| Homepage | Web Directory | Article Directory | Bid Directory |
Articles. News. Information. | |
Category of Information, News & Articles |
|
|
|
Solving the Problem Solving Problem
The meeting started like a hundred others before. There were five people sitting around the conference table, like they always did, trying to solve a problem that had popped up in the last few weeks. If you could watch and listen from another room you wouldn't find major arguments or conflicts. These people had worked together before and from all outward appearances were pretty effective as a team. After nearly an hour though, they seemed at a stalemate. People had begun to describe possible solutions to the problem and an agreement was no where to be found. The longer they talked, the more disagreement there seemed to be. Finally Susan, the newest member of the group, asked a naïve question, "Are we all trying to solve the same problem here?" They scoffed, both mentally and through their body language - and Tom, the old veteran of the team, spoke for everyone else when he said, "Of course we are solving the same problem. Where have you been for the last hour?" Since the meeting time was over, and people had other meetings to attend, they hastily scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon. Drew, the team leader, couldn't get Susan's question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn't there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question. When Susan got the email she wrote back saying that a mentor had taught her something about problem solving several years before and that as she watched the meeting progress the words she had learned kept coming up in her mind. Then she typed the phrases that she kept thinking about, phrases that had been burned into her mind by her mentor: "Many problems go unsolved by groups because people aren't working on the same problem." "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." "What problem are you really trying to solve?" She then explained she had been taught to always start problem solving by writing a problem statement and she through that experience had learned problems were typically solved much quicker. She closed by typing, "If we had started by writing a problem statement this morning, we would likely not need to meet again this afternoon." As she re-read the note before clicking "send" she erased the last sentence. As people arrived for the second meeting Drew was already there. On the flipchart he had written in red marker - "What is the problem we are trying to solve?" He re-started the meeting by asking everyone to write down their answer to the question. People groaned and shot quizzical looks his way, but everyone wrote. They started quickly, but if you were to ask them later, it took them longer to write this statement than they had expected. Once everyone was looking up again, Drew asked them to read their statements. After each person had done so the room got really quiet. Tom broke the silence by saying what they were all thinking - that Susan had nailed the issue with her question in the morning - they weren't all working on the same problem. Action Steps This scenario - at least the first half of it - takes place in organizations every day. Too frequently, people want to rush to a solution and in doing so waste time, resources and the equity in their relationships by battling over solutions to different problems. Of course people are working on very similar problems. For example, let's say the meeting was called to discuss the cost overruns on the new project. Everyone wants to solve it, and so they come to the meeting with their own biases and slant on the situation, which leads them, without a clear statement of the problem, to search for solutions from their own perspective. Intelligent, capable and motivated people then become stalemated because they didn't all start with the same question. You can avoid this in your next problem solving meeting (and everyone there after for the rest of your life), by starting at the true beginning. Resolve to start your next problem solving question by asking, "What is the problem we are trying to solve?" Get everyone's input, and come to agreement on this first. This initial discussion, especially the first few times people do it, will expose many symptoms and even some possible solutions. Write them down, but don't let those ideas distract the conversation until a clear statement has been formed, agreed to, and written down. Once you have it written down, it becomes your north star, your guidance system, as you search for and find solutions to the real problem. The Rest of the Meeting After the surprise beginning, the afternoon meeting went very well. There were some challenges in hammering out the problem statement, but people were amazed at how fast they came to agreement on the best next steps once that was done. Everyone, that is, except Susan. The next time Susan walked into the conference room, she smiled as she saw, scrawled on the white board, "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." The statement had been circled, and in writing she thought was Tom's, someone had written "Don't Erase." Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. Kevin publishes Unleash Your Potential, a free weekly ezine designed to provide ideas, tools, techniques and inspiration to enhance your professional skills. Go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp to learn more and subscribe.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
