Before discussing problem solving in detail, let me go over some basics. As you know, a problem is a situation that is a deviation from standard— something that needs correcting, a disruption in normal operations, or just a plain mess that needs cleaning up. Sometimes a problem, while an uncertainty or a difficulty, can represent an opportunity once a solution is found.
Analyzing a situation is called problem solving. Arriving at workable solution is decision making.
Alternative solutions to a problem may be arrived at in many different ways, including by hit or miss or through the blind hog method. (The saying goes that even a blind hog can find an acorn now and then.) But the likelihood of finding a workable solution is greatest when you follow this seven-step process.
- Define or identify the problem.
- Get the facts.
- Interpret the facts.
- Develop alternative solutions.
- Select the best practical solution. The decision-making step in problem solving.
- Implement the solution.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.
As we look at each step in detail, keep in mind that you need not form a group or involve your staff in this process. While involvement of your staff may bring insights into the nature of the problem or assist in implementation of the solution, the same process can be used by you, alone, to come up with a solution.
Definition of the Problem
The most difficult step in problem solving and decision making is to identify the real problem. Frequently, the symptoms of a problem are mistaken for its cause. Take, for instance, turnover. As you read in Hiring, Orienting, and Retaining Employees, turnover is a symptom of such problems as poor supervision, boring work assignments, improper hiring criteria, and inadequate salaries. If your work unit had high turnover, and you focused exclusively on that, you would not put an end to the problem. You would be addressing a symptom rather than the root cause.
Get the Facts
The second step in problem solving and decision making is to gather all the factual information needed to make a careful assessment of the situation. Sources of factual information include financial records, drawings, policies and procedures, reports, and actual observation. A frequently overlooked source of facts is the employee or group of employees involved in the situation. Being closest to the actual operation or process, employees often have ideas about what should be done to eliminate a problem. So you should consult with employees when you look for the reason behind a problem.
Let’s take our problem of turnover, for instance. Exit interviews with departing employees may provide insights into the problem. A group meeting about the workplace might also identify ways in which it might be improved.
How much information does a supervisor need to identify the reason behind a problem? This question can’t be answered in the abstract. The situation determines how much information will be enough. I remember the period after September 11. Two weeks later, a CEO told The Wall Street Journal that he had not made a decision since then. He was uncertain what would happen next. When I mentioned this to another CEO, he observed that a decision maker never thinks that all the facts are available to make a decision, no matter the circumstances. Today’s fast-changing world has only made incomplete information more of a problem. But to wait for all the facts to come in before making a decision, he told me, is to make a decision—not to do anything. Managers have to make a decision. After all, if it is the wrong decision, they can always make another decision.
Interpret the Facts
This step actually starts as information is collected. Facts are fitted together, and their relationships are considered. Questions are asked. Why did this breakdown occur? Is it a design flaw? What is the magnitude of the problem if we don’t address it? The nature of the problem, of course, will determine the questions asked. The important point here is that a manager needs to probe and then dig even further. The good news is that most problems leave paper trails, and careful analysis of printouts, market research findings, and other data, depending on the nature of the problem, can cast a light on a dilemma or suggest further re- search. In time, the facts will begin to create a picture, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
During this process, you may encounter opinions, attitudes, and perceptions. They may be clues to the source of the problem or, alternatively, they can derail you from the real source.
Although problem solving is a seven-step process, know that, whether working on your own or with your staff, there will be a great temptation to move immediately to identifying solutions.
Develop Alternative Solutions
The next step in problem solving is to come up with some alternative approaches to resolving the problem. You may come up with alternatives based on your past experience or that of your peers. You might call your staff together to work together on potential solutions. If the problem involves many parts of your organization, you may want to form a crossfunctional team, with representatives from throughout your company, to brainstorm solutions.
In this stage, you don’t want to stop at a single idea or to analyze the feasibility of any idea that is suggested. Just because some alternative has never been tried in the past should not prevent its consideration in the current situation.
How many alternatives should you have? The answer is “enough.” In some cases, this may be three or four; in other cases, it may be as many as five or six. Generally, the nature of the problem and its complexity will influence the number of alternatives you need to identify. One alternative that should be included is: do nothing. Not all problems disappear without action, but some do, so managers should ask themselves, “Would the condition disappear on its own?”
Select the Best Solution
This is the decision-making phase in the problem solving process. Initially, a weeding out approach is used; that is, the alternatives are reviewed, and those that clearly do not seem suitable are thrown out. The rest are then reviewed carefully. Each will be analyzed in terms of its direct as well as indirect impact on the problem including costs, delivery, employee morale, potential resistance, and the like. Each alternative will have positive and negative consequences, and analysis should identify both for each alternative. For instance, you don’t want to put in place a solution that would produce a problem worse than the one it was supposed to solve. If the consequences of a solution are more costly than the problem, then you want to continue the search for another solution—a practical one. Many solutions didn’t work because managers forgot that they wanted a practical solution.
Once a solution has been selected, your responsibility is to do all you can to make it succeed.
If you work as a group, and you have several good solutions, you may want to try multivoting to make your final selection. Here’s how it works. You review the ideas, link ideas where possible, and then ask members to vote. Each time, the list should be cut in half. In a short time, your list should contain a workable number of alternatives for further study and final decision making.
