Facilitated Thinking Technology

The cornerstone to effective thinking is having good questioning abilities. What separates exceptional from average thinkers is their capability to find and ask the right questions. Asking the right questions gives your mind the best chance to find the right answers, ideas and solutions.

Question-It

40 Problem Solving Question sets

TOCTable of Contents (TOC)

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1	Describe Situation or Problem	Describe the current situation, problem or opportunity.
2	Assess Importance	Assemble an evaluation team to assess the criticalness of the situation.
3	Align with Objectives	Identify key factors that drive organizational or personal success.
4	Observe other Problems	Look beyond the current situation for other potential problems or opportunities.
5	Prioritize Problems	Select the most critical problem or opportunity to work on.
6	Problem Statement	Validate the real problem and write a problem statement.
7	Systems Think	Systems think the problem or situation in a broader context.
8	Transient Statement	Write a transient (change) statement on how the problem came about.
9	Purposes Determine	Determine reasons and purposes for solving this problem.
10	Goal Statement	Write a goal statement that clarifies the desired outcome.
11	Feasibility of Work	Determine the feasibility of the work effort to resolve the situation.
12	Build Team	Build a high performance work team.
13	Communication Process	Establish a project communication process.
14	Data Gathering Strategy	Develop a data gathering strategy.
15	Define Facts	Define the current situation or problem state.
16	Analyze Causes	Analyze causes and find a root cause.
17	Future Facts	Define future facts as they “should exist” in the goal state.
18	Obstacles	Identify obstacles that prevent reaching the goal state.
19	Solution Requirements	Define requirements for inclusion in any proposed idea/solution.
20	Idea Generation Strategy	Select an idea generation strategy.
21	Incubate	Prepare the mind for creativity.
22	Creative Ideas/Solutions	Generate lots of ideas and solutions.
23	Categorize & Synthesize	Narrow your choices by categorizing and synthesizing ideas.
24	Refine Pros & Cons	Refine ideas into practical solution alternatives.
25	Evaluation Criteria	Develop the evaluation criteria to judge solution alternatives
26	Decision Strategy	Choose a decision-making strategy.
27	Decide on Solution	Select the solution to implement.
28	Futures Statement	Write a future solution statement.
29	Timeliness to Implement	Decide if it is the right time to implement the solution.
30	Design Deliverables	Design the solution deliverables.
31	Change Management	Institute a change management process
32	Test Deliverables	Test the solution to uncover fatal flaws.
33	Implementation Plan	Develop an implementation work plan.
34	Contingency plan	Develop contingency plans.
35	Action plan	Implement and monitor the work plan.
36	Launch Solution	Develop a conversion plan and launch solution.
37	Feedback	Develop feedback to prevent recurrences.
38	Backup & Recovery	Determine backup and disaster recovery needs.
39	Lessons Learned	Review project results and document lessons learned.
40	Detach Work	Celebrate, reward and detach the project.

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