analytical listening in problem solving answer key

English 10 Quarter 1 – Module 6: Analytical Listening in Problem Solving

This module was designed and written with you in mind. Primarily, its scope is to teach you how to employ your analytical listening skills in problem solving.

While going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Listen analytically to messages from audio materials.

2. Evaluate texts through analytical listening in terms of accuracy and validity.

3. Use analytical listening in problem solving.

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4 Effective Steps to Use Analytical Listening in Problem Solving

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Analytical listening is a technique that can be used to identify different elements of a problem and find potential solutions. It involves breaking down a problem into smaller components and examining each part individually. In this article, we’ll take a look at what analytical listening is and what steps you can take to use analytical listening in problem-solving.

Learn and learn on the go!

Why is analytical listening important in problem-solving?

Analytical listening helps us understand the root cause of problems and find better solutions.

Listening with analytical thinking is important because it enables us to assess what we are hearing, whether information makes sense, how well data fits together, and if there might be a solution to the problem.

How can analytical listening help in our daily lives?

Because analytical listening allows you to assess what you are hearing before making judgments or taking action, this skill has many uses for day-to-day communication.

It can improve self-awareness when you ask yourself questions such as:

• “What am I interpreting from the speaker’s words and body language?”
• “Does this make sense? Does it fit in with what I know?”
• “What emotions am I experiencing right now, and are they affecting what I am hearing?”
• “What are some potential solutions to this problem?”

It can help you in your daily interactions by allowing you to clarify information that is important for making decisions. For example, analytical listening could be used when speaking with clients about their opinions on how well a product worked during testing.

You would ask analytical questions such as:

• “How did using our product compare to other products you have tried before?”.
• “What did you like about our product?”
• “What are some areas you think we could improve?”
• “Based on your experience, what do you think would be a good solution to this issue?”.

The client’s answers to these questions can help your team understand what worked well and what could use improvement.

This allows clients who may not be very descriptive about their experiences an opportunity to share more details so both parties can come up with solutions together. It also gives the option of asking questions if there is any confusion.

Here’s an audio tutorial covering 20+ probing questions you can ask your customers. Check it out!

Importance of analytical listening in daily communication

Analytical listening can positively impact your life because it helps you solve problems, improve relationships with people around you , and become a better problem solver.

Analytical listening is the process of focusing on what others are saying without being emotionally involved or reacting instantly to their words.

It allows us to listen attentively, avoid interruptions, and acknowledge our thoughts and those of other people during communication. This focus also gives us time to better understand issues from various angles, which ultimately leads to more effective solutions.

4 Steps to Use Analytical Listening in Problem Solving

Now that we understand what analytical listening is and why it’s important, let’s look at four steps you can use to use analytical listening during problem-solving effectively.

The following four steps will help you:

• Understand the problem
• Identify the root cause of the problem
• Come up with potential solutions
• Evaluate and implement

Step One: Understand the problem

When we listen carefully, we can understand the full extent of the problem. We may hear things we overlooked before. This is especially important when trying to solve a complex issue. By understanding all the details, we can develop a better plan for solving it.

Let’s examine a common scenario at work. Your colleague comes to you with a problem and asks for your help. If you don’t listen carefully, you may not understand the full extent of the problem. This can lead to frustration on both sides. If the issue is not resolved, it can affect your working relationship and performance.

But if you listen carefully, you’ll be able to understand the full extent of the problem and create a better plan for solving it because you have all the necessary information.

Step Two: Identify the root cause of the problem

Once we understand the problem, we need to identify the root cause. This can be challenging, especially if there are multiple causes. However, analytical listening helps us to focus on the most important issues.

The root cause is the underlying reason for a problem. It’s often not obvious, and it can take some time to find it. But, once we identify the root cause, we can develop a better solution.

Let’s go back to the scenario where your colleague comes to you with a problem. If analytical listening was used, both of you would have already understood the full extent of the issue, and there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings or frustrations about what was wrong.

Step Three: Generate potential solutions

Once we have a complete understanding of the problem, it’s time to come up with some solutions. Brainstorming is an effective way to generate potential ideas quickly. We can also sort through these options and choose which ones are most appropriate for solving the specific problem at hand.

In the example with the colleague, analytical listening helps you come up with creative and effective ideas because all the necessary information is available to you.

Step Four: Evaluate and implement

We’ve gathered information from analytical listening and asked questions that help us understand the root causes of problems to identify potential solutions. Finally, it’s time to decide on one solution that will solve our problem effectively.

In the example with your colleague, analytical listening will help you evaluate and implement solutions because you can focus on the most appropriate options.

These steps can be used independently or together as part of a comprehensive problem-solving strategy!

Improve your listening skills and transform the way you communicate with customers!

Examples of analytical listening at work..

