Barriers of Problem Solving
Of course, not every problem is going to be as easy to solve as the next persons. But not only does this come down to the problem itself, but also the individual trying to solve it. We all have our flaws and faults and there’s nothing wrong with that, but when it comes to problem solving, solutions are not rewarded to those who think a certain way, or have a certain outlook on life. Instead, solutions are granted to those who think rationally, without bias and learn from mistakes and past experiences to help themselves and others in the future.
One of the most obvious barriers to solving a problem is bias, particularly Confirmation Bias. Confirmation bias is an unintentional bias, which affects the way in which we collect and interpret things like numerical data. This means that people will come up with solutions for problems, however the solutions at hand will be biased towards their understanding of the data and support their analysis and understanding, rather than solving the entire issue at hand.
Another issue that arises when trying to come up with a solution to a problem is irrelevant information, and on the other hand information overload. Both of these are at different ends of the spectrum, and both are unhelpful. Many people will try to come up with a solution using the wrong information. This information is neither necessary nor relevant to the initial problem at hand. Meaning that the solution you can come with can be entirely pointless and doesn’t help one bit in solving your problem. In contrast to this, information overload is the exact opposite. Too much information can also be an issue as it over-complicates the problem. If our parent learnt that the child was only misbehaving in a certain class, then that narrows it down to a specific location, with a specific group of people. What the parent would need to know in this situation would be the teacher and a few classmates. Irrelevant information would mean not knowing any of this, or knowing the wrong class. Information overload would mean knowing every little detail about everyone in the class, gaining too much information, and trying to make conclusions and connections that aren’t helpful to the problem at hand.
There are many barriers we can face when we try to solve a problem. Many distractions and red herrings. But keeping a clear, unbiased focus on the actual problem at hand, as well as following the seven steps can go a long way to help you fix that problem efficiently, and effectively.