problemfinding Tag

Searching for problems

Problem finding can be as important as problem solving. This is not a call for the misinformed managers who actively search for problems with employees. Those people need a different type of help.

I’m talking about problem hunting with the intention of understanding situations from different perspectives, and not only the original lens we saw the problem with. Searching for problems can highlight unwritten processes and ways of work as well as illustrate tacit knowledge of how people fix immediate problems. When someone faces a challenge at work, they try to fix it as fast as possible so that work can continue smoothly. This sometimes creates additional issues elsewhere or down the road. Without proper reflection mode, this cycle continues.

If we’re properly hunting for problems in the first place, we’re able to see this a mile ahead and fix it with a big-picture lens, so that people don’t loose time and energy looking for information that are not readily available. E. Paul Torrance called it sensing gaps in information. Others call it problem sensitivity, problem discovery, or problem defining. According to Einstein, “The identification of the problem is more important than the solution, which may merely be a matter of mathematical or experimental skills.”

Happy problem hunting,

Randah Taher

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Why keep learning?

I was recently asked the question: What is the main cost in maintaining an organizational learning environment and what is the greatest benefit?

I believe “time” might be the greatest cost in maintaining a learning culture. The time we take to understand our systems, our customers, our audience, our employees, and the time to find ways to better serve them and better work together.

The benefits are priceless.

If we don’t have a learning environment then we’re going to fall into the same problems on a regular basis and find ourselves firefighting most of the time. We may even be very successful in business but the tasks that we create become mundane, which affects the motivation of our people.

If we don’t have a learning environment, then people will not bother learning new ways to make things better. If they are constantly trying to finish off tasks and get things done and there’s no “time” to reflect and experiment with new methods, then we’re not learning as an organization and we will easily be outlived by our competitors. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, said Peter Drucker, and learning is one main ingredient in this culture.

List of problems found

 

Last week I invited you to go find problems at work (not make problems, just find them).

 

Let’s take this up a notch and exercise your creative thinking at work.

 

Make a list of 30 things that bothers you at work. Anything from finding a
good parking spot to getting a working pen when you need it, to being inspired
during a long and monotonous meeting. Ask your colleagues for their problems.
Collect them.

 

Now look at your long list and think: what simple tweaks in your daily
routine or small changes in work setting that will result in being closer to
solving this mini problem?

 

Remember what Muhammad Ali said, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that
wear you down. It’s the pebble in your shows”.

 

Celebrate your small win.

Rinse and repeat.

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Problem Finding

We talk a lot about problem solving, but what about problem finding? What if we shift our thinking from fixing things, into finding the gaps instead?

In order to look for problems instead of solutions, start with your mindset. Be ready to embrace your curiosity and learn how to live with ambiguity for a little bit longer than what you’re used to.

Next, pump up your observation skills. What are you doing that doesn’t make sense but you do it because that’s how things have been, or that’s how you remember learning in the first place?

What’s in the context that triggers an unneeded action? What makes people tick? What excites them to join? What else is missing from the picture?
Collect and note down your observation. Then, sleep on it.