You’re in a meeting, and your manager asks for your opinion on a problem. You listen carefully to understand the full extent of the problem. You ask questions to get more information and identify the root cause. Based on this information, you develop a solution that you think will work best.

You’re working on a project, and you’ve hit a roadblock. Your colleague comes over to talk to you about it. After listening to your colleague’s explanation of the problem, you think about how you could approach solving it. You ask clarifying questions and then offer a potential solution.

You receive an email from your client asking for some information. You read the email carefully and identify the question that needs to be answered to move forward with a specific task. Based on this information, you write a response with the information your client needs.

How to improve your analytical listening skills

Practicing analytical listening will help you improve your communication skills, which are essential for success at work. Here are some practical tips to get started:

Practice active listening​​

It’s easy to focus on other things while someone else is talking, but it means that we’re not fully present during the conversation because our minds are somewhere else. Active listeners maintain eye contact with their conversational partners. They stay engaged during the entire discussion by asking relevant follow-up questions if necessary after they’ve heard everything that needs to be said.

Be aware of body language

Our words communicate our thoughts and ideas, but they don’t always tell the whole story. Our body language says a lot about how we feel. Even if you are saying the right words, your body language may communicate doubt or anger. When you’re listening to someone else, pay attention to their nonverbal cues so you can fully understand how they feel about a situation.

Ask clarifying question​s

The questions we ask to play a critical role in analytical listening. We need to ask the correct type of question to get the most accurate information. Ask open-ended and clarifying questions to ensure you’ve heard everything correctly.

Stay calm and patient​

When we’re stressed, it’s challenging to focus on anything else but our own problems. However, analytical listening requires us to be patient and listen attentively to understand the situation entirely. It’s also important not to judge or criticize ideas during brainstorming sessions.

Now that you understand how analytical listening can help you in many aspects of your life try to use analytical listening in problem-solving and see how much more effective you can be in your day-to-day activities.

Recommended Resources:

To keep learning and developing your listening skills, we recommend the following resources:

The Art of Listening: 8 Qualities That Make Great Listeners

Why Listening Is Important In Communication With Customers

The Power of Appreciative Listening: Definition, Examples, and Tips

Critical Listening: 4 Steps for Career Success

5 Types of Listening You Need to Know

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Quarter 1 - Module 5: Employ Analytical Listening in Problem Solving

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Quarter 1 – Module 5: Employ Analytical Listening in Problem Solving English – Grade 10Quarter 1 – Module 5 : Employ Analytical Listening in Problem SolvingFirst Edition, 2020

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English Quarter 1 – Module 5:Employ Analytical Listening in Problem Solving Introductory MessageFor the facilitator: Welcome to the English Grade 10 Module on Employing AnalyticalListening in Problem Solving! This module was collaboratively designed,developed and reviewed by educators to assist you, the teacher or facilitatorin helping the learners meet the standards set by the K to 12 Curriculumwhile overcoming their personal, social, and economic constraints inschooling.

This learning resource hopes to engage the learners into guided andindependent learning activities at their own pace and time. Furthermore,this also aims to help learners acquire the needed 21st century skills whiletaking into consideration their needs and circumstances.

For the learner:The following are some reminders in using this module:

1. Use the module with care. Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of the module. Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises.

2. Don’t forget to answer What I Know before moving on to the other activities included in the module.

3. Read the instruction carefully before doing each task.

4. Observe honesty and integrity in doing the tasks and checking your answers.

5. Finish the task at hand before proceeding to the next.

6. Return this module to your teacher/facilitator once you are through with it.

7. If you encounter any difficulty in answering the tasks in this module, do not hesitate to refer it to your teacher-adviser or subject teacher.

Always bear in mind that you are not alone. We, your teachers, in thebest of our abilities, are always in the service of transpiring qualityeducation under any circumstances. Your full cooperation and activeengagement in this module will surely equate to the success of thisendeavor. Let us continue working hand in hand in pursuit of continuouseducation!

ii Let Us Learn!

Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpretmessages in the communication. It is the key to all effectivecommunication and without it messages are easily misunderstood. Sothe question is “Are you a good listener?” You should be. In realitypeople tend to misunderstand each other because of the lack oflistening skills. If we learn and value this skill, we may achieveharmonious life with the people surrounding us.

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• analyze the meaning of the message using analytical listening; • employ analytical listening in the conversation; and • share one’s thought on how important it is to listen analytically.

1 Let Us Try!

Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on the blankbefore the number.

_______1. A type of listening that is all about feeling and meaning.

a. Critical Listening b. Analytical Listening c. Discriminative Listening d. Comprehensive Listening

_______2. “HELLO” on the surface seems friendly but the way they say hello to you can convey a lot of different meanings. What type of listening should we use?

