Problem Solving

“The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.”

Ryan Holiday - The Obstacle is the Way

Leadership is about making decisions. Hopefully, good ones. Each day is spent either realising vision and potential or responding to the problems and challenges that come your way. But what if the gold for our companies is actually in how we anticipate and respond to the challenges that we face daily. Solving problems doesn’t have to be the arduous, negative, stuck in the weeds component of our day. Problem-solving could be treasure hunting. What of value is also easy to find?

Here are five things we need to know about problem-solving:

Where does your mind go when you’re faced with a problem? Do you let out a mantra of curses, sighs, painful groans, and hostile rhetoric? Do you look for the intern to abuse or the company mascot to throttle? Or, do you take a deep breath, acknowledge the disappointment, smile, pick up the pickaxe and shovel, and look for gold?

Imagine if you could look at the problem as a poorly wrapped gift or gold that you see shining just beneath the surface.

The old proverb, “as a man thinketh, so he is”, should guide our response. Everyone is looking, watching to assess how we will respond to this, and it’s your opportunity as a leader to set it to a cool, calm, proactive, positive and courageous 22 degrees Celsius. You should think, “what’s the opportunity here? How do we make something great out of the pile of crap that’s landed on your desk?” It could be a new product, the next rising leader, a left-field strategy, or another opportunity to advance your cause. All the greats would suggest it is, but you have to change your paradigm.

Failure should guide the path by telling us where not to tread next.

2. Data is your friend

Since the beginning of time, we have always loved blaming others and making excuses (think of Adam and Eve). So, it’s not unnatural to go looking for someone to hang your problem on, someone to launch a tirade of abuse toward for making this situation in front of you your problem. But just because it’s natural doesn’t make it right. Research suggests that the problem is process-related in most cases, not the person whose headshot you’ve just printed to put on a dartboard and let loose on. So we need to look down the process line for where things went wrong.

Gather information, seek insights, get the numbers and look for patterns to help understand the situation. Even if the trail leads you to someone you can hang this on, remember you hired the person or didn’t fire them. The processes you deployed to recruit and induct them, bring clarity to expectations, equip them with the right resources, or provide support and coaching are things to blame if someone is behind it all.

If you get the process right, you get the outcome right, so go looking for the data to show you where things went off track.

Tools to help:

• Root cause analysis
• Fishbone charts
• Mind maps
• Flowcharts
• Five whys

The five whys are one of my personal favourites. Keep asking why until you find the underlying issue.

For example:

Profit is down for the quarter – why is profit down?

Because

We didn’t hit our sales targets – why didn’t we hit our sales targets?

Because

Of the impact of COVID – why did COVID impact our sales?

Because

We didn’t have a plan to mitigate its influence or adjust our forecast and reduce costs – why didn’t we have a plan?

Because

We didn’t think ahead and schedule a time to do some contingency planning – well, let’s do that this week!

3. Find Tonto

Even the Lone Ranger had Toto, so when a problem comes knocking on your door, don’t go all solo and tackle it alone. Pull the team together, find the root cause of the problem and plan a response. (Google Lone Ranger and Tonto if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

We might be tempted to bring in the leadership team, business partners or advisors but don’t forget those closest to the problem. They typically have the best quality information and know what will work and what won’t.

Also, remember to utilise the diversity of your team. Avoid getting only the red hats or yellow hats in the room; get as many different kinds of thinkers together to tackle the issue. Whether Debono’s Six Thinking Hats or Lencioni’s Working Geniuses, know how your team thinks and ticks and leverage the diversity.

Grab some coffees, share the data and collaborate.

4. Define the current state and future state

Once you’ve checked your paradigm, gathered the data and the team, set out to clearly articulate the root cause of the problem, why it’s the case and then map out the future state. Address these questions:

• What is the goal here?
• What will our world look like when this problem has had the negativity sucked out of it and provides us with a beautiful vision to be realised?
• What does winning look like?
• What is our definition of done?
  

5. Plan your counter-attack and hustle

Once you know what success looks like and have a definition of done, leverage the team’s diversity again to map out a plan to see your new vision become a reality. Clearly outline what we need to do, when we need to do it, what resources we need, who will do what, define the boundaries, and schedule a time to regroup and hold yourselves accountable to the plan. Maybe it’s a daily huddle, a weekly online check-in or a progress chat in your comms channel.

Here’s the thing though - don’t take too long. So often, we are too slow to respond to create a perfect plan, but by the time we have it, the situation has deteriorated further, and we are even further behind. Create a simple plan and communicate frequently. Review daily and adjust. I love warming up the laminator like the best of them, but we don’t laminate plans anymore. We need to be agile, nimble, listen to the data, learn from it, and pivot as often as needed.

Remember progress over perfection, action learning, and move fast and break things till you solve the problem and seize the opportunity.

In the words of Navy Seal, Jocko Willink, go get some! Move fast, move now, hustle!

Here to help

Lastly, if you still feel stuck and don’t know where to start. Reach out to us at Evolve to help out where we can. It may be a one-on-one coaching session, a team strategy session or a more extensive body of work. Remember, you’re not alone, find Tonto!