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Study Skills Made Easy
Roy Gregory

 

Chapter 1

PROBLEM: How can I solve problems?

It was suggested that you look at problem solving first because it is fundamental to science and engineering and the techniques can be used to tackle many of the communication and study skills issues that arise.

You will be asked to think about this in each chapter. You will see that you can use the PROBLEM, SOLUTIONS, SELECTION and EVALUATION cycle to improve your skills.

In this chapter the techniques covered concentrate mostly on defining the problem well, coming up with solutions and ways of selecting and evaluating these solutions.

Scientists and engineers are familiar with the problem-solving process. Many famous engineering failures have occurred because the right questions were not asked at the beginning or the state of knowledge was insufficient to ask them. The wobbling of the Millennium Bridge in London and the fire at King’s Cross underground station in London are examples of this. Essentially engineers and scientists are ‘problem solvers’, whether it is a design of a product or a system, the design of an experiment, to understand a process in nature or the investigation of an accident.

Problem solving is something that we have all done since our earliest years and is a part of our natural inclination to learn and change our environment. We all use problem-solving methods, without necessarily identifying them as such, and we can be very successful using them intuitively.

Some of the common problem-solving techniques are covered in this chapter. The engineering design process has been included since this is a particular formalised process used by some designers. It has similarities to other problem-solving methods and can be used for a large range of problems inside and outside of the design field.

The design process

The design process is a series of steps, starting from properly understanding the problem and specifying it in detail (see Exercise 1.2). This is so important that the following section looks at this aspect more closely. Also of great importance is the evaluation of the final solution to see that it does actually solve the problem you started with. If your problem was to manage your time to obtain a very good degree while keeping a social life, then you need to come up with a plan to do this and then consider whether it will actually do that. You can then, from time to time during the course, go back and ask the same question i.e. review and evaluate).

Exercise 1.1 Make a list of your aims that you want to achieve during your time as a student. The problem is how to achieve these in a way that is best for you. As a start, consider each aspect of your life and list the aims in priority order.

 

Exercise 1.2 Choose a communication problem and apply the Design Process to it, describing briefly each one of the six stages in the table below.
The Design Process	Communication Problem
1. Understand the problem	My communication problem is:
2. Specify in detail	More detail:
3. Propose solutions	List the ways it could be done:
4. Evaluate the solutions	Which looks the best?
5. Re-evaluate against specification	Does it communicate what I want it to?
6. Develop chosen solution­—making a plan or design or strategy	More detail on the chosen plan:

Problem definition in design

One of the most important stages of problem solving, and one that is very often done poorly, is to define the problem adequately. Only when the question is properly defined can work on the solution begin. If the problem is fully and carefully defined, you are already most of the way towards the solution. Then when a solution has been produced, it can then be checked against the problem definition to ensure it has been fully answered.

With simple problems, it is usually relatively easy to define the problem, but it is important to ensure that you step back far enough to identify the real problem, not a particular aspect based on your assumptions about the solution. For this reason, it is essential that the problem is defined before work begins on the solution. For example, if you are tasked with designing a new all-terrain vehicle, you might assume that it would require at least four wheels. This assumption could, however, exclude a hovercraft or a tracked vehicle.

Although the above examples have been design-based, the principle could equally be applied to other problems. Suppose your car breaks down in heavy snow. You have other people in the car, including a small child. You may think the problem is about repairing the car so you can continue your journey and get all of you safely home. However, it may be more serious than that, and may ultimately come down to a question of survival. Once you have recognised this, repairing the car is only one of a range of possible solutions, which may also include calling out the emergency services, flagging down another vehicle for help, or abandoning the car and seeking help from a nearby house.

So you can see that defining the problem, in great detail, or at least in as much detail is required to show a complete understanding, is a vital precursor to starting to come up with solutions.

You as a problem solver

You will find that you already successfully use various problem-solving techniques. It can be helpful to identify these so that you can more consciously select them when you get stuck. Techniques are often transferable from one problem to another and knowing that you already have some problem-solving tools, with a proven track record, can add to your confidence when faced with a new problem.

Exercise 1.3 Think about a problem you have dealt with in your life and/or work where you felt really satisfied with your solution. What worked well to solve this problem? What factors made it work well? How did I start? How did I know it was successful? What skills did I use? What techniques did I use? (Quickly look through this chapter to see the range.) How can I use my strengths in dealing with that situation to tackle a problem I have now? Identify below the successful problem-solving techniques you have used.

