Category Archives: Problem Solving Skills

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