This Presentation contains material about problem-solving techniques. The contents of the presentation are based on an article namely "Are we solving the right problems" published in Harvard Business Review 2017.
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Are we solving the right problems
1. Are We Solving the Right Problems ?
MUNIR A. SHAKIR
SR. MANAGER SUPPLY CHAIN
THE CRESCENT TEXTILE MILLS FAISALABAD, PK
A PRESENTATION BASED ON ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN HBR (HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW) JAN. 2017
2. LEARNING OUTCOMES
SORT THE PROBLEMS IN A NEW WAY.
CONSIDER THE NEW ASPECTS OF SOLUTIONS.
TRY UNORTHODOX APPROACHES TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS.
REFRAME YOUR PROBLEM TO TACKLE IT NICELY.
3. Consider a situation
You are the owner of an office building, and your
tenants are complaining about the elevator. Its old
and slow, and they have to wait a lot. Several
tenants will break their leases if you don’t fix the
problem.
What solution you will recommend for it ?
5. What will happen if
You ask to put TV in waiting queue area.
or
You ask to play trending music there
or
You ask to install a hand sanitizer there
Will this help to address the real problem?
6. Most of us will answer in
Above measures will surely never solve the arisen problem but can
deflect the flow……
Sometimes, such reframing of problem can work !!
“BIG NO”
7. So try to reframe problems and apply an
“UNORTHODOX” approach to solve it ….
There are seven practices by which we can reframe
our problem to solve it smoothly and in finest way.
8. 1. ESTABLISH LEGITIMACY
Make a problem-solution methodology acceptable to all stake-holders by
discussion and cross-talks.
9. 2. BRING OUTSIDERS INTO THE
DISCUSSION
Involve some outside participant to hit upon a new
idea with a different perspective.
E-g. If Managers of supply chain are discussing about
the solution some problem, they can involve finance
team to take part in the exploration of the solution.
This process usually works efficiently and solution comes in very short span of time.
10. 3. GET PEOPLE’S DEFINATIONS IN WRITING.
Ask people to bring their understanding of problem in
writings by
Sending confidential e-mails to managers.
Sending enveloped sentences.
Sending fax or other communication ways.
It will explore other stakeholders way of understanding of
problem and the best solution, they think.
11. 4. ASK WHAT’S MISSING.
Try to conclude the aspects of problem we are missing on the way to
solve it.
12. 5. CONSIDER MULTIPLE CATEGORIES
Categorize your problem and focus on every aspect.
Try to explore; why are our plans getting fail?
Focus on organizational as well behavioral aspects of problem-solving.
13. 6. ANALYZE POSITIVE EXCEPTIONS
Recall the elevator example again.
If You conclude that the situation of elevator is normal on
Sundays and tenants have no complain about that day, it
is surely happen due to following exceptions:
On Sunday, flow of workers remain very low and no
rush is reported.
It will open a new aspect of problem that “ it happens due
to the “exit times” of tenants and it can be solved just by
shuffle the time table of tenants.
14. 7. QUESTION THE OBJECTIVE
Two people were fighting over whether to keep a window open or closed.
The goals of both of them were different: one person wants fresh air, while
the other wants to avoid a draft. Only when these hidden objectives are
brought to light through the questions of a third person is the problem
resolved – by opening a window in the next room.