_______3. This is the ability and the capacity to properly analyze what is being said.

_______4. The objective of this type of listening is to quickly see logical connections, as well as detecting possible gaps in all the information.

2 _______5. This type of listening helps bring balance to a conversation and process information objectively.

_______6. This is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

a. Writing b. Reading c. Speaking d. Listening

_______7. It is the key to all effective communication.

_______8. Without the ability to ______ effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.

a. Read b. Write c. Speak d. Listen

_______9. Listening requires both _____ and _____.

a. Focus and love b. Focus and effort c. Focus and action d. Focus and determination

______10. _______ means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body.

3 _______11. This is the most basic form of listening and does not involve the understanding of the meaning of words or phrases but merely the different sounds that are produced.

________12. To be able use _______listening and therefore gain understanding the listener first needs appropriate vocabulary and language skills.

_________13. This type of listening focus with the goal is to evaluate or scrutinize what is being said.

_________14. It develops through childhood and into adulthood.

__________15. This type of listening is complimented by sub-messages from non-verbal communication, such as the tone of voice, gestures and other body language.

4 Let Us Study

Analytical Listening Good listeners always strive to fully understand what others want tocommunicate, particularly when the statement lacks clarity. Listeningdemands, the attempt to decode and interpret verbal messages andnonverbal cues, like tone of voice, facial expressions, physical posture.Listening is a highly valued skill sought by all, for people with this abilityare more likely to understand tasks and projects, build strong relationships,and also be able to solve problems and resolve conflicts.

✓ The word “analytical” is defined as “using or skilled in using analysis”.

✓ Analytical listening is all about feeling and meaning. Sound gives us meaning and perspective in our lives. For example, someone talking to you can say hello. On the surface it seems friendly, but the way they say hello to you can convey a lot of different meanings. If they say it in a very short and abrupt way, it may be apparent that they are angry at you, not happy to see you.

✓ Analytical Listening helps bring balance to a conversation and process information objectively. In conversation with others, feeling plays an important role. Listening thoroughly and analytically makes it easier to reconstruct a situation and find a solution rationally. Complex problems are more easily understood, meaning a better prediction can be made as to which solution or method would be best.

An analytical listener is able to critically look at elements of aproblem and apply models to them. By distinguishing main problems frompartial problems, the analytic listener can collect a lot of information, thenresearch it. After collecting all of the data, the analytical listener will behighly able to make logical connections, detect the actual cause, andthink of fitting solutions.

5 Let Us Practice

Are you a dreamer? Do you keep your dreams only to yourself? Or do youshare your dreams with others? Despite the pandemic do you see yourselfachieving those dreams?

A. Before you listen to the song “Imagine” by John Lennon, complete its lyrics by filling out the lines with the correct word using the pictures below as clues.

Link of the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8

6 Imagine by John Lennon Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us only 1)________ Imagine all the people Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in 2.)_________

7 You may say I’m a 3.)________ But I’m not the only 4.)________ I hope someday you’ll join us And the 5.)_________will be as 6.)________

Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or 7.)________ A 8.)_______of man Imagine all the people

Sharing all the 9.)________ You may say I’m a 10.)________ But I’m not the only 11.)________ I hope someday you’ll join us And the 12.)________will live as 13.)_______

A. Check your answers with your family members while you listen to the song.B. Listen to the song for the second time and try to understand its message. Go over the words with your family members.C. Analyze the questions provided then answer them.

Questions Answer

1. What does the title mean?

2. What is Lennon’s vision of peace? Give examples.

3. What is your vision of peace? Is it the same with the author? Explain.4. What do you wish for?

8 5. What are you afraid of?

6. What kind of world will it be if we all live in peace?

Let Us Practice More

Task 1. In this activity you will listen to a story telling entitled “The Three Questions” by Leo Tolstoy and make use of you analytical listening to answer the following questions below. Link of the audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj5BcN6Blks

1.What message does the author like to imply? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

2. Answer the three questions concerning our situation today with the COVID-19. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

9 3. What is the emotion of the author? Justify. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Task 2. Now, you are expected to interpret the message of the song“Imagine” through a painting or drawing. Make your output colorful andcreative.

10 Criteria: Creativity----------------- 40% Interpretation ----------- 40% Originality --------------- 20% _________ 100%

Task 3. My Listening Journal Individually you will keep a personal journal of your listening activitiesfor a day. The journal should include brief descriptions of all the listeningsituations of what you have experienced during that day. It should alsoinclude your analysis like why did or did you not listen effectively in aspecific situation. As well as, share your strengths and weaknesses as alistener and what will you do to become a better listener.

_________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 11 _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Let Us Remember

Activity 2 In your own words share your thoughts on how important it is to listen analytically. (50 words only)

______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________

You just have accomplished!

