Problem Solving-Based Scenarios:
An Approach to Identify Opportunities to Create Value for the Business

Introduction

Today’s realities of leadership include increasing competition and intensity, reducing cycle times and costs, and improving productivity while at the same time growing the business and meeting increasing customer and Wall Street expectations. These pressures require leaders to redefine and redesign how to think, how to lead, and how to act. These shifts in the very nature of leadership and of work demand that the leader spend more time figuring out what to do next and how best to do it to add value to the corporation and the stakeholders. Problem solving is a core capability required to realize these opportunities.

Leadership can be seen as a process of identifying opportunities and solving problems. Some problems are important; some are not important. Some problems are easy to define; others are complex. Some problems are easy to solve; others are difficult. Some are solved alone; many are solved with others, often under tremendous political and organizational pressures. Sometimes there is a problem; sometimes there is not a problem. All problem solving and solution development methods follow a process that may be adapted by the user and to the particular scenario or situation.

As human beings, we tend to look to preserve the status quo and see the world as it has been. We look for patterns or approaches that have been successful in the past. These approaches have helped to make us successful. At the same time, they have limited our success by limiting our creativity, our ways of thinking, and, therefore, our solutions and actions.

The shifts in the nature and structure of organizations and of work are leading to the need for new approaches for leaders to use to identify opportunities and address issues through fast-cycle, creative,