Considering that we face recurring problems and issues everyday, problem solving should be common practice

• Eric Le Navenec
• July 2, 2018

We all have something that to solve either out or necessity, frustration, or aspiration. However, far to often, these problems don’t go away for too many good reasons. That’s is why, we’ve included the A3 problem solving approach as a standard project breakdown. Here are the steps that Goal Nabber will help you and your team through:

Problem Statement

First of all, the problem has to be understood. If your not sure what is happening, or not everyone has the same perception, a good place to begin is to layout the process, with the inputs and the outputs through a SIPOC. While kick wins become visible  and tempted to fix something asap, it important to remember that we aiming to get a better understanding of the problem statement. Using the Five Whys or Five W-H help gain precious information about timing, frequency, impacts, common factors, location, etc.. This step is about gathering facts that will be useful below and get a better payback on our time and money.

Set Goal

With a better comprehension of the problem, we can start to get our heads around the dimension and complexity of the problem. If it were simple, it probably would have been solved by now. Looking at the facts gathering during Problem Statement, patterns  can narrow down the focus and set goals that we could aim for. The available information gathered will give an indication of effort required to resolve the problem. If we don’t have any measurements, it will take more time to collect extra data. When we have insufficient knowledge about a factor that seems to have influence, we’ll need additional expertise or time to gather more information. Thus leading to an update of the time frame, the team , and the business case.

Find Root Cause

With information gathered, it becomes tempting to solve everything right away. Before doing that, it good practice to confirm that the root cause is well understood. The Cause and Effect Matrix and Diagrams (i.e. Ishigawa, Fishbone)  are both effective and visual methods for this purpose. This serve a double purpose. One,  the team and stakeholders keeps aligned on what needs to be addressed. Secondly, the team remains focused on highest value and return. It is not unusual to see that first impression wasn’t quite as expected.

Identify Solution

It’s time to look broadly and openly to find potential solutions. If needed, a brainstorm session is a good way to get the team involved and get that breadth. It can be challenging to get stakeholders to align to one solution.  In this case, you can use a decision matrix. It will compare the potential solutions to the goals and other important criteria. It’s enables to maintain that attention on high value and return. It is also useful for communication and to verify the reality later on.

Implement

It is time to try. There are likely to be several actions to monitor and coordinate. One way to anticipate pit falls is to us a FMEA (i.e. Failure mode and effect Analysis)

Verify

When the solution is in place, it time to verify that the expected effects are happening. A few adjustment can make it better.

Follow Up

To ensure that a long lasting solution is implemented, give it chance on its own. A planned follow up enables to see if the changes are embedded and if adjustments are needed. The next opportunities can be identified or confirmed at the same time.

 

To find out more about how to benefit from Goal Nabber, you can join on of the Meet and Try webmeetings. or visit the rest of the website. You can also start a trial period.