Problem Solving Made Easy

Valentina Pazienza

• Editore: HOW2 Edizioni
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9788893055314
• Argomento: Business
• Categoria: Decision Making

Problem Solving is the Art of Solving Problems, from the greatest to the smallest. Even if it is born in the business field, as a manager doctrine, today Problem Solving can be extended to everyone, to help those who practiceit to live better, by facing everyday life in a better way. Basically, what we are proposing you in this book is Problem Solving as a way of life. Knowing how to solve problems is a very precious gift that not everyone has: in fact, many people get lost in the classic glass of water. Does one born Problem Solver or is it possible to become one?
Well, let’s say that having a practical approach to things is a positive attitude, it helps to face problems with more ease so surely there is who has more attitude towards this art. But everything can be apprehended, so it is also possible to become a Problem Solver: it is just a matter of attitude and mentality, technique and practicing.
One needs to get used to Problem Solving and believe in it as if it is a religion. Experience helps too: little by little, as you behave like a problem solver you naturally adopt an increasingly positive attitude that can enforce the personality and the self-esteem. Improving the quality of your life. In the long run, like magic, Problem Solving will keep you far from problems because you will individuate them and destroy them, if not even prevent them! Do you understand the importance of this doctrine and its potentiality even in private life? So, thanks to this book, not only you will become very talented in solving your problems at home and at work, but you will also be able to solve brilliantly other people’s problems. Just like Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction: “ I am Mr. Wolf, I solve problems ”. Do you remember? P.S. This manual is suitable for everyone, from the manager to the housewife. The mood is light and the language is simple; it is full of practical examples and funny. THANKS TO THIS BOOK YOU WILL LEARN: What is Problem Solving
The secrets of Strategic Problem Solving
How to turn a problem in an opportunity
How to turn a difficulty into an advantage
How to turn a weakness into a strength
How to avoid or face and overcome the obstacles
How to individuate, frame and analyse the problem
How to never lose lucidity and get panicked
How pick the best solution among many
How to not let other people influence you
How to not be afraid to make mistakes
How to not get immobilized from the fear of failing
The secrets of Problem Solving at work
The secrets of Problem Solving in love
The secrets of Problem Solving in the family
How to face health problems
The secrets of the smart and fast thought
The secrets of Think Different
The art of visualization
How to face an unsolvable problem And much more!

1.WHAT IS PROBLEM SOLVING

1.1. Problem Solving in history: from Stoic philosophy onwards

The famous Hungarian mathematician G. Polya affirmed that solving a problem was comparable to finding a way to achieve a goal by avoiding the obstacle that prevents an imminent solution.

The many methods of Problem Solving and the wide studies about it were born from the interest for such a subject by several scholars of different fields that took care of Problem Solving under different aspects.

However, we can set the story of Problem Solving about 2000 years ago, in Stoic philosophy. Stoicism is a Greek philosophical movement of which have been part some great historical characters, like, presidents, artists and kings such as the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and laid the foundation of some concepts who are crucial to obtain a good outcome of Problem Solving.

Stoic philosophers had the ability to find the bright sigh even in the worst of situations and, in fact, they said that an obstacle can be turned in a new opportunity. This concept is best explained by the words of Marco Aurelio who says:

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

(Marcus Aurelius)

According to these philosophical movement it is also true that happiness depends on the imperturbability of the spirit (ataraxia), that means to act on our emotions and let be ruled by logic; it is possible to control just ourselves and not the external events to whom we cannot rely on.

Stoic philosophers believed that each one of us is able to tangle with different difficulties of life by nature.

The emperor Marcus Aurelius (26 April 121 – 17 March 180)

The uneasiness that we feel sometimes may be useful to show us the presence of a difficulty but it doesn’t mean that this is the problem, even if it is an obstacle to us. The emotions that prevent the activation of a problem’s resolution process can’t be simply erased, though; it is therefore necessary to understand them and to learn how to manage them and, probably, this will necessarily cause a change.

According to Stoic philosophy there is no good or evil but it’s just a matter of how the thing is perceived. That’s when a person can intervene on the situation, by controlling the perception that he has of it and, consequently, his reaction.

Marcus Aurelius helps us once again with one of his famous quotes in which affirms that the affliction that seems to come from something outside us, actually, is not because of this but to the evaluation that we do of it; hence the possibility to avoid this distress by removing our evaluation.

There is another subject that dealt with Problem Solving and is deeply related with Philosophy: Psychology.

In Psychology, Problem Solving is described as some kind of reprogramming on a cognitive level, that happens when you’re not aware of a way to solve the problem, whose purpose is to turn the problematic situation in a more functional goal to pursue.

The problem causes a state of imbalance and tension in the person who may try several casual behaviors to restore it (resolution per trial and error) or achieve the solution through an intelligent behavior (resolution per insight), which is, by using the perception of the right relations between the sides of a problem. In this way, the person can see the answer that ignored before thanks to a reorganization of the perceptual field. According to this Gestalt vision of the problem the creative solution is the insight, which is the new form given to the problem thanks to a mental renovation of the its space.

Problems that needs a creative solution are unexpectedly solved instead of the ones where is used a reproductive strategy, which means using previously learned experiences, and the solution is reached gradually.

According to the psychological movement HIP (Human Information Processing) the area of the problem is a set of states: baseline, intermediate and a final one that coincides with the solution. This last one is represented by all the possible actions that can lead to the remedy of a certain problem (The General Problem Solver of Newell and Simon).

One of the main Italian experts of cognitive processes, Gaetano Kanizsa, dedicated his research mainly in the field of perceptual processes and starting from a theoretical basis of the Gestalt psychology concluded that a problem is a “psychological product” (Kanisza G.) since it exists if and only there’s someone who lives a given circumstance as problematic and as a source of discomfort. So according to Kanizsa, the problem exists only when there’s a mind that creates it.

Studies have also found another way used by the people to cope with the problems which is defined “by analogy”.

Following this method, for example, the subject uses a known source to develop a helpful strategy to solve a new problem that turns out to be similar to the known situation.

The person by acknowledging the similarity creates a scheme of the matches which will allow to transfer the skills previously acquired on the new situation.

The method, though, works only if the solver is able to recognise the similarities between two problematic situations.

Problem Solving was already a trend between the mid-1940’s and 1960’s but recently its use is newly affirmed in different areas and is generally ide...