Sometimes the problem lies in understanding the Problem to be solved.
If you are unclear as to what needs to be solved, then you are probably going to get the wrong results.
A problem well stated is a problem half solved!
Charles Kettering
In the diagnosis phase, we focus on and insist on using specific, quantifiable problem details, not just its symptoms.
Helpful problem-solving techniques we may imply include using flowcharts to identify the expected steps of a process and cause-and-effect diagrams to define and analyze root causes.
After identifying the causes, we may need to redefine the problem (or goal statement).
We may also discover other problems which you were unaware of that may be addressed using this same process.
In the process, we don’t want to define a problem so big that you lack resources to solve it or get so specific that we miss the chance to have a greater impact.
If I had one hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes on diagnosing the problem – and five minutes solving it.
Albert Einstein
In detecting a problem we aim to answer…
• How often does the problem occur?
• When does it occur?
• When it doesn’t occur?
• Where does it occur most often?
• Who tends to be involved with the problem most often?
In finding the best solution, we work on the following
- Who are the stakeholders involved and what would be their interests in solving the problem?
- What do we believe is happening?
- What has caused it and why? Is there a trend we missed noticing?
- What has been tried previoulsly and why wasn’t it working?
- Has anyone been successful in dealing with similar problems elsewhere?
- What damage may (have) come out as a result of not dealing with that properly?
- What are the short-term and long-term benefits of solving the problem?
- What are the possible solutions in terms of gains and the costs?
- What would be the best solution?
- What are the requirements, the internal and external constraints on implementing the solution?
The closing steps
- Document the agreement on the solution.
- Predict the contingencies
- Agree on monitoring the implementation
- Definge the evaluation of results
