action of some description is necessary for growth. Whether that means practicing, getting help, attending training or doing some background reading, taking active steps to improve your skills is the way to go.

Learn a process

Problem solving can be complicated, particularly when attempting to solve large problems for the first time. Using a problem solving process helps give structure to your problem solving efforts and focus on creating outcomes, rather than worrying about the format.

Tools such as the seven-step problem solving process above are effective because not only do they feature steps that will help a team solve problems, they also develop skills along the way. Each step asks for people to engage with the process using different skills and in doing so, helps the team learn and grow together. Group processes of varying complexity and purpose can also be found in the SessionLab library of facilitation techniques . Using a tried and tested process and really help ease the learning curve for both those leading such a process, as well as those undergoing the purpose.

Effective teams make decisions about where they should and shouldn’t expend additional effort. By using a problem solving process, you can focus on the things that matter, rather than stumbling towards a solution haphazardly.

Create a feedback loop

Some skills gaps are more obvious than others. It’s possible that your perception of your active listening skills differs from those of your colleagues.

It’s valuable to create a system where team members can provide feedback in an ordered and friendly manner so they can all learn from one another. Only by identifying areas of improvement can you then work to improve them.

Remember that feedback systems require oversight and consideration so that they don’t turn into a place to complain about colleagues. Design the system intelligently so that you encourage the creation of learning opportunities, rather than encouraging people to list their pet peeves.

While practice might not make perfect, it does make the problem solving process easier. If you are having trouble with critical thinking, don’t shy away from doing it. Get involved where you can and stretch those muscles as regularly as possible.

Problem solving skills come more naturally to some than to others and that’s okay. Take opportunities to get involved and see where you can practice your skills in situations outside of a workshop context. Try collaborating in other circumstances at work or conduct data analysis on your own projects. You can often develop those skills you need for problem solving simply by doing them. Get involved!

Use expert exercises and methods

Learn from the best. Our library of 700+ facilitation techniques is full of activities and methods that help develop the skills you need to be an effective problem solver. Check out our templates to see how to approach problem solving and other organizational challenges in a structured and intelligent manner.

There is no single approach to improving problem solving skills, but by using the techniques employed by others you can learn from their example and develop processes that have seen proven results.

Try new ways of thinking and change your mindset

Using tried and tested exercises that you know well can help deliver results, but you do run the risk of missing out on the learning opportunities offered by new approaches. As with the problem solving process, changing your mindset can remove blockages and be used to develop your problem solving skills.

Most teams have members with mixed skill sets and specialties. Mix people from different teams and share skills and different points of view. Teach your customer support team how to use design thinking methods or help your developers with conflict resolution techniques. Try switching perspectives with facilitation techniques like Flip It! or by using new problem solving methodologies or models. Give design thinking, liberating structures or lego serious play a try if you want to try a new approach. You will find that framing problems in new ways and using existing skills in new contexts can be hugely useful for personal development and improving your skillset. It’s also a lot of fun to try new things. Give it a go!

Encountering business challenges and needing to find appropriate solutions is not unique to your organization. Lots of very smart people have developed methods, theories and approaches to help develop problem solving skills and create effective solutions. Learn from them!

Books like The Art of Thinking Clearly , Think Smarter, or Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow are great places to start, though it’s also worth looking at blogs related to organizations facing similar problems to yours, or browsing for success stories. Seeing how Dropbox massively increased growth and working backward can help you see the skills or approach you might be lacking to solve that same problem. Learning from others by reading their stories or approaches can be time-consuming but ultimately rewarding.

A tired, distracted mind is not in the best position to learn new skills. It can be tempted to burn the candle at both ends and develop problem solving skills outside of work. Absolutely use your time effectively and take opportunities for self-improvement, though remember that rest is hugely important and that without letting your brain rest, you cannot be at your most effective.

Creating distance between yourself and the problem you might be facing can also be useful. By letting an idea sit, you can find that a better one presents itself or you can develop it further. Take regular breaks when working and create a space for downtime. Remember that working smarter is preferable to working harder and that self-care is important for any effective learning or improvement process.

Want to design better group processes?

