What is Good Problem-Solving?
General lessons for problem-solving emerged in the ‘Not Rocket Science’ research:
Achieving Success
Detailed analysis is needed to help define problems in ways that open them
to creative responses. Traditional police definitions of problems are not always the
most helpful.
Detailed analysis needs to be directed at ‘pinch points’, i.e. at the
weakest necessary conditions for the problems to persist.
Site specific analysis of problems is needed to select responses that are relevant
to local circumstances.
In selecting responses it is crucial to work out in detail how they are expected
to produce their intended effects.
Community consultation and involvement is important to identify interventions
that will elicit the co-operation and involvement of residents that is often needed
if measures are to be effective.
The establishment of multi-disciplinary/multi-agency teams facilitates problem-solving,
especially for large-scale issues.
It is not always in the interests of those best placed to make changes that will
reduce problems to do so. It may be necessary in those circumstances to find and apply
incentives or levers.
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Sources of potential failure in successful adoption of the problem solving approach
arise through:
Weakness:
in identifying the problem
Failure to check that a nationally identified problem exists locally
Failure to check out systematically that perceptions that problems exist are
accurate
Failure to check scale of problem
in analyses of the problem
Acceptance of definition of problem at face value
Use of only very short-term data
Failure to examine the genesis of problems
in working out what to do
Short term focus
Failure to read relevant literature
Picking the solution prior to, or in spite of, analysis
Failure to plan how the measures could in practice be made operational
Failure to think through the mechanisms by which the measure could have its
impact
Failure to think through needs for sustained reduction, specifically failure
to consolidate following crackdown
in working with partners
Failure fully to involve partners
Insensitivity to others’ agendas, styles, constraints or ideologies
in implementation
Narrowly (normally offender) focused response
Weaknesses in lessons drawn from previous experience
Shortage of good evaluations
- Uncritical transfer of responses used elsewhere
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