Problem Solving & Decision Making customizable courseware

Quick Reference Guide

The Problem-Solving Model

Ten Ingredients for Good Decision Making

1) Focus on the most important things.
2) Don’t decide until you are ready. Don’t act on impulse or succumb to decision panic.
3) Look for all the good things that can happen. Make your decision as if you were afraid of missing a wonderful opportunity.
4) Consider the decisions sitting on the back burner. “The best decision you’ll ever make is the one you’ve been putting off.”
5) Base your decision on self-acceptance.
6) Look ahead. Decide how your decision will play out over time.
7) Turn big decisions into a series of little decisions.
8) Don’t feel you are locked into only one or two alternatives. There are always more options if you look for them.
9) Get what you need to feel safe. Identify your safety needs related to the decision at hand.
10) Do what you really want. People who make good choices ask themselves what they want and give a lot of weight to that.

DeBono’s Thinking Hats

The Six Hats
o White Hat: Virgin white; pure facts, figures, and information.
o Red Hat: Seeing red, emotions and feelings, also hunch and intuition.
o Black Hat: Devil's advocate, negative judgment, asks why it will not work.
o Yellow Hat: Sunshine, brightness, and optimism; positive, constructive, opportunity.
o Green Hat: Fertile, creative, plants springing from seeds, movement, provocation.
o Blue Hat: Cool and in control, orchestra conductor, thinking about thinking.

Value of the Six Thinking Hats

The great value of the hats is that they provide thinking roles. A thinker can take pride in playacting each of these roles. Without the
formality of the hats, some thinkers would remain permanently stuck in one mode (usually the black hat mode).

 2005-2010, Velsoft Training Materials Inc

 2005-2010, Velsoft Training Materials Inc
Decision Making Traps Fishbone Analysis
Misdirection
When we go on fishing expeditions, we may very
well get the right answer to the wrong question.

Sampling
There is also danger of making a decision based on
too small a sampling.

Bias
According to researchers, we are all guilty of some
bias. Usually it is enough to know we each have a
built in bias, and adjust our thinking accordingly.

Averages
The ubiquitous “average” can be deceiving. The
arithmetical average can be a long ways from the
figure in the middle, or the median. Averages can
bury extremes.

Selectivity Your Problem-Solving Toolkit

Selectivity is another danger signal. When we throw
The Lasso
out unfavorable results, and embrace unacceptable
Can we tighten up our definition of the real problem?
ones, the results would be ambiguous to say the
least.
Is/Is Not
The Is/Is Not technique lets us eliminate assumptions and emphasize facts.
Interpretation
We should never forget that facts and information
Graphics
are always open to interpretation. Remember the
A diagram allows us to see things visually.
old adage that figures lie and liars figure.
Basic Questions
Jumping to Conclusions
Who, what, where, when, why, how?
This is a trap you set for yourself, and nobody has
to spring it for you.
Criteria
In many situations it can be very helpful to have already determined what the
The Meaningless Difference
criteria will be for your best solution.
“Sell the sizzle, not the steak,” says there isn’t a lot
to choose between when you’ve got a good steak.
Analysis
Other ways you can agree on a solution include listing the advantages or
Connotation
disadvantages, also referred to as Pros vs. Cons or a Cost/Benefit Analysis.
It is natural to draw out all the meaning in a remark,
but our emotional state may determine our
Break it Up
connotation. Connotation, emotional content, or
Breaking a problem down into mini-problems or sub-problems lets you eat the
implications can all be added to an explicit literal
elephant one bite at a time.
meaning.
Force Field Analysis
Status
Force field analysis will examine restraining forces (forces that discourage the
Status can limit communication.
problem) vs. sustaining forces (forces that encourage a problem).
Where to Start? Generalize/Exemplify
This allows us to move from the general to the specific (or vice versa) to make
certain we are seeing the situation from all sides.

Expert
Avoid rumors and don’t reinvent the wheel. Ask, “Who can we invite in to talk
about this?” or “Who has dealt with this before?”

Legitimizing Problems
Problems are OK. Everyone has problems. They are a fact of life. Human beings
couldn’t live without change in their environment, without stimulation, and
problems provide that change and stimulation. So it’s all right to have a problem
as long as you are willing to do something about it.

 2005-2010, Velsoft Training Materials Inc