Questions for review

1. Top people in a field. Describe them, give their characteristics.

2. What abilities are essential to the success in business and life?

3. What is necessary to do to master the discipline of problem solving?

4. What steps does “a proven formula for problem solving” consist of?

5. Why is it important to understand that a problem is really a problem?

6. Case analysis. Describe the general approach to it.

7. What is the attitude to the past history in problem solving?

8. Dwell on the pluses and minuses of the expert opinion in problem solving.

9. Where can problems be located?

10. What is the first step in problem solving?

11. Quality decisions and acceptance decisions. Describe and differentiate.

12. Why can decisions be judged only retrospectively?

13. What recommendations should one follow before one calls the meeting?

14. What recommendations should one follow during the meeting?

15. What recommendations should one follow after the meeting?

16. How does personality influence decision making?

17. What is your own approach to problem solving and decisions?

Lexical minimum

Key terms

problem solving quality decision cause and effect acceptance decision

Words and word-combinations

1. self-discipline, n

2. self-mastery, n

3. setback n, v

4. master, n, v

5. collapse, n, v

6. beware of, v

7. recur, v

8. superior to, a

9. undermine, v

10. subdivide into, v

11. reserved

12. sensible, a)

13. sensitive, adj

14. pragmatic, adj

15. intuitive, n, adj

16. (un)conventional, adj

17. deadline, n

18. schedule, n,v

19. top people in the field

20. solution-oriented

21. never-ending flow of problems

22. to face unexpected problems

23. to think in terms of white and black

24. to think in shades of gray

25. in direct proportion to

26. proven formula

27. to make/take a decision

28. accurate diagnosis

29. to agree on the definition

30. to restate the problem

31. to solve the problem at its root

32. to put off to a later time

33. to decide on the course of action

34. general approach to case analysis

35. to cause a problem

36. sloppy control

37. to search for villains

38. to develop alternatives

39. to deal with causes

40. according to appropriate criteria

41. probability of success

42. to select alternatives

43. to obtain the opinion from

44. gut feeling

45. problems located in procedures

46. to judge retrospectively

47. people involved in the problem

48. to fall in the middle

49. to conduct/run a meeting

50. courses of action

51. to screen solutions

52. to table the solutions

53. to focus on one thing at a time

54. to wok at a steady pace

55. to concentrate on a big picture

56. to take many things per se

57. to keep to one’s deadline

58. to work now and play later

59. to eat up money and man-hours

60. to be vital to the success

61. to stay within the budget

62. to miss the deadline

63. to run behind schedule

64. to run into a lot of problems

65. to put the objectives in writing

66. to impose one’s views

67. to watch the clock

68. irrelevant talk

69. to follow the agenda

70. to split into two

71. to run to time

72. to set priorities

73. solution to the problem