Problem Solving Is Not All About Solving Problems…. Is It?

Problem Solving Is Not All About Solving Problems…. Is It?

Firstly, thank you for subscribing and reading.

Welcome to Issue 2, of ‘Get Knowledge Now’…..

As you know ‘Problem Solving’ is the focus for some of our Training, it is how we help some of our clients, it is a passion of ours AND, today what we wanted to talk to you about, but maybe not as you know it, not as you think about it, and hopefully we will get you to reflect more on your current approach.

Often leaders have a desire to create ‘an army of Problem Solvers’ in their business or team, an elite task force who can face into any challenge, deliver improvement projects and support their functions to overcome their battles.

An army of people who have been trained in specialist tools and processes to support the business moving forward.

Leaders craving the results, the metrics moving and visible progress towards their goals.

However, in our conversations and client work we often observe businesses focus purely on the tools to solve the problems at hand, when we believe at the highest level there are 3 phases to effectively solving problems:

1. Finding Problems

2. Solving Problems

3. Sustaining the Solutions

You may be looking at that list of three and thinking:

“I know all the problems we have so point 1, we are already good at”

And, you are probably ‘partly’ right, you know of all the bigger things, the things that came out of your annual engagement survey, the things that people mention to you each time you visit them, the things that come top of your defect list, the top-level customer complaints, call drivers and the like.

This is quite a list of problems you have on your hands isn’t it, no wonder you want an army of Problem Solvers to tackle these.

But, let us take a step back, all these things staring you in the face right now probably didn’t start off this size, did they?

They have gradually crept up on you, to now being on your radar and an issue that needs addressing.

So, the real challenge is, how can you make the invisible visible sooner and ensure things are addressed quicker, moving away from firefighting and project delivery to continual daily improvements?

Is this possible? Do you think it is a good idea?

We would encourage you to think about these questions, and no matter what your answer, how can you increase your score to higher than you score today:

• How much of your time each day / week is allocated to support problems being solved?
• How many new problems are being discovered, captured and discussed each day?
• How much of your teams’ time is allocated to solving problems, this doesn’t purely mean customer complaints or engineering fixes, this means making what they actually do safer, better, faster or cheaper?
• How many problems are being solved each day, and staying solved?

If you can increase the frequency in these things today then you will be finding and solving more, you will be discovering things sooner because you are asking better questions more frequently. You will be learning more and your people will be more engaged.

Do you agree, or not?

Solving problems should be part of everyone’s role and not just an add on or a nice to have, it takes real commitment to create this environment, and you may think its counter productive to take people away from the operation to focus on solving problems.

Remember though, those who know most about it are the ones doing it every day, so make that their processes and problem solving combined, use that knowledge to help make today better than yesterday for everyone.

So, when we talk about the 3 phases of Problem Solving, this is what we really mean:

1) Problem Finding - not randomly but through daily conversations, visuals and thinking

2) Problem Solving - not through projects but as part of the day job for everyone

3) Sustaining the Solution - not being told what to do by others but being involved so we understand and engage with the new way of working

So, if you do want an army of Problem Solvers the question is, how can you recruit everyone in your team AND, make it part of their actual job, not just when you need a task force to address the bigger issues you already know about?

Do you agree, or not?

If you want to discuss your currently improvement strategy, then please get in touch [email protected]

Lee is speaking on Day 1 of the Virtual Lean Summit this year, it is FREE to register and watch over 60+ international speakers sharing their own stories and experience.

Visit www.virtualleansummit.com for more details and to register for FREE.

Day 1 – Embarking on your Lean Journey

Day 2 – Establishing a Lean Culture Change

Day 3 – Embracing Lean Thinking

We are also ramping up delivery of our training and Group Coaching programmes, which you may have seen all over our Social Media profiles:

Here’s the details:

ONLY 6 Places Left on our Next Yellow Belt course – ‘Save time by investing time’ in building the capability of your people.

Do you have a business problem?? All businesses have problems to solve in pursuit of their business targets. By investing in Problem Solving skills that are applied in the work, a return on investment is guaranteed!

To understand more about this can help you in your pursuit of your goals please message [email protected]

Overcoming Resistance

Do you lead a Change Team, or want to support your Operational Improvement team to deliver more successfully.

People fear ‘being’ changed and this is one of the main reasons change teams face resistance, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Learn and apply the proven strategies to build stronger connection and reduce resistance enabling change to be delivered more sustainable and successful. 1hr a week for 8 weeks through Group Coaching. For more details please message [email protected]

And that’s it, Issue Two complete, if you know anyone who is in a people or change leadership role whom would benefit from our monthly musings, then please share this with them, and to understand more about who Get Knowledge are and how we help please visit our website www.getknowledge.co.uk

Have a great month

Lee & Jason