“I found a new management technique,” beamed Mackenzie.

“I’ll bite,” I smiled. “What is it?”

“Fix it,” she replied. “Whenever someone comes to me with a problem, I should just say “Fix it!'”

“Okay, that does shift accountability in the direction of the team member, but it doesn’t give them much to work with.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mackenzie shot back. “It’s up to them to figure it out.”

“Take this piece of paper and this pencil,” I said. “Draw a picture.”

“Draw a picture of what?” Mackenzie was puzzled.

“Exactly. You are going to sputter around and finally come up with something without any shape or form related to the instruction. It’s not what I had in mind.” I paused.

“But if I said draw something that is round, gave you just enough structure, your efforts would be faster and on point. I will still get plenty of alternative variation. Round like a ball or round like a coin? As big as a planet or as small as a marble? Smooth surface or textured surface? Hard like a rock or pliable like a balloon?”

“So, ‘fix it’ isn’t helpful?” she relented.

“You want the team to solve the problem, but they will solve it faster and generate more alternatives if you give them a structure –
What is the problem?
What is the cause of the problem?
What are the alternative solutions?
What is the best solution?”