Tag Archives: problem solving

Practice Makes Perfect

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“That was a tough one,” Cooper breathed a sigh of relief.

“How so?” I asked.

“The team was struggling with this nasty defect in a critical area of production,” he started. “It took them a while just to collect the data on what was going on, where the failure point was. Then, what to do? That’s when they pulled me in.”

“And?”

“And, I figured it out. Some of their data was defective, which threw them off the trail. Then, I had the insight that solved the dilemma.”

“So, what did you just train them to do?” I was curious.

“I showed them how to solve the problem,” Cooper said.

“No, you showed them that whenever they have a hard problem, they should collect some data, even defective data and then bring the problem to you. That somehow, you will have a brilliant insight that saves the day, and they are off the hook. Not only have you crippled the team from solving their own problems, you have taught them to practice bringing problems to you.”

The Fix

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“I understand our biggest machine has been off-line for a day and a half?” I asked.

“Two days,” Camila replied. “It was down first thing yesterday morning, but we didn’t report it down until lunchtime.”

“And?”

“It’s fixed now,” she explained. “Someone made a mistake on the machine setup for a specific tool and over-torqued the main drive. The drive can handle the pressure, but the tool came apart and destroyed a bunch of stuff inside the cabinet, including the safety partition. No injuries.”

“And, the fix? What’s the corrective action?” I wanted to know.

“Yeah, we have to make sure the setting doesn’t exceed the tool tolerance,” Camila was quick to respond, hoping the conversation would be over, soon.

“The problem wasn’t a machine setting? The problem was that someone wasn’t paying attention, didn’t doublecheck, wasn’t thinking, wasn’t trained or didn’t have the capability. That’s what you have to fix first.”

Perfectly in Flow

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“My team struggled with this problem all last week,” Regina was almost giddy. “I took one look at it and knew exactly what to do. Like a pop up fly right into my glove. It’s really satisfying to solve a problem, almost by instinct.”

“You seem pleased,” I responded.

“Perfectly in flow,” she replied. “Athletes get like that sometimes, where the world slows down, they are one with the motion that perfectly connects.”

“And, your team? What of your team?”

“They were relieved. It was a really hard problem. They discovered the cause, and generated some alternative solutions. It was actually staring them in the face, but the real solution, the one that saved the day was the first part of one alternative connected with the back end of another. Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t see it.”

“And, you, in flow, took their discovery away?”

Regina’s delight turned cold. “It’s not like I took candy from a baby,” she defended. “I solved a problem for them.”

“So, the next time your team struggles with a problem, what are they going to do? Who are they going to call on?”

Just a Parade

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“Why do they constantly make the wrong decision?” Deidra asked. “We have problems where the solution is counterintuitive. If the team follows the popular trend, they come up with a response that creates more damage than the original problem.”

“Why do you think that is?” I wanted to know.

“I don’t know. Instead of thinking through the problem, they wait and follow behind whoever has status in the group. And, of course, once that person has made a move, contributed the first idea, no one else is willing to question or challenge. Or add alternative solutions, or judge one idea more effective than another. After a while, that popular team member becomes a person of influence. One or two problems down the road and the team becomes incapable of wrestling with the root cause. And, I become the street sweeper in the elephant parade.”

“And?” I glanced sideways.

“And, what?” Deidra was frustrated. “You are looking at me like I’m the problem.”

“I just wanted to know what else?” I smiled. “Who taught them to follow someone else’s lead, instead of thinking for themselves? Who taught them to bring the problem to the street sweeper?”

Can’t or Won’t

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“My team seems to think there are some problems they face that will never be fixed,” Kari explained. “It’s always, here we go again. Same problem, different customer.”

“Do you think they can’t fix the problem or won’t fix the problem?” I asked.

“Can’t fix or won’t fix, what’s the difference? The problem still ends up on my desk, again,” Kari flatly stated.

“Often, people prefer a problem they can’t fix to a solution they don’t like.” **

Kari thought for a moment. “You’re right. To fix the problem, they have to stop production and figure out what’s going wrong. Instead, they would rather flare a few tempers and call for help.”

“This is where you have to decide if this is a matter of can’t or won’t. Often, someone who won’t solve a problem, or even try to solve the problem, feels like they don’t have the capability to solve the problem. They feel incompetent and give up. Your job, as a manager is not to solve a solveable problem, but to build the competence of the team to solve the problem.”
—
**Shades of Lee Thayer, Competent Organization

Your Contribution

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The competent individual has a firm sense of the capability they possess and capability beyond. Periods of doubt creep in, but that leaves room for growth and maturity. Periods of doubt are painful, as the individual moves from an ordered world to one where there is doubt.

