Advice: Critical thinking 101: identifying the real problem

Identifying ‘problem areas’ in your own business is probably quite easy: just ask where your staff are having problems, or find out where your customers are either making complaints, or dropping off the face of the earth.

The bad news is that while identifying ‘work areas’ is pretty easy, coming up with sensible solutions is usually the hard part: both because we very rarely identify the true source of the problem, nor do we absolutely set out to fix it – more often, a quick patch and a smooth over does the trick. Not good.

With a series of critical thinking questions, first mooted by no less than Socrates himself, somewhere prior to 400BC – I can at least help you define your problems with a little more clarity, and begin to rule in and rule out some simple solutions.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

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