25 years of problem solving

Everyone solves problems all the time, but we rarely have the time to reflect on how we do it, learn from success and failure.

Around 35 years ago I happened on what for me has been the most useful framework for learning about problems and the optimal way(s) of handling them. 30 years ago I went to Kepner-Tregoe’s Problem Solving & Decision Making (PSDM) class at a soulless hotel in Bracknell and discovered a set of methods that brought together all kinds of threads from Lean and 5W to Force Field analysis and much more. PSDM proved to be an underpinning for everything else. And then a little over 25 years ago I joined KT.

25 years in the same company is getting to be something of a rarity, though I meet plenty of managers and IT service folk who have longer tenure. How good is that?

In the days when I spent a lot more time in pubs than nowadays, my local was a second home. Eileen Terrell presided over the bar, with her son and son in law doing the heavy work. My pint would be on the bar when I came through the door (they’d see me coming through the window).

These days our favourite beach bar (Feny? vendegl?) knows us and has become used to us across the 20 plus years we’ve been there every spring and summer.

I guess many of us would like to feel the “Cheers” fantasy is still possible, and this applies as much to problem solving work as it does to any other business. Being able to be served your way, by people you know, and who know you is not only comforting; in many circumstances it’s both more effective and efficient.

The challenge is to keep delivering value for your customers; for employers, they do well to treat their employees like valued customers and ensure there are good reasons to keep adding value!

Here are a few of my highlights across 25 years:

·      Increasing the yield of an oncology drug

·      Ensuring asthma sufferers get the right dose from their inhalers

·      Solving the mystery of the discoloured chocolate biscuits

·      Watching Major Incident managers handle and solve complex incidents with confidence, and with minimum disruption

·      Hearing from a client about his use of KT Problem Analysis to diagnose the onset of a diabetic coma, and call emergency services before he fell unconscious, so saving his life.

Fixing stuff is cool, at every level. Kudos to all those colleagues, friends and customers who keep doing it year after year. With so many of you out there, there’s hope for the future.