Over to you

Now we’ve explored some of the key problem solving skills and the problem solving steps necessary for an effective process, you’re ready to begin developing more effective solutions and leading problem solving workshops.

Need more inspiration? Check out our post on problem solving activities you can use when guiding a group towards a great solution in your next workshop or meeting. Have questions? Did you have a great problem solving technique you use with your team? Get in touch in the comments below. We’d love to chat!

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Solving Mathematical Problems Workbook - Functional Skills Maths - Entry Level 3

Subject: Mathematics

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

3 March 2024

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This resource has been designed for students working towards Functional Skills Maths qualifications at Entry Level 3 (Edexcel-Pearson, NCFE, City and Guilds and Open Awards). It contains an age-appropriate, editable, 40-page workbook on solving mathematical problems.

This resource will help pupils to draw upon and apply knowledge and skills from different mathematical content areas (number and the number system, common measures, shape and space; information and data) to solve real-life problems

The 40-page workbook includes 11 information pages, 27 worksheets (with answers), 2 progress checks and a certificate of achievement. Tasks include solving everyday-life word problems using mixed operations, using reverse operations to check answers and solutions and using rounding and estimation to check calculations.

The resource is available in PDF format and an editable PowerPoint version to enable personalisation of the resource. The workbook can be used for classwork, homework, revision or as an independent learning pack.

Please note, the watermark on the preview images is not present on the resource itself.

If you buy this resource and are pleased with your purchase, I would be grateful if you could leave a review. As a token of appreciation, you can have a free resource of your choice up to the same value as your purchased resource. Just email [email protected] with your user name, the resource you have reviewed and the resource you would like for free.

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 22%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Functional Skills Maths - Entry Level 3 Workbook Bundle

This resource has been designed for students working towards Functional Skills Maths qualifications at Entry Level 3. It contains 16 age-appropriate workbooks that cover the entire specification for Functional Skills Maths at Entry Level 3. It includes resources on: Using Numbers and the Number System Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division Fractions Decimals Length Position and Direction Volume and Capacity Weight Shape Money Time Statistics Solving Mathematical Problems All workbooks contain explanations, worksheets, progress checks, word problems, reasoning and problem solving tasks and answers. The workbooks are provided in both PDF format and an editable PowerPoint version to allow for editing of the resource to suit students’ needs. They are ideal for classwork, homework, revision or as an independent learning pack. Click on the individual links for more details. *If you buy this resource and are pleased with your purchase, I would be extremely grateful if you could leave a review. As a token of appreciation, you can have a free resource of your choice up to the same value as your purchased resource. Just email [email protected] with your user name, the resource you have reviewed and the resource you would like for free.* You may also be interested in the bundles below. They contain workbooks and PowerPoint lessons that cover all of the outcomes pupils are required to achieve at each level. **[Level 1 - Numbers and The Number System 10 Workbooks - 10 PowerPoints](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12909103)** **[Entry Level 3 - 16 Workbooks - 16 PowerPoints](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/functional-skills-maths-entry-level-3-resource-bundle-12813173)** **[Entry Level 2 - 13 Workbooks - 13 PowerPoints](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/functional-skills-maths-entry-level-2-12741399)** **[Entry Level 1 - 11 Workbooks - 11 PowerPoints](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/functional-skills-maths-entry-level-1-12636159)** **[More Functional Skills Maths Resources](https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?authorId=884045&q=functional%20skills&shop=Krazikas&subjects=GB%7C0%7CMathematics%7C)** **[Entry Level English Resources](https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?authorId=884045&orientations=English&q=entry%20level&shop=Krazikas&subjects=GB%7C0%7CEnglish%7C)**

