"Many problems go unsolved by groups because people aren't working on the same problem."
The meeting started like a hundred others before.
There were five people sitting around the conference
table, like they always did, trying to solve a problem
that had popped up in the last few weeks.
If you could watch and listen from another room you wouldn't find
major arguments or conflicts. These people had worked
together before and from all outward appearances were
pretty effective as a team.
After nearly an hour though, they seemed at a
stalemate. People had begun to describe possible
solutions to the problem and an agreement was no where
to be found.
The longer they talked, the more
disagreement there seemed to be. Finally Susan, the
newest member of the group, asked a naive question,
Are we all trying to solve the same problem here?
They scoffed, both mentally and through their body
language “ and Tom, the old veteran of the team, spoke
for everyone else when he said, Of course we are
solving the same problem.
Where have you been for the last hour?"
Since the meeting time was over, and
people had other meetings to attend, they hastily
scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon.
Drew, the team leader, couldn't get Susan's question
out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting
he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn't there, he
went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn
why she asked that question.
When Susan got the email she wrote back saying that a
mentor had taught her something about problem solving
several years before and that as she watched the
meeting progress the words she had learned kept coming
up in her mind. Then she typed the phrases that she
kept thinking about, phrases that had been burned into
her mind by her mentor:
"Many problems go unsolved by groups because people
aren't working on the same problem."
"A problem well stated is a problem half solved."
"What problem are you really trying to solve?"
She then explained she had been taught to always start
problem solving by writing a problem statement and she
through that experience had learned problems were
typically solved much quicker.
She closed by typing, If we had started by writing a problem statement this
morning, we would likely not need to meet again this
afternoon. As she re-read the note before clicking
send she erased the last sentence.
As people arrived for the second meeting Drew was
already there. On the flip chart he had written in red
marker “What is the problem we are trying to solve?
He re-started the meeting by asking everyone to write
down their answer to the question. People groaned and
shot quizzical looks his way, but everyone wrote. They
started quickly, but if you were to ask them later, it
took them longer to write this statement than they had
expected.
Once everyone was looking up again, Drew asked them to
read their statements. After each person had done so
the room got really quiet. Tom broke the silence by
saying what they were all thinking“ that Susan had
nailed the issue with her question in the morning -
they weren't all working on the same problem.
Action Steps
This scenario “ at least the first half of it “ takes
place in organizations every day. Too frequently,
people want to rush to a solution and in doing so
waste time, resources and the equity in their
relationships by battling over solutions to different
problems.
Of course people are working on very similar problems.
For example, let's say the meeting was called to
discuss the cost overruns on the new project. Everyone
wants to solve it, and so they come to the meeting
with their own biases and slant on the situation,
which leads them, without a clear statement of the
problem, to search for solutions from their own
perspective.
Intelligent, capable and motivated people then become
stalemated because they didn't all start with the same
question.
You can avoid this in your next problem solving
meeting (and everyone there after for the rest of your
life), by starting at the true beginning. Resolve to
start your next problem solving question by asking,
What is the problem we are trying to solve?
Get everyone's input, and come to agreement on this
first. This initial discussion, especially the first
few times people do it, will expose many symptoms and
even some possible solutions. Write them down, but
don't let those ideas distract the conversation until
a clear statement has been formed, agreed to, and
written down.
Once you have it written down, it becomes your north
star, your guidance system, as you search for and find
solutions to the real problem.
The Rest of the Meeting
After the surprise beginning, the afternoon meeting
went very well. There were some challenges in
hammering out the problem statement, but people were
amazed at how fast they came to agreement on the best
next steps once that was done. Everyone, that is,
except Susan.
The next time Susan walked into the conference room,
she smiled as she saw, scrawled on the white board, A
problem well stated is a problem half solved. The
statement had been circled, and in writing she thought
was Tom's someone had written Don't Erase.
The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
Don't miss out on your BLESSING just because it's not in the package you was expecting...
The Harvest of Souls Crossover is a story that is exciting, vigorous, and full of suspense about the fight of good and evil in two realms, the light and dark world. The Howdy Family is determined to defeat the world of darkness, led by the seemingly
