What is 2 step in the problem-solving process?

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Table of Contents Show

What constitutes effective problem solving?
2. List all the possible solutions
4. Select an option
5. Create an implementation plan
6. Communicate your solution
Prove your problem solving skills with Deakin

Constant disruption has become a hallmark of the modern workforce and organisations want problem solving skills to combat this. Employers need people who can respond to change – be that evolving technology, new competitors, different models for doing business, or any of the other transformations that have taken place in recent years.

In addition, problem solving techniques encompass many of the other top skills employers seek. For example, LinkedIn’s list of the most in-demand soft skills of 2019 includes creativity, collaboration and adaptability, all of which fall under the problem-solving umbrella.

Despite its importance, many employees misunderstand what the problem solving method really involves.

What constitutes effective problem solving?

Effective problem solving doesn’t mean going away and coming up with an answer immediately. In fact, this isn’t good problem solving at all, because you’ll be running with the first solution that comes into your mind, which often isn’t the best.

Instead, you should look at problem solving more as a process with several steps involved that will help you reach the best outcome. Those steps are:

Define the problem
List all the possible solutions
Evaluate the options
Select the best solution
Create an implementation plan
Communicate your solution

Let’s look at each step in a little more detail.

The first solution you come up with won’t always be the best – taking the time to consider your options is an essential problem solving technique.

The first step to solving a problem is defining what the problem actually is – sounds simple, right? Well no. An effective problem solver will take the thoughts of everyone involved into account, but different people might have different ideas on what the root cause of the issue really is. It’s up to you to actively listen to everyone without bringing any of your own preconceived notions to the conversation. Learning to differentiate facts from opinion is an essential part of this process.

An effective problem solver will take the opinions of everyone involved into account

The same can be said of data. Depending on what the problem is, there will be varying amounts of information available that will help you work out what’s gone wrong. There should be at least some data involved in any problem, and it’s up to you to gather as much as possible and analyse it objectively.

2. List all the possible solutions

Once you’ve identified what the real issue is, it’s time to think of solutions. Brainstorming as many solutions as possible will help you arrive at the best answer because you’ll be considering all potential options and scenarios. You should take everyone’s thoughts into account when you’re brainstorming these ideas, as well as all the insights you’ve gleaned from your data analysis. It also helps to seek input from others at this stage, as they may come up with solutions you haven’t thought of.

Depending on the type of problem, it can be useful to think of both short-term and long-term solutions, as some of your options may take a while to implement.

Getting everyone involved in the brainstorming process will ensure you get multiple perspectives when problem solving.

Each option will have pros and cons, and it’s important you list all of these, as well as how each solution could impact key stakeholders. Once you’ve narrowed down your options to three or four, it’s often a good idea to go to other employees for feedback just in case you’ve missed something. You should also work out how each option ties in with the broader goals of the business.

There may be a way to merge two options together in order to satisfy more people.

4. Select an option

Only now should you choose which solution you’re going to go with. What you decide should be whatever solves the problem most effectively while also taking the interests of everyone involved into account. There may be a way to merge two options together in order to satisfy more people.

5. Create an implementation plan

At this point you might be thinking it’s time to sit back and relax – problem solved, right? There are actually two more steps involved if you want your problem solving method to be truly effective. The first is to create an implementation plan. After all, if you don’t carry out your solution effectively, you’re not really solving the problem at all.

Create an implementation plan on how you will put your solution into practice. One problem solving technique that many use here is to introduce a testing and feedback phase just to make sure the option you’ve selected really is the most viable. You’ll also want to include any changes to your solution that may occur in your implementation plan, as well as how you’ll monitor compliance and success.

6. Communicate your solution

There’s one last step to consider as part of the problem solving methodology, and that’s communicating your solution. Without this crucial part of the process, how is anyone going to know what you’ve decided? Make sure you communicate your decision to all the people who might be impacted by it. Not everyone is going to be 100 per cent happy with it, so when you communicate you must give them context. Explain exactly why you’ve made that decision and how the pros mean it’s better than any of the other options you came up with.

Prove your problem solving skills with Deakin

Employers are increasingly seeking soft skills, but unfortunately, while you can show that you’ve got a degree in a subject, it’s much harder to prove you’ve got proficiency in things like problem solving skills. But this is changing thanks to Deakin’s micro-credentials. These are university-level micro-credentials that provide an authoritative and third-party assessment of your capabilities in a range of areas, including problem solving. Reach out today for more information.

We explain what two-step and multi-step problems are and give examples of typical problems a child might be asked to solve in primary school (and how the answer can be worked out!).

A word problem is a few sentences describing a 'real-life' scenario where a problem needs to be solved by way of a mathematical calculation.

Word or story problems are seen as a crucial part of learning in the primary curriculum, because they require children to apply their knowledge of various different concepts to 'real-life' scenarios. This is why teachers try to include word problems in their maths lessons as often as possible.

Word problems also help children to familiarise themselves with mathematical language and terms such as: fewer, altogether, difference, more, share, multiply, subtract, equal, reduced, etc.

A two-step problem is a word problem that requires two operations to solve it, for example:

I buy a magazine costing 83p and a pencil costing 45p. I pay with a voucher that gives me 20p off the things I am buying. How much do I spend?

In this case, the first operation would be addition (83p + 45p = £1.28).
The second operation is subtraction (£1.28 - 20p = £1.08).

Children first start to tackle two-step problems in Year 3.

In Year 4, children will continue to come across two-step problems, for example:

I buy 30 plums. I give 1/5 of these to my friend. She eats 3 of the plums I have given her. How many plums does she have left?

So the first operation is division (30 ÷ 5 = 6)...
...and the second operation is subtraction (6 - 3 = 3).

A two-step problem that might be given in Year 4 is:

I buy 4 sandwiches at £3.26 each. I am then given a £2.50 discount because I have a voucher. How much do I spend altogether?

Here, the first operation is to multiply £3.26 by 4 (3.26 x 4 = 13.04). They could do this using the grid method or by short multiplication.
The second operation is then to subtract £2.50 from this amount using column subtraction (13.04 - 2.50 = 10.54).

In Year 5, children start to carry out two-step problems involving decimals, percentages and fractions. They may come across problems similar to the following:

Karen has a jug with 0.8 litres of juice in it. She pours equal amounts into 4 different cups. One her friends drinks the juice in one of the cups. How much juice is left?

Here, they could convert the 0.8 litres to 800ml...
...then divide it by 4 to make 200ml.
They could then work out 800ml minus 200ml, which equals 600ml or 0.6 litres.
If a child was confident in working with decimals, they might work out 0.8 ÷ 4 = 0.2, then 0.8 - 0.2 = 0.6.

In Year 6, children have to solve multi-step problems, which means a problem that has more than two steps.

They might be given the following problem:

Becky says:

I bought 20 apples. They were 45p each, but the shopkeeper let me have £1.50 off because I was buying so many.

Keiran says:

I bought 20 apples. They were 50p each, but the shopkeeper gave me a 10% discount because I was buying so many.

Who gets the best deal?