Simple techniques

We have solved problems effectively all our lives. It can be useful to identify these before we go on to more-formalised techniques.

The problem itself can be changed or viewed differently, accepted as part of life or put aside and reviewed later. Just making a list of what needs to be done and then prioritising items can solve some problems. The solution to a financial problem can often be started by listing income and expenditure to see where savings can be made.

Asking questions and finding some new information may be sufficient. The simple techniques can be particularly useful when thinking about problems like organising your study, working in a team, managing difficult people or how to communicate.

We all approach situations with some in-built ideas that we have learned as a result of previous experiences. Often these can be a valuable source of expertise that helps to solve the problem. In fact, one common method of problem solving is to look for parallels in previous experiences that can apply, or be adapted to apply, to a current problem.

‘Trial and error’ is a simple problem-solving technique and is probably the first one that most of us would have used as a child—it is still used a great deal and can sometimes be the fastest and the most successful. It can, however, waste a lot of time if the problem is complex and the trial is not done in a systematic fashion, making a note of what was tried and what the results were. A ‘diagnostic checklist’ is a more formalised version of this method, where a logical sequence of tests is designed to identify what might be wrong with, say, a computer system or the human body undergoing a health check.

The use of simple algebraic expressions or charts to calculate various options can sometimes illuminate a problem. Computer spreadsheets can be very useful tools to help this approach. A financial problem may be simply solved by just writing down estimated expenditure and seeing how this can be met by income.
Charts and graphs can be used as simple problem-solving tools, which enable you to view the problem from a different perspective. Moving the desks and workstations around on a scale plan, or using a simple computer program, can help when planning a new office layout.

Lateral thinking

There are a number of techniques to help to obtain new creative solutions to problems. The insights gained are not achieved by logic, but by allowing your brain to ‘roam’ unrestricted over completely new ground that may result in innovative but effective solutions.

Sometimes our thinking can be seen as automatically going along a railway line. Lateral thinking means making a mental ‘hop’ to a completely different line going in a different direction to see where it takes you. Lateral thinking can also take the form of using a solution from one area of our life and applying to another.

A few of the more common techniques to help lateral thinking are:

Reframing

This technique will sometimes be part of others. It is used to look at the problem from different perspectives, which may shed new light on the situation and change the possible solutions. When computers were reframed to be word processors the market increased to nearly everyone in the population!

Additionally, it may be possible to see positive aspects open up from an unexpected and at first sight very negative situation. For example, losing your driving licence is a negative event but it may provide an opportunity for getting fit by doing more cycling!

Brainstorming

’Brainstorming’ is normally a group technique used when several problem solvers work together as a team and express their ideas in an uninhibited and usually unstructured fashion. Group members are urged to throw any idea, however wild and apparently unrealistic, into the melting pot. It provides a safe environment for lateral thinking in its broadest sense. The emphasis in the ‘brainstorm’ phase is on quantity. This is often done as a group, where members spark ideas off each other, follow up associations and are encouraged to build on each other’s suggestions.

Although the ideas are meant to flow in an uninhibited fashion the process itself, to work really well, usually needs some basic ground rules. For example, there should be a method of recording ideas and a time limit is normally set (say between five minutes and half an hour), after which the team begin to make some order out of the ‘chaos’ of creativity. At the start someone should set the scene by defining the problem for the group.

The essential characteristics of such a session are:

• Encourage unconventional ideas.
• Aim for quantity of ideas.
• Try to build on ideas put forward.
• No discussion or criticism of ideas during the session.

At the end of the session, the brainstorming stops and the ideas are sifted and evaluated to extract the ‘gems’ that can be used to provide a feasible solution.
It is important that the group do not give up half-way through allotted times. Some good new ideas often emerge after a silence when everyone has dried up. The silence often forces a different approach or angle to be suggested and the ideas start to flow again.

You can do brainstorming on your own by writing down ideas over a period of time, while you go about your daily work. Keeping a notebook near you will enable you to write down odd thoughts and ideas as they come to your mind and that otherwise can easily be lost. Keeping this by your bed will sometimes help you capture the thoughts you have when half asleep, which can sometimes bring fresh insight to a problem.