In this chasm, most of the problems we face are self-inflicted. Looking at any problem we encounter, there are the following characteristics. The problem. The problem’s impact. The cause of the problem. The context. And, then, there is you.

You (and we, because I have the same problems as you) are part of the problem. You have made contribution to the problem and its impact. You may be the cause of the problem. If you don’t face your contribution, any solution will leave lingering conditions for the problem to resurface, perhaps uglier than before.

It is always easier to deal with an external problem out there, than an internal problem closer to your heart.

Accountability and Authority

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I made sly reference to these two concepts last week. Accountability and authority. These are inseparable.

To be accountable for an output, one must have the authority to determine the variables around that output. Do not hamstring a team member by handing them accountability without the authority to control variables. Bifurcating the two leads to well articulated excuses and blaming behavior.

Simultaneously, do not give someone the authority to control variables without the concomitant accountability. Government oversight committees are famous for wanting to have all the authority without accountability.

These two concepts go hand in glove, not either-or, but AND-and.

The Lynchpin in the Framework

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Could it have anything to do with time?

Order is what we know. Chaos is what we don’t know. Most people talk about the past, up to the present time. It is tangible and concrete. By studying the patterns and trends of the past, we can forecast the future, with some reliability. At least for a day. After two days, that reliability begins to break down and by the time a week is passed, reliability becomes a crapshoot with probabilities and margins for error.

The leader is not the person who can best predict. The leader is the person who is comfortable with and can effectively adapt to the uncertainty of the future. The lynchpin in organizational structure is timespan.

Discretion is about decision making. The timespan of discretion defines the uncertainty in a role. We reserve certain decisions for certain roles based on timespan. Timespan helps us understand specific levels of decision making. And there is appropriate decision making at every level of work.

  • S-I – appropriate decision making from 1 day to 3 months
  • S-II – appropriate decision making from 3 months to 12 months
  • S-III – appropriate decision making from 1 year to 2 years
  • S-IV – appropriate decision making from 2 years to 5 years
  • S-V – appropriate decision making from 5 years to 10 years

Timespan helps us understand specific levels of problem solving. And there is appropriate problem solving at every level of work.

  • S-I – effective problem solving using trial and error
  • S-II – effective problem solving using documented processes and best practices
  • S-III – effective problem solving using root cause analysis
  • S-IV – effective problem solving using multi-system analysis
  • S-V – effective problem solving using internal system and external system analysis

Timespan is the lynchpin that defines the framework for organizational structure. It provides guidance to the complexity of the work. It provides guidance on who should make which decisions. Timespan provides guidance of who should be whose manager.

Most importantly, timespan structures the value stream necessary for a hierarchy of competence. This hierarchy of competence defines accountability and authority. Elliott describes this as a management accountability hierarchy (MAH).

Self-Trust

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“That’s it? Just figure it out?” Dalton tested.

I nodded. “You see, your inner critic doesn’t want to do the work. Your inner critic figured out, a long time ago, that you could get by with excuses. And the excuses worked, because everyone believed your excuses, including you.”

“They aren’t excuses, they’re reasons,” Dalton protested.

“Doesn’t matter what you call them,” I replied. “They get in the way of solving the damn problem.”

I could see doubt creeping back into Dalton’s thinking. His face looked scared.

“Look,” I said. “Your critic has a long familiar past with you. He knows all your buttons. But, you have more power. You have already taken steps, and those steps have been inside you all along. Answer these questions. Do you know what your resources are to fix this problem? Do you know what your budget is to fix this problem? Do you know how to figure lead-times into your schedule? Can you develop a receiving inspection process to prevent this from happening again?”

Dalton didn’t have to think long. “Yes,” he said thoughtfully.

“Thank your critic for sharing, trust in yourself and get to it.”

Innovate

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“I thought we already dealt with my inner critic,” Dalton complained.

“Oh, we did,” I replied. “But, do you think your inner critic is going to go away quietly? Your inner critic is already miffed that you allowed yourself permission to fail. You even went so far to explore alternative solutions.”

“And, the team came up with an idea that might work, but it’s a step that we don’t do, don’t have the resources to do and don’t know how to do. At least not easily.”

“Look, you beat your inner critic once. When your manager got on your case, your critic told you to blame it on late materials, a machine breakdown and finally, to blame it on Fred. How did you beat your inner critic?”

“I took responsibility. I gave myself permission to fail. Instead of blaming, I started to explore alternatives with my team.”

“And, you came up with a solution that you don’t do, don’t have resources for, nor the understanding to pull it off,” I nodded.

Dalton stared.

“So, figure it out,” I said. “Get your team together and figure it out. Innovate, man.”