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Problem Solving

Description:

Every role involves problems, and most go wrong long before anyone sits down to solve them: they are spotted late, described loosely, or decided on under pressure. This course gives you a structured way to work through a problem from the first warning sign to the final review. You'll learn to recognise issues early with tools such as gap analysis, surveys and interviews, define the real problem rather than its symptoms, move through four stages of creative problem-solving, make decisions with confidence, and respond to a crisis in six clear steps. Each module ends with a knowledge check and an application activity, so you practise on challenges from your own workplace.

Course objective:

This course aims to enable participants spot problems before they escalate, define them accurately by working back to the root cause, take them through a structured creative problem-solving process, and make and monitor decisions with confidence. You will also be able to lead a response when a crisis hits and capture the lessons so it is less likely to happen again. The course is practical and applies to problems at any scale, from a recurring process fault to a business-wide disruption.

Who this is for:

  • Employees and team members who are expected to solve problems, not just report them. 
  • Supervisors, team leaders and new managers who need a repeatable problem-solving method for their team. 
  • Operations, project and customer-service staff who deal with issues as they arise. 
  • Professionals preparing for greater responsibility who want a structured approach to decisions
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Learning outcomes:

On completion you will be able to:

  1. Use tools such as gap analysis, surveys and interviews to uncover hidden problems and gather the data needed to see the whole problem. 
  2. Apply the four stages of creative problem-solving (clarification, ideation, development and implementation) to a real workplace issue. 
  3. Distinguish between a problem and a dilemma, and choose an appropriate response to each. 
  4. Define a problem accurately by separating symptoms from root causes, and explain the difference between being at cause and being at effect. 
  5. Apply a four-step decision-making process, and use what, who, when, where and how questions to plan implementation. 
  6. Monitor an implemented decision using key success indicators, and verify through evaluation and questions that the problem has been resolved.
  7. Prevent, manage and limit the impact of a crisis using the six steps to crisis resolution, and capture lessons learned afterwards.

Course content:

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