12 Let Us Assess

TRUE OR FALSE. Read each statement below carefully. Place a T on the lineif you think a statement it TRUE. Place an F on the line if you think thestatement is FALSE.

________________1. Analytical Listening helps bring balance to a conversation and process information objectively.

_______________2. An analytical listener is able to critically look at elements of a problem and apply models to them.

_______________3. Listening thoroughly and analytically makes it hard to reconstruct a situation and find a solution rationally.

________________4. An analytic listener can collect a lot of information, then research it.

_______________5. Listening is not highly valued.

_______________6. Sound gives us meaning and perspective in our lives.

_______________7. Bad listeners always strive to fully understand what others want to communicate, particularly when the statement lacks clarity.

_______________8. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication.

_______________9. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

_______________10. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.

_______________11. Listening is key to all effective communication.

13 _______________12. Analytical listener will be highly able to make logical connections, detect the actual cause, and think of fitting solutions.

________________13. The word “analytical” is defined as “using or skilled in using analysis”.

________________14. Listening thoroughly and analytically makes it easier to reconstruct a situation and find a solution rationally.

________________15. Using comprehensive listening complex problems are more easily understood, meaning a better prediction can be made as to which solution or method would be best.

14 A job well done!

Let Us Enhance

Activity 3 Despite the pandemic we need to spread positivity through differentways. The most famous used app to share our positivity is TikTok. I knowyou are already familiar with it, for most of us used and seen videos fromthe app. This activity will allow you to make use of the app as a tool for youranalytical listening of the given song entitled “One Day” by Matisyahu.

15 Mechanics

1. Interpret the message of the song through dance and lip sync. 2. You need to upload the TikTok video in your facebook account with a hashtag #analyticallistening #myinterpretation #spreadingpositivity. 3. The video must gain a minimum of 100 likes to gain a perfect score. 4. Originality is the key.

16 Let Us Reflect

Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages inthe communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication.

Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easilymisunderstood.

Analytical Listening helps bring balance to a conversation andprocess information objectively. In conversation with others, feeling plays animportant role. Listening thoroughly and analytically makes it easier toreconstruct a situation and find a solution rationally. Complex problems aremore easily understood, meaning a better prediction can be made as towhich solution or method would be best.

17 18Assessment Pre- test1. T 1.b2. T 2.b3. F 3. b4. T 4. b5. F 5. b6. T 6. a7. F 7. a8. T 8. a9. T 9. c10.T 10. a11.T 11. c12.T 12. d13.T 13. a14.T 14. c15.F 15. d Answer key to Activities References

https://allibrero.com/mms172/critical-and-analytical-listening/https://www.thebalancecareers.com/types-of-listening-skills-with-examples-2063759https://www.toolshero.com/communication-skills/analytical-listening/https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/how-to-listen-part-3-analytical-and-critical-listening/https://www.music-production-guide.com/critical-listening.html

https://www.toolshero.com/communication-skills/analytical-listening/

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-skills.html

Images Source

Creative Common https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/ License: “CC BY-ND 2.0”

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Analytical Listening and Problem Solving

15 questions

Introducing new   Paper mode

No student devices needed.   Know more

Analytical listening is also called _____.

active listening

attentive listening

emphatic listening

creative listening

This stage focuses on generating meaning on what the listener just heard.

Receiving Stage

Evaluating Stage

Understanding Stage

Remembering Stage

This stage requires both the listener and speaker to meet in between regarding the points discussed.

This stage gives opportunity to the listener to give feedback on what they just heard.

Responding Stage

This stage refers to the process where the listener is hearing the message that is being delivered to them.

This stage is where it is up to the listener to integrate the information he/she just heard into memory.

In problem solving, the listener must first...

collect as much information they can

generate alternative solutions

analyze the problem

gather sources from different media

The first step in solving a problem is:

Develop a solution

Understand the problem

Reflect and review

Investigate and research the problem

Understanding the problem means:

Figuring out the problem.

Writing the steps to solve the problem.

Checking to see if the problem worked.

Thinking of solutions.

The final step to solving a problem is:

Develop a solution.

Investigate and research the problem.

Reflect and Review.

Being able to speak and write quickly or easily

Tying words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs together, to create a text where the relationships between these elements is clear and logical to the reader.

Specific vocabulary the writer uses to convey meaning and enlighten the reader

Refers to the mood implied by an author's word choice and the way that the text can make a reader feel

Refers to the use of certain words, word forms, and syntactic structures that meet the standards and conventions

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How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , Simon London speaks with Charles Conn, CEO of venture-capital firm Oxford Sciences Innovation, and McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin about the complexities of different problem-solving strategies.