Solving Mathematical Problems - Functional Skills Maths - Entry Level 3

This resource has been designed for students working towards Functional Skills Maths qualifications at Entry Level 3 (Edexcel-Pearson, NCFE, City and Guilds, NOCN and Open Awards). It contains an age-appropriate, editable, 130-slide PowerPoint lesson and a 40-page workbook on solving mathematical problems. This resource will help pupils to achieve the following learning outcome: to draw upon and apply knowledge and skills from different mathematical content areas (number and the number system, common measures, shape and space; information and data) to solve real-life problems. **Workbook** The workbook includes 11 information/explanation pages, 27 worksheets, 2 progress checks and a certificate of achievement. Tasks include solving everyday-life word problems using mixed operations, using reverse operations to check answers and solutions and estimating. The workbook is provided in PDF and an editable version to enable editing and personalisation of the resource. It is ideal for classwork, homework, revision or as an independent learning pack. **PowerPoint Lesson** The PowerPoint explains how to choose the correct operation to solve real-life word problems. It also explains reverse operations and how they are used to check answers. There are also sections on rounding to 10 and 100 and using rounding in estimations. The PowerPoint contains links to four short videos on word problems, rounding, estimation and reverse calculations. It is an ideal resource to introduce pupils to word problems and for revision purposes. *If you buy this resource and are pleased with your purchase, I would be grateful if you could leave a review. As a token of appreciation, you can have a free resource of your choice up to the same value as your purchased resource. Just email [email protected] with your user name, the resource you have reviewed and the resource you would like for free.* You may also be interested in: **[Functional Skills Maths - Entry Level 2 Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/functional-skills-maths-entry-level-2-12741399)** This bundle contains 13 workbooks and 13 PowerPoint lessons that cover the entire specification for Functional Skills Maths at Entry Level 2. **[Functional Skills Maths - Entry Level 1 Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/functional-skills-maths-entry-level-1-12636159)** This bundle contains 10 workbooks and 10 PowerPoint lessons that cover the whole of the Entry Level 1 specification. **[More Entry Level Maths Resources](https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?authorId=884045&q=entry%20level&shop=Krazikas)** **[Entry Level English Resources](https://www.tes.com/resources/search/?authorId=884045&orientations=English&q=entry%20level&shop=Krazikas&subjects=GB%7C0%7CEnglish%7C)**

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(TOPS-3:E) Test of Problem Solving-3:Elementary

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Test purpose.

The TOPS 3 Elementary assesses a school-aged child's ability to integrate semantic and linguistic knowledge with reasoning ability by way of picture stimuli and verbal responses.

Test Description

TOPS 3 Elementary focuses on the student's linguistic ability to think and reason. Language competence is the overall indicator of how a child's language skills affect his ability to think, reason, problem solve, infer, classify, associate, predict, determine causes, sequence, and understand directions. The TOPS 3 Elementary test questions focus on a broad range of language-based thinking skills, including clarifying, analyzing, generating solutions, evaluating, and affective thinking.

While other tests may assess students' thinking skills by tapping mathematical, spatial, or nonverbal potential, the TOPS 3 Elementary measures discrete skills that form the foundation of language-based thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities.

The test is composed of 18 situations that examine six thinking tasks. Carefully selected items and situations are relevant to most students and common across cultures and in most schools or home settings.

Although the skills tested on the TOPS 3 Elementary are necessary for developing social competence, it is not primarily a test of pragmatic or social language skills. Rather, it should be part of a battery of tests/observations used to assess pragmatic competence.

The subtests consist of full-color photographs and questions that address critical thinking skills:

Subtest A: Making Inferences

The student gives a logical explanation about a situation combining what he knows or can see with previous experiences and background information. The ability to infer is critical for success in the classroom, academics, and social development.

Subtest B: Sequencing

The student determines and explains logical, everyday sequences of events. This skill is critical to academic performance and requires an understanding of the situation, determining the logical sequence of events, and expressing it clearly.

Subtest C: Negative Questions

The student is asked to explain why something would not occur or why one shouldn't take a given action in a situation. Responses reveal how well your student notices, attends to, understands, and expresses an appropriate response on this subtest.

Subtest D: Problem Solving

The student must recognize the problem, think of alternative solutions, evaluate the options, and state an appropriate solution that will work well. It also includes how to avoid specific problems.

Subtest E: Predicting

This subtest requires the student to anticipate what will happen in the future. This requires him to draw from past experiences to reflect on the future. This skill is an academic as well as a life skill.

Subtest F: Determining Causes

The student must give a logical reason for a given aspect of the situation in the paragraph. To be successful, the student must see the relationship between the action and the outcome.

Examiner Qualifications

The test should only be administered by a trained professional familiar with language disorders (e.g., speech-language pathologist, psychologist).

