Problem Solving Vs. Decision making

 Problem Solving Vs. Decision making 

(Emotional Management for Personal & Professional Growth Series)

 

In the last few weeks, we have discussed some aspects of emotions that affect the quality of decisions. First, we need awareness about emotions. Second, we need to develop structured problem-solving capability, which to some extent, will help us not to get into the trap of emotional bias in decision making.
 
What is meant by problem-solving?

Problem-solving is an analytical process to solve the problem. It is more of a structured way of solving the issues.
 
The problem could be making decisions on the complex business problems like

Should i invest in a new business or not?
Which candidate i recruit, candidate A or Candidate B? 
How much inventory do I need to keep to manage the uncertainty?
How should I select the stock as there are plenty of options in the market?
 
In all the above examples, you have a choice to go ahead with impulsive, emotional decisions or you have an option to apply a structured problem-solving process. Both choices will have an impact on the quality of decisions.
 
Problem-solving is a process of understanding the facts, removing unnecessary noises in the data, looking for patterns or insights or root causes, making the right actions and implementing the actions, and looking for evidence of improvement.
 
Problem-solving vs. decision making
 
Problem-solving is a process, and decision-making is an outcome of problem-solving. Both are interrelated. 
 
If we couple analytical problem solving and decision making, there is a high chance that we are making the right decisions as it is a logical or rational approach than emotional.

Why is problem-solving capability important?
 
One of the prime responsibilities of a manager or leader is making impactful decisions at the right time. Quality of decision-making will improve only when they learn the art of solving the problem in a structured way, particularly for all chronic or complex business challenges.
The World economic forum lists problem-solving competency as one of the Top 5 competencies for the 21^st century. I remembered that the forum survey reported that professionals with problem-solving capability would have more demand and be paid high in the job market.
As i observed, many leaders in organizations who possess excellent problem-solving capabilities will run the organization more effectively than those who lack the same.

Problem-solving and decision-making are competencies each manager and leader to develop for professional growth.
 
Let us discuss the following insights in the next few weeks.
 
The process of problem solving and steps involved ; 
The myth of the problem-solving approach
The skillset required for problem-solving
Methods of developing the problem-solving competency as an individual and organization
 
Have a great week ahead.