Unfortunately, there are many examples of leaders out there who have been promoted to management or leadership positions because they are competent and excel in the technical skills needed to do the work. When you see peers in your organization handling big problems, are you ever amazed at how they do it? When assessing your solutions, consider the following items: Discard the suggestions that aren’t viable, and do a real comparison of the potential solutions that remain. She works with project managers who want to improve their skills and grow in their career, and entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them get more done. Dig deeper and gather more information. } Develop your communication plan and let stakeholders know about the change to come. If your premise is not correct, or at least incomplete, you are not fully understanding the problem and considering all the best options for a solution. Give credit to those involved for all the hard work, and celebrate the success. After you’ve taken time to fix the problem, you need to make sure your efforts worked. Identify what will give you the best results for the problem you identified. Absolutely! If things were going the way we want them to go, what does that look like? Thank you for this! This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. But finding out why your time to market is so slow may merit greater focus. From your implementation plan in step 6, make sure you track and measure the results so you can answer questions such as: Did it work? e.type="text/javascript" But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. There may be better problems to solve. The next of the problem-solving steps is to look at the problem from all angles and gather as much information as you can about the situation. What are things like when they are the way we want them to be? Define : Describe the Problem: a) Define the symptoms of the problem (eg. Identifying the Problem. Maybe the idea of taking on a big problem intimidates you? Simply follow these 7 problem-solving steps for a formula you can use over and over again. But upon closer inspection, you learn that installing lighting in the parking garage does far more to increase safety and morale, and will reduce night-shift turnover. Think about all components needed to implement the change. Improving lighting will increase safety, employee morale, and staff retention. Define the Problem. Make sure you make the most of the them by running them effectively. Where does it hurt us the most? Will you need to involve contractors? Take advantage of these – they’ll help you work through solving your problem more easily. If you can solve problems, you’ll be able to step in and lead through even tough challenges. I often use the ⅓ + 1 Rule to create consensus around one – or the top two or three solutions – that will be best for everyone involved. Then, perhaps try distributing it to your team to ensure they agree that this is the root of the problem, that it makes sense, and everyone that is working toward a solution is working toward the same goal. 2. What are things like when they are the way we want them to be? function loadScript(url){ A3 Problem Solving Steps Using a very simple approach, A3 problem solving is composed of the following seven steps shown below. Will you need contracts? Unsubscribe any time. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Address instantly fixable issues that impact customer perceptions and employee morale. At this stage, real damage has been done to company processes, reputation, finances, etc. If this person were doing the job we want him or her to do, what would they be doing? You see, sometimes when you are the one in charge of the problem, you tend to set the premise of the problem from your own perspective. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. While you may have a general idea of the issue you wish to solve, it’s vital that … It could also include planning on what happens next if something goes wrong with the solution if it doesn’t work out the way you thought it would. These cookies do not store any personal information. It is just beginning to happen and you have time on your side to be able to correct it without it causing much damage to the processes it is affecting. Subscribe Today for Project Management and Leadership Tips and Updates! Don’t do this alone Working through these problem-solving steps with others will give you much better results. Also, ask the most important question: Can we solve this problem for good so it will never occur again? Set actions with specific and measurable steps that they'll gladly be accountable to achieve. Some other issue you may need 100% compliance. These people find themselves suddenly needing to “think on their feet” and solve problems that are far more high-level and complicated than they’ve ever really had to deal with before. Does the team need to try another approach to get results. 1. Hold a brainstorming session to gather ideas. Implementing the solution you decide on can include creating an implementation plan. 7 Problem-Solving Steps to Conquer Even the Toughest Problems. Being a successful leader doesn’t mean that you don’t have any problems. There are likely many ways you could address the problem. Success! These seven simple steps will help you become a more effective, efficient problem solver in your organization. Then rank those solutions based on efficiency, cost, long-term value, what resources you have and that you can commit to the solution of the problem. It can be even better to position it as an opportunity statement. You should be able to describe a problem by writing it in the form of a statement and you should do it in 12 words or less, assuming it’s not a complicated, scientific problem. Step 1: Background In this step, you make the business case for selecting a particular problem for resolution. There’s a lot of pressure to get it right when you commit to that level of responsibility. Just about any problem you have to deal with has more solutions to it than the one that you think of first. It’s a waste of time, energy, and money if you focus on the wrong problem. Who are involved in processes related to the problem? You might say it’s okay with me when this person doesn’t do it exactly as I say because I’m okay with them taking some liberty with this. The mature stage is where this problem is causing more than just minor damage. What if you knew there’s a step-by-step process you can follow to work through even big problems. List the possible solutions (options) This is the time to do some brainstorming. Taking time to pick the right problem ensures you triage where you’re spending your time and energy. Combining problems that are valuable to solve, with defining exactly what you are trying to solve, can dramatically improve the effectiveness of the problem solving … This is a critical step that is usually missing. It gives you a good way to communicate information about the improvements. The emergent stage is where the problem is just beginning to happen.