Strategic Problem Solving Steps

Step One—Diagnosis

During this step, a large number of people are involved in identifying critical problems in the organization. If only a small number of people identify problems, you often do not surface the problem's real complexity. Widely involving others in this step also creates a foundation for implementation. When everyone is involved, everyone can see that their problems get on the table for consideration. If this is not done, then their focus is often on getting their issues on the table rather than implementing your solution.

When everyone sees all the problems on the table, they rarely have trouble in setting and accepting priorities. They understand that all the problems cannot be solved at once. They can see the logic of solving some before others. Now, when your problem is solved, they will support its implementation. They can see that as one problem is solved and implemented, another on the table will be addressed. And eventually, theirs will get full attention.

There are a number of techniques for this process of accumulating issues from others: interviews, surveys, and face-to-face team meetings. The latter are more powerful in that the face-to-face interaction enables learning, which builds team work, knowledge of the whole organization, humility, and hope. Thus the process of shifting the culture can begin in step one. A skilled facilitator will develop more useful openness in a group setting than surveys or interviews allow. However, in some organizations with a culture of intimidation, it makes sense to begin with a survey and transition to an interactive process the next round of accumulating issues.

Typical Failures in Step One:

• A culture which prevents even modest levels of honesty.
• Lack of input or commitment from too few involved.
• Got bogged down in minutiae.

Step Two—Create Patterns

Once issues are accumulated, they can be grouped into patterns of similar issues. Group them by what they are. Do not form patterns based on what you think caused them or what you think would solve them. This avoids too many issues being dumped into a catch all pattern like "poor communication" or "lack of training."

Typical Failures in Step Two:

• Insufficient dialogue before assigning patterns.
• Too few involved to really build commitment.
• Thoughtfully creating patterns helps everyone involved better understand the whole organization and lays a foundation for more effective problem solving later. "Thoughtfully" means with a deep understanding of how organizations work in general and how, in particular, your organization functions.

Step Three—Prioritization

Prioritize the accumulated patterns of issues based on the impact of leaving them unsolved and the benefit of solving them. All items do not need to be prioritized. Selecting the top three to five saves time and focuses efforts.

Typical Failures in Prioritization:

• Priorities set by current discomfort, not by strategic needs.
• Got bogged down in minutiae.
• Insufficient dialogue before assigning patterns.
• Too few involved to really build commitment.

Step Four—Designing a Task

The prioritized issue is now used to define the task. Briefly, a task assignment is a paragraph or a page that defines the work to be done. It is the charge to the team. A well defined task is like the careful planning done before a Challenger rocket is fired into space. If you are a little off at the start, you can end up lots off at the finish.

There are seven elements to consider in defining a task. All seven should be defined before a team is launched. The only exception is the Second Element—the cause of the problem. It may take the team's work to clarify this. Even so, this should be defined by the team in the first meeting or two.

Task Elements[3]—Spell out the:

• Symptoms—What first got your attention about this issue?
• Cause
• Objectives
• Constraints
• Schedule—By when the objectives should be reached and toll gates on the way.
• Resources available
• Follow up monitoring—Implementing, assessment of success.

In the book which I co-authored, Responsible Managers Get Results, the center third of the book provides tools for 2. problem definition and 3. objective setting. Chapter 10 outlines the seven elements in more detail.

3  For details on each element, see pages 171-174 in Responsible Managers Get Results. Ibid.