RIGHT QUESTIONS => GOOD SOLUTION

If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said.

It might seem like the same old topic about how to find a solution. When we identify a problem, we immediately begin to devise the perfect solution that will end that problem. But the reality is that to find the right solutions, we need effort. The most important thing is not only to identify a problem and look for a quick solution, If this were the case, we would have already solved all the existing problems. And this post would never have been written.

But Jennifer, what do you mean by problem? Problems exist all over the world and we have to look for solutions.  Well that's right, but first let's define the word problem as "something that causes difficulty or that is hard to deal with" (Cambridge, 2020).

"The word "problem" stems from the Greek word "proballein" with "pro" meaning "before" and "ballein" meaning "to throw." In that context, "proballein" really suggests an idea of throwing something, as in throwing forth a question or throwing forth a situation. A problem, in this view, is nothing more than a question, or idea, proposed.  "Matthew Edgar 2014

Okay Jennifer, so you can't solve a problem just by identifying the problem? The short answer would be no. But if you really want to know, how do you find the right solutions to solve a problem? Prepare yourself for me to share some of my knowledge with you.

Imagine that you are an detective, one of those that appear in the movies. Your mission is to find out who ate your Aunt Betty's cake, so you will start looking for all the possible clues, you will look for the fingerprints, you will ask around, you will find out the time it happened, you will ask yourself many questions, and try to find the most possible answers, at the end of your mission you may have found out who ate the cake, and not only that, you will know why they ate it and also what your aunt can do to prevent them from eating the cake again. This happens because you came to the right questions, which gave you the only answers you needed to put all the pieces together and finish your mission.

"IT'S NOT THAT THEY CAN'T SEE THE SOLUTION. THEY CAN'T SEE THE PROBLEM." - G.K CHESTERTON, WRITER AND PHILOSOPHER

Jennifer, I'm already lost, so how do I do it if I want to solve the problem of the baby penguins at the North Pole that are cold? First ask the right questions so you know what the biggest cause is and you can work on it.

MAGIC ADVICE

To be honest, asking the right questions is not very easy.  That's why wise people have created Methods to solve problems. Among them are diagrams, models analysis for decisions, methods of analogies, etc.  So find the variety that exists, choose one and put it into action on the problem you have identified.

HERE ENDS THE MAGIC ADVICE

I will now talk to you about a method of solving the problem.  That I have used in my project, it is called PROBLEM TREE. It is in charge of identifying the causes that generated a problem. It is an iterative process, in which it is easy to identify what the problem is, causes and consequences. In order to implement correctly, the conclusions and causes are supported by documented evidence. Usually there is more than one potential cause for a given problem, known causal relationships must be established.

- At the roots are the causes of the problem

- The trunk represents the main problem
- On the leaves and branches are the effects or consequences

It is a way of representing the problem by getting an understanding at a glance of what is happening (main problem), why it is happening (causes) and what is causing it (effects or consequences), which allows us to do various things in the project planning.

- It allows us to break down the problem, the causes and its effects, improving its analysis.

- There is a better understanding of the problem by breaking it down into causes and consequences

- It facilitates the realization of other important components of an investigation.

What we seek in using the tree map is to obtain meaningful data, determine causes, effects and elaborate project objectives.

This post has already been very long, so in the next post I will explain how I used this method to solve problems in my project. Where will be a post guide of how to perform each part of it and its explanation, so don't miss it.

References

Harvard Business Review. (2020). Are You Solving the Right Problem?. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].

Matthew Edgar. (2020). What Is A Problem? - Matthew Edgar. [online] Available at: https://www.matthewedgar.net/problem/ [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].

Dumb Little Man. (2020). Finding the Right Solutions by Asking the Right Questions. [online] Available at: https://www.dumblittleman.com/finding-right-solutions-asking-right-questions/ [Accessed 6 Feb. 2020].

 Dictionary.cambridge.org. (2020). PROBLEM | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online]