Kurikulum Kepemimpinan/Menyelesaikan Tugas

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Problem solving forms part of thinking. Considered the most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of more routine or fundamental cognitive skills (McCarthy & Worthington, 1990). It occurs if an organism or an artificial intelligence system does not know how to proceed from a given state to a desired goal state. It is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping.

Characteristics of difficult problems

As elucidated by Dietrich Dorner and later expanded upon by Joachim Funke, difficult problems have some typical characteristics. Recategorized and somewhat reformulated from these original works, these characteristics can be summarized as follows:

   * Intransparency (lack of clarity of the situation)
         o commencement opacity
         o continuation opacity
   * Polytely (multiple goals)
         o inexpressiveness
         o opposition
         o transience
   * Complexity (large numbers of items, interrelations, and decisions)
         o enumerability
         o connectivity (hierarchy relation, communication relation, allocation relation)
         o heterogeneity
   * Dynamism (time considerations)
         o temporal constraints
         o temporal sensitivity
         o phase effects
         o dynamic unpredictability

The resolution of difficult problems requires a direct attack on each of these characteristics that are encountered.

Some problem-solving techniques

  1. Trial-and-error
  2. Brainstorming
  3. Morphological box
  4. Method of focal objects
  5. Lateral thinking
  6. George Polya's techniques in How to Solve It
  7. Research: study what others have written about the problem (and related problems). Maybe there's already a solution?
  8. Assumption reversal (write down your assumptions about the problem, and then reverse them all)
  9. Analogy: has a similar problem (possibly in a different field) been solved before?
 10. Hypothesise a world in which the current problem wouldn't exist
 11. Constraint examination: are you assuming a constraint which doesn't really exist?
 12. Take more time: time pressure can cause one to think in circles (the brain, unhelpfully, tends to be "pulled" towards a particular solution, or aspect of the problem)
 13. Incubation: input the details of a problem into your mind, then stop focusing on it. The subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem, and the solution might just "pop up" while you are doing something else
 14. Build (or write) one or more abstract models of the problem
 15. Try to prove that that the problem cannot be solved. Where the proof breaks down can be your starting point for resolving it
 16. Get help