Problems are the spice of life at work! They’re the situations that take us out of the day-to-day grind and give us a challenge to work on. If you’re not a confident problem-solver, of course, problems can be stressful and feel like opportunities for failure. But with the right methodology, you can turn problem-solving into a repeatable, reliable process that makes you a winner.
I want to emphasize that this chapter is about problem-solving, not troubleshooting. I do realize those terms seem to be awfully alike, though, so I want to take a moment to differentiate:
Troubleshooting, in my mind, is a technical activity. It happens when something is not working properly and you are seeking to restore proper operation. Troubleshooting has a fixed and definite outcome: restoring whatever is broken to its proper functionality.
Problem-solving, for me, is not necessarily a technical activity. It can happen between people and between businesses, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate that something is broken—merely that something isn’t working the way you or the other party most want it to. The outcome of problem-solving is often subjective; there isn’t always a fixed solution to aim for, but a spectrum of possible solutions, each with various trade-offs.