21.ThinkingThrough.pdf

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Problem

Solving

by Valarie A. Washington

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Thinking

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Introduction

Change hits hard, fast, and often. It shifts our focus, changes our direction and alters our

plans. Change leaves us stumped by questions we’re not prepared to answer and searching

for questions that we never thought to ask. Left on the road, between what we were once

sure of and the indecision of which way to go; a problem waits to be solved.

ProblemS begin wiTh one UnanSwered QUeSTion

Hearing the word problem, we automatically think of some catastrophic event requiring

kick-of meetings, project teams, and an all-out hunt for the illustrious root cause. Usually,

however, problems are much more subtle than that. They move in quietly, riding the coat-

tails of change or they drag change along, bringing it to our doorsteps. Problems both follow

and precede change. Most problems don’t need a grand introduction. All we need to do is to

look for them, wait for them, and prepare for them. They are always there, just beneath the

surface. And before they ever took a life of their own, even those problems with the deepest

roots started simply enough as an unanswered question.

What issues currently have your organization tied up in knots? What was the last problem that

you attempted to solve? What was the last problem that you ignored?

This manifesto is intended to dispel the myth that problems need oicial-sounding names

and formally outitted team leaders wearing colored belts. Problems are not only exposed

through formal processes but are revealed in a moment of curiosity. Just around the corner

of expectation and at the intersection of “why; why not; and if not me, who ?” is a chance for

every employee to positively inluence the course of events.

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The following is a problem in the making:

Friday morning a shipment of boxes was delivered to a distribution warehouse in a

small North Carolina town. As had happened on many Friday mornings before, Jason

Checkins received the shipment and pointed to the area where the pallets should be

placed. As the boxes were stacked, Jason noticed that the boxes all had yellow stick-

ers. He thought that it was odd and wondered to himself, “Why don’t these boxes have

the blue labels that they normally do?” He thought about it for a moment and moved

on. He never mentioned the yellow labels to anyone in the facility until the following

Friday, a week later.

ParT 1:

What Happens to a Problem Deferred?

Problems often come irst in unseen whispers. They are more than headaches to avoid; they

are signals of things to come—lashes of lights drawing us to attention and calling us to ac-

tion. Before we can resolve them, we have to increase our ability to predict them, sense them,

see them, and examine them.

When I think of organizational problem solving, it brings to mind a poem written by Langston

Hughes, “What Happens to a Dream Deferred?”. We sense that something may be wrong, but

we stand back. We watch and we wait to see what is going to happen. We watch the market;

we see the efects on our competitors and our suppliers. We watch what’s happening around

us, to our employees, and to our co-workers. We read the headlines and hear the news of

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industry fallout and thousands of jobs being lost. Still we fail to consider what those signs

might mean for us. Only rarely do we look for opportunities to make a diference.

Pointing his pen at the corporation, today Mr. Hughes might ask:

What happens to a problem deferred ?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Problems don’t Just go away . You don’t have six months to form an assessment commit-

tee or three months to train all your people. You can’t aford to lose time pretending that the

problem does not exist, or even one day wondering why someone else has not taken action.

It is the job of every person in the company to do what he can, when he can—and hopefully

before it is too late.

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The problem unfolds:

Tuesday at about 4:35 p.m., Trisha Calbak received ten calls in a row from customers.

They complained that the gumball machines that they ordered had arrived but that

the machines were empty. Trisha explained that she would check in with the shipping

department to see if she could ind out what happened. She thought to herself, “I’ve

never had this many of the same complaints. What’s going on?” But, it was ive o’clock.

The matter would have to wait until tomorrow.

Problems Can Create a Stink . Problems that get pushed aside have a devilish streak. They

are demanding and determined—they want to be noticed. Those simple problems that are

pushed aside join forces and take root wherever they can. Deferred, they suck the life out of

people, drain resources, anger customers, and delight competitors.

Here’s what can happen:

Wednesday morning, ive of Trisha’s co-workers received a similar succession of com-

plaints. They each informed the customers to simply return the items and that they

would have a new product shipped out immediately. By Wednesday afternoon, the

customer service switchboard lit up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The overlow

of calls and the long hold times angered so many customers that they began to call

the front oice. Gayle Planfore, the customer service manager, thought to herself,

“Why have the hold times spiked so high?” Tomorrow, she thought, “I’ll have to get a

team together to ind out what’s going on.”

Problems don’t Just dry Up . Minor annoyances may not be causing great pain today. But,

they will not shrivel up while you move on to work on things that are more comfortable or

more familiar. As the days go by, a situation that may have ofered many workable solutions

may harden considerably.

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