Podcast transcript

Simon London: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , with me, Simon London. What’s the number-one skill you need to succeed professionally? Salesmanship, perhaps? Or a facility with statistics? Or maybe the ability to communicate crisply and clearly? Many would argue that at the very top of the list comes problem solving: that is, the ability to think through and come up with an optimal course of action to address any complex challenge—in business, in public policy, or indeed in life.

Looked at this way, it’s no surprise that McKinsey takes problem solving very seriously, testing for it during the recruiting process and then honing it, in McKinsey consultants, through immersion in a structured seven-step method. To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].

Charles and Hugo, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Hugo Sarrazin: Our pleasure.

Charles Conn: It’s terrific to be here.

Simon London: Problem solving is a really interesting piece of terminology. It could mean so many different things. I have a son who’s a teenage climber. They talk about solving problems. Climbing is problem solving. Charles, when you talk about problem solving, what are you talking about?

Charles Conn: For me, problem solving is the answer to the question “What should I do?” It’s interesting when there’s uncertainty and complexity, and when it’s meaningful because there are consequences. Your son’s climbing is a perfect example. There are consequences, and it’s complicated, and there’s uncertainty—can he make that grab? I think we can apply that same frame almost at any level. You can think about questions like “What town would I like to live in?” or “Should I put solar panels on my roof?”

You might think that’s a funny thing to apply problem solving to, but in my mind it’s not fundamentally different from business problem solving, which answers the question “What should my strategy be?” Or problem solving at the policy level: “How do we combat climate change?” “Should I support the local school bond?” I think these are all part and parcel of the same type of question, “What should I do?”

I’m a big fan of structured problem solving. By following steps, we can more clearly understand what problem it is we’re solving, what are the components of the problem that we’re solving, which components are the most important ones for us to pay attention to, which analytic techniques we should apply to those, and how we can synthesize what we’ve learned back into a compelling story. That’s all it is, at its heart.

I think sometimes when people think about seven steps, they assume that there’s a rigidity to this. That’s not it at all. It’s actually to give you the scope for creativity, which often doesn’t exist when your problem solving is muddled.

Simon London: You were just talking about the seven-step process. That’s what’s written down in the book, but it’s a very McKinsey process as well. Without getting too deep into the weeds, let’s go through the steps, one by one. You were just talking about problem definition as being a particularly important thing to get right first. That’s the first step. Hugo, tell us about that.

Hugo Sarrazin: It is surprising how often people jump past this step and make a bunch of assumptions. The most powerful thing is to step back and ask the basic questions—“What are we trying to solve? What are the constraints that exist? What are the dependencies?” Let’s make those explicit and really push the thinking and defining. At McKinsey, we spend an enormous amount of time in writing that little statement, and the statement, if you’re a logic purist, is great. You debate. “Is it an ‘or’? Is it an ‘and’? What’s the action verb?” Because all these specific words help you get to the heart of what matters.

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Simon London: So this is a concise problem statement.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah. It’s not like “Can we grow in Japan?” That’s interesting, but it is “What, specifically, are we trying to uncover in the growth of a product in Japan? Or a segment in Japan? Or a channel in Japan?” When you spend an enormous amount of time, in the first meeting of the different stakeholders, debating this and having different people put forward what they think the problem definition is, you realize that people have completely different views of why they’re here. That, to me, is the most important step.

Charles Conn: I would agree with that. For me, the problem context is critical. When we understand “What are the forces acting upon your decision maker? How quickly is the answer needed? With what precision is the answer needed? Are there areas that are off limits or areas where we would particularly like to find our solution? Is the decision maker open to exploring other areas?” then you not only become more efficient, and move toward what we call the critical path in problem solving, but you also make it so much more likely that you’re not going to waste your time or your decision maker’s time.

How often do especially bright young people run off with half of the idea about what the problem is and start collecting data and start building models—only to discover that they’ve really gone off half-cocked.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah.

Charles Conn: And in the wrong direction.

Simon London: OK. So step one—and there is a real art and a structure to it—is define the problem. Step two, Charles?

Charles Conn: My favorite step is step two, which is to use logic trees to disaggregate the problem. Every problem we’re solving has some complexity and some uncertainty in it. The only way that we can really get our team working on the problem is to take the problem apart into logical pieces.

What we find, of course, is that the way to disaggregate the problem often gives you an insight into the answer to the problem quite quickly. I love to do two or three different cuts at it, each one giving a bit of a different insight into what might be going wrong. By doing sensible disaggregations, using logic trees, we can figure out which parts of the problem we should be looking at, and we can assign those different parts to team members.

Simon London: What’s a good example of a logic tree on a sort of ratable problem?

Charles Conn: Maybe the easiest one is the classic profit tree. Almost in every business that I would take a look at, I would start with a profit or return-on-assets tree. In its simplest form, you have the components of revenue, which are price and quantity, and the components of cost, which are cost and quantity. Each of those can be broken out. Cost can be broken into variable cost and fixed cost. The components of price can be broken into what your pricing scheme is. That simple tree often provides insight into what’s going on in a business or what the difference is between that business and the competitors.

