State the problem as clearly as possible.
For example: “I don’t have enough money
to pay the bills.”
Evaluate how effective the solution was.
Decide whether the existing plan needs to
1 Be specific about the behaviour, situation,
timing, and circumstances that make it a
be revised, or whether a new plan is problem. For example: “I need to pay the
needed to better address the problem.
6 phone and gas bills, and I don’t have
enough money to cover both this month.”
If you are not pleased with the outcome,
return to step 2 to select a new solution or
revise the existing solution, and repeat the
remaining steps.
List all the possible solutions; don’t worry
about the quality of the solutions at this
stage.
Steps of Try to list at least 15 solutions, be creative
Implement the solution as planned. 5 Problem 2 and forget about the quality of the
solution.
Solving If you allow yourself to be creative you
may come up with some solutions that you
would not otherwise have thought about.
Specify who will take action.
Specify how the solution will be
implemented.
4 The next step is to go through and
eliminate less desirable or unreasonable
Specify when the solution will be
implemented. For example: tomorrow solutions.
morning, phone the gas company and
negotiate to pay the gas bill next month. 3 Order the remaining solutions in order of
preference.
Evaluate the remaining solutions in terms
of their advantages and disadvantages.