6 Noteworthy Problem Solving Tools For Every Business
According to one study, the average business professional spends 3 hours every week dealing with work-related issues!
Isn’t that a lot?
Problem-solving is essential in business, and a good set of problem-solving tools can help you take a planned and logical approach. One of your key obligations whether you operate a business or serve as a manager in an organization is to settle problems.
Unfortunately, in many cases, fixing these issues is a very difficult procedure. The problem may be tough to address, or you may have too many alternatives to consider, leaving you puzzled.
When the issue becomes perplexing, it is preferable to have effective problem-solving tools in hand!
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We’ve collected a list of the most effective problem-solving solutions to assist you in overcoming some most common business issues and increasing productivity in your organization.
1. Fishbone Diagrams
After the implementation, fishbone diagrams are a common problem-solving technique named after the skeleton of a fish. Dynamic fishbone diagrams show the probable root causes of a problem (the ribs) spreading out from either side of a spine line that connects to the problem (the head).
2. Mental Maps
A mental map helps you to get your thoughts on what’s causing a workplace issue out of your head and onto paper or a digital page. Since mental maps mirror how our brains receive and assess new information, using them to visually represent your hypotheses can help you and your team, work through and test those mental models.
3. Flowcharts
A flowchart is a basic visual that can be used for a variety of purposes. However, It can be used to characterize and examine the relationships between the phases of a problematic process.
Flowcharts, which are made up of a few basic symbols linked by arrows indicating workflow direction, describe what happens at each stage of a process and how each event affects following events and decisions.
4. Strategy Maps
Strategy maps, which are often used as a strategic planning tool, can also be utilized as problem mapping diagrams. To flesh out a potential resolution, thoughts and ideas can be organized on a single page utilizing a hierarchical architecture.
A strategy map can help you choose the best route to your problem-solving goal after you’ve picked a few ways that you feel are worth studying as possible solutions to an issue.
5. 5 Whys Analysis
The 5 Whys is a systematic questioning methodology used to find probable basic reasons during the problem analysis phase.
The method requires a team to ask “Why?” at least five times or be able to drill down to greater levels of detail. When the team struggles to answer a “Why,” it is likely that they have discovered a genuine explanation that is creating the major problem.
6. CATWOE Analysis
A business analyst can use CATWOE Analysis as one of the numerous approaches to assess what the organization is seeking to achieve, what the problem areas are, and how stakeholder perspectives affect the persons involved.
It stands for:
- Customer
- Actor
- Transformation
- World-view
- Owner
- Environment
Most Common Business Problems with Tools To Resolve Them
Here are some of the most typical issues that develop in a business setting, as well as some excellent techniques for resolving them.
Problem 1: Team Communication is Getting Challenging
Anyone who has worked in a team will tell you that one of the most challenging problems is communication. Important notes and communications are dispersed, the workflow is disrupted, and project progress suffers.
A 2018 study of 1,000 full-time U.S. employees found that 49 percent had trouble locating the documents they need at work.
Without a doubt, team communication is a challenge, and it is up to leaders to research new problem-solving ways to streamline these conversations and updates.
Problem-Solving Tool 1: A Robust Communication Platform
If you do not create a single spot for your team to speak with one another, communication will remain a muddled mess.
Begin by implementing a real-time communication mechanism. Slack is a popular application that allows team members to discuss anything from status updates to casual conversations while also documenting what was said.
Furthermore, a collaborative document management platform centralizes everything from documents to revisions to comments in one readily accessible spot, enabling staff to search for and instantly obtain the necessary information.
Problem 2: Unable to Figure Out Task Dependencies
Even if your project process is well-organized and efficient, things seem to go wrong all the time.
Consider the following:
Are you planning your projects with interdependence between tasks in mind?
Do you understand how the delay of one assignment would influence the remainder of the project?
If you don’t understand how the jigsaw pieces go together, you’ll surely waste a lot of time seeking missing information and rescheduling deadlines, which might lead to project failure.
Problem-Solving Tool 2: Gantt Charts
Using a Gantt chart, you can readily discover task relationships throughout your project’s planning stages. In this manner, rather than allowing difficulties to disturb your project timetable, you can account for them ahead of time.
A Gantt chart is important for determining the longest chain of dependent activities. If that critical corridor is delayed, the whole project will suffer. You can use this information to understand not just how tasks are related, but also which tasks have some wiggle room for delays without increasing the total project time.
Problem 3: Mundane Tasks are Consuming so many Working Hours
Another problem that you may be unaware of is that you are stealing too many of your team’s working hours.
Routine, repetitive chores. Undoubtedly those activities are technically useful, but they are likely not the best use of everyone’s skills and capabilities, and they squander valuable time. Consider how much more your team might do if you could relieve them of some of the less vital tasks.
Problem-Solving Tool 3: Automation Tool
The phrase “automation” may conjure up ideas of robots and sophisticated processes, but it does not have to be complex or intimidating to be effective.
Zapier is one of our favorite solutions. Using Zapier, it is easy to develop repeatable processes for everyday operations. Without having to commit hours to such activities, your employees will be able to devote more time and energy to the critical and innovative tasks that you want them to focus on.
Wrapping It Up
So, which of these critical problem-solving tools should you use in your company?
It is ultimately up to you. It is essential to learn how to use them all since one that works well for one of your problems may not work at all for another.
We hope this collection of corporate problem-solving tools was helpful. The task of problem-solving will not go away anytime soon for business owners and managers. You will be able to finish your work at a higher level in the future if you learn how to implement these tactics.
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