Leadership - Problem solving - basics part 2
Problem solving - basics part 2
General
There are a few key reasons why people fail to give of their best.
They don’t know the purpose of what they have been asked to do.
They are unclear as to what they should be doing.
Their skill level is poor for the task in hand so they do not know how to do it.
There are reasons that are beyond the control of the individual.
Problems come in all shapes and sizes but without the right attitude and plan of action they will remain as problems with no solutions.
Where can you go for a solution?
As we have already said if you don’t have the right attitude then you won’t go anywhere to seek a solution.
Some of the usual sources are friends and family, work peers and colleagues, books and the internet.
Without hurdles creating problems we would not exercise our brains to find solutions.
Problem solving gets better the more you need to do it.
There are rarely any new problems just new situations.
Change is often the result of encountering problems.
These problems are either apparent now or the result of consideration of future outcomes.
The size of a problem can be a factor of how much the individual panics in a situation.
Many problems will reduce in severity once you have more experience in problem solving.
Try not to see hurdles as problems but as areas where you can gain experience.
A good positive attitude can reduce the impact of a problem considerably.
It is tempting to believe that once you have exhausted all of the possibilities for a solution that there isn’t one.
This can be a dangerous position to hold.
It is quite likely that you or your sources do not hold the solution but someone else just might.
If you are unable to find a solution you should ask yourself ‘why?’ and ‘what can be done about it?’
Is it just that you (and not someone else) can’t find the solution? Are you limited by current technology? Do you need to ‘buy in’ expertise?
Can you change the scope of the project? If a hurdle is stopping you delivering what you want maybe you can negotiate a different ‘product’ with the ‘customer’.
Leadership role
A leader’s experience will often tell them that a problem is on the horizon.
This ‘intuition’ may be the result of rapidly assessing relevant facts based upon this experience.
This gives them a head start in searching for the potential problem before its effects take hold.
This awareness leads to the formulation of ‘contingency plans’ should the problem actually arise.
This allows an early definition of the possible problem and an assessment of the available resource.
The leader must always remain positive in outlook and believe that a suitable solution exists.
This state of mind is how you approach the problem the emotion of enthusiasm is how your feel about the problem.
As you move up the leadership ladder your problems and the decisions that you reach will become more important.
You must try to develop the problem solving skills of your team.
Clearly, recognition of problem solving techniques is one area.
Another is to make sure that you solve problems with people and don’t just tell them how to do it.
The more people you show how to derive the solution the less problems will come to your door.
However you manage to come across a possible solution you must then implement it.
For this you will need an action plan which should take into account the risks and impact on the project.
The process
Define and prioritise
Like any area of work, problems are no different when it comes to prioritisation.
There will not be enough time to solve all of the problems so you will need to focus on the key ones first.
Again, you may wish to rank them in terms of ‘importance’ and ‘urgency’.
The definitions are:
| Urgent | Urgent tasks are deadline based. This is usually independent of yourself and is often driven by others. The sooner the task needs completion the more urgent it is. This has no relation to importance. It is a simple matter to rank any jobs that you have in terms of their deadlines. |
| Important | The importance of a job drives how much ‘time’ you want to spend on it. Notice that this is independent of ‘urgency’ and is what you want to do not what you actually spend on it. For any task the quality of your output will often relate to the time you spend on it. Again, it is a simple matter to rank the importance of the same tasks, for example, ‘high’ ‘medium’ or ‘low’ or a simple numerical ranking. |
Most problems are immediate so many fall into the urgent category anyway.
So, you will need to consider the potential impact on the project.
The higher the impact the higher the ranking.
Facts and solutions
Don’t speculate about a problem gather the facts by asking searching questions.
Then define the problem and get agreement that this is indeed the problem.
If you can get personally involved in the process so that you can gain understanding.
When considering solutions try to keep an open mind and consider solutions that result from lateral thinking.
A classic problem is the one in the diagram above. In trying to join all 9 dots with 4 straight lines without taking the pen off the page results in the solution given. This requires a little thinking outside of the box.
Many solutions to a problem will depend on the assumptions you make.
The 9 point problem is soluble once you assume you can extend the lines beyond the points.
Many other solutions are possible.
For example, if you assume that a line only has to touch some points and go through others you can solve the problem with just 3 lines.
The key is to consider the assumptions and then think beyond the obvious.
Collect information
Use as many people as possible to try to find a solution.
List all possible solutions then evaluate them and then select one.
This can be done by using brainstorming techniques.
These are covered in more detail in ‘The Complete Project management package’.
You may wish to allow others to comment on the solution and get final agreement on the proposal before implementation.
Recurrence
Problems have a habit of coming back, particularly if you don’t try to do anything about them.
Once you have resolved the issue think about the causes and not the symptoms of the problem.
How can you stop a problem happening again?
You will need to make sure that the causes do not recur by establishing systems to stop them.
Generating policies to help in this area is good practice.
However, don’t let a policy stand in the way of necessary change.
Become a coach when solving problems and many issues will be managed more easily in the future.
Get people to own their solutions and give you a time frame for completion.