Customer Reviews

Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fabulous little book and useful for everyone. You can use it to teach yourself or remind yourself of the solid basics of problem solving. Or you can use it within your team so that everyone is working on problems with the same approach. And you can use it to teach your children how to approach the problems they face everyday of their life.

While the author originally wrote it as a children's book in Japan, it became a big bestseller there in the business world. Watanabe has adapted it for you and me, but still keeps that same childlike simplicity that makes the book so clear and so valuable. I think that the book has become such a sensation because the book speaks clearly but not condescendingly. The book teaches basic principles without oversimplifying them.

There are four "classes" or stories in the book that take you through a core principle in Watanabe's method (remember he was a consultant at McKinsey after studying at both Yale and Harvard). The first class shows you how your attitude and approach to the problems you face has a huge impact on whether you can handle the problems or not. The author provides four steps to problem solving:

1) understand the current situation
2) identify the root cause of the problem (not being satisfied with merely labeling symptoms)
3) develop an effective action plan (not falling for the trap of doing SOMETHNG)
4) execute until the problem is solved while making modifications as you learn.

The problems-solving tool boxes are also terrific. They are:
- Logic Tree
- Yes/No Tree
- Problem-Solving Design Plan
- Hypothesis Pyramid
- Pros and Cons

Really, this book is for everyone and something you can use in many different ways.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

What started out as a book written for Japanese children became a bestseller, read and followed by so many adults that it became Japan's #1 business book. Why? Because it offers easy to understand viable solutions to making the best problem solving decisions we can in order to reach the goals we wish to attain.

Before writing this book author Watanabe was a consultant for the global management consulting firm of McKinney & Company. As he writes, "For six years I worked with major companies all over the world to help solve their business challenges using a straightforward yet powerful set of problem-solving tools."

Then, in 2007 when the Japanese prime minster placed education at the top of his nation's agenda, Watanabe felt called to help. So he left McKinney to teach children and to write this book. Now, all of us are the beneficiaries.

In a nutshell he suggests 4 steps: (1) Identify the problem quite specifically. A problem can be as simple as where to have dinner that evening or as complex as a major investment. (2) Discover the root difficulties that are causing the problem. (3) Develop a plan of action or steps to be taken to resolve the issue. (4) Take action being prepared to substitute or modify until the issue is resolved.

This abbreviation of the author's ideas does in no way do justice to his theses. His book is replete with charts, graphs and example exercises. Read and learn !

- Gail Cooke

Hands down one of the best problem solving/decision making books written.

Ken Watanabe, a McKinsey consultant, hears the call of Japan's prime minister for his nation to shift their educational system from a "memorization-focused education" to a "problem-solving-focused education". His response to the prime minister's calling is to quit his consulting job to teach kids and write Problem Solving 101. Fortunately, the business community also paid attention to the content of Mr. Watanabe's book and did not get hung up on the childlike presentation, which I believe actually makes it more powerful. Eventually, Problem Solving 101 became Japan's number one best-selling business book in 2007.

I stumbled on Problem Solving 101 in a bookstore when browsing but did not purchase it. A few days later I went back to look at one of the diagrams in the book as I thought it would be a useful process for something I was working on. However I still did not buy the book as it seemed too childlike to spend money on. Two days later I was back in the bookstore looking something up again in the book. As I was walking out of the store without purchasing it I thought, "This is stupid," and went back and purchased the book.

There's the key to the value of this book, you keep coming back to it to put its concepts to actual work. In the past week I have used processes outlined in the book for a high priority business problem and a major personal decision. I can honestly say both have benefited significantly with one now having a process to solve the problem and the other reaching a confident, effective decision. You just cannot get much better consulting than what this book provides.

Great job Mr. Watanabe, great job.

I'm the odd man out here. I didn't find the book something to crow from the rooftops about, as everyone else seems to have. It may be that I am writing this too early though. I will attempt to apply some of the rationale to a personal problem I am grappling with (the reason I bought the book in fact), but for the most part, it just seems a regurgitation of what most of us do almost instinctively, but not necessarily consciously.

I will agree with a previous reviewer that it probably should be required reading in High Schools, but I found it almost too simplistic. Odd really, because I generally appreciate things being distilled down to their essence and trimmed of fluff, which Mr Watanabe's book certainly is.

I agree with Seth - everyone in America should read this book. Really.

The author, Ken Watanabe, who is a former managerial consultant with McKinsey, has written a great primer on problem solving that is useful for business decisions, and everyday problems.

The examples are written using kid stories, which makes it fun, and provide the tools to start making problem solving an everyday behavior in life.

Some may complain that there is not enough depth, but they would be missing the bigger picture. It is not how much you are 'given' in a book, but rather how much is actually taken or understood - the transference of knowledge. Watanabe's book provides the frameworks for everyday problem solving that can be applied from the simple to the complex, and that's what makes it worthwhile.

Be a Problem Solver. Read this book.

I assume some readers may find this book overly simplified, as author Ken Watanabe uses fairly simple examples to teach problem solving skills in what is a rather short book. Don't be fooled by the relatively straight-forward nature of the problems involved; it's the core concepts of problem solving that are important, and Watanabe presents these in a clear and accessible manner. For me, the empahsis on hypothesis testing was the most important piece of information. Many of us make assumptions about the nature of our problems, or the efficacy of our proposed solutions, without ever bothering to really test them. Watanabe show us how to challenge these assupmtion by testing hypotheses and reducing the possibility of following false leads. In addition, Watanabe demonstrates the need for problem solvers to re-examine solutions that may at first appear inadequate or unrealistic; with some creative thinking these options may turn out to be quite feasible. I strongly recommend this book for high schoolers, who may identify more readily with the examples, and who would benefit greatly from learning the key skills of problem solving and decision making.

This book is a must read for every professional - anyone who wants to succeed in their careers. When you flip through the pages of the book, you might be discouraged at first to read the book because the images seem to be targeting children.

The book illustrates how one can logically solve a problem. The tools presented are very easy to understand and use. I highly recommend this book

Although this book was originally intended for school children, it should be read by every adult too. It distills problem solving down to simple and easy to understand techniques. I was already familiar with most of the techniques that Watanabe describes in the book, and have seen many McKinsey consultants using the same process and tools on various projects that I've been involved in. But for me, the 'magic' of this book was the simplicity of how Watanabe describes the problem solving process in enjoyable and memorable stories.

Highly recommended.

I am a business book junkie. Most go in a drawer. A few go to the top of the desk. "The Toyota Way", "Ready, Fire, Aim", "Blue Ocean Strategy", "The Four Hour Work Week", "Elementary Statistics", and now "Problem Solving 101". These books are within reach all the time because they are that useful. Outstanding and creative document! Buy it!

A great book to get you started at looking at problems in a different light. More than anything else it expands on the inner workings of our minds - how we go about making decisions. It further expands on these various threads of thinking and encourages us to explore each a little further in order to come up with a more enlightened decision.

Optimal decisions rely on asking effective questions. This is one area where the book lacks zing in my opinion. Although it is difficult to teach someone how to ask the right question, that is the key to good decision making and should have been addressed in some form. In its absence the user may be impressed by the illustration but is left wanting more when it comes to application.

In addition, the final chapter on Pros and Cons should have used numeric more precise numeric means when it came to using weighing criteria. The author does not make clear how the High criteria translates
5 stars to just 1.

Overall, a great book and highly recommended.