Problem Solving & Decision Making
SOLVE eX
A structured way to work a problem from a clear picture of where you are to a solution carried out, in six phases and 21 steps, with the questions and thinking tools that serve each step.
Articulating the Current State
Before solving anything, define where you stand: describe the situation, write the problem statement, and frame the situation, because a misidentified problem wastes the work that follows.
Blueprint Optimization Framework
A one-sheet method for turning an idea into a workable solution: its pros and cons, a checkpoint to proceed or reconsider, repairs and enhancements, borrowed strengths, stakeholders, risks, requirements, a roadmap, and review.
Causal Chain Breaker
Trace each suspected cause back through its chain of reasons and stop at the first link where you have the control and resources to act, then compare the chains to choose where to start solving.
Collaborative Conversation Navigator
Ten rules for running dialogue inside a group decision, where the aim is to understand one another rather than to win or agree, from setting the ground rules to listening without trying to change minds.
Collective Idea Explorer
A group ideation tool in which each person writes ideas alone, others build on them anonymously, and the group sorts, extends, and scores the results, with the four worksheets to run it.
Collective Objective Builder
Eight steps, alternating group discussion and private reflection, that turn a team's shared and personal reasons into one goal statement, checked against the organization's goals and each member's own.
Conducting Follow-Up and Taking Feedback
How to check the running solution against its goals and turn feedback into corrections, prevention, and continuous improvement: four purposes and the practices behind them, 60 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Constructive Contrarian Guide
How to use a devil's advocate well: brief the group on the role, choose a respected challenger or a separate group, have them test every assumption behind the proposals, and revise the proposals in response.
Context Clarity Navigator
A tool for deciding whether you face a problem, an issue, or an opportunity, then setting the main situation against a second view to find the overlap, the differences, and what could resolve it.
Conversation Convergence Process
A structured exchange for two people whose conflict grows out of misunderstanding: each states a view, the other repeats it back and asks questions, and a chart records where they agree and where they still differ.
Crafting Solutions for the Future State
How to shape ideas for the future the organization is heading into, not only the problem in front of it: ten concepts for anticipative solutions, 74 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Creating an Abundant Inventory of Divergent Ideas
The phase that generates options without judging them yet: check whether going back would solve the problem, form ideas expansively, craft solutions for the future state, and refine them until they can be evaluated.
Creating an Action Plan
How to turn the chosen solution into tasks with owners, milestones, deadlines, and resources that fit the organization as it is: ten concepts, 73 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Critical Consensus Constructor
How a group reaches a decision every member will commit to, where consensus means the best solution under the circumstances rather than unanimous agreement, with seven stages and a record sheet for the agreement.
Critical Question Mapping
Brainstorm questions instead of ideas, then sort, screen, and rank them from broad to specific to find the few that matter most for your situation, with fifty ready-made questions to draw on.
Defining the Desired Objective
Before building any solution, say what success looks like: find the reasons to resolve, write the goal statement, and establish the requirements, so the goal gives direction and a benchmark for judging solutions.
Defining the Evaluation Criteria
How to set the criteria every option will be judged against before judging any of them: seven concepts for choosing and weighting criteria, 43 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Delphi Forecasts and Predictions
How to run a Delphi forecast: an anonymous panel of experts answers in rounds, sees the group's summarized answers, and revises until the forecasts converge, with the five phases and the questionnaires to use.
Describing the Situation
The first step of problem-solving: a brief background description of the situation that captures its characteristics, extent, and possible effects, and what makes it unlike other problems, with eighty questions to draw on.
Designing and Testing the Solution
How to design the chosen solution with its users early and test it for fatal flaws before full-scale rollout: five concepts, 59 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Dynamic Feedback Mapper
A checklist for designing how feedback is gathered and used after a solution goes in: who to hear from, what to measure, which tools to use, and how to keep feedback honest, in 25 prompts across three groups.
Ease-Impact Assessment Matrix
A quick way to rank options by their impact and their ease of implementation on a 1 to 9 grid, so the low-hanging fruit stands out, with the grid, the worksheet, and a worked example.
Effort Justification Meter
A ten-question scorecard a team fills in to decide whether work already under way should proceed, be postponed, or halt, with the questions to score and the averages that frame the discussion.
Establishing the Requirements
How to establish the requirements every acceptable solution must meet: the deliverables, aligned with the goal, prioritized, measurable, and feasible, with eight concepts and seventy-three questions to draw on.
Evaluating the Inventory of Options
The phase that chooses among the options with rigor rather than habit: define the criteria first, select the decision tools that fit, then validate the chosen solution's impact and execution before acting on it.
Executing the Chosen Solution
The phase that turns a validated decision into results: design and test the solution, create the action plan, implement it while adapting, and follow up on the outcome with feedback that keeps improving it.
Expansive Idea Formation
How to fill the inventory with as many ideas as possible before judging any of them: ten concepts for generating options widely, 74 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Experimental Innovation Cycle
How to test a new idea as a business experiment, from the innovation goal and the hypothesis to the insights and the next test, treating each failure as something learned, in seven steps and eleven stages.
