90 Days to Increased Employee Engagement: Week Nine

Embracing Scientific Problem-Solving

“The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.”

Sun Tzu – The Art of War

Imagine for just a moment that you are driving to work.?During the drive you are admittedly a bit distracted because you’re thinking about the family vacation that you’ll be starting tomorrow.?In a matter of hours, you’ll load up the entire family into this vehicle and you’ll be driving to Disneyworld.?As the miles slip by, you are busy reviewing a mental checklist of items that you need to complete before the end of the day.?You’ve got to get that report completed for the CEO, you need to run to the car wash, and you really need to find some time to get the vehicle into the shop to get the brakes inspected before the trip.

Suddenly you are jolted back to attention. A large truck has swung into your lane and the driver has slammed on his brakes. You hit your brakes, but they are not working properly, and you continue to hurtle towards the truck (maybe you should have gotten those brakes inspected last week). Realizing that you can’t stop in time to avoid hitting the truck, you swerve into another lane. As you switch lanes, you can now see that the truck has stopped because the light at the intersection is red. Unable to stop, you run into the intersection and smash into another car. Both vehicles are totaled but fortunately you and the other driver are not hurt.

So, what is the problem?

Many people will respond by identifying distracted driving as the problem.?Others will note that the failure to get the brakes inspected is the problem.?But neither of those answers are accurate.?The problem that needs to be solved should be clear: you no longer have a vehicle to drive the family to Disneyworld tomorrow.?Finding someone or something to blame isn’t going to help you.?You need to focus all your energies into figuring out how you’re going to get your family to the happiest place on earth.?To paraphrase the great military strategist Sun Tzu – the victorious parent only seeks solutions after the problem has been defined.?

Problem-solving in most organizations is sub-optimal.?The leader is generally too focused on finding causes rather than identifying and solving a specific problem.?Like the exercise above, many leaders focus problem-solving efforts on assigning blame. And these problem-solving attempts generally end when the leader finds someone or something to blame (e.g., an employee was distracted, or someone forgot to schedule an inspection).?

Forward-thinking leaders understand that problems are not necessarily a bad thing, as long as we learn from them.?In the minds of these rare leaders, problems take on a whole new meaning.?Problems are actually great opportunities to analyze operations and identify improvements.

With this philosophy in mind, this week’s exercise is to work with your team to embrace a scientific approach to solving problems.?While many sophisticated problem-solving methodologies exist which can assist leaders in this endeavor, the approach I’m recommending (at least initially) is more basic in design.?I recommend use of a corrective action request form that follows a simple but powerful four step model for continuous improvement – the PLAN, DO, CHECK, ACT, or PDCA model.?An example of a corrective action request form may be accessed by the following link:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/johnbaranzelli_corrective-action-request-form-activity-6957706897126744064-vKFX?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

When a problem occurs, the leader assigns a Corrective Action Request form (CAR) to a team member.?The team member completes an investigation to determine the specific problem that needs to be solved and identifies the root cause(s) of the problem (i.e., a PLAN is developed).?The next step is to assign responsibility to a team member to implement a corrective action that will eliminate the root cause(s) of the problem (i.e., the team member DOES something).?After implementation, responsibility for reviewing the effectiveness of the corrective action is assigned to a team member (i.e., the corrective action is CHECKED).?If the corrective action was not effective, a new corrective action is initiated (i.e., the leader ACTS) and the process begins again.?If the corrective action was effective, the CAR is closed out and records are maintained.

This approach may look simplistic, and it is, but it can be extremely powerful if utilized correctly. The secret to making this approach work is to establish the proper expectations and to exemplify the behavior you want to see in your team members.?In order for this approach to work, problems must be met with less drama, and instead embraced as unique opportunities to improve.?You don’t need to blast out Celebration by Kool and the Gang and have a party when you encounter a problem, you just need to learn to approach problems with an open and objective mindset.?Focus your energies away from looking for someone or something to blame, and focus on defining, analyzing and solving the problem.

Use the CAR process to introduce your team to basic scientific problem solving, and be prepared to coach them through the process during the first few attempts.?Use the Disneyworld narrative in the opening of this article to help them understand the importance of accurately defining the problem.?Gently push back on the results of their investigations if they aren’t particularly robust in identifying root causes.?Most importantly, exemplify the behavior you want to see in your team by responding to problems in an objective and optimistic fashion.?You may be surprised to learn that when the leader establishes the expectations that problems are opportunities to improve, a lot more problems are identified.?This is a good thing.?It means that you’re beginning to build trust within your team, and as a result, they are more willing to identify problems that can lead to lasting improvements.?

Taiichi Ohno was one of the architects of the famous Toyota Production System.?He once said that having no problems is the biggest problem of all.?Having no problems is a symptom of an unhealthy work environment because it means that employees are afraid to identify problems.?Be objective and optimistic when problems are identified and help your team embrace scientific problem solving as a means of continually improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the team.?Do that and you may not have to drive to Disneyworld to find the happiest place on earth.?The happiest place on earth might just be the healthy work community that you are building with your team.