For those identified problems/issues with many causes and effects, there are potentially many solutions, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The solutions may impact just one of the effects or may impact several effects. The goal this week is to generate as many solutions as possible based on the critical analysis of the problem created earlier. At this stage, don’t worry about whether the solution is effective. Simply generate as many potential solutions as you can. Once you have generated a list, select two potential resolutions and identify the advantages and disadvantages of each solution. 

• Review the “Problem Solving Template,” attached.
• Review the causes and effects that you generated in Week 6.
• Review the critical analysis narrative that you prepared in Week 7.
• Think about some potential resolutions to your identified problem and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Problem Solving Template

Now that you have critically analyzed the problem/issue the next step is generating a solution. Please review the following steps in creating the problem resolution for your identified problem/issue

Step 1

Identify the goal in developing a resolution.

Using the evacuation plan example, the goal would be to prevent the Hurricane Katrina disaster from occurring again by creating an effective, well developed evacuation plan.

Step 2

List as many possible solutions as you can generate. They don’t all have to be effective, practical or realistic. You can consider what other states have done in similar situations.

A short list of possible solutions for the evacuation plan for New Orleans:

Have emergency management officials trained on a variety of evacuation plans from around the country prior to revising the plan for New Orleans

Develop evacuation plan drills for the city to practice the plan to ensure that it works properly.

Develop ways to educate/inform the entire city about the newly revised evacuation plan including how it works, maps on where people would go and how they would get there.

Step 3

For each possible solution discuss the advantages and disadvantages. Is it a realistic solution? Is it manageable? What are the costs and benefits of the solution? What are the challenges and barriers to the solution?

Using the example of evacuation drills for the city

This is probably not a realistic plan considering the size of the city. It would be financially costly to do evacuation drills as the emergency prepared staff would have to be paid, the National Guard troops would have to be alerted. It’s also probably unmanageable as it would require that the residents leave their jobs, and it would cause multiple traffic jams.

Step 4

Choose the resolution that seems best suited to work in alleviating the problem/issue to include in the capstone document.