9 Problem Solving

In calm waters, every ship has a good captain.

—Swedish proverb

Along with communication and decision making, problem solving is the other supervisory activity that you will be required to perform on an ongoing basis. Once again, your approach will be much more public than it was when you were in a nonsu-pervisory position. You will be expected to make decisions about which problems to solve, and you will be held accountable for how, when, and why you arrive at particular solutions. Although not every decision involves a problem, every problem will require a decision. Therefore, effective problem solving involves a combination of the skills presented in Chapter 8 and the techniques presented for your use in this chapter. ...

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