When trying to solve a problem, what exactly are you looking for? What is the desired outcome?
- Participation-oriented
- We just need people involved
- Decision-oriented
- Involves deciding from a range of options
- Agreement-oriented
- People need to reach agreement
- Answer-oriented
- This problem takes the format of question → single answer, e.g. what’s 4x7?
- Best-fit-oriented
- While there are many possible solutions, what is the ideal approach?
- Idea-oriented
- A good solution increases knowledge and provides options
- Design-oriented
- This problem requires a conceived design solution (i.e. a derived plan or model)
- Execution-oriented
- This problem doesn’t need to be figured out, it needs to be done
Relevance To Problem Solving
One can imagine different collective problem solving approaches designed for each solution orientation. For example, if you need designs, your audience and their participation is radically different than if you need ideas, or agreement, etc.