Test Procedures

All items are presented in a conversational style with normal intonation and speaking rate.
The student looks at a picture in the Picture Stimuli Book and answers questions (presented verbally by the examiner) about the picture.
Each task is presented in its entirety to every student. Basals and ceilings are not used in the TOPS 3 Elementary. Prompts on the test form are allowed only if the student's response is unclear to the examiner. It is not used to give the student a "second chance" after a clear, complete but incorrect response.
Acceptable responses for each test item are indicated on the test form.

Discussion of Performance

The Discussion of Performance section in the Examiner's Manual was developed to guide the examiner to make appropriate and educationally-relevant recommendations for remediation based on a clear understanding of each subtest.

It includes a research-based rationale for the importance of teaching thinking skills, clinically sound information about each task, what is required for the student to be successful, how the task relates to academic and classroom behavior, the specific steps a student goes through to complete each thinking task, and the breakdown of what the student's responses reflect about his thinking skills

Standardization/Statistics

Two studies were conducted on the TOPS 3 Elementary – the item pool and standardization studies. The item pool study consisted of 690 subjects and the standardization study consisted of 1,406 subjects. The subjects in both studies represented the latest National Census for race, gender, age, and educational placement. This included subjects with IEPs for special services but who attend regular education classes.

Inter-Rater Reliability
Test-Retest
Reliability Based on Item Homogeneity (KR20)

The test-retest coefficient is .84 for the total test, the SEM is 9.88 for the total test. Based on these tests, the TOPS 3 Elementary has satisfactory levels of reliability for all tasks and the total test at all age levels.

Contrast Groups (t-values): Test discriminates between subjects with normal language development and subjects with language disorders.
Point Biserial Correlations
Subtest Intercorrelations
Correlations Between Subtests and Total Test

The t-Values for differences between normal and language-disordered subjects were significant at the .01 level for five age levels and at the .05 level for two age levels. The TOPS 3 Elementary clearly discriminates between these groups. Inspection of all the biserial correlations reveals acceptable levels of item consistency with 85% of the individual items showing statistically significant pass/fail correlations with the task scores.

Z-tests Chi Square analysis at the subtest level
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) F-tests

Of the more than 2,000 z-tests, only a small percentage showed any racial differences. Percentages ranged from below 1% to 6%. These low percentages indicate that neither race or SES are strong factors on the TOPS 3 Elementary.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

This article is part of the research topic.

The important role of the early school years for reading, writing and math development: Assessment and Intervention at school entry

I have three more than you, you have three less than me? Levels of flexibility in dealing with additive situations Provisionally Accepted

1 Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Assessment and intervention in the early years should ideally be based on evidence-based models describing the structure and development of students' skills. Mathematical word problems have been identified as a challenge for mathematics learners for a long time and in many countries. We investigate flexibility in dealing with additive situations as a construct that develops during grades 1 through 3 and contributes to the development of students' word problem solving skills. We introduce the construct based on prior research on the difficulty of different situation structures entailed in word problems. We use data from three prior empirical studies with N = 383 German grade 2 and 3 students to develop a model of discrete levels of students' flexibility in dealing with additive situations. We use this model to investigate how the learners in our sample distribute across the different levels. Moreover, we apply it to describe students' development over several weeks in one study comprising three measurements. We derive conclusions about the construct in terms of determinants of task complexity, and about students' development and then provide an outlook on potential uses of the model in research and practice.

Keywords: flexibility in dealing with additive situations, Level model, Mathematics, word problem solving, primary school, assessment, assessment-based intervention

Received: 17 Nov 2023; Accepted: 09 Apr 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Ufer, Kaiser, Gabler and Niklas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Prof. Stefan Ufer, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany

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3 Body Problem’s VR tech got a big glow-up from the books

The reality of virtual reality is very different in 2024

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Auggie Salazar (Eiza González) looks at the chrome VR helmet used to play Three-Body in the Netflix series 3 Body Problem

Netflix’s TV adaptation of the novel The Three-Body Problem makes some important changes to its source material. Characters in Cixin Liu’s original book are reimagined and split into others. Threads from later books in Liu’s trilogy, known as Remembrance of Earth’s Past, are brought forward into the narrative. And thankfully, the virtual reality video game that’s played in 3 Body Problem is noticeably different to how it’s described in the book version.

