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Smart organisations involve their employees in running the business. The idea that staff turn up for work, hang their brains up near the front door, do a day’s work and then pick their brains up on the way out, was abandoned long ago by most organisations. But getting the involvement of your people in running and improving business beyond their normal day-to-day tasks is not always easy. One proven way of getting employee involvement is to ask for their help in solving problems. And employees work more effectively in solving problems when they pool their brainpower in the form of teams.

The practice of using teams to solve problems in organisations has been around for a long time. In ‘80s they were known as ‘Quality Circles’. In ‘90s they reappeared under the title of ‘cross-functional teams’. Unfortunately, most organisations have mixed feelings about the mechanism. Many managers will readily admit that they have no way of knowing whether a given team will succeed in their task.

Understanding as much as possible about a problem at the beginning can reduce the overall time spent solving the problem

Part of the problem is that the word ‘team’ means different things to different people. For instance, there are huge differences between permanent-function-based teams and temporary problem-solving teams. These differences are significant because what works with one kind of team will not necessarily work with the other kind. Short-term problem-solving teams need strong and focussed leadership. Permanent work teams work just as well with other models of leadership.

So, let us be clear about what kind of team we mean when we talk teams. For this exercise, what is mean by a team is a temporary group brought together solely for the purpose of solving a particular problem. Typically, the group is cross-functional – it draws its membership from various functions within the organisation – and it disbands when it has concluded its work.

Six-step process

Teams should base their problem-solving approaches on a rational model of the process that includes six stages: Problem definition, evaluation of the problem, generating alternatives, selecting a solution, implementation and evaluation of the results. In practice, however, this rational approach is rarely followed and teams often find themselves developing solutions before they understand the problems.

At each stage of the problem-solving process, teams can use a number of techniques to improve their problem-solving abilities. Using these techniques helps teams be more effective problem solvers.

Define the problem

This is the most difficult step for teams to perform. The more clearly a problem is defined, the easier you’ll find it to complete subsequent steps. A symptom is a phenomenon or circumstance that results from a deeper, underlying condition. It’s common to mistake symptoms for problems themselves – and so to waste a lot of time and effort on tackling consequences of problems instead of their causes. To define a problem, you can use gap analysis, which involves comparing your current state to the future state you want to be in, to identify the gaps between them.
Teams may rush through the problem definition stage, only to find that they have to return to it during the solution or implementation stage. This is a time-consuming approach to problem solving. Understanding as much as possible about a problem at the beginning can reduce the overall time spent solving the problem.

Analyse the problem  

You decide what type of problem it is – whether there’s a clear barrier or circumstance you need to overcome, or whether you need to determine how to reach a goal. You then dig to the root causes of the problem and detail the nature of the gap between where you are and where you want to be. The five-why analysis is a tool that’ll help you get to the heart of the problem.

Ask “Why?” a number of times to dig through each layer of symptoms and so to arrive at the problem’s root cause. You can get to the root of a more complicated problem using a cause-and-effect diagram. A cause is something that produces an effect, result, or consequence – or what contributed to the current state of affairs. Categories of causes include people, time and the environment.

Generate alternatives

Identify as many potential solutions as you can – brainstorm creatively – ask lots of questions about who, what, where, when and how of the causes to point to various possibilities. Don’t limit yourself by considering practicalities at this stage; simply record your ideas. Select a solution and plan action.

Choose the best solution

In evaluating your ideas, more options could present themselves. You could do this by rating each possible solution you came up with in step three according to criteria such as how effective it will be, how much time or effort it will take, its cost and how likely it is to satisfy stakeholders.

Then prepare the action plan. During this step, you determine what steps must be taken, designating tasks where necessary. And you decide on deadlines for completing the actions and estimate the costs of implementing them. You also create a contingency plan in case of unforeseen circumstances so that if anything goes wrong with your plan, you have a ‘plan B’ in place. Typically, this stage involves narrowing down the possible ways to implement the solution you’ve chosen, based on any constraints that apply. You also should draw up an action plan. The complexity of the plan will depend on the situation but it should include who, what and when of your proposed solution.

Implement

Implement the solution. This is an ongoing process. You need to ensure the required resources remain available and monitor progress in solving the problem; otherwise, all the work you’ve done might be for nothing.

Effective approach

Remember that this model is highly adaptable. Although you shouldn’t skip any of the six steps, you can tailor the amount of time you spend on each stage based on the demands of yourunique situation.

The six-step problem-solving model and the tools it provides, is an effective, systematic approach to problem solving. By following each step consciously, you can ensure that generating solutions is a fact-driven, objective and reliable process. It encourages you to dig deeper to the root cause, allows you to get input from others, to be creative when finding solutions and to monitor your solutions to make sure they’re working. So by following this model you’re more likely to come up with good, original and lasting solutions.


(To continue next week)
(Lionel Wijesiri, a corporate director with over 25 years’ senior managerial experience, can be contacted at [email protected])