We are all clear about what a problem is and the difficulties involved, sometimes, in finding the right solutions.

I wish we could give you a unique and infallible strategy to solve them, but unfortunately this does not exist: every situation is unique and requires specific skills and strategies.

How to solve a problem?

What we will do is review some classic cognitive theories that work as problem-solving strategies . We hope that some of them will be useful to you.

1. The first step: defining the problem

We know that having a problem does not in any way mean that we do not have the necessary resources to solve it, but that we often do not know which ones we should use or how to apply them.

In order to find the solution we must first define the problem well . This sounds simple, but it isn’t always. We need to be clear about the current situation, i.e. where we are starting from and what we want to achieve. Being clear about our goal or what to do to achieve it is not as easy as it may seem.

If we look closely at any problem we have today and try to do the exercise of defining it, we may be surprised. Defining our problem precisely will therefore be the first step.

When we are clear about the problem, the solutions can be very different. Sometimes the achievement of success will depend on unblocking a single obstacle, but other times we have different difficulties that we must go solving in a progressive way.

2. Algorithms and heuristics

Whatever the problem and the solution, to solve it we will always have, a priori, different options. To focus on problem solving methods it will first be important to distinguish between two concepts: “algorithm” and “heuristic”.

An algorithm is a systematic process that tells us concretely how to get, step by step, to the solution. Heuristics appear when it is not possible to use the algorithms and involve the participation of intuition. Unlike the previous ones, heuristics cannot guarantee that we will find the solution.

It seems obvious that the really complicated problems to solve are those that do not have algorithms; we will focus on these. We will also leave aside those solutions that require specific knowledge, that is, the problems that arise simply from lack of knowledge and that we can only solve using previously learned strategies.

3. The trial and error method

One possibility is to use the trial and error method, which consists of testing one or more actions and evaluating whether the result obtained has brought us closer to our objective. This method will be useful when we don’t have any guidance to reach the solution and when the lack of time is not an inconvenience.

A very basic example: if we want to open a door and we have different keys, we will try until we find the one that will open. The idea is that next time we will be able to use the right key the first time.

Although it is a very elementary example, there are many situations in our daily life that we solve using this method and many of them are not so banal. Young children, for example , use this strategy a lot in their daily activities. Also in our social relationships we often modify our behaviour based on trial and error results.

4. The medium-end analysis method

Another possibility is to choose actions that help us to reduce the distance between the current state and our final goal . To do this, we highlight the mean-finish analysis method, which consists of defining what the difference is between the current state and the final state we want to achieve as a solution to our problem.

We must create smaller and easier to solve sub-problems or sub-targets that will help us achieve our final goal. To do this we’ll set as many subobjectives as we need, i.e. if we have impediments with the first subobjective we’ll create another one and so reduce it as much as necessary. We will solve each sub-objective, one by one, until we reach the final solution to our initial problem.

5. Each problem has its own solutions

In short, there is no ideal method for solving our problems, but there are different ways of dealing with them in a way that makes the solution seem easier.

The two strategies that we have mentioned do not always work and there are many more that can be perfectly adapted to a specific type of problem, but we believe that they can be very useful as basic strategies for our daily lives, above all because they allow us to objectify the problems, simplifying them and thus allowing us to face the search for solutions in a less overwhelming way.