If we add the leg, which is “What’s the asset base or investment element?”—so profit divided by assets—then we can ask the question “Is the business using its investments sensibly?” whether that’s in stores or in manufacturing or in transportation assets. I hope we can see just how simple this is, even though we’re describing it in words.

When I went to work with Gordon Moore at the Moore Foundation, the problem that he asked us to look at was “How can we save Pacific salmon?” Now, that sounds like an impossible question, but it was amenable to precisely the same type of disaggregation and allowed us to organize what became a 15-year effort to improve the likelihood of good outcomes for Pacific salmon.

Simon London: Now, is there a danger that your logic tree can be impossibly large? This, I think, brings us onto the third step in the process, which is that you have to prioritize.

Charles Conn: Absolutely. The third step, which we also emphasize, along with good problem definition, is rigorous prioritization—we ask the questions “How important is this lever or this branch of the tree in the overall outcome that we seek to achieve? How much can I move that lever?” Obviously, we try and focus our efforts on ones that have a big impact on the problem and the ones that we have the ability to change. With salmon, ocean conditions turned out to be a big lever, but not one that we could adjust. We focused our attention on fish habitats and fish-harvesting practices, which were big levers that we could affect.

People spend a lot of time arguing about branches that are either not important or that none of us can change. We see it in the public square. When we deal with questions at the policy level—“Should you support the death penalty?” “How do we affect climate change?” “How can we uncover the causes and address homelessness?”—it’s even more important that we’re focusing on levers that are big and movable.

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Simon London: Let’s move swiftly on to step four. You’ve defined your problem, you disaggregate it, you prioritize where you want to analyze—what you want to really look at hard. Then you got to the work plan. Now, what does that mean in practice?

Hugo Sarrazin: Depending on what you’ve prioritized, there are many things you could do. It could be breaking the work among the team members so that people have a clear piece of the work to do. It could be defining the specific analyses that need to get done and executed, and being clear on time lines. There’s always a level-one answer, there’s a level-two answer, there’s a level-three answer. Without being too flippant, I can solve any problem during a good dinner with wine. It won’t have a whole lot of backing.

Simon London: Not going to have a lot of depth to it.

Hugo Sarrazin: No, but it may be useful as a starting point. If the stakes are not that high, that could be OK. If it’s really high stakes, you may need level three and have the whole model validated in three different ways. You need to find a work plan that reflects the level of precision, the time frame you have, and the stakeholders you need to bring along in the exercise.

Charles Conn: I love the way you’ve described that, because, again, some people think of problem solving as a linear thing, but of course what’s critical is that it’s iterative. As you say, you can solve the problem in one day or even one hour.

Charles Conn: We encourage our teams everywhere to do that. We call it the one-day answer or the one-hour answer. In work planning, we’re always iterating. Every time you see a 50-page work plan that stretches out to three months, you know it’s wrong. It will be outmoded very quickly by that learning process that you described. Iterative problem solving is a critical part of this. Sometimes, people think work planning sounds dull, but it isn’t. It’s how we know what’s expected of us and when we need to deliver it and how we’re progressing toward the answer. It’s also the place where we can deal with biases. Bias is a feature of every human decision-making process. If we design our team interactions intelligently, we can avoid the worst sort of biases.

Simon London: Here we’re talking about cognitive biases primarily, right? It’s not that I’m biased against you because of your accent or something. These are the cognitive biases that behavioral sciences have shown we all carry around, things like anchoring, overoptimism—these kinds of things.

Both: Yeah.

Charles Conn: Availability bias is the one that I’m always alert to. You think you’ve seen the problem before, and therefore what’s available is your previous conception of it—and we have to be most careful about that. In any human setting, we also have to be careful about biases that are based on hierarchies, sometimes called sunflower bias. I’m sure, Hugo, with your teams, you make sure that the youngest team members speak first. Not the oldest team members, because it’s easy for people to look at who’s senior and alter their own creative approaches.

Hugo Sarrazin: It’s helpful, at that moment—if someone is asserting a point of view—to ask the question “This was true in what context?” You’re trying to apply something that worked in one context to a different one. That can be deadly if the context has changed, and that’s why organizations struggle to change. You promote all these people because they did something that worked well in the past, and then there’s a disruption in the industry, and they keep doing what got them promoted even though the context has changed.

Simon London: Right. Right.

Hugo Sarrazin: So it’s the same thing in problem solving.

Charles Conn: And it’s why diversity in our teams is so important. It’s one of the best things about the world that we’re in now. We’re likely to have people from different socioeconomic, ethnic, and national backgrounds, each of whom sees problems from a slightly different perspective. It is therefore much more likely that the team will uncover a truly creative and clever approach to problem solving.

