While it might seem like some people are just born with stronger problem-solving skills, there are strategies that anyone can use to improve them. That’s right, it’s possible to significantly enhance your abilities in this area – and the best part is, most of these activities are fun!
What Are the Different Types of Problem-Solving Skills?
Defining the Problem: Deeply understanding a problem through research, leading to better solutions
- Brainstorming: Creating a myriad of new solutions quickly
- Analyzing: Using disciplined thought processes to evaluate each possible solution
- Managing Emotions: Applying emotional intelligence in order to improve your and your team members’ ability to think clearly
Keep an “Idea Journal” with You
Record important thoughts, write down personal experiences, make sketches, and explore ideas
Use Mind Maps to Help Visualize the Problem
Make a Mind Map by drawing your problem as the central idea, then add “main branches” consisting of all the reasons for the problem, “sub-branches” to explore further details, and finally, a final branch with the most suitable solution for the main problem
Play Some Soccer
A link has been found between our brain’s “executive functions” and sports success
- When in action, our brains are quickly multitasking between moving, anticipating, strategizing, reacting, and performing
- This can be related to our working world when we plan, reason, monitor, take actions, and problem-solve all at once
Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep directly enhances creative processing in the brain.
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Work out to some tunes
When listening to music while working out, participants more than doubled their scores on verbal fluency tests in contrast to when exercising in silence.
Eat Some Cheerios (And Then Think About It)
When it comes to experiencing tension while trying to solve a problem, cling to those around you. Rely on others’ experiences and ideas, even those from different career fields. Draw connections. Work together to get the job done.
Dance Your Heart Out
Improvised dancing may facilitate convergent thinking
Work out your brain with logic puzzles or games
The winning strategy when playing chess, Sudoku, a Rubik’s Cube, or other brain-boosting games is to work the problem backward
- This can also apply to realistic strategic-thinking situations
- Practice logic puzzles and other games
Create “Psychological Distance”
According to the construal level theory (CLT), it’s “anything that we do not experience as occurring now, here, and to ourselves.”
