I was reading Sherlock Holmes the other day – I thought it would be interesting to go back to the original books that I read as a child since the fictional detective seems to be on the television and big screen frequently at the moment. I love detective stories and Sherlock Holmes does seem to be able to unpick some big problems.
His approach to solving cases, whether it’s a murder, a piece of lost jewellery or something a bit more out of the ordinary, is very similar to the approach we take on projects when it comes to diagnosing and resolving issues.
So here is my guide to solving project puzzles, the Sherlock Holmes way.
1. Gather The Facts
The detective always starts off with facts. He meets his client and finds out exactly what has happened. More often than not he will go to the scene of the crime to investigate in person – in other words, going back to the root cause of the issue and assessing the situation based on what he has uncovered personally instead of listening to a third party report the problem to him.