Introduction

Many organizations fail to make real progress in solving problems. In most cases, they address the symptoms, not the causes, and patch things up so that they can get back to regular work. Since the underlying causes are not identified and addressed, they continue to create recurring problems. Even with ongoing or increased efforts, the problems persist, performance is impacted, and frustration becomes the norm. Eventually, hopelessness and helplessness can invade the organization's culture. In over 25 years of consulting, we've developed a simple set of steps which enables the toughest problems at work to get solved. These steps are simple to understand and very difficult to implement. This is the reason problem solving turns out to be fire fighting in so many organizations.

Fire Fighting

Every organization has more problems than it has people or time to solve them. So,what's a body to do? The natural response is to speed things up while learning how to juggle. This results in problems being patched, not solved—but patched long enough so that you can move on and patch one or two more problems before the first patch falls off.

We all appreciate the manager who has a bias for action and who can patch quickly while juggling two other problems and getting the day-to-day work done. Paradoxically, this behavior invariably prevents most problems from being solved. It also maximizes stress, burnout, and turnover. Recent research [1] supports my own experience that some companies rarely fight fires, yet they have just as many problems and produce very high performance.

Quick Analysis of How Your Business Addresses Problems [2]
To assess how your organization approaches problem solving, make a note of any statements that describe your organization:

• There are more problems and challenges than problem solvers.

• Many problems are patched, not solved.

• Patched solutions cause problems to recur or create new ones.

• Long term activities and in-depth problem solving is regularly interupted to fight fires and address urgent issues.

• Problems smolder, then flare, often requiring heroic, last minute efforts to solve.

• Fire fighting causes performance to drop.

• Fire fighting creates stress on staff.

• A number of staff members would say that fire fighting is part of how we work.

• CEO and key managers are constantly juggling priorities.

• We have retreats and long meetings to focus on problems and planning, but implementation rarely delivers the results we had hoped for.

If you have checked more than two of these conditions, then fire fighting is a part of your problem solving culture. If you checked more than three, fire fighting is the dominate way your organization solves problems.

The research on fire fighting teases apart two distinct cultures. One fights fires; the other solves problems. Here are the differences:

The difficulty in implementing the simple steps to make problem solving more strategic is the difficulty in changing your culture as outlined above. The next section will outline the steps and the last section will describe how to change your culture.

1  "Stop Fighting Fires" by Roger Bohm and Ramchandran Jaikumar: Harvard Business Review—July-August 2000
2  This assessment is expanded from Bohm and Jaikumars research.