If you have only a few ideas, you can vote to determine if you have consensus on one. Keep in mind that consensus doesn’t require everyone to be in agreement, just that the chosen idea be one that everyone can live with.
Implement the Solution
You want to implement the proposed solution as quickly as possible to put an end to the problem. Don’t forget, however, to inform those who will be affected about its implementation. You may even need to train those whom you expect to make the change happen. To put a solution to work without advance preparation of affected employees is to court disaster. Communication is essential. The solution will meet less resistance and will be more successful when everyone concerned knows why, how, when, where, what, and who will be influenced by it. ( on change management.) Often, it is not the change that upsets people—it is the way it is pushed through.
Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Solution
Once you’ve implemented the solution, you need to monitor it to see if it is producing the positive results you expected. Too often, the best answers on paper don’t work exactly as they are supposed to. Are costs down? Is service quality up? Are you making promised delivery dates? You may have to make small adjustments, select another alternative, or even begin from scratch if the selected solution is not doing the job it was supposed to do.
Problem Solving and Decision Making: Tools and Techniques
A number of tools and techniques can enable you to better identify the cause of a problem, select the best decision, and monitor results. As you solve problems, it is as important to be sure that you have the real cause of a problem (don’t make the assumption that you know the cause) as it is to come up with a workable solution and test it.
Brainstorming. This technique can be used to identify problems, solutions, or the consequences of alternative solutions. Basically, it is an idea- generating technique in which group members throw out their ideas as they think of them so that each has the opportunity to build on the ideas of the others. It is especially useful for creating a breakthrough whenever you are presented with a new, unusual, or different situation that is not amenable to a traditional solution.
There are few rules to brainstorming. The most important is that, during the process, ideas are not evaluated. Only after the brainstorming is over are the ideas evaluated and the list of suggestions narrowed to one or two good ones.
Pareto analysis. This technique recognizes that many things may be creating problems but only a few of these may be key to the situation. Your intent should be to identify and address those critical few to resolve the situation. Measurable data are necessary for such analysis, so the initial step may be to gather information on quality, cost, or productivity. Then analysis determines which elements are having the most impact—whether it is people being put on hold, warehousing problems that are creating customer service complaints, or missed delivery dates. The process assumes that 20 percent of the factors impact 80 percent of the issue; the next step, then, is to identify action plans to address that 20 percent of the elements.
Scatter diagrams. These diagrams study the relationship between two factors—problem and situation—to see how often they occur at the same time. The more scattered the timelines of problems, the less likely the two factors are related to each other. You might compare a number of potential factors—from using a certain product, using a particular piece of equipment, or the behavior of an employee—to identify the likely cause of the problem.
Workflow diagrams. These show the flow of materials, people, or information within an organization. Detailed workflow charts help to identify at what point a problem affects the system, usually because work has to be redone.
Cause and effect diagrams. The group first determines the nature of the problem. It then identifies likely causes of the problem, ultimately reaching agreement on the major causes. The members then try to visually connect all the causes back to the general problem, drawing lines to show relationships between causes. More lines are drawn as additional causes are traced to these problems. In searching for causes, the team ultimately comes to the root cause of the problem, the one they need to address before they can address the others.
Because the final diagram often resembles a fishbone, the technique is also called fishbone analysis.
Variance analysis. All the steps needed to produce a product or complete a process are identified and studied to determine where problems are likely to occur and their consequences.
Managerial Mistakes
As I went through the steps involved in problem solving, including decision making, I identified some red flags, which I’ll highlight here. These are common—and costly—mistakes new managers can make.
- Make unnecessary decisions. On occasion, the nature of a problem will be such that no action should be taken. Because decisions entail risk, it might be better to let sleeping dogs lie. This is a management judgment on your part, and you have to be prepared to make it.
- Fight a recurring problem with the same solution. Often, the manager focuses on symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem. Consequently, the solution doesn’t work—or works for only a brief period.
- Does not evaluate benefits in terms of costs. Where there’s no analysis of the costs ($) associated with a solution, the most far-fetched kinds of decisions are likely to be considered and selected. The result should always be evaluated in terms of its costs—tangible as well as intangible.
- Delay a decision. You’ve heard of paralysis by analysis; it’s a condition caused by managers procrastinating when a decision is needed. Unlike cheese, decisions don’t necessarily improve with age. Even if the decision is not the right one, it is better made in a timely fashion so the manager has the time to correct the mistake before it does too much damage. Further, making a decision—any decision—rather than brooding about it allows a manager to pay attention to other problems—or potential problems.
Did You Know . . . ?
Americans are guiltier of paralysis by analysis than any other nationality. The British have a reputation for inadequate analysis, whereas other Europeans fall between the two extremes. The Japanese are thorough analysts but move quickly once a decision is made.
Tips
- Challenge all assumptions.
- New ideas are as valuable as any others but should not be adopted just because they are new.
- Don’t let personal feelings about the source of an idea influence your selection.
- Before you undertake decision making, be sure you have identified the criteria on which to base your decision.