In this article, which I found on Business Insider, the author discusses how to be a more effective critical thinker and problem solver. He speaks about how after obtaining a position as a strategy consultant after his MBA, he struggled to solve problems quickly and effectively for clients. A mentor then coached him to “START WITH THE ANSWERS.” This advice that was very foreign to the author at the time. He struggled with this concept but his mentor taught him how to start with the basic structure of a problem they were trying to solve and then develop some hypotheses around that problem based on any given knowledge or prior experience. Then they would put the hypotheses down into a structured diagram with answers that tie to the logic of the problem they were trying to solve. The mentor noted that once they knew the structure of the problem and the possible solutions, they could plan the data that proves or disproves their theories.
This immediately made me think of Issue Trees; a concept I struggled with when first presented to us by Professor Noonan in fall semester. I felt that I could not come up with possible solutions before knowing all of the facts or researching all of the relevant information I needed to try to find the solution. But the mentor in this article also makes a good point that the key to this top-down approach to critical thinking is to not be married to the original answer but by having an original hypothesis or hypotheses, one can begin to focus the data that one collects regarding the solution, as well as begin to socialize the “answers” to illicit feedback and reactions, which can help to hone in on a real and viable solution.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-better-way-to-solve-problems-in-business-2010-7#ixzz37IYQ5WMo
The real benefit of starting with the answer and building a set of hypothesis is that it gives you a more targeted method for conducting research. The issue with beginning with no framework in mind and conducting research is that you will never know when enough research is enough to begin formulating an answer. The idea that I disagree with in the article is that although a bottoms up approach may be sufficient for the first 5 years of the author’s career, a strategic problem solving approach may have been more effective. When Professor Noonan introduced the idea of Issue Trees and I became more familiar with using them, I realized that it would have been beneficial to have learned the concept earlier in my educational career, either in High School or Undergrad.
I was at a conference the other week and the topic of critical thinking came up. The importance of critical thinking is: 1) Deciphering what the most relevant information is, 2) Asking the right questions, and 3) Separating fact from opinion.
The issue tree is more likely to follow the logical step with supportive data to prove the hypotheses. The bottom-up approach would only have chance to success if you can draw ” the big picture” of the problem. If you do not have enough knowledge/experience and are “short sighted”, this approach would not lead you right direction to solution. In my job, I can use the bottom-up approach to get to the solution as my clients typically request for engineering solution, which I am very familiar and know how to make “short cut” to the solution without even make stepwise thought process. In other word, intuitively, I can draw the big picture of problem and might know already solution before even started to looking at details. Long time experience and expertise made it possible. However, I could not make it in MP projects. But, should follow the issue tree with logical step to narrow down hypotheses. I guess I couldn’t make big picture for problem and realized I was not even right track in issue tree sometimes when reviewing the progress of project simply I thought it is because I was not exposed to business problem at all for my career.
Thanks Brandi for posting good article. It made me think how to select appropriate problem-solving skill suit to you, which depends on your knowledge and experience in your career.
Jay Park