The game, known as Three-Body in Liu’s text, serves the same purpose as it does in the TV series: It’s a recruitment tool for the world’s brightest and most inquisitive scientists. In the Netflix show, the device on which Three-Body is played is a sleek, almost magical machine. Its players in the TV show are both exhilarated by and alarmed at how advanced the VR headset is.

“This is not normal,” says John Bradley’s character, Jack Rooney, after trying out the game (and being virtually decapitated by Sea Shimooka’s Sophon ). “Do you understand how far beyond the current state of the art this is? I mean, we’re talking about 50 years? 150?”

Liu’s description of the Three-Body VR experience is much more matter-of-fact than what we see in the show. In his book, he describes the game as running on a “panoramic viewing helmet” and, quaintly, running on a web browser. The sensation of playing the game in Liu’s version was not powered by the direct neural interface of the chrome helmet , but through a full-body suit that was described as being widely commercially available.

Here’s how Liu, clearly optimistic about VR technology at the time, describes that suit:

The V-suit was a very popular piece of equipment among gamers, made up of a panoramic viewing helmet and a haptic feedback suit. The suit allowed the player to experience the sensations of the game: being struck by a fist, being stabbed by a knife, being burned by flames, and so on. It was also capable of generating feelings of extreme heat and cold, even simulating the sensation of being exposed in a snow storm.

The TV show has no such suit. Having one would not only conflict with storytelling — imagine having to watch characters dress and undress before entering the virtual world — but the fact that the chrome headset can do so much to simulate multiple senses conveys just how alien it feels.

Eve Ridley as The Follower, John Bradley as Jack Rooney, and Jess Hong as Jin Cheng appear as Chinese soldiers and mathematicians in the Three-Body game in episode 103 of 3 Body Problem.

The Three-Body Problem was written years before the commercial revolution that brought VR technology to the masses. It was until the creation of the Oculus Rift in 2011 that mainstream affordable VR headsets started to feel real, promising industry-changing possibilities. More than a decade later, the hard reality of virtual reality has started to set in. It has obvious limitations and simply cannot provide the level of immersion that Liu promised in writing. That’s why the VR headset of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is presented as an impossible device, so much so that characters gravely warn “We don’t have this technology” to the people who are playing it.

The TV series presents the Three-Body game world as almost perfectly photorealistic, though the VR scenarios appear slightly uncanny. That’s one way to dismiss any immersion-breaking that comes from rendering, say, 30 million Chinese soldiers acting as a giant human CPU, and that looking ever so slightly off. Liu’s version of the game was implied to be photorealistic and immersive too, so the show’s producers went to very expensive-looking lengths to create a huge, believable world for its players to experience.

But Three-Body isn’t much of a game ; it’s merely a separate venue for characters to do some astrophysics problem-solving — to move the plot forward against the backdrop of a historical fantasy world. It’s an artifact of a period when people who play video games were hopeful about the future of VR and its capabilities. (Though it pretty accurately reflects the wow factor of experiencing the tech: dazzling at first, but with quickly diminishing returns. There’s a lot of flash, but not much substance to these segments of the TV series.)

John Bradley as Jack Rooney and Jess Hong as Jin Cheng sit on a couch and look at the chrome VR headset in episode 102 of 3 Body Problem

The more intriguing mystery is who’s behind the tech that makes Three-Body possible. That’s why the series’ players play. They’re naturally curious, and strive to solve a problem that’s already been solved by the Trisolarans (aka San-Ti) and to know more about its makers. The alien forces aren’t just looking for smart people to explain an unsolvable physics problem , they’re looking for scientifically curious, sympathetic humans. And what better way to lure them in than with fantastic technology and one of the most enjoyable means of problem-solving: video games.

Plus, in a show full of hard-to-believe scientific phenomena (e.g., supercomputers the size of a photon, blinking stars, countdowns projected onto retinas), a next-next-next-generation virtual reality game co-created by alien game developers is some of the easiest disbelief to suspend.

