Category Archives: Problem Solving Skills

We Can’t Talk About It

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I find myself sometimes in meetings where things are often decided in advance, by politics. And the meeting seems just organized to the appearance of democracy. There is no control in these meetings. They just happen and sometimes it is better to just let it go and walk away. Nevertheless, I step out of those meetings with a bad feeling.

Response:

First, your stomach is an excellent guidepost to the effectiveness of a meeting. When your stomach feels bad, something was not discussed that is actually preventing the organization from making progress.

This often happens counter the intentions of the manager.

Susan was concerned about her team not being creative enough. She called a meeting to come up with some creative ideas to solve a customer problem. When the meeting started, Susan passed around copies of her list of ideas. Then she asked the group to come up with their ideas. She was disappointed that no one else had any. NONE. So she called to complain that her team isn’t creative. She feels so overworked because she has to come up with all the ideas.

Worse, her team comes out of that meeting feeling bad that they had not contributed. It was all they could do to properly support the ideas that Susan came up with.

It was all pretense, all the appearance of participation. So, what is the issue? What is NOT being discussed, that must be discussed for Susan’s team to make progress going forward? -TF

The Secret Formula

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Brad was sitting at his desk when Daniel entered the room, muttering. Dan was explaining this problem that he wished Brad to solve. Brad listened intently, then pointed to a small pad of imprinted sheets sitting on the corner of the desk. Each sheet contained the following questions.

  • Describe the problem?
  • What do you think is causing the problem?
  • Describe three or four alternatives to solve the root cause of the problem?
  • Which one is the best alternative?

“Take one of those sheets, go to the conference room. Work through the questions. I will meet you there in ten minutes,” Brad instructed.

Brad would always wait ten minutes before making his move to the conference room. He always stopped at the company coffee pot. When he arrived at the conference room, it was always empty.

What do you think happened? -TF
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Problem Solving Strategy adapted from a presentation by Ken Peterson, Pathwise.
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This Guitar is Out of Tune

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Marvin was not in his office when I arrived. It didn’t take long to find him among a group of people desperately trying to solve a problem with a machine on the floor.

“It’s always something,” Marvin said. “Just when we get one problem solved, it seems like some other variable goes out of whack. We are trying to figure out why this thing won’t maintain the pressures we need.”

“When did all this start?”

“Weird, it started just a couple of months ago. We have been making these units this way for ten years. We have tweaked almost every parameter and this guitar is so out of tune, it sounds sick.”

“So, what are the factory defaults on the unit? What are the baselines?” I asked. Marvin just stood there. You could see the blood draining from his face. They had been working on this problem for two months, trying to figure out how to adjust the machine.

“Sometimes,” I continued, “we have to clear the decks and go back to square one.” Twenty minutes later, after restoring the defaults and making three adjustments, the machine was holding tolerance. For the first time in two months.

Often, the problem we are trying to solve is the wrong problem. -TF