How to Improve Problem Solving: Determine Your Real Problem

When it comes to improving problem solving, people typically focus on ways to enhance their process. It’s good thinking and can yield positive results. Training your team in problem solving methodologies is a great way to get everyone grounded. Speeding up the process can be effective too. Even sharpening your analytical skills is beneficial. That said, the very best way to improve your approach may be to just ask right at the start: “What problem are we trying to solve?”

This might seem so obvious it’s hardly worth mentioning. Who would intentionally solve the wrong problem? As it turns out, lots of people do and they’re not even aware of it. In fact, it’s one of the most common biases that plagues managers: Plunging In. Chances are you’ve experienced it yourself at some point.

Here’s an example. 

A large social service organization had so many open positions it was impacting their ability to deliver care to their customers effectively. Shifts were under-staffed causing managers to do front line work driving up over time hours and pushing the entire workforce dangerously close to burnt out.

Managers concluded they must have a recruiting problem.

So they dug in and worked diligently to improve recuriting. And it worked. They accelerated hiring and onboarding as planned. The result? Hiring improved, but turnover increased.

The managers then figured the issue must be training. It seemed reasonable that new employees coming into the organization must not have the skills they need to be effective in their fledgling roles. Thus, a new training program was quickly designed and implemented. At the end of the next quarter the managers were frustrated to find that training expenses went up while turnover and retention didn’t budge.

Exasperated, a cross functional team was chartered and they finally asked the ever important question: What’s the real problem here? 

As it turned out, once the team explored the process end to end, they discovered the turnover problem wasn’t a byproduct of hiring, onboarding, or training—it had to do with the how the organization was delivering services. Ultimately, the team redesigned the way work was done, which entailed innovating the care delivery process and changing the staffing/supervisory model to so that fewer staff were needed, not more.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “If I had a hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” We’re not sure if that’s the right mix of time (or even if Einstein actually said this) but the wisdom is consistent with combating Plunging In bias.

Spend time up front determining what your real problem is and you’ll save yourself time and money on the back end figuring out what you were trying to do in the first place.

If you’d like to learn more about strategic thinking, check out the Twelve Skills brief Unlocking Problem Solving.

Serious about improving your skills? Get the companion guide to the Twelve Skills book the Twelve Skills Problem Solving Workbook. Packed with thought provoking activities, hands on exercises, and bonus material, it’s a proven way to boost your knowhow. Best of all, IT’S FREE! 

Get your own complimentary copy here.