In our day-to-day work, more often than not, we are hard-pressed to improve the efficiencies of our teams and processes because improving both these contributes significantly towards better resource utilisation and cost containment.
Problem-solving is one of the key activities that we perform to overcome various speed breakers that we encounter in our quest for optimum efficiency and resource utilisation. Sometimes we can implement big-bang changes resulting in a windfall, while on other occasions, we can achieve only small gains by making minor tweaks and adjustments.
There are also times when we are stuck, that is, we are looking for solutions for a particular problem or situation, but are unable to make a breakthrough. We may try very hard, but we can’t find a way out. While we are breaking our heads to find the solution, we may lose precious time, productivity and resources. This often results in lost opportunities, frustration and stress.
So, what should we do in such situations? Do we wait till the ideal solution is formulated, or is there something we can do in the interim to get some traction and, in turn, reduce the stress and frustration?
Steps to Break the Deadlock
Let’s talk about a few steps that we can take to break this deadlock. These steps would get the ball rolling and, at times, may also expedite the solution formulation process.
1. Redefine the Problem
As we know, the first step towards solving a problem is to define the problem correctly and coherently. If we are stuck, it is always a possibility that while defining the problem, we might have missed on some critical aspect.
It is, therefore, a good idea to analyse the problem from a fresh perspective and check if we have considered all important aspects while framing the problem. We can also involve someone from a different team or department who works on similar processes to get a neutral perspective.
2. Generate Buzz
Once we are clear about the problem definition, we must share it with all the stakeholders, even if they are not a part of the solution-finding team. By stakeholders, I mean the ones who are performing the process and the ones who are supervising it.
After the word is out, responsive team members may already start doing some tweaks at their levels. Sometimes this may result in early gains or breakthroughs. Even if there are no real gains, at least a lot of awareness gets generated among the team. This also adds to building a culture of innovation, team spirit and feeling of being valued.
This would also save us on communication efforts once we start the implementation of the actual solution.
3. Publish Performance Data
It is very good data to start periodically publishing performance data of various parameters that fall under the scope of this problem. This data should be accessible and visible to all stakeholders.
The frequency of publishing the data should be decided depending on the scale and criticality of the problem, and the availability of the data. If possible, the person or team-wise data should be published.
This helps us achieve the following objectives;
- People performing the process realise the importance of these parameters and hence take more ownership and tend to continually enhance their performance while becoming cautious about the process.
- This also creates a feeling that someone is watching, hence slackers also start making some extra efforts
If our resources permit, we should try to gamify this whole situation by building a story around the critical parameters related to this problem. We can create multiple groups and run a competition among them.
These may help us in controlling the critical parameters up to a certain extent until a solution is found. Performance data generated during this activity may also give us further insights into the problem and may lead us to a possible solution.
4. Use the Placebo or Hawthorne Effect
The human mind works on the principle of cause and effect. It expects that each cause must be followed by an effect or an after-action.
This causes problems during medical trials. Once a patient has been administered a trial medicine, the normal expectation of the body is to get cured, hence the patients may develop an artificial sense of well-being even if there is no actual impact of the medicine, thus influencing the test outcome. This phenomenon you may know as the ‘Placebo Effect’.
On similar lines, a study was conducted by Hawthorne Works where they were able to achieve increased productivity for short periods by making minor changes like changing the lighting intensity, relocating the workstations, etc., at the workplace.
These concepts can also be used in the context of our problem. We can make certain changes which may or may not be directly related to the problem, but are somehow connected with the stakeholders and publicise them well.
These changes might trigger the Placebo or Hawthorne Effect among the stakeholders and may lead to some temporary improvements in the performance levels.
It is, however, worth noting that improvements thus obtained are short-lived. These tweaks should only be used to get a move on and must not be used as a substitute for the actual solution.
5. Crowdsource the Search
We can always crowdsource the solution searching. Team members who are working on the processes, especially the frontline team, have a better idea of the issues from a workability point of view.
They are aware of various limitations and constraints of the processes. Usually better than the people at higher levels, who may have extensive theoretical knowledge on the topic but might have limited hands-on experience due to the ever-changing work environment these days.
Solutions that are derived from these crowdsourcing activities would be simple, practical and easy to implement. They would also be more acceptable as they are not fed by ‘the big bosses’ but have grown from the grassroots.
In one of my previous organisations, we regularly used crowdsourcing as an effective tool for generating new product ideas and finding solutions to our problems. Solutions arrived at were easily owned and adopted by the users.
One caution to be taken here. Crowdsourcing has severe backlash if you do this exercise only for the sake of doing, without analysing the suggestions received and giving proper feedback to the suggester if it is not being implemented. Team members shall understand your logical reasons for not being able to implement their ideas. However, they are unforgiving if you take their ideas to discard without any consideration.
6. Off-the-Record Conversations
It is a good technique to get the news from the battleground and genuine feedback about the problem and possible solutions from the frontline team members, especially if we are at a higher level in the hierarchy.
Frontline team members, despite having adequate knowledge about the subject matter, are usually not very forthcoming. This might be due to the fear of getting snubbed, some bad experience, a closed organisational culture or simply an indifference towards the well-being of the organisation.
A few of these people open up significantly during one-to-one or off-the-record conversations. Therefore, having such conversations in a structured but informal manner with randomly selected people may give valuable insights that may help us reach the solution faster.
In the end, I summarize;
- Don’t wait eternally for the ultimate solution
- If stuck, rework and redefine your strategy
- Share information with the stakeholders and make them aware of the problem
- Overcome the inertia and act
- Get the ball rolling by making some changes, even if those are minor or unrelated
- Communicate with the frontline team and external people to get a different perspective
- Don’t lose sight of the actual problem and continue your quest for the solution
I would reiterate that the steps suggested above are only to get things started and achieve minor and temporary gains. The actual solution still needs to be found and implemented.
Post Script: The Hawthorne Effect
During 1924-32, the Hawthorne Works, Chicago, commissioned a study to see if its workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. In these lighting studies, light intensity was altered to examine its effect on worker productivity.
Productivity seemed to improve when changes were made, and slumped after the study ended. It was suggested that the productivity gain occurred as a result of the motivational effect on the workers of the interest being shown in them.
They also found that other changes, such as maintaining clean work stations, clearing floors of obstacles, and even relocating workstations, resulted in increased productivity for short periods. (Click to read the full Wikipedia article.)
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