“We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

You will face multiple challenges in your student life and professional journey, which you must overcome using effective problem-solving skills. Let’s understand why it is important to instil them, how these skills can help you scale new heights during your academic life and throughout your career and other interesting information.

Key highlights

• Why solving problems and making decisions is crucial for students?
• Problem-solving techniques for personal and professional growth
• Know the problem
• Identify the obstacles
• Finding the perfect solution
• Its time to take action
• Some problem-solving examples

Why solving problems and making decisions is crucial for students?
Today you are an academic aspirant, but tomorrow when you are employed, you will play an important role in nation-building. When addressing issues, you need to use your creative and critical thinking to make efficient decisions.

Here’s how problem-solving skills can assist you:

• Your willingness to find solutions will encourage you to think out-of-the-box. Also, it will trigger curiosity to analyse the challenge and find its root cause to eliminate it.
• As a student, you will participate in various extra-curricular activities and competitions. You will also be expected to work on projects, dissertations, and practicals to showcase your talent. When working on multiple tasks, you are bound to face challenges. With the right mindset and skill set, you can destroy all the problems and be victorious.
• Post-completion of your studies, you will work in a professional set-up. In that environment, you will face problems such as decreased productivity, performance issues, etc. As a leader and manager, you are expected to resolve these issues to meet the organisational goals.

Problem-solving techniques for personal and professional growth
With these techniques, you can find innovative solutions to some of the most pestering problems.

• Know the problem

You can be trying to address a single issue or minor problems leading to one big mess. Identifying the core issue is essential to solving it. Therefore, conduct thorough research to know the reasons and the root cause of the problem. Furthermore, you can communicate the problem with your peers better if you know the situation.

• Identify the obstacles

Looking at the issue in piecemeal to understand its various facets is essential. This will simplify the process as one big problem will now be divided, making it easier to clearly visualise every element of the issue.

• Finding the perfect solution

When coming up with an innovative solution, you must be able to weigh the pros and cons. Once you find a way out of the problem, there will be certain scenarios that can change. Hence, when you formulate a solution, ensure you adapt, foresee the risks, and consider micro and macro elements that will influence your decision.

• Its time to take action

Once you find the best possible solution, you have to implement it as soon as possible. At this stage, you can devise a strategy to execute your plan. Also, if your peers are involved in this implementation stage, you have to communicate the same to them and ensure that the plan is flexible. Each member will be delegated their share of the activity.

Some problem-solving examples

• You realise your desktop research is insufficient to complete the group project. But you can’t figure out where the problem lies. So, you list various aspects that you expect to cover and mark “✓” for sufficient information and “X” for insufficient information against each element. Now you have clarity about the problem areas that require additional offline research. Here you have correctly identified the issue.
• For further offline research, you decided to connect with one specific professor. However, they are unavailable due to unavoidable circumstances, which is an obstacle.
• So, you connect with your professor, who recommends an expert. In addition to this, you also collate information from the library. This enables you to be ready with all the details you need. This is your perfect solution.
• Since it is your group project, you delegate the work and successfully complete the task. Congratulations, mission accomplished!

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