99 Problems & Structured Problem Solving - Walter Ward

I recently had the pleasure of delivering the day two opening keynote for the Young Leader Conference presented by The Detroit Economic Club. My talk was named “I’ve Got 99 Problems” which is obviously is a nod to my appreciation of Jay-Z, but it also was a euphemism for Strategic Problem Solving.

I personally believe that the ability to systemically deconstruct and define problems to a level of low ambiguity is the number one skill that a leader can and should have...especially in today's environment. (A close second is the ability to use diverse experiences and perspectives to ideate solutions). For those of us that wear or have worn the Chief of Staff hat, also know that having this skill makes our jobs much easier.

Coincidently, I also think that the “problem deconstruction skill”, is the number one skill that many leaders today are missing…and that in and of itself is a problem...and a big one to boot.

Here is why that matters…In a world that is facing some of its most challenging problems to date…and creating them at a much faster rate than it ever has before…it’s important that every leader at every level feels confident in their ability to strategically solve problems.

The first thing that leaders should know about effectively solving problems strategically is that there are only three types of problems that have ever existed.

I’m serious. Any problem that you encounter can conveniently be bucketed into one of the three types and each has a set of characteristics that inform a set of “rules” around a problem-solving approach.

3 Types of Problems

Simple Problems.?Simple problems are those that happen often and happen in many different iterations. Expertise isn’t needed to solve them and as a result the solutions are typically formulaic and standardized. There aren’t many variations to a solution to a simple problem. A great example of a simple problem is…wanting to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You don’t need a culinary degree to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, there isn’t much innovation to how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and no matter who makes it…they all taste similar.

Complex Problems. Complex problems can be comprised of a series of simple problems, but typically they differ from simple problems in three critical ways. First there are nearly always several “known, unknowns”. Meaning the problem owner knows there is something wrong but may need to engage someone with expertise to help deconstruct or solve the problem. Secondly, expertise is nearly always needed. Typically, the problem owner can’t solve the problem independently, but knows where to go to get or hire expertise in solving the problem. Lastly, sequencing tasks and project management are often key to solving complex problems…particularly in a business setting. A great example of a complex problem would be your car not working as designed. You know something is wrong. You know that you can’t fix it. You know where the experts are that can fix it. The experts need to do a very specific set of tasks to identify the issue and fix it.

Chaotic Problems.?Chaotic problems are black swan events or similar cataclysmic or “kill the company” type issues. These are the types of problems that are the scariest. There are three key hallmarks of a chaotic problem. First is that unlike simple problems, chaotic problems happen infrequently…like never. They often are once in a generation or career type problems. Chaotic problems are those that may be tagged low likelihood in a project plan but would have a tremendous impact if they happened. Secondly, and because of their infrequency, professional expertise doesn’t have much of an impact on the solution. The expertise needs to be in defining, deconstructing, and developing an approach to solve the problem. Lastly, chaotic problems require a great deal of sequencing and project management. Its for this reason that when these types of problems happen on a national or international scale; the military or government typically step in to help manage a response. A great example of a chaotic problem would be a worldwide pandemic or the financial crisis.

An important thing to know about chaotic problems is that as long as you remain sober minded and data oriented, you can downgrade chaotic problems to a series of complex ones.

Defining the Problem

Knowing which of the three problems you are solving will give you clues on how to approach it, but no matter which bucket it falls into you will need to clearly define the problem. A defined problem can be verbally expressed through something called a problem statement. A problem statement is literally just that; a statement of what the problem is with language that gets us to a point of low ambiguity and an understanding of the frequency and impact of the problem.?

I don’t have the space in a blog to get into what all that means, but in simple terms and from the perspective of solving a problem for a human, know that a problem statement has two distinct parts.

The first part is a job statement. It takes a great deal of empathy in understanding the human experience to define a job statement properly. It considers the life journey that humans are on, the everyday problems they are trying to solve and what they are thinking, doing, saying, and feeling while trying to solve them. It’s essentially the subject or task that a problem complicates the completion of.

For example, “I want to live a healthy life” would be a job statement where a number of very specific and non-specific factors could impact someone’s ability to complete the said “job”. I could go on for days with how to empathize with humans via empathy maps, data mining, human observation, and a myriad of other tools.

The punchline is that solving human related problems takes a radical amount of empathy and a honed ability to see through others perspectives.

The second part of a problem statement is the complication. A complication is the thing or series of things that are complicating a human’s ability to complete the job statement. In an ideal scenario, the complication would clearly define the impact of problem and how often it happens. Using our previous job statement example…a complete problem statement would look like:

“I want to live a healthy life, but due to my income being below xx dollars, I do not have a car and affordable housing for me is typically in an area where healthy food options and physicians offices are more than 15 miles from where I live.”

To get that level of clarity takes an immense amount of empathy driven by data and an understanding on how to turn disparate pieces of information into insights and stories. It would take much more than a blog post or article to explain how to do that…so for today just know that is an important piece of defining the problem.

Defining a problem takes into account the likelihood of things happening and the impact they make when they do happen. In project management or product development we may hear these "complications" or "problems" referred to as issues. Just as in those practices...issues should be logged and ranked based on impact and likelihood.

As a side note:

If you have the time, I highly recommend taking a project management course as it will change the way you see issues; aka problems/complications.

In this instance (the healthy lifestyle problem) we have defined a complex problem. From the clarity of our problem statement, we can see that we will need to involve at least one expert and a sequenced plan to solve it. We could take it as deep as we want. We could conduct sensitivity tests with the data we have to learn which portions of the complication impact the job to be done the most. Conducting a test like that may tell us which portions need to be solved first…and that might guide us to a potential project plan.

What happens next?

Once we have a clear definition of the problem the next step would be to ideate on solutions and approaches. The most important thought here is that ideation is about quantity and not quality. Most people have a bias to shoot down ideas that sound farfetched or challenging. The key to making sure ideation is successful is to?SUSPEND JUDGEMENT!

Force the question “what would need to be true” for an idea to work.?

Once you have ideated, the next step would be to choose which approaches you want to test. I say test because you never want to assume the approach that you favor is the best one. That’s hubris and a bad characteristic for today’s leader. Testing doesn’t have to be a large undertaking either…in fact it shouldn’t. The key question should be, how can I test quickly and cheaply with the lowest risk?

Once you have a proven approach…its time to implement. The catch is that while you are implementing, you should be designing KPIs or OKRs that track the results you are expecting.?

Each step in this process could be its own blog, but for the purposes of today we need to close here. Stay tuned to next time where we will pick up from “ideation”.

– Walter Ward III, MBA