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What is the '3 Body Problem'? Astrophysicist explains concept behind hit Netflix show

by Cody Mello-Klein, Northeastern University

"3 Body Problem," Netflix's new big-budget adaptation of Liu Cixin's book series helmed by the creators behind "Game of Thrones," puts the science in science fiction.

The series focuses on scientists as they attempt to solve a mystery that spans decades, continents and even galaxies. That means "3 Body Problem" throws some pretty complicated quantum mechanics and astrophysics concepts at the audience as it, sometimes literally, tries to bring these ideas down to earth.

However, at the core of the series is the three-body problem, a question that has stumped scientists for centuries.

What exactly is the three-body problem, and why is it still unsolvable? Jonathan Blazek, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University, explains that systems with two objects exerting gravitational force on one another, whether they're particles or stars and planets, are predictable. Scientists have been able to solve this two-body problem and predict the orbits of objects since the days of Isaac Newton. But as soon as a third body enters the mix, the whole system gets thrown into chaos.

"The three-body problem is the statement that if you have three bodies gravitating toward each other under Newton's law of gravitation, there is no general closed-form solution for that situation," Blazek says. "Little differences get amplified and can lead to wildly unpredictable behavior in the future."

In "3 Body Problem," like in Cixin's book, this is a reality for aliens that live in a solar system with three suns. Since all three stars are exerting gravitational forces on each other, they end up throwing the solar system into chaos as they fling each other back and forth. For the Trisolarans, the name for these aliens, it means that when a sun is jettisoned far away, their planet freezes, and when a sun is thrown extremely close to their planet, it gets torched. Worse, because of the three-body problem, these movements are completely unpredictable.

For centuries, scientists have pondered the question of how to determine a stable starting point for three gravitational bodies that would result in predictable orbits. There is still no generalizable solution that can be taken out of theory and modeled in reality, although recently scientists have started to find some potentially creative solutions, including with models based on the movements of drunk people.

"If you want to [predict] what the solar system's going to do, we can put all the planets and as many asteroids as we know into a computer code and basically say we're going to calculate the force between everything and move everything forward a little bit," Blazek says. "This works, but to the extent that you're making some approximations … all of these things will eventually break down and your prediction is going to become inaccurate."

Blazek says the three-body problem has captivated scientific minds because it's a seemingly simple problem. Most high school physics students learn Newton's law of gravity and can reasonably calculate and predict the movement of two bodies.

Three-body systems, and more than three-body systems, also show up throughout the universe, so the question is incredibly relevant. Look no further than our solar system.

The relationship between the sun, Earth and our moon is a three-body system. But Blazek says since the sun exerts a stronger gravitational force on Earth and Earth does the same on the moon, it creates a pair of two-body systems with stable, predictable orbits—for now.

Blazek says that although our solar system appears stable, there's no guarantee that it will stay that way in the far future because there are still multi-body systems at play. Small changes like an asteroid hitting one of Jupiter's moons and altering its orbit ever so slightly could eventually spiral into larger changes.

That doesn't mean humanity will face a crisis like the one the Trisolarans face in "3 Body Problem." These changes happen extremely slowly, but Blazek says it's another reminder of why these concepts are interesting and important to think about in both science and science fiction.

"I don't think anything is going to happen on the time scale of our week or even probably our species—we have bigger problems than the instability of orbits in our solar system," Blazek says. "But, that said, if you think about billions of years, during that period we don't know that the orbits will stay as they currently are. There's a good chance there will be some instability that changes how things look in the solar system."

Provided by Northeastern University

This story is republished courtesy of Northeastern Global News news.northeastern.edu .

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LEVEL 2: You solve the problem in a cost-effective manner (e.g., using heuristics to get a quick solution that is "good enough") LEVEL 3: You solve the problem in a cost-effective manner that a decision-maker will implement. Academics spend most of their time on Level 1 and a jump to Level 2 and then Level 3 may take a few years if ever.
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The A3 approach offers clear benefits that transcend conventional problem-solving methods. This method: Implements strategic plans leading to increased customer satisfaction. A3 Problem Solving proves particularly beneficial for managers and leaders, serving as an instrument to mentor others in problem-solving and to drive strategic initiatives.
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