I found myself wondering what problem-solving actually is.
From that casual question I read about ten books related to problem-solving. Combining what I learned with my own thinking, I put together an "Essence of problem-solving."
Reference books are listed at the end.
Some wording is borrowed straight from those books; other parts aren't faithful to the books' interpretations, because I shaped them to fit how I think. If you've read the same books and feel something's off, please bear with me.
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"The essence of problem-solving"
Business is solving someone's problem and earning profit. (Profit is the degree of added value provided, from the customer's view.)
Work is an element of business: bringing the present state closer to the ideal form of a service.
Operations are an element of work: solving the problems that sit between the ideal and the present.
Problem-solving is clearly putting into words the issues needed to achieve a purpose within a set deadline, and deciding what actions to take.
The problem-solving flow is generally:
[① Set the issue → ② Identify factors → ③ Form hypotheses → ④ Verify factors → ⑤ Action]
Between ① and ②, ① governs ②, but in reality you rarely nail ①→② cleanly from the start. You raise precision by looping ①⇔②.
③ follows from ①→②, but with ②'s factors in mind — and the final actions of ⑤ in view — you decide what to verify and how.
④ is analysis based on what you decided in ③. Analysis is basically four methods and combinations of them:
1. Think in terms of size
2. Think by breaking things apart
3. Think by comparing
4. Think in terms of change / time series
⑤ turns ①–④ into a story and sets concrete actions. You don't just stack ①–④ in order — you need a story that moves the stakeholders who will execute.
And that story must not drift off the axis of business's purpose: improving customer benefit.
Problem-solving only becomes necessary once there's a challenge — but you should assume nearly perfect problem-solving almost never exists. In the end you have to take a position and reach some conclusion.
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Books I used as references while building this "Essence of problem-solving" are below. I read other problem-solving books I barely drew on; those aren't listed.
If you're interested in problem-solving, I'd recommend reading all of these if you can. There's some overlap, but you get usefully different angles. Listed in the order I personally found most helpful.
- Analysis Techniques for Decision Making by Masatake Go
- SHIFT: The Practice of Innovation by Hideshi Hamaguchi
- Professionalism and the Practice of Problem-Solving by Tokyo Harbor
- The Corporate Strategist (Kigyo Sanbo) by Kenichi Ohmae
- Issue Driven (Start with the Issue) by Kazuto Ataka
As a side note, this round I inevitably read a lot of strategy-consulting-leaning books — and Ohmae, who wrote The Corporate Strategist in his third year at McKinsey, really is absurdly talented. His career after that is also on a huge scale. Other books with his anecdotes were intense and fun too.
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