Solving Problems in Business (Work and Life)
When we have a problem in life or in business, we often rush to solve it, without considering the possible causes. While the cause of a problem may seem obvious, it is often more complicated or hidden than you might think. Many variables and factors affect business processes and relationships. These factors may not be readily apparent unless you sit down and objectively solve the problem using proven problem solving techniques. For the purpose of this article, we will use a business assumption but remember you can use this process on any problem you have to get a clear picture of the real causes and the possible solutions:
Step 1: Define the Problem
– this sounds a little silly,
but you have to put words around
the problem to get it clear in
your head. Especially if
you are working on a team or
with a group of people, you
should all agree on what the
problem is. Don’t be vague
in your definition – be
specific. Don’t say things
like “We’re not making enough
money”. The more specific
you are in defining the problem,
the easier it will be to get to
the root cause of that problem
and find solutions. So, if
you aren’t making enough money,
think about why that is a
problem. Is the money
shortage affecting your ability
to hire staff or to buy supplies
to make your product? WHY
is the amount of money you have
not sufficient? Let’s say
that you want to grow your
business and your current profit
will not allow you to do that.
OK. Your problem statement
might be something like “We are
unable to grow our business with
our current profit”.
Step 2: Analyze the Problem – In order to solve your problem you really need
to know who you have to satisfy.
Who is your REAL customer?
Not your manager, maybe not even
the end-user of the product.
Maybe your real customer is the
retailer who must recognize the
value of your product and know
it is worth buying. THEY
will figure that out by
understanding what THEIR
customers need and want.
Identify your customer and
document their requirements.
What do they need?
Inexpensive products or products
with more features? What
kinds of features? If your
problem is that your sales are
not robust enough for your
business to grow, you need to
understand how to make more
money so you need to understand
your customer. Are you
even serving the right customer
or should you be selling to
someone else whose needs are met
by your current product?
Step 3: Identify Possible Solutions – For this step, don’t narrow your set of answers too quickly. First, you’ll want to brainstorm. Come up with wild, creative ideas and think out of the box. Throw out all assumptions on how you might make more profit so you can grow your business. You can get rid of the bad ideas later. Have fun with this step. The more ideas the better!
Step 4: Select Solutions
– Now you want to select the
best solution. Start by
narrowing your solution set down
to the best two or three.
Then run through some test
questions to be sure each of
these solutions will solve your
problem. If you end up
with more than one good
solution, save all of them.
If you are presenting solutions
to your management for approval,
you’ll want to save your best
solution for last, but present
all of the possible solutions
for their consideration.
Talk about why each is good and what the tradeoffs might be and then give them your recommendation. They will be impressed with the homework your team has done and, even if they select one of the solutions that is not your recommended answer, you will know that you’ve considered all the tradeoffs and that the solution is likely to solve your problem. To cull out the bad solutions from the smaller set, ask yourself these questions:
How will this solution solve the problem? Does it solve the entire problem or just part of it? Has this been tried before? If so, and it did not work, why did it not work? If it did work, why was the process abandoned? Are you likely to get resistance from your management, customer or others with this solution? Do you need to phase in this solution if it is radical?
Once you find the solution(s) you want to advance, you’ll need to do the following:
- Identify the Output from the Solution – Is it a new product, a new sales process flow for your sales staff, a new report, a new training manual.
- Identify Your
Specifications - features,
security, required skills to
do the job, standards.
- Identify all the Steps in the Work Process - Wow will get from the input e.g., a sales lead, to the output - the product delivered to the customer. Don’t leave any steps to chance. And remember to include decision points (any step where the process may get stalled or you may lose time because a person or side process must be followed in order to get a decision and move forward)
- Identify Measurements - You have to be able to measure your results in order to know whether you have been successful in solving your problem. Things like “product returns reduced by 40%”, “Third quarter sales orders of at least $500,000” are specific enough to keep you on track toward your goal.
- Determine Process Capability – Can the steps in your process and the flow of that process get you where you need to go by the time you need to be there? Will it achieve the results you need?
- Evaluate Results - The final steps involve monitoring. Once you get approval to implement your problem solution, you will monitor and evaluate the results. The team will review the results, looking again at process capability, measurements and other factors, to decide if they have to change or edit any procedures or if they have to go back to the drawing board.
- Recycle – Back to the drawing board, if appropriate. Start the process again and see where you failed to consider an issue, what details you omitted, and what new information you may now have to consider to solve this problem.
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