problem solving training for employees

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Boost Team Decision-Making with Problem-Solving Training

Problem-solving skills training: Equip your team to tackle workplace challenges. Learn structured approaches for root cause analysis and innovative solution generation. Do your employees struggle to understand the root causes when problems arise? Does your team lack a structured approach to generating innovative solutions? TrainSMART offers customized Problem-Solving Skills Training to equip your team with a proven methodology to make confident decisions and tackle workplace challenges head-on.

Your team will learn how to solve problems effectively in the workplace, generate new and innovative ideas, select functional solutions, gain support and input from others, and implement successful solutions. Problem-solving is a critical skill for any employee, and this training will give you the tools you need to be successful.

Note: A real work problem will be analyzed during the workshop.

TrainSMART’s Problem-Solving Skills Training Workshop is available in the following formats: Full-Day In-Person Training Workshop, Live Online Instructor-led Training.

The Problem

Many teams lack fundamental problem-solving skills, leading to:

• Applying quick fixes without understanding the root causes
• Failure to map out an end-to-end plan to solve issues
• Lack of creativity in solution-finding

TrainSMART Solution

TrainSMART provides interactive workshops, sharing techniques to:

• Identify  root causes through structured analysis
• Brainstorm innovative solutions without judgment
• Evaluate  ideas based on feasibility and impact
• Gain alignment  on the optimal plan moving forward

Problem-Solving Training For Employees Course Outline

Problem-Solving Fundamentals

This section defines problem-solving and explains why it matters, including reviewing its key benefits for innovation and results. It then covers common myths, like the belief that complex solutions are always needed, before discussing critical thinking techniques required for effective problem-solving. Finally, it introduces the 7-step framework used throughout the course.

Defining the Problem

This section defines a problem through effective questioning to gather comprehensive information while identifying limitations and unknowns. It reviews quantifying issues with hard data analytically and articulates a precise problem statement that quantifies the gap between the current and desired state.

Analyzing Root Causes

This section explains various root cause analysis techniques, such as the 5 Whys, fishbone diagramming, and brainstorming, before covering how to drill down by continually asking why at each level of a problem. It includes guidance on mapping major influence factors using fishbone diagrams and Pareto analysis to quantify a few vital root causes versus trivial ones.

Generating Potential Solutions

This section reviews creating potential solutions with tangible action steps and responsibilities assigned. It discusses techniques for developing minimum viable solutions for rapid testing and iteration. Additionally, it covers principles like design thinking , group ideation techniques, and brainstorming best practices.

Evaluating Options

This section guides defining solution selection criteria, running grid analysis to weigh pros and cons using matrices, assessing impact versus effort tradeoffs, and using prioritization matrices to rank solutions.

Solution Implementation Planning

This section shows how to detail tasks, assign roles and responsibilities, complete resource planning for budget and equipment needs, and conduct risk analysis with contingency planning for the highest potential solutions.

Tracking & Reassessment

Finally, this section focuses on defining key performance indicators to track solution effectiveness and techniques for continuous improvement, including circling back to re-diagnose and enhance solutions over time.

Target Audience

Need problem-solving skills training for employees and managers? Anyone who is responsible for problem-solving and making recommendations for the best solution and action plan

Need On-Site Or Live Online Training?

Are you interested in bringing TrainSMART’s Problem Solving Training For employees on-site at your location or live online training? Schedule a call at 800-807-8030  or fill out the form below.

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Our course catalog offers you an easy way to link your organization's needs and goals to TrainSMART performance solutions workshops. All of our workshops are tailored, flexible, interactive and engaging. We use the outlines in this catalog as a starting point to identify the topics and delivery methods that will create the most successful outcomes.

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How to Coach Problem Solving

The key to training employees to be better problem solvers is to transform managers into coaches. The transformation is difficult but will revolutionize your organization.

Coaching problem solving is the greatest leverage point you have to drive effective problem solving. If you want to coach problem solving, then you need to build coaches. Far too few lean transformation road maps involve an explicit plan for doing so. They focus on training and try to train up a critical mass of their organization on problem solving. But what happens when someone finishes their training? They try to apply what they learned, they struggle, they may fail, and finally, they give up. Why? Because, especially in the early stages of our individual learning, we need coaches who help us close the gap between knowledge and capability, between understanding something and being able to use it. I have advised several companies to pump the brakes, slow down their training and focus more on building coaching capacity, because otherwise, people would have become frustrated.

