What's Your Problem?

Many businesses today evince a zero-tolerance approach to defects: We want to hunt down and kill every bad product, every awful process, every systemic failure which compromises customer experience or operational efficiency.

And yet, with all the tools at our disposal to find, diagnose, and resolve issues, we still run into the same old defects again and again. We need to dig into why this is and find a better way to solve problems.

Having seen hundreds if not thousands of business problems and process improvement efforts over my career, I'm going to cut to the chase and give you my opinion as to why this is: we rarely properly define the problem in the first place, and thereby wind up solving the wrong issue if we solve anything at all.

Indeed, I've provided you a counterexample above: a decent (if qualitative) problem statement comprises the first two paragraphs of this article. Let's unpack it a bit and see what it tells us.

The first paragraph is a statement of the ideal, a vision of a desirable future. Wouldn't it be great if we could rid ourselves of all the defects in product or process which hold us back? If you had to spend zero time each day dealing with such problems, how much more would you get done? How much less stress would you have? Work would be a joy!

But.

But the second paragraph shows us how far we are from that glorious future today. We have all these great problem-solving tools at our disposal: process improvement approaches like Lean and Six Sigma, powerful statistical analytical methods, access to petabytes of transactional data we can mine to our heart's content using the latest software. Yet when it comes to tackling the complex, multivariate problems besieging our operations today, we're still throwing chicken bones in a hat to figure out what to do much of the time ("trusting our gut" they call it). Why do the same problems keep coming up again and again?

That second paragraph is a statement of reality. That's where the reader nods her head ruefully. I've never seen a zero defect operation, but I've seen plenty that were melting down thanks to chronic problems, and so have you. How many meetings have you attended because overtime was out of control? How many discussions have you had with irate customers? How many hours have you spent addressing employee turnover, or sorting good product from bad, or debugging code? It's depressing when you stop to think about it, isn't it?

Finally, the last sentence of the second paragraph issues a call to action. We've got to fix this---let's go! This is actually an insidious psychological tool built around the concept of "the burning platform"---the theory that human beings will not change until the status quo becomes completely unbearable. Anyone who's tried to get a teenager out of bed on a Saturday morning to cut the grass recognizes the truth of that observation.

Despite the broad consensus on the importance of having a solid problem statement before undertaking any process improvement work, you may be shocked to note how rare the problem statement is in the wild. Oh, everyone does a pretty good job on the projects they're submitting for certification. They have to; we check those things you know. But how often do you take the time to craft one when not submitting a formal deck for approval?

If you're going to fix something, you have to understand it first.

I am fat and have gotten fatter over the years. If I tried to squeeze into my old cadet uniform I'd blow the seams right out. I have a reunion coming up in a few months and would like people's first reaction to seeing me after a gap of five years (at least) to be something other than, "Wow---you look, uh, how are things going?" But I know a general desire to fix this problem is insufficient---it always has been in the past.

A brutally honest problem statement would be hugely helpful in setting me up for success, though. Something like:

"I'd love to look in the mirror and see the 22 year old cadet I used to be smiling back at me. When I bought trousers recently, my waist size was 43. Cadet Veyera's was 34 at graduation. I need to lose 9 inches around the middle by the end of October to hit my objective. I need to change my lifestyle accordingly to make it happen, beginning today---there is no time to waste!"

Note that the problem statement answers What ("I need to lose 9 inches around the middle"), Why ("to...see the 22 year old cadet I used to be smiling back at me", and When ("by the end of October") questions, but NOT How. We can't figure out How until we understand the root cause of the problem (perhaps my thyroid's blown out, or I have a cyst); How then follows. But What, Why, and When are sufficient to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Now, we're not out of the woods when we have a problem statement. We have multiple problems out there and need to work on the most important ones first, or they'll continue to soak up time and attention, undermining our best efforts on our chosen problem. We should pick the biggest, most pressing problem and solve that first. While I wish that physical appearance was that for me, I've got a couple others to solve for first.

As I tackle those, Dear Reader, keep in mind the following helpful tips:

1. You have to clearly define a problem before you can solve it.
2. This involves defining an ideal and objectively evaluating your distance from that ideal today, then providing a call to action to solve the problem.
3. Quantify the problem whenever possible. It will help you know when you've solved it.
4. If your problem requires other people's engagement (and how many really do not?), you need to include them in the problem statement creation and make sure everyone is fully-aligned on it.
5. Work on the biggest, most pressing problem first, then move to the next once that's solved.

You should do this TODAY.

Start by answering the following questions:

1. What is the biggest obstacle to our success right now?
2. Who can help fix it?
3. Why should we fix it?
4. What symptoms do we see today?
5. When must we have it fixed?

If you take this single step regarding the biggest, baddest problem you're staring down right now, you're on the road to a much better life. It really is that simple.

Good luck!