Facts About the Future
How to gather facts about the future: the ideal outcome, the trends and risks ahead, and the scenarios they suggest, so the solution suits the world it will land in, with ten concepts and seventy-four questions.
Finding the Current Facts
How to gather the facts about the problem as it stands now, from the right sources and checked for accuracy, without collecting so much that you cannot decide, with nine concepts and seventy-eight questions.
Finding the Past Facts
How to gather the history behind a problem: the trends, changes, past decisions, and earlier attempts that led to the current situation, and the lessons in them, with nine concepts and seventy-five questions.
Finding the Reasons to Resolve
Why resolve the problem at all: how to find, expand, and rank the purposes behind solving it, so the goal serves the organization's aims, with six concepts and seventy-four questions to draw on.
FOCUS Ideation
A five-column chart for complex, long-term problems: the foundation as it stands, the objective for each element, the constraints in the way, deeper understanding of each, and the strategies that answer them.
Framing the Situation
How to frame a problem in its broader context, since problems are rarely isolated: nine concepts for seeing the continuum a problem sits on, and seventy-six questions, among them thirteen named frames.
Heads-or-Tails Gut-Check
A coin flip used to read your own intuition when two choices seem equally good: assign each to a side, flip, and notice whether the result relieves you or makes you want to flip again.
Holistic Perspective Harmonizer
A fill-in table that restates the problem from the solver's view, the view of those affected, an outsider's, an opponent's, and a neutral one, then consolidates them into a single problem statement.
Holistic Perspective Toolkit
A bank of 142 who, what, where, when, why, and how questions for seeing a situation from every angle, written for the present and reworded for the past or the future when you need those views.
Holistic Systems Mapper
A map of the process at the center of a problem and everything around it, from the elements it touches to the market it sits in, in twelve layers, each with its questions, techniques, and the attributes it affects.
Horizon Explorer
A futures worksheet: what you think is possible, what is probable, and what you would prefer, checked against each other, then twenty questions about challenges, customers, goals, and the forces that will shape your market.
Impact-Focused Problem Approach
How to break a large problem into parts and work them one at a time, starting with the part that has the most impact, with a worksheet for the problem, the goal, the ranked parts, and the dates each was done.
Implementing the Action Plan
How to carry out a plan knowing no plan is flawless: seven concepts for reviewing, adjusting, and documenting the plan as it runs, 82 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the step.
Layered Actions Breakdown
How to turn a goal into the tasks that achieve it by asking "How?" of each objective and then of each answer, three to five times, until every task is listed, with a breakdown to fill in.
Learning the Facts and Data
Gather the facts before generating ideas: what is true now, how the situation got here, the system it sits in, and what is coming, so the solutions rest on evidence rather than assumption.
Mapping the System Around the Problem
How to map the system a problem sits in (its processes, structure, technology, culture, outside forces, and stakeholders), so a fix in one place does not break another, with ten concepts and fifty-nine questions.
Perspective Pivot Workshop
A reframing matrix for making sure you are solving the right problem: nine questions that turn the problem around, then nine dimensions, each with its shift, an example, and the insight it should yield.
Prioritized Purpose Planner
List every reason for solving the problem as a purpose that starts with "To," score and sort the purposes, expand the top one, then write a goal statement and three to five sub-goals that support it.
Priority-Based Requirements Matrix
Sort every requirement of an idea or solution into four levels, from mandatory to not required, so the team agrees on what any solution must deliver, what it should, and what it must leave out.
Refining Ideas Into Practical Solutions
How to turn rough ideas into solutions specific and practical enough to be judged: eight concepts for refining the inventory, 70 questions to pick from, and the tool that serves the last step of idea work.
Root Causes and the Case for Going Back
Before inventing anything new, test whether returning to an earlier state would solve the problem: ten concepts for weighing a reversion, 71 questions to pick from, and the tools that serve the step.
Selecting the Right Decision Tools
How to choose the method that fits the decision instead of the one you always use: seven concepts for selecting decision tools, a catalog of 74 to pick from, and three tools for reaching a group decision.
Thinking Tools
Several hundred thinking tools from management, decision science, engineering, negotiation, and systems thinking, each credited to the people who devised it and filed under the step of SOLVE eX where it does its work.
Validating Impact and Execution
How to check a chosen solution before committing to it: six concepts for validating its feasibility, impact, risk, alignment, and support, 67 questions to pick from, and a gut check that bookends the analysis.
Writing the Goal Statement
How to write the goal statement: a clear, concise description of the desired outcome that aligns with the business, guides solutions, and measures success, with six concepts and seventy-six questions to draw on.
Writing the Problem Statement
How to write the problem statement: a clear, concise, and specific sentence that directs everyone's thinking toward the core issue, with the techniques, pitfalls, and seventy-eight questions that sharpen it.