Episode #321: Problem Solving In Business For Leaders

Leaders are problem solving experts. They have the authority, money and time to apply their skills to fixing things that are broken in the business. In fact, they spend a lot of their time eyes peering toward the horizon, trying to identify future trouble. They are detail oriented around systems because they have learnt if the systems break down and they don’t know about it, things get ugly very quickly. They also know that their staff are card carrying Keep The Boss In The Dark experts too. Japan is great like that. Most of the things that go wrong, you as the boss, never get to hear about. That is because people bury the problem from your purview, never fess up that something has fallen off the rails. You usually only find this stuff out by chance.

Well if your team fail to keep it hidden from the boss and you do discover a problem, what is the best way of dealing with it. Here are four handy steps.

1. Clarify what exactly is the problem?

There tends to be a lot of noise around problems. Different people are concentrating on different elements of the issue. Often staff are very good and highly satisfied with applying a nice band aid to the problem and then busily moving on. This is fine, except we need to clearly grasp what is the actual issue. What is the core problem we are looking at? Is this a one off or a systemic problem? Is this part of a sequential chain or an outlier?

2. What are the causes of the problem?

Sometimes this is not quite as clear as we would wish. There may be an attempt to mask responsibility for something that was altered or underdone, that triggered the event. Don’t forget everyone is a bona fide expert at hiding stuff from the boss, especially if it involves their own error. We need some forensic skills here to really dig down into the entrails of what happened. What was supposed to happen, what was the variance, when did it happen, how often does it happen, who are involved in the process.

3. What are the possible solutions?

Finding out someone has screwed things up may lend itself to a first response boss explosion. This is natural because “the buck stops here” is addressed to the boss, who ultimately has to take responsibility for how well the operation runs. If there is a major compliance violation, then this looks especially bad on your boss record. it means you were not overseeing the work sufficiently well enough. This can make bosses nervous and explosive, especially if a lot of the mud lands on the boss.

We have to suspend our desire to lash out and flog the guilty party. Actually, we want their help on how to fix this. Through the distinct process of elevation in the ranks, the boss gets further and further away from the everyday detail of what is going on. This means we need the expertise of those who know how things work in detail. We need to seek their ideas on what to do. We need to have them come up with the various alternatives to solve the issue.

4. What is the best solution

This is where the boss has to make the judgment call. The power of money and authority is attached to the boss position and the selection amongst competing options needs a decision. This is all fine and dandy but the troops have to execute on this decision.

Are they ready, willing and able to do that? They may not buy into the solution and just give it token acceptance. This is where the boss needs to track that what has been decided actually gets done. If the new system is a pain from the point of view of the staff, they may not actually do it or do it completely. Best to check up on progress or lack thereof.

They may or may not be willing to devote the energy needed to make the fix work. They may have no enthusiasm to do it the way the boss wants and instead prefer to do it another way that suits them more. The boss’s authority is being brooked here, but the staff can be quite bold in Japan. They know it is not something that will get you fired in this country, so they feel they can vary the solution and get away with it, especially if the boss doesn’t find out about it.

Are they able to do it? If they don’t have the resources and that usually means time amongst all the other things they have to do, then the execution of the solution gets waylaid. The fix often requires more resources than were available before and all the boss could do was shoot out orders, unable to provide additional help. That doesn’t generate much joy in those left to pick up the pieces. The command may have been given, but it doesn’t mean everyone is saluting it. Best that the boss check up on what is actually getting done.

Action Steps:

1. Clarify what exactly is the problem?
2. Check on what are the causes of the problem?
3. Look at what are the possible solutions?
4. Decide what is the best solution
5. Make sure the troops are ready, willing and able to implement the solution