by Robert
Did you know that this famous phrase from the movie “Apollo 13” was actually modified from the original? Pilot Jack Swigert actually said, “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Changing it to the present tense was intended to make it sound more dramatic for the film.
Now, let’s talk about our “problem.” Today, we’ll focus on understanding the problem correctly. Finding a solution will be up to you. 😊
Imagine visiting a doctor with terrible stomach cramps. After describing your symptoms, the doctor gives you antispasmodic medication and sends you home. Why then are you not satisfied? After all, the doctor solved your immediate problem. Naturally, you want the underlying issue to be identified and treated. And that’s exactly my point today. Sometimes it’s important not to jump straight into solution mode but to first thoroughly understand the problem. Since most of us are social beings, our instinct is to offer help as soon as someone comes to us with a problem. That is why, asking whether we’re addressing the right problem, seeking detailed information, and gathering facts might feel awkward, even though a doctor would do exactly that during an examination. Yet, our reflex to help can trigger us to switch directly to solution mode.
Therefore, whether facing big or small problems, I try to answer three control questions before thinking about a solution:
- Can I explain the problem to someone else in a way that they understand? This means I’ve really grasped the problem.
- Is it really a problem I need to solve? This means I have all the facts necessary to assess the seriousness.
- What are the underlying causes of the problem? This means I’m hopefully solving the problem systemically.
I always apply these questions whenever I even briefly ponder a problem. This slight hesitation in thinking is enough for me to initiate the process.
Facts, Facts, Facts
I was tasked with improving the hiring process in a large corporation. A project team member (involved in the hiring process) identified a major issue: the employment contracts provided by the service provider had a high error rate, necessitating much rework. So, we introduced a KPI “First Time Right,” which measured the rate of contracts correctly prepared on the first attempt. It turned out that 95% of all contracts were accurately prepared, requiring no rework. Considering that many employment contracts include individual clauses requiring coordination among all parties involved, this was an impressively good value. So, did we have a problem, or was the team member perhaps overly sensitive?
When thinking about a big or small problem, detach from your feelings and search for facts. Being personally affected by a problem can energize us to tackle it. However, it may also lead you to accept a solution that quickly alleviates personal distress but is unlikely to be the best or most sustainable solution.
Stop Firefighting
Some of our coachees are trapped in a constant firefighting mode, living by the motto: “Every day deserves its own catastrophe.” This leads to accomplishing nothing else. At the end of such a day, you might feel proud of making the impossible possible again. However, by the week’s end, you realize you’ve lost it and haven’t gotten to anything else. In such cases, I try to help our coachees identify patterns. Sometimes it’s easy: the same machine causing trouble repeatedly. Other times, it’s more complex: My team members have realized they can come to me with every one of their fires. But I’m sure anyone frequently dealing with medium-scale disasters should engage more deeply with the causes.
My story above continues. The project team member presented her own statistics on the faulty contracts, and it turned out that about half of the contracts she received required rework. Obviously, she always got the bad 5% of the whole pie.
Digging Deeper and Identifying System Weaknesses
As we investigated further, we immediately noticed that a high percentage of incorrect contracts came from the same person at the service provider supplying this specific project team member. One might stop searching for the true reason here. Training for this service provider employee, and be done. However, I recommend searching for the reason why someone isn’t performing as expected, and often it turns out that systems or processes are to blame. In this case, the employee always received the complicated contracts, requiring the integration of the checkered lily. The necessary process for providing information was a disaster, leaving much room for interpretation. Critical information was regularly missing, and requirements were not aligned. Additionally, there was no peer-review process, so potential errors could not be uncovered. The feedback process for errors was designed so that this feedback went to the supervisor, who then often corrected the mistake themselves due to time constraints, completely breaking the feedback loop, meaning the employee didn’t even know she wasn’t producing the contracts to the desired quality.
This example shows,, you should not stop at the first apparent cause and keep asking why. A small but effective tool for this is 5xWhy? Each Why is based on the previous answer. For instance: Low attendance at team meetings.
- Why is the attendance so low?
- Because team meetings are perceived as a waste of time by some team members.
- Why are team meetings perceived as a waste of time by some members?
- Because the meetings try to cover too many broad topics in one session, making them feel irrelevant for some members.
- Why do the meetings try to cover too many broad topics in one session?
- Because there is an attempt to maximize the use of time by addressing all potential issues and updates at once.
…and so on.
I’ll stop here. You should continue this chain of questions until you believe you’ve found a true cause. It’s possible that you’ll branch out within this chain, meaning you recognize there’s a response 3a and a 3b. Then, of course, you can follow both paths separately.
For many problems, the solution might seem obvious. In those cases, you shouldn’t overanalyze. When you want to hammer a nail into the wall, you take a hammer and hit it, done. But for most of our problems, especially the recurring ones, it’s worth taking a little time. This usually pays off in the end.
– Robert