As Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sang in their song, Teach Your Children,
"You who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by, and so become yourself because the past is just a good bye."
In other words teach your employees to think strategically too. It will save you a tone of time and grief. Your organizational power and influence will grow.
One of my mentors, a CEO of a global company with 52,000 employees said,
"When I first took the job, one of the most frustrating experiences for me was when one of my vice-presidents -- who were getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to solve problems, not to tell me they have a problem, or ask how to solve problems -- would come into my office to discuss a problem without having spent 30 seconds exploring the possible solutions.
Whenever they did this I would say, 'Go away think about how you might solve it. If you can't think of anything consult one of your colleagues. When you've done that, I'd more than willing to have a conversation with you.
Within 3 months, every one of them were solving problems and informing me of their decisions and only checking with me when it was appropriate. I could then focus my attention on the strategic stuff because I refused to let them rely on me for the day-to-day tactical problems.
The level of pride sky-rocketed in that executive team, which cascaded down into the rest of the organization.
Of course, some people could not do that. They did not last long."
Sadly, many people are predisposed to look for the "not-enoughs": in ourselves, in others and for external events.
"Not-enoughs" are the basis of almost all educational teachings exam marks are criticisms of what's missing rather than looking for potential improvements. Comments on papers are full of red marks, rather than Socratic-type questions designed to open students' minds to strategic opening-the-mind thinking.
The problem-solving strategic thinking mindset is one of the mind's greatest assets for innovation. And we need lots of that in our companies these days.
In their book Switch (2010), Chip and Dan Heath encourage us to "finding the bright spots" in our work and lives. Look to what is possible. Ask for help when we're stuck.
With employees let them struggle with the problem, rather than jumping in to solve it for them. As my mentor Ken Blanchard often says,
"No one of us is as smart as all of us."
Here is a quick, simple guide to problem-solving. It can help us learn the key steps of problem-solving, and open us up to finding, then choosing, some of the best solutions and how to approach them.
Six Key Steps
Most problem-solving boils down to six steps:
1. Defining the problem. Why is this happening? How is this happening? And what do we want the outcome to look like?
2. Identifying success criteria -- how will we know when we're making progress? Is there a point at which we should give up? Are we giving up too soon?
3. Understanding the dimensions and dynamics of the problem - is it functional? Human caused? Does it smell bad? Was it working before? If yes, why? If no, why not?
4. Generating and testing alternative solutions.
5. Analyzing risks, uncovering unexplored assumptions, and unexpected or unintended impacts.
6. Selecting the best solution, for now, to try, then review, if necessary, revise -- or abandon.
And now I invite you to claim your F.ree copy of
"A Taste of Genius: 6-Steps to Creating A Business Where Good Talent Likes to do Great Work."
Visit http://www.subject2change.ca/blog
Dr. Jim Sellner, PhD., DipC. -- facilitates the Virtual Leadership Development Series followed up one-on-one coaching sessions via Skype, phone, iChat or Google phone.
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