We increasingly live in a world that demands ‘just do it’ action, where our time is limited and things just need to be done, and done right now. But what does this mean for problem-solving?
Let me ask you this: think of the last time you did something, and it didn’t quite go to plan. Did you get time to reflect on why things have gone wrong, learn from it, and make it better for next time? Did you talk about it with anyone?
Or did you just ‘make it work’ – i.e. work harder or longer, and hope you’ll get to it when you next have the chance? And did that chance ever come? When we talk about Continuous Improvement, problem-solving is naturally at the heart of it – after all, isn’t Continuous Improvement about making things better?
But I often find that there is a sense of disappointment when the problem-solving methods we teach don’t prove to be the ‘golden carrot’ to magically solve all issues we ever find. Let’s explore some of the common issues faced when implementing a team-based problem-solving approach: