Problem Solving
Definition- When faced with a dilemma, using a specialized set of skills to weigh every possible outcome and choose the best one.
Criteria:
-Level-headed
-Adaptable
-Observant
-Resourceful
Example- Last year in PREP, a freshman leadership organization, I served on the committee of internal affairs. As a committee, we were responsible for planning all of the internal events for PREP including holiday parties, daily hangouts and our end of the year banquet.
We decided last year that we wanted to make our end of the year banquet a formal event and host it at a local country club, in order to give the freshman an opportunity to dress up and be recognized for all of their accomplishments. Although we had a very tight budget, we were able to book the Briarcrest Country Club ballroom at a discounted rate, due to a family connection that one of the members of our committee had. After weeks of strenuous planning, we finally had perfected everything and we just met our budget for the event.
At the next meeting, four days before our event, it was brought to our attention that we had not accounted for gratuity when planning the banquet. After we calculated all of our costs including gratuity, we were $400 over budget. Immediately, everyone in the committee became frantic, because we were so close to the date and we did not have enough money to pay for all of the expenses.
My peers instantly began blurting out irrational ideas to raise money for the group. Having a car wash within four days, hosting a huge bake sale, and donating plasma, were only a few of the outrageous ideas. As this was occurring I remained quiet and thought of sensible solutions for our problem, because I am deathly afraid of needles and was not going to sell my plasma. Finally, I came up with the idea to use any leftover money from previous events in PREP that year, and put it towards our budget for the banquet. I remembered we saved money previously in the year by baking snacks for our events rather than buying them, so I concluded that other committees might have saved a little extra as well.
The executives for my committee agreed with my solution, and reached out to the members in charge of finance to see if we had any leftover money in our budgets from earlier in the year. Luckily, we had enough money saved throughout the year that we could cover all of our costs for banquet and not have to do any fundraising.
Being patient and thinking about abstract solutions really helped me in this situation. Rather than thinking about ways we could have raised money, I used a unique way thinking to generate ideas of other possible places to find the money. Learning to adapt to circumstances that appear in front of me is key in all of my future endeavors, from my career to life after college, because unintended conflicts will arise in most organizational and academic situations.
Criteria:
-Level-headed
-Adaptable
-Observant
-Resourceful
Example- Last year in PREP, a freshman leadership organization, I served on the committee of internal affairs. As a committee, we were responsible for planning all of the internal events for PREP including holiday parties, daily hangouts and our end of the year banquet.
We decided last year that we wanted to make our end of the year banquet a formal event and host it at a local country club, in order to give the freshman an opportunity to dress up and be recognized for all of their accomplishments. Although we had a very tight budget, we were able to book the Briarcrest Country Club ballroom at a discounted rate, due to a family connection that one of the members of our committee had. After weeks of strenuous planning, we finally had perfected everything and we just met our budget for the event.
At the next meeting, four days before our event, it was brought to our attention that we had not accounted for gratuity when planning the banquet. After we calculated all of our costs including gratuity, we were $400 over budget. Immediately, everyone in the committee became frantic, because we were so close to the date and we did not have enough money to pay for all of the expenses.
My peers instantly began blurting out irrational ideas to raise money for the group. Having a car wash within four days, hosting a huge bake sale, and donating plasma, were only a few of the outrageous ideas. As this was occurring I remained quiet and thought of sensible solutions for our problem, because I am deathly afraid of needles and was not going to sell my plasma. Finally, I came up with the idea to use any leftover money from previous events in PREP that year, and put it towards our budget for the banquet. I remembered we saved money previously in the year by baking snacks for our events rather than buying them, so I concluded that other committees might have saved a little extra as well.
The executives for my committee agreed with my solution, and reached out to the members in charge of finance to see if we had any leftover money in our budgets from earlier in the year. Luckily, we had enough money saved throughout the year that we could cover all of our costs for banquet and not have to do any fundraising.
Being patient and thinking about abstract solutions really helped me in this situation. Rather than thinking about ways we could have raised money, I used a unique way thinking to generate ideas of other possible places to find the money. Learning to adapt to circumstances that appear in front of me is key in all of my future endeavors, from my career to life after college, because unintended conflicts will arise in most organizational and academic situations.
"We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them"
-Albert Einstein
-Albert Einstein