© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

No Blame Problem Solving – Part III

Identify what is causing the breakdown and understand why the system approach to problem solving is the best solution.

Now it’s time to check on the cause of the breakdown. We check in on a number of areas. The system, the resources, the conditions. The questions to ask are: Is, or was there, an existing system? As in, a documented system that needs adjusting. Every business runs on systems. However, most of them in most businesses are informal. What I mean by a formal system is one that’s documented. There is actually a documented way of doing this. If there was a system in place, is it written down, or is it in people’s heads? Is it the actual steps of the system, the timing or the standards? Does the system have the right resources that it needs to produce the results and meet the standards? Resources could be money, time, information, equipment, staffing, supplies, or facilities. Are the conditions adequate for successful performance? Conditions would include the working environment (adequate space, lighting or temperature), safety and health considerations, social factors (an atmosphere of respect, reasonable standards of decency, freedom from pressures to conform, or endure behavior not related to work, and freedom from unreasonable demands, unpaid overtime, or excessive physical demands).

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

Is it properly staffed? Do they have appropriate accountabilities? Are they meeting those accountabilities? Are the people who work in the system qualified? Do they have the necessary skills and knowledge? Are they reliable, doing what they’re supposed to be doing, when they’re supposed to be doing it? When you’ve found the causes and you’ve worked all the way to this, the solution becomes easy. If you’ve done a really thorough job of identifying the cause of the problem, then the solution should be obvious. If the problem was the lack of a system, you have to design and install a new system, and monitor it to make sure it works as it should. If the problem was a flawed system, one that was already there, but kind of had steps missing, then you need to redesign the parts of the system that don’t work. However, the process of problem solving often stimulates ideas for redesigning the system, or even creating a completely new system that will work much better than simply fixing the flawed parts of the old one. If that’s the case, the new system is your solution. If the problem was resources or conditions, especially costly resources like facilities or equipment, you might not be able to cure the problem immediately and you may want to take the opportunity not merely to replace all the equipment, but research the latest equipment to see if an upgrade is in order. If people are part of the problem, you have four options. You can coach them to shift their attitudes and viewpoints and help them find the motivation to perform up to standards. You can retrain them so they can perform their job satisfactorily. You can reassign them if the coaching was unsuccessful and they can’t be retrained to perform the required work, or you release them, if they can’t successfully be coached, retrained or reassigned, or if their behavior was illegal or seriously unethical. Remember always that the systems of your business are interrelated. The result produced by one system is the input to another. Anything you do to change a system has an impact on other systems down the line from it. For instance, if the quality of work in one system goes down, the quality of all systems down the line is going to drop down too.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

If your problem solution increases the output of one system, the work flowing into the systems down the line is also going to be increased. Can they handle it? Also, when you solve one problem, it can reveal problems elsewhere. If the system was under producing, for instance, then the systems down the line may also have been under producing and when you cure the under production problem and the system got back up to standard, you might find that some of the down the line systems can’t handle the new volume of work.

In conclusion, we come back to the why. One of the questions I’m often asked is why systems first and not people first problem solving. The answer is that there is a really important reason to look at people last and systems first in the problem solving process. It doesn’t mean people are less important than systems. But the common reaction to a business problem is to find the people who are responsible for the problem and blame them. Blame is a reaction that sets up a lose-lose situation when you really need a win-win outcome. When you blame people, you set up an adversarial situation. You against the accused. When the situation is adversarial, then emotions get involved. Accused people get defensive, they get resentful, they get worried about their jobs, and they get angry, fearful, or both. In this situation, you’ll probably get angry yourself. Emotions, especially strong emotions like anger and fear,

just distort everyone’s thinking and lead to bad decision making. Even if you blame in anger and direct it at yourself, you’re setting up a condition that distorts your perceptions and interferes with problem solving. I can’t imagine more unproductive conditions for problem solving. A productive mindset for problem solving, and one that reflects the reality of the situation, is to approach every problem as a systems problem and to view people as components of your system. This doesn’t diminish the value of the people. It simply recognizes their roles in the systems that make up your business. It’s a kind of double vision that’s necessary in business. Firstly, people are a resource and an asset in your business and secondly, more importantly, they’re individuals. They’re human beings with rights, with lives, feelings, ambitions and a full spectrum of needs and abilities. And they deserve, ethics demand and law requires, that they be treated with respect, dignity, and consideration and in that respect, people are by far your most important resources.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

So this system first approach to problem solving sets up the win-win situation that you need for the best results. Instead of pointing the finger and blaming people, you can team

up cooperatively with them and find the solution to the problem together. Focusing on systems also tends to minimize emotional reactions so that eliminates the distortions that emotions create. Not only do you establish cooperation and a two-heads-are-better-than-one partnership, you’ve also engaged that person who should know most about the system and what might have gone wrong. What if you’re doing everything you can and it’s still people who are actually the

problem? We all know that sometimes people actually are the problem. People make mistakes. Sometimes they’re not qualified to perform up to the standards you need. Sometimes they have personal problems. Sometimes they’re lazy, dishonest or worse. As humans, we’re subject to all kinds of difficulties that can interfere with our work. When people actually are the problem, or part of it, then, of course, you deal with the people issues. The practice of focusing on systems, in addition to revealing the system flaws, is also going to expose the people issues that contribute to the problem. But if your starting point is to fix the blame on a person, that’s as far as you’ll take it. You’ll blame people. You’ll discipline them and insist that they fix the problem, or in the extreme, you’ll fire them or replace them and hope that the replacement will fix the problem. Either way, you haven’t addressed the real problem until you’ve focused on the system. The point is that by establishing the system first habit of mind, you diffuse blaming and emotionality, and you team up with workers in a productive partnership, rather than making enemies. And you engage them. You engage the people who know most about the system and that makes for effective problem solving. That’s how you deal with complex problems buried in your business.