The Critical Thinking Problem Solving Process for Community Health Center Leadership.

The Critical Thinking Problem Solving Process for Community Health Center Leadership.

Continuing our prior post, we present a suggested problem solving process for Community Health Center Governing Boards to utilize at their monthly Board and Financial meetings.

Extensive Questions

This post contains extensive questions. If your style as a Governing Board member has not been one of serious questioning, please note that any three of these questions, when responded to with answers that respect your intelligence and standing as a Board Member with fiduciary responsibilities, would immensely enhance the quality of Board policies and the quality of care for your underserved patients.

When presented with information, plans, financials, etc., our suggestion is that each Community Health Center Governing Board member follows this process, and asks at least three of these sample questions:

§ What is the outcome, or ideal state you are trying to accomplish?
What purpose are you trying to achieve?
State in positive terms and phrase as a question.

§ What is the problem, or question at issue, you are trying to solve?
Pose it as a question.
If you answered or solved this, will it get you to your goal?
Is it stated clearly, accurately, deeply considering the complexities of the issue or problem?
How are you defining the terms you use in describing the problem?
Would this definition make sense to the other stakeholders?

§ What are you assuming about the goal or the problem?
What evidence do you have for assuming what you are assuming?
Is the evidence accurate and precise?
If you don’t have all the evidence, what would you need, and where would you go to get it?

§ What data or information do you have to help solve the problem?
o If you don’t have enough data or information, what questions would you need to ask to get the relevant data?
o Where would you go?
o How would you determine the reliability of the data?
o Are you working with facts, or inferences?

§ What point of view are you coming from in analyzing the problem?
What other points of view would you need to consult and why?
Have you defined the problem broadly enough?

§ If you have completely defined the problem meeting the above criteria, what solutions or decisions can you come to regarding the problem you are attempting to solve?
What are the consequences of the solution (both positive and negative)?
How will you maximize the positive and minimize the negative consequences?

Next post: Special Notes on Effective Problem Solving for Community Health Center Leadership.