Problem-Solving Manager: Creating an Innovative Learning Organization

Introduction

From what we have seen so far, Socrates Digital^TM uses the Problem-Solving Manager as storage during the development of viewpoints. We remember that a viewpoint comprises information analysis, concept application, assumption identification, conclusion development, and implication prediction from previous chapters. When Socrates Digital^TM needs one of these viewpoint components for the user persona, the Problem-Solving Manager retrieves it and passes it back to Socrates Digital^TM for presentation.

As shown in Figure 1, the Problem-Solving Manager also provides a submit, review, and approval process of a viewpoint to become a “best practice” for an organization to solve a particular problem. The Problem-Solving Manager makes these approved best practices available across the organization.

Figure 1.

The Problem-Solving Manager Process

Inside The Problem-Solving Manager Process

As we saw in Chapter 5, Socrates Digital^TM interacts directly with the Problem-Solving Database, a part of the Problem-Solving Manager. As we are discovering in this chapter, the Problem-Solving Manager also manages viewpoints for the organization. In Figure 2, we see the Viewpoint_Approval subprocess of the Problem-Solving Manager that manages the submit, review, and approval process for viewpoints.

Figure 2.

The Viewpoint_Approval Subprocess of the Problem-Solving Manager Process

The pseudo-code for the Viewpoint_Approval subprocess is listed below. The first comment tells us that this subprocess presents a question from the subcategory, Questioning Questions, that will get permission from the user persona to answer upcoming questions in the Questions that Target the Parts of Thinking category. As the second comment tells us, its primary purpose is to ask analysts if they have a viewpoint to submit for approval as a best practice for the organization.

/* Questions that Target the Parts of Thinking – Questioning Questions
/* Ask the analyst if there is a viewpoint to submit for approval 
/* as a best practice for the organization
BEGIN Subprocess Viewpoint_Approval
Question:= “Do you want to submit a viewpoint used in a problem-solving session to be considered as a “best practice” for the organization?”
OUTPUT Question
INPUT Answer
User_Response:= Answer
/* Understood_Response will come back as “Yes” or “No”
Natural_Language_Processor (User_Response, Understood_Response)
/* If no, then give the analyst an opportunity to skip this.
IF Understood_Response = “Yes” THEN
Question:= “What is the ID number of this viewpoint?”
OUTPUT Question
INPUT Answer
User_Response:= Answer
/* Understood_Response will come back as a number
Natural_Language_Processor (User_Response, Understood_Response)
ID:= Understood_Response
Subprocess Submitted_Questioning_Precision (Submittal_Rationale)
Subprocess Reviewed_Questioning_Precision (ID, Reviewed, Opinion)
Subprocess Approved_Questioning_Precision (ID, Approved, Reason)
/* Save Understand phase answers to database
UPDATE Approved_Viewpoints_Table
SET 
Submitted_Viewpoint:= Submittal_Rationale
Reviewed_Viewpoint:= Reviewed
Reviewed_Opinion:= Opinion
Approved_Viewpoint:= Approved
Approved_Reason:= Reason
WHERE Viewpoint_ID = Viewpoint_ID_Number
ELSE
OUTPUT “OK, we will skip this.” 
END_IF
END Subprocess Viewpoint_Approval