This is a summary of the conversation between McKinsey’s Raju Narisetti & Sheen Iyengar, Professor at Columbia Business School on her book Think Bigger – How to Innovate. She shares her research into problem-solving and how decision-making affects innovation.
The book lists six steps that help solve any problem. The practices used to teach people to be creative seem very old and not in tune with recent advances. We still recommend daydreaming or brainstorming to generate ideas to help solve a problem. From the current knowledge of how our minds work, there are better methods than brainstorming to generate new ideas. This book discusses six distinct steps that one can follow to create an idea to solve the problem faced.
- Choose the right problem
- Break the identified problem into sub-components.
- Ask what is the problems solving for.
- Search both in and out of the box.
- Choice mapping.
- The third eye
Choose the right problem.
It is important to identify the right problem as well as articulate it in a way that the problem is clearly stated and the desired outcome is focused and well-defined. We must spend time understanding the problem and the underlying causes that led to it. Quite often we tend to solve that problem that is visible, that is superficial and try to solve it without digging deeper. It is important to identify the root problem and then find the reasons behind it to get a permanent fix.
Break the identified problem into subcomponents.
Once the problem statement has been identified, you break it down into various subcomponents so that each can be solved independently and then integrated in a manner that helps solve the main problem we began with.
You can always identify a million issues that could have led to the problem and you cannot solve all of them. What is important is to identify four or five core issues to be solved that would solve 80% of the problem. Focus on these high-priority issues to arrive at possible solutions.
Ask what is the problem solving for.
Once the problem has been defined and its causes listed down and prioritised, it is easy to rush into searching for solutions or alternatives. These are just the beginning of understanding the problem better and it is at this stage that we should pause, step back and ask ourselves what would be the best solution and how do you identify if the solution would make it better or worse. think about the problem in broad terms, how the solution should be and how we evaluate the efficacy of the solution.
Search both in and out of the box.
Once you are clear about your goal, start your ideation process. Out-of-the-box thinking requires that you search far and wide across organisations, industries and timespans on how such problems were solved. Aggregate these strategies and then analyse their suitability for the problem you are trying to solve. Use these ideas, and adopt them to solve your problem.
Choice mapping.
Choice mapping is a more deliberate approach to identifying the ideal solution and it is more efficient. It helps you bring together all the details about your choices so that you can review them and make informed choices. It improves decision-making by considering all the possibilities and provides greater clarity to your final choice.
Third-eye.
Once the solution has been defined, it is best to test it out by presenting it to a third person who was not part of this problem-solving process and asking him/her for feedback about the solution concerning the problem being addressed. The purpose is to learn what others see or experience as the solution is presented.
These steps help you identify the core problem to be solved and also the ideal solution that would solve the root cause of the problem.
Why problem-solving is the key to innovation
McKinsey Author talks
McK 2023/06
R2G 