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The 7 Problem Solving Skills That Actually Matter (And 3 That Don't)
Related Training: Decision Making Training | Organising Work Priorities | Root Cause Analysis | Why Problem Solving Skills Matter | Strategic Thinking Training
Here's what they don't tell you in those glossy business magazines: the biggest problem in most Australian workplaces isn't complex market dynamics or disruptive technology. It's watching perfectly intelligent people completely fall apart when faced with a simple workplace hiccup.
Last month, I witnessed a senior manager at a Perth mining company spend three hours trying to "escalate" a printer jam to IT, facilities, and eventually the CEO's office. Three bloody hours. For a paper jam. And this bloke's running a $2M budget.
After fifteen years of watching smart people make dumb decisions under pressure, I've narrowed down the problem-solving skills that actually separate the wheat from the chaff. Forget the theoretical frameworks they teach in business school. Here are the seven skills that'll make you the person everyone turns to when things go sideways.
1. The Art of Not Panicking (Seriously)
This one sounds obvious until you're in the middle of it. I used to be the guy who'd see a problem and immediately start firing off emails to everyone within a 50-metre radius. Classic mistake.
The first skill isn't about solving anything - it's about not making everything worse while you figure out what's actually broken. Take five minutes. Breathe. Ask yourself: "Is anyone bleeding? Is money literally walking out the door right now?" Most of the time, the answer's no.
I learned this the hard way during a system crash at a Sydney logistics company back in 2018. While I was running around like a headless chook, their warehouse supervisor calmly made three phone calls and had a manual backup process running within an hour. She'd seen it before. She knew panic was just another problem to solve.
2. Detective Work (Not Guesswork)
Here's where most people go wrong: they start with solutions instead of understanding the problem. It's human nature, I get it. But solving the wrong problem really well is still solving the wrong problem.
I've seen managers implement expensive software solutions for "communication issues" when the real problem was that Dave from accounting was a passive-aggressive nightmare who undermined every project meeting. No amount of Slack channels was going to fix Dave.
Real detective work means asking annoying questions. Why did this happen now? What changed last week? Who was the last person to touch this? You're looking for patterns, not quick fixes.
3. The "So What?" Filter
This is my personal favourite, and probably the most underrated skill on this list. Every problem comes with a cloud of symptoms, side effects, and general workplace drama. The "so what?" filter cuts through all that noise.
Your website's down? So what - are customers actually trying to buy something right now, or is it 2 AM on a Sunday? The air conditioning's playing up? So what - can people still work, or are we looking at a health and safety issue?
I borrowed this from the military guys I used to work with in Darwin. They'd look at any situation and immediately separate the "urgent" from the "important." Most workplace "emergencies" fail the "so what?" test pretty spectacularly.
4. Creative Stealing (It's Not Really Stealing)
Here's something they won't teach you in those marketing basics courses: the best problem solvers aren't necessarily the most creative people. They're the best borrowers.
Every industry has already solved your problem. Maybe not your exact problem, but something close enough that you can adapt their solution. Retail figured out queuing systems decades ago - that's why smart offices use the same principles for managing workflow bottlenecks.
I once helped a small manufacturing company in Adelaide solve a quality control issue by adapting a system I'd seen at a Japanese restaurant. The chef there had this brilliant visual method for tracking orders that we modified for tracking product defects. Completely different industry, same underlying problem.
The trick is looking outside your industry. Actually, the further outside, the better.
5. Building Bridges (Not Burning Them)
Every problem involves people, and people have opinions, egos, and usually someone they don't want to work with. If you can't navigate office politics while solving problems, you're only solving half the problem.
This doesn't mean being everyone's mate. It means understanding that the accounts payable manager who "always says no" might actually have really good reasons for saying no. Find out what those reasons are before you try to steamroll around them.
I've learned that the phrase "help me understand" is worth its weight in gold. Instead of arguing with someone's objection, ask them to explain it. Half the time, they'll talk themselves into a solution. The other half, you'll learn something important you missed.
6. Knowing When to Stop Digging
This one's hard for achievers and perfectionists. Sometimes the best solution is to stop trying to solve the problem and just work around it.
There's this concept in project management called "good enough" that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. But I've seen teams spend months trying to achieve a perfect solution when a 80% solution implemented this week would've saved everyone time, money, and sanity.
One of my clients, a tech startup in Melbourne, spent six months trying to build the perfect customer onboarding system. Meanwhile, their competitors were signing up customers with a simple PDF form and a phone call. Guess who was still in business when the funding ran out?
Sometimes the problem isn't worth the energy you're putting into solving it. This is where that professional problem solving course mindset really helps - learning to evaluate problems based on impact, not just complexity.
7. Documentation (The Unsexy Hero)
Nobody talks about this one because it's boring. But every problem you solve today is probably going to happen again next year, maybe to someone else, maybe to you when you've forgotten all the details.
Write it down. Not a novel, just enough so that future-you or future-colleague can understand what you did and why it worked. Include what didn't work too - that's often more valuable.
I keep a simple spreadsheet: Problem, Root Cause, Solution, Lessons Learned. Takes five minutes after each issue. It's saved me hundreds of hours over the years, and made me look like a genius when similar problems came up months later.
The Three "Skills" That Don't Actually Help
Since we're being honest here, let me call out three things that everyone thinks are problem-solving skills but really aren't:
Brainstorming sessions. Look, I know everyone loves a good brainstorm with sticky notes and whiteboards, but most workplace problems don't need ten people throwing random ideas at a wall. They need one person who understands the problem and has the authority to implement a solution.
Perfectionism. I used to think being thorough meant considering every possible angle. Actually, it usually meant overthinking simple problems until they became complex ones. Perfect solutions that arrive three months late aren't solutions - they're expensive learning experiences.
"Thinking outside the box." This phrase makes me want to throw things. Most business problems are solved with completely ordinary, inside-the-box thinking. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. You just need to figure out why the current wheel isn't turning.
The Reality Check
Here's what I wish someone had told me fifteen years ago: most workplace problems aren't actually that complicated. They just look complicated because they involve people, politics, and personalities.
The businesses that really excel at problem-solving - places like Atlassian here in Sydney or Canva in Melbourne - they're not necessarily hiring the smartest people in the room. They're hiring people who can stay calm, ask good questions, and implement solutions that actually work.
These seven skills aren't revolutionary. They're not going to change your life overnight. But they will make you the person your colleagues come to when something's broken and needs fixing. And in my experience, that's one of the most valuable reputations you can build.
Plus, you'll spend a lot less time in meetings trying to "unpack" problems that could've been solved with a five-minute conversation and a bit of common sense. And honestly, isn't that worth the effort alone?
The next time someone comes to you with a "complex business challenge," try applying these seven skills before you reach for the frameworks and flowcharts. You might be surprised how straightforward most problems really are - once you know how to look at them properly.
Want to dive deeper into this stuff? Check out some creative problem solving training options. Because while these skills are straightforward, they do take practice to get right.