An alternative strategy is to hold a negative brainstorming session where everyone has to suggest ideas to make a situation worse! Afterwards the negative ideas are looked at and the team try to see corresponding positive ideas that might be useful in actually solving the problem.

There are computer programs available, such as ThoughtPath and BrainStorm, to help with this brain-storming process which you might find worth looking at to see if they suit you. The ideas are recorded on the computer and the programme allows linking in a way similar to a mind map (see page 49). Microsoft OneNote, although not strictly brainstorming software, encourages non-linear thinking, which can be helpful in this kind of environment.

Scenario writing

This is a problem-solving tool where you develop a picture of the future. The scenario should be a logical outgrowth of current or recent events and should develop and predict future outcomes. As you gather and integrate information into a future scenario it may develop into a programme for solving a current problem.

It may, for example, provide insights into the ways in which a situation might develop. The scenario may help to pinpoint critical areas that may need changing to alter an undesirable ‘future’, or to discover some areas that need building on to promote a desirable ‘future’. The very act of ‘telling the story’ may generate ideas about problems not so far foreseen or, more helpfully, trigger new ideas about solving ones already known about. It may even provide a new slant on situations currently regarded as problems and allow you to see them as potential assets instead.

Another slant to this technique is to describe the best possible outcome and write a story, however unreal or ‘unthinkable’, in which the outcome actually happens. It is sometimes described as ‘thinking the unthinkable’.

Means-ends analysis

This technique was developed to allow a computer to solve mathematical problems by identifying the difference between current information on a problem and the information needed to solve the problem. A reduced version of this can be used as a more-general problem-solving tool. If you have a problem where the solution is fairly obvious but the means by which that solution is to be achieved is difficult, you can start with the answer and then ‘write backwards’ to develop a picture (or several possible pictures) of how the answer could be reached.

For example, the answer to a production problem may be that a particular piece of equipment must be available for a month in June or July. This may be difficult because of cost, other users, lack of staff expertise on the equipment, unreliability of the equipment, etc. Starting from the ‘end’ (i.e. that piece of equipment is the only answer to the problem) you plan backwards towards a solution that overcomes the obstacles.

Decision aids

Sometimes the problem is to decide between a number of options, and some of the more common tools for that are given below.

Cost-benefit analysis

When choosing between several different potential solutions to a problem it can be useful to look at the benefits and the costs involved and judge whether the cost incurred is worth the benefits gained.

More commonly, the cost and benefits will be a mixture of quality issues (such as life style, environmental impact) and quantity issues such as monetary cost, or expressed as a scientific measurement, such as faults per thousand in a production line.

Decision tree

A decision tree is a diagrammatic representation of a series of choices and the paths and outcomes to which they lead. It displays the inter-relationship between the elements of the problem. Like a tree the diagram starts from a single base or trunk (the decision node) and branches at each point where a possible pathway diverges (probability nodes) until the various end points are reached at terminal nodes (at the ends of the ‘twigs’). These end points show the possible outcomes or pay-offs that might result from taking that pathway or branch.

Feasibility matrix

This is a technique for deciding between a set of options, possible solutions or strategies. The attractiveness of an idea or option under consideration is set against its feasibility. Each idea or option is rated high, medium or low on each variable. The most promising are obviously those that score highly on both ratings.

An example of a feasibility matrix is given below.

Exercise 1.4 Taking a course of study and changing your priorities in life has cost benefits. Produce a cost-benefit analysis of the course you are undertaking, or thinking of undertaking. For example getting a First-Class Honours degree or captaining a University sports team will have costs and benefits which are useful to identify. One could be at the cost of the other!

How are you doing?

Exercise 1.5 From time to time it is useful to check on how well you are using all your abilities and all the techniques you know to solve a problem. Use the table below to consider ‘How are you doing?’ with a specific problem you have at present, using the questions to check this out. (It would be useful to you if this were a study-skills problem.)

QUESTIONS	NOTES AND COMMENTS
Problem What do I want to achieve? Have I defined the problem in sufficient detail? How will I know when I have achieved my aims?
Solutions Have I considered all the solutions? Have I considered all the techniques? Have I made use of all my qualities and skills?
Selection Have I consciously selected the best solution? Have I made a plan of what, where, when…? Does it solve the problem?
Evaluation Have I achieved my aims (solved the problem)? Could the solution be improved?

 

© Copyright MechAero and R Gregory 2005

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