Simon London: Let’s move on to step five. You’ve done your work plan. Now you’ve actually got to do the analysis. The thing that strikes me here is that the range of tools that we have at our disposal now, of course, is just huge, particularly with advances in computation, advanced analytics. There’s so many things that you can apply here. Just talk about the analysis stage. How do you pick the right tools?

Charles Conn: For me, the most important thing is that we start with simple heuristics and explanatory statistics before we go off and use the big-gun tools. We need to understand the shape and scope of our problem before we start applying these massive and complex analytical approaches.

Simon London: Would you agree with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: I agree. I think there are so many wonderful heuristics. You need to start there before you go deep into the modeling exercise. There’s an interesting dynamic that’s happening, though. In some cases, for some types of problems, it is even better to set yourself up to maximize your learning. Your problem-solving methodology is test and learn, test and learn, test and learn, and iterate. That is a heuristic in itself, the A/B testing that is used in many parts of the world. So that’s a problem-solving methodology. It’s nothing different. It just uses technology and feedback loops in a fast way. The other one is exploratory data analysis. When you’re dealing with a large-scale problem, and there’s so much data, I can get to the heuristics that Charles was talking about through very clever visualization of data.

You test with your data. You need to set up an environment to do so, but don’t get caught up in neural-network modeling immediately. You’re testing, you’re checking—“Is the data right? Is it sound? Does it make sense?”—before you launch too far.

Simon London: You do hear these ideas—that if you have a big enough data set and enough algorithms, they’re going to find things that you just wouldn’t have spotted, find solutions that maybe you wouldn’t have thought of. Does machine learning sort of revolutionize the problem-solving process? Or are these actually just other tools in the toolbox for structured problem solving?

Charles Conn: It can be revolutionary. There are some areas in which the pattern recognition of large data sets and good algorithms can help us see things that we otherwise couldn’t see. But I do think it’s terribly important we don’t think that this particular technique is a substitute for superb problem solving, starting with good problem definition. Many people use machine learning without understanding algorithms that themselves can have biases built into them. Just as 20 years ago, when we were doing statistical analysis, we knew that we needed good model definition, we still need a good understanding of our algorithms and really good problem definition before we launch off into big data sets and unknown algorithms.

Simon London: Step six. You’ve done your analysis.

Charles Conn: I take six and seven together, and this is the place where young problem solvers often make a mistake. They’ve got their analysis, and they assume that’s the answer, and of course it isn’t the answer. The ability to synthesize the pieces that came out of the analysis and begin to weave those into a story that helps people answer the question “What should I do?” This is back to where we started. If we can’t synthesize, and we can’t tell a story, then our decision maker can’t find the answer to “What should I do?”

Simon London: But, again, these final steps are about motivating people to action, right?

Charles Conn: Yeah.

Simon London: I am slightly torn about the nomenclature of problem solving because it’s on paper, right? Until you motivate people to action, you actually haven’t solved anything.

Charles Conn: I love this question because I think decision-making theory, without a bias to action, is a waste of time. Everything in how I approach this is to help people take action that makes the world better.

Simon London: Hence, these are absolutely critical steps. If you don’t do this well, you’ve just got a bunch of analysis.

Charles Conn: We end up in exactly the same place where we started, which is people speaking across each other, past each other in the public square, rather than actually working together, shoulder to shoulder, to crack these important problems.

Simon London: In the real world, we have a lot of uncertainty—arguably, increasing uncertainty. How do good problem solvers deal with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: At every step of the process. In the problem definition, when you’re defining the context, you need to understand those sources of uncertainty and whether they’re important or not important. It becomes important in the definition of the tree.

You need to think carefully about the branches of the tree that are more certain and less certain as you define them. They don’t have equal weight just because they’ve got equal space on the page. Then, when you’re prioritizing, your prioritization approach may put more emphasis on things that have low probability but huge impact—or, vice versa, may put a lot of priority on things that are very likely and, hopefully, have a reasonable impact. You can introduce that along the way. When you come back to the synthesis, you just need to be nuanced about what you’re understanding, the likelihood.

Often, people lack humility in the way they make their recommendations: “This is the answer.” They’re very precise, and I think we would all be well-served to say, “This is a likely answer under the following sets of conditions” and then make the level of uncertainty clearer, if that is appropriate. It doesn’t mean you’re always in the gray zone; it doesn’t mean you don’t have a point of view. It just means that you can be explicit about the certainty of your answer when you make that recommendation.

Simon London: So it sounds like there is an underlying principle: “Acknowledge and embrace the uncertainty. Don’t pretend that it isn’t there. Be very clear about what the uncertainties are up front, and then build that into every step of the process.”

