Fixing the Focus: 9 Lessons Learned About Problem-Solving

Today I was CC’ed on an e-mail to various team members. Someone on our staff was frustrated at having to consistently repair broken transactions, and creating extra work on this person’s team.

How many times have you been frustrated with someone breaking a process, or someone’s missteps causing you more work? It happens to all of us, right?

How many times have you attempted to fix everything with an e-mail?

I know I have been guilty…

This e-mail was fairly harmless – and it will also most likely need remedial, and in-person, follow-up to ensure the process is being followed. But this one event brought back a host of other e-mails that caused a reaction.

You know the reaction I’m referring to – where some “manager” get’s involved and everything has to change – people get moved, processes get installed, and before you know it everyone is grumbling about the tail wagging the dog.

Focused on fixing the 1%?

In our haste to be efficient, multi-task, and leverage our technology to create more time – I would ask whether we sometimes miss the forest for the trees?

How many times have you witnessed a supervisor, manager, or authority figure step in to offer new guidelines or policies based upon a single infraction, rather than simply addressing the infraction with the offending individual?

While this type of approach may be justified at times, I have found over-legislation more common in these unwarranted situations where management often chooses to address a symptom but not the cause.

The net result can often be viewed as a little game the employees begin to play with management, akin to a dog chasing its own tail. All the while, frustration, agitation, and resentment build amongst the team members, breeding an attitude of apathy.

Fixing the focus:

By adjusting our understanding of what the actual problem is we can accurately digest the issues and produce a desired result. In other words, we need to fix what it is we are focused on.

Here are a few hard-won lessons I stumbled across:

1. Don’t legislate by e-mail.
2. Attack the issue head on, but don’t attack others.
3. If you are going to have a meeting – make it productive for all.
4. Get specific.
5. Listen to all sides of the story.
6. Show the problem to all sides.
7. Seek agreement on the problem: (Write it down).
8. Elicit solutions: (Ask how they would do to avoid the issue in the future).
9. Create feedback mechanisms.

Having said all of this, I’m sure you had some hard-won insights you would like to share; what would be your number 10?

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.