Introduction to Problem Solving Skills

   The tools in this section help you understand complicated, difficult situations. Without them problems might seem huge, overwhelming and excessively complex.

These techniques help you conduct a rigorous analysis of the problems you face, helping you look at as many factors as possible in a structured and methodical way. They give you a starting point in business problem solving (and other problem solving situations) where other people would just feel helpless and intimidated by the situation.

CATWOE
Understanding the different elements that contribute to a problem

What do you do when you’re faced with a really big business problem? (Maybe your employee retention is low, and you are looking for the reasons why.) Perhaps your first step is to brainstorm the possible reasons, and maybe then you apply a range of different problem-solving skills. But what if you've focused on the wrong problem, or you're just looking at a symptom of a larger problem?

By focusing on one specific problem, you tend to stop looking for other problems. And that’s when you risk missing something that’s potentially more fundamental than the problem you first decided to investigate. This is where CATWOE can help you avoid making a serious mistake.

Understanding CATWOE

In the 1960s Peter Checkland, a systems engineering professor, developed a problem-solving methodology called Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), which sought to apply systems principles to business and other "soft" problems.

SSM conceptualises the activities or business being examined as a system, the essence of which is encapsulated in a "Root Definition".

In 1975, David Smyth, a researcher in Checkland's department, observed that SSM was most successful when the Root Definition included certain elements. These elements, remembered by the mnemonic CATWOE, identified the people, processes and environment that contribute to a situation, issue, or problem that you need to analyze.

CATWOE stands for:

Customers	Who are they, and how does the issue affect them?
Actors	Who is involved in the situation? Who will be involved in implementing solutions? And what will impact their success?
Transformation Process	What processes or systems are affected by the issue?
World View	What is the big picture? And what are the wider impacts of the issue?
Owner	Who owns the process or situation you are investigating? And what role will they play in the solution?
Environmental Constraints	What are the constraints and limitations that will impact the solution and its success?

When you look at all six of these elements, and consider the situation from all of these perspectives, you open your thinking beyond the issue that sits directly in front of you. By using CATWOE, the output of your brainstorming and problem solving should be much more comprehensive, because you have considered the issue from these six, very different, perspectives.

Using CATWOE

Before you try to solve an important problem, use the CATWOE checklist to brainstorm the various people and elements that are affected.

Taking the example of low employee retention rates that we used at the start of this article, start your thinking not with reasons why it is happening or by trying to identify solutions, but by using CATWOE to expand your thinking about the situation in general.