What is the target condition for an organization with coaches? Every employee should be no more than one degree removed from a coach. In other words, every employee should be able to access a coach where and when they need it. That means coaches must be plentiful, available and connected. If an employee on the evening shift of a multishift operation has a problem they are engaged in solving, then what happens if all the coaches are on the day shift? Most likely, they never get the coaching they need because neither the problem nor the learning can wait.

Evaluate your coaching capacity by observing, or even surveying, with this question: Do you have access to a problem-solving coach where and when you need it? I do not recommend putting a lot of energy into trying to calculate a number, because it is often a moving target. As the learning increases, so does the demand for coaches, but then as the capability grows in the critical mass of the organization, the demand will drop, at least until you raise expectations again or the conditions get more complex for other reasons (a merger, a strategic pivot or an economic crisis, as examples).

The Manager as Coach

There is one guaranteed way to ensure every employee is no more than one degree removed from a coach: make coaching the priority for every manager. One-on-one meetings become coaching sessions. Staff meetings can become shared-learning coaching sessions. The strongest lean organizations I have observed make this one of the core elements of their infrastructure.

Several supporting factors must also change to enable this goal.

1. Managers must make choices situation by situation about when they are a manager first and when they are a coach first. This is a trade-off between short-term performance and long-term capability for future performance. If the incentive system, both formal and cultural, is more focused on short-term performance than building long-term capability, then the manager-as-coach scheme will fail. As one former Toyota manager told me, "I cannot get promoted until my employees are capable of doing my job. My number-one priority is developing my team." The best signal you can send is in promotions, as this manager indicated. Not only will it be clear who "gets ahead" in the organization, but those managers, once promoted, will place value on this for their decisions.

2. You need to build mechanisms and processes that enable this relationship. For example, look at your employee evaluation system. Is coaching built in or is its primary purpose to document and reward outcome-based performance? It can do both, but you can build the backbone of your system primarily for only one or the other.

3. You need to think about how many team members a manager can coach without diluting and sacrificing quality. Organizations that are focused on coaching often have a smaller span of control for each manager, but because they gain more from those employees as a result of the coaching, the payout is still positive. However, do not put the extra managers in place before you've built the capability.

Otherwise, you will have more managers committed to the old expectations and who build up greater resistance to becoming coaches. Instead, start shifting managers into being capable coaches, and they will gradually force the right ratio because they start to shape their environment to be optimal for coaching. I know one executive who makes an effort to keep their calendar very clear and open so they are available to their team for coaching or other needs. This is the kind of ownership of their coaching that managers should aspire to.

Here is the hard part: building that capability and culture, with that many managers, is difficult and takes time. It is a long-term decision to pursue this route. Not only do you face a real risk of managers diminishing what was working in order to shift to coaching, but they may not be good at it. They must learn, through practice, on their way to success. This means failures along the way. You must be accepting of those failures and perhaps supplement the organization with other crutches to prop it up during the transition.

I cannot think of many investments with a higher and more sustainable long-term payout than building an organization where every manager is a coach. However, I also cannot think of many investments that require more effort, persistence and patience.

Jamie Flinchbaugh is an entrepreneur, senior executive, consultant and board member. He is the author of People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem and The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road.

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Success title

Success caption

Problem-solving

Duration 10'

No. of mini-lessons 4

Resources Takeaway Tasks

Course overview

Do you know what the world’s best-selling toy is?

No, it’s not some new-fangled, shiny, or high-tech gadget. It’s actually the humble Rubik’s cube! That colourful 3D puzzle with problem-solving at its core. And despite the amount of competition out there, the Rubik’s cube has stood the test of time.

See, problem-solving is all about using logic and imagination to make sense of a situation and come up with an intelligent solution . And it’s vital in the business world, too.

It encourages you to find fresh perspectives and come up with innovative solutions , so that you can formulate a plan to overcome obstacles and reach your goals.

What's covered

What does “problem-solving” mean in business

What are the benefits of effective problem-solving

How to demonstrate strategies that can improve your team’s problem-solving skills

Why your teams need this course

This course is for leaders of all levels who want to encourage better problem-solving within their teams. No matter what the problem or need your business may be addressing, creative ideas and fresh approaches can often make the difference between a successful company and one that’s unable to keep up with its competitors.

Accredited by CPD

TalentLibrary is recognized as reaching the standards and benchmarks required by the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Certification Service.

The CPD Certification Service is the world’s leading and largest independent accreditation organization for professional development courses across all industry sectors.

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