10 Fundamentals for Effective Meeting Here are ten fundamental concepts that characterize an effective meeting.Definition: A meeting is a business activity where select people gather to perform work that requires a team effort. To Meet or Not to Meet - What are the Questions? Meetings can be a total waste of time or a powerful and productive communication tool that solve problems, stimulate ideas, promote team spirit and generate action. The results lie totally in how they are run. Few Things Are More Destructive Than An Insecure Boss Few things are more destructive to a career than a boss who is insecure. Unfortunately, it is a near certainty that most people will encounter one or more such persons along the way. Employee Retention: Five Leadership Fundamentals Are your management practices on the right track? Retaining your valued or high performing employees must be a strategic issue for your company. Throwing more money at your workers is not the answer and can become very costly. Improvements In A Large Public Electric Utility In South America The company decided to develop and implement an improvement program. The main thrust was to propose strategies and alternatives for the implementation of a quality program. Want to Manage Your Time? Get Real! You know the drill - the ridiculous deadlines, the relentless barrage of email, voicemail, phone calls, all those "got a minute" interruptions, the constant worrying that one of those many balls you're juggling is going to unexpectedly drop.When you're on total overload, all you want is relief - preferably the fast and easy kind. 30 Ways to be a Butt-Head Boss 1. Trust no one. How To Conduct Effective Meetings Before you call your next meeting, the FIRST step is to decide if it is really essential. To determine that, ask yourself the following:· Is this meeting essential? · Can we do without it? · Can we accomplish the task without a meeting? · Can it wait another week? · Can we get things done with few meetings?Then, if you have decided a meeting is the best way to accomplish your objective, the following tips can help you conduct more effective meetings:1. What You Should Know if People Dont Buy From You and People Dont Visit Your Web Site It is essential to understand what work and what do not work when you run business, especially through Internet. 1. Delegation: When to Delegate, Who to Delegate to There are some very simple guides for delegation.Most people delegate based on not wanting to do something. How to Set Up a Conference Call The methods in which you set up a conference call vary between the different services you use, and what type of conference calling you are using. There are three main types of conference calls, all with different methods of set up. Finding Proactive Solutions: A Key to Demonstrating Your Management Fitness In my book Talking Points: 25 Tips for Clear, Credible Communication, Tip #17 states: "Managers and professionals in positions of responsibility got there by finding solutions to problems. They didn't rely on someone else to come up with the remedy. Improving Patient Sensitivity in Doctors and Hospital Staff COMPANY/ORGANIZATIONA South Florida hospital. The CEO of the hospital saw the need to provide exceptional customer service to differentiate itself from the competition and avoid being acquired. Turn Your Speech Into A Leadership Talk My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways. Using the Six-Sigma Methodology to Improve Wafer Fab Productivity As a result of consolidation of operations and significantly increased production requirements, Intersil's main Fab was facing bottlenecks in supply versus demand. Intersil enlisted Tefen USA first to support identifying the Fab bottleneck, and then to develop a comprehensive roadmap for capacity and cycle time improvements. Creativity and Innovation Management in Conservative, Staid Organisations Conservative and staid organisations generally have a harder time implementing creativity and innovation into their day-to-day work processes and people. Leaders may want to capture the benefits of creativity and innovation, yet there may be relevant and almost contradictory issues that they have to deal with, including:a) It may be that a conservative culture is desirable (may result in a greater fit with the client base, for example). Five Steps to Increase the People Power in Your Business Take some bold steps and help your employees and business partners open up to real change and help them start thinking again to the longer term. Send a message that you are ready to commit to new ways of thinking and that that includes a commitment to the success of your employees in the changing workplace. Problems with Group Decision Making DECISION BY AUTHORITY RULE: Many groups start out with-or quickly set up a power structure that makes it clear that the chairman (or someone else in authority) will make the ultimate decision. The group can generate ideas and hold free discussion, but at any time the chairman can say that, having heard the discussion, he or she has decided upon a given plan. How to Help Your Company Become a World Class Company Most people think real change in an organization occurs as a result of top-level leadership. This isn't always the case. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp Service Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms for managing the risk of an on-going relationship with IT service providers. Unfortunately, most SLA's that show up in service contracts as worthless, cosmetic paper additions.
|
| Home | Sitemap | |
| © 2006 eInfoJunction.com | Homepage | Web Directory | Article Directory| Bid Directory |
