Here's how you can enhance your problem solving skills to better serve your clients.

Enhancing problem-solving skills to serve clients better involves a deep understanding of the issues at hand. It requires actively listening to clients, asking insightful questions, and gathering all relevant information to fully comprehend the problem. Once the issue is understood, it's important to approach it methodically, considering various perspectives and potential solutions. Developing a structured approach, such as breaking down the problem into smaller, manageable parts, can help identify the root cause and find effective solutions. Continuously learning and adapting from past experiences and feedback also plays a crucial role in refining problem-solving abilities.

With a problem, get to the core of the issue. Make sure that you can define the problem without including a solution - e.g., "we have a flat tire and need a tire jack" is poorly worded and limits you whereas, "we have a flat tire and need to raise the car" opens up possibilities.

Understanding the issues usually means dedicating intentional time to first designing and exploring questions. Especially if you are trying to establish a greater understanding amongst a group, you are facilitating, if you aren’t on the same page with what you are trying to solve, you may not move together in a unified direction. Incorporating creative methodologies to better inquiry can allow participants to contribute their concepts and ideas of what needs to be discovered to create understanding of the problem before you design the path to solution. At this stage, the win is the deeper and more insightful question – not yet the solution – providing equity and contribution for all participants, regardless of background or experience.

I was contracted to work on a project in a remote area within a broken industry with a lot of animosity. And no one could figure out why. I became a detective, put on my curious hat on, listed everyone I needed to talk to, invited them for a 1:1 and asked them the right questions. I gathered all the information, analyzed the underlying issue and found the common goal. I brought them together in one room: set the agenda and began the conversation under that common goal. The unlock: two people who refused to talk to one another not only ended up talking in harmony in that session, they proactively collaborated with one another beyond this project. Being a curious detective and finding the common goal are what can turn problems into solutions.

Once you've got the gist of the problem at hand, there can be more than one solutions to solve it. Open up all the possibilities and discuss each one threadbare, discuss, brainstorm which will then help deciding which one works best for the problem at hand.