Hugo Sarrazin: Every step of the process.

Simon London: Yeah. We have just walked through a particular structured methodology for problem solving. But, of course, this is not the only structured methodology for problem solving. One that is also very well-known is design thinking, which comes at things very differently. So, Hugo, I know you have worked with a lot of designers. Just give us a very quick summary. Design thinking—what is it, and how does it relate?

Hugo Sarrazin: It starts with an incredible amount of empathy for the user and uses that to define the problem. It does pause and go out in the wild and spend an enormous amount of time seeing how people interact with objects, seeing the experience they’re getting, seeing the pain points or joy—and uses that to infer and define the problem.

Simon London: Problem definition, but out in the world.

Hugo Sarrazin: With an enormous amount of empathy. There’s a huge emphasis on empathy. Traditional, more classic problem solving is you define the problem based on an understanding of the situation. This one almost presupposes that we don’t know the problem until we go see it. The second thing is you need to come up with multiple scenarios or answers or ideas or concepts, and there’s a lot of divergent thinking initially. That’s slightly different, versus the prioritization, but not for long. Eventually, you need to kind of say, “OK, I’m going to converge again.” Then you go and you bring things back to the customer and get feedback and iterate. Then you rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. There’s a lot of tactile building, along the way, of prototypes and things like that. It’s very iterative.

Simon London: So, Charles, are these complements or are these alternatives?

Charles Conn: I think they’re entirely complementary, and I think Hugo’s description is perfect. When we do problem definition well in classic problem solving, we are demonstrating the kind of empathy, at the very beginning of our problem, that design thinking asks us to approach. When we ideate—and that’s very similar to the disaggregation, prioritization, and work-planning steps—we do precisely the same thing, and often we use contrasting teams, so that we do have divergent thinking. The best teams allow divergent thinking to bump them off whatever their initial biases in problem solving are. For me, design thinking gives us a constant reminder of creativity, empathy, and the tactile nature of problem solving, but it’s absolutely complementary, not alternative.

Simon London: I think, in a world of cross-functional teams, an interesting question is do people with design-thinking backgrounds really work well together with classical problem solvers? How do you make that chemistry happen?

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah, it is not easy when people have spent an enormous amount of time seeped in design thinking or user-centric design, whichever word you want to use. If the person who’s applying classic problem-solving methodology is very rigid and mechanical in the way they’re doing it, there could be an enormous amount of tension. If there’s not clarity in the role and not clarity in the process, I think having the two together can be, sometimes, problematic.

The second thing that happens often is that the artifacts the two methodologies try to gravitate toward can be different. Classic problem solving often gravitates toward a model; design thinking migrates toward a prototype. Rather than writing a big deck with all my supporting evidence, they’ll bring an example, a thing, and that feels different. Then you spend your time differently to achieve those two end products, so that’s another source of friction.

Now, I still think it can be an incredibly powerful thing to have the two—if there are the right people with the right mind-set, if there is a team that is explicit about the roles, if we’re clear about the kind of outcomes we are attempting to bring forward. There’s an enormous amount of collaborativeness and respect.

Simon London: But they have to respect each other’s methodology and be prepared to flex, maybe, a little bit, in how this process is going to work.

Hugo Sarrazin: Absolutely.

Simon London: The other area where, it strikes me, there could be a little bit of a different sort of friction is this whole concept of the day-one answer, which is what we were just talking about in classical problem solving. Now, you know that this is probably not going to be your final answer, but that’s how you begin to structure the problem. Whereas I would imagine your design thinkers—no, they’re going off to do their ethnographic research and get out into the field, potentially for a long time, before they come back with at least an initial hypothesis.

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Hugo Sarrazin: That is a great callout, and that’s another difference. Designers typically will like to soak into the situation and avoid converging too quickly. There’s optionality and exploring different options. There’s a strong belief that keeps the solution space wide enough that you can come up with more radical ideas. If there’s a large design team or many designers on the team, and you come on Friday and say, “What’s our week-one answer?” they’re going to struggle. They’re not going to be comfortable, naturally, to give that answer. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an answer; it’s just not where they are in their thinking process.

Simon London: I think we are, sadly, out of time for today. But Charles and Hugo, thank you so much.

Charles Conn: It was a pleasure to be here, Simon.

Hugo Sarrazin: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Simon London: And thanks, as always, to you, our listeners, for tuning into this episode of the McKinsey Podcast . If you want to learn more about problem solving, you can find the book, Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything , online or order it through your local bookstore. To learn more about McKinsey, you can of course find us at McKinsey.com.

Charles Conn is CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation and an alumnus of McKinsey’s Sydney office. Hugo Sarrazin is a senior partner in the Silicon Valley office, where Simon London, a member of McKinsey Publishing, is also based.

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