One of your central tasks as a manager is to resolve problems. In a problem-free workplace, where everyone got their work done fluidly and seamlessly, there would be little need for managers at all.

Problems come in all shapes and sizes, and the way they should be handled varies accordingly. The last chapter, in fact, included several techniques, such as PDSA (plan, do, study, and act) cycles and agile working methods, which are useful for resolving small run-of-the-mill problems. But sometimes problems are much more substantial, causing a production line to break down, a deadline to be missed, or an important customer relationship to be mishandled. In these cases, you need a different set of techniques, and that is what we are looking at here.

Three of these techniques are about digging into visible problems to unearth the reasons they occurred in the first place: These are getting systematically to the root of a problem (#33), identifying the many possible causes of a problem (#34), and mapping business processes clearly (#35). Then we take an unusual perspective, namely solving problems by capitalizing on what's going well (#36). Finally, we discuss a people-based approach that can be relevant to several of the other techniques, namely bringing people together to solve problems (#37).

A couple of important themes cut across all these techniques. First, your role as a manager is rarely to simply pinpoint the cause of a problem and implement the solution. More often, you are putting in place some sort of problem-solving process that taps into the insights and perspectives of others – partly because they will often be the ones who know the details and partly because their involvement will be needed to implement the chosen solution. So, even though problem solving is ultimately a task-focused activity, it typically needs quite a lot of social and diplomatic skill on your part if it is to work effectively.

And a word of caution: These techniques are great, but they all take time. If you are trying to unknot a problem that is holding everything up – for example, a broken-down production system – you may have no option but to get to the bottom of it. But there are other types of problems where you are trying to figure out a sensible way forward and there is no right or wrong answer. These are sometimes called “wicked problems.” In such cases, there is a real risk of analysis paralysis – a desire to collect more data and to do an in-depth investigation just to make sure you are going the right way. Many large firms suffer from this pathology, and of course, it leads to finger-pointing, defensive behavior, and slow decision making.

So, although it is important to come to grips with all these problem-solving processes, you also need to keep in mind the cost and effort involved in using them. One of the hallmarks of good managers is knowing how much to intervene – sometimes a light touch is fine; at other times, a deep-dive problem-solving technique is what's needed.

33. Get Systematically to the Root of a Problem (Root Cause Analysis)

Sometimes, it's easy to pinpoint the cause of business problems, and you can quickly develop solutions. Other problems are particularly knotty, and despite a team's best efforts, they evade resolution. And then there are the serious problems with major downside risks where you need to get the solution right the first time.

These latter two cases are where a thorough process like root cause analysis is most useful. Use it to understand in detail what happened and to develop solutions so that it doesn't happen again.

There are typically three types of causes: physical causes, such as something breaking; human causes, such as someone not undertaking preventive maintenance; and organizational causes, such as hiring the wrong people, not making sufficient resources available, or departments acting at cross-purposes to each other. Although it is easy to blame individuals for not doing their jobs properly, the root cause is usually much deeper – there is typically some sort of organizational or procedural flaw that lies behind nonperformance. Here are the key steps in root cause analysis:

1. Assemble a team of people with the expertise needed to solve the problem. Some should have practical, day-to-day experience of the problem; others should have relevant technical expertise.
2. Define the problem. A tool such as CATWOE (customers–actors–transformation process–world view–owner and environmental constraints) can help here; see below for a link to it. This helps you view the problem from a range of perspectives and develop a well-crafted problem definition.
3. Collect data. Study the situation fully and in detail to understand what is going on, often by collecting additional data.
4. Identify possible causal factors. Use approaches such as cause and effect analysis (#34) and causal factor charting (see URL below) to discover possible causes.
5. Identify root causes by drilling into these possible causes; for example, using the five whys to help.
6. Recommend and test solutions. Some of these will obviously make sense and can be implemented right away. Others may be more tentative or may have consequences that need to be explored. This is where you can test them and implement them in a controlled way using an approach such as PDSA (see #29).

34. Identify the Many Possible Causes of a Problem (Cause and Effect Analysis)

Cause and effect analysis is another popular framework that managers use to brainstorm the possible sources of a problem. Popularized in Japan in the 1960s by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa, it pushes you to explore all possible causes of a problem, rather than just the most obvious one, so that you are more likely to solve it the first time around. It is a technique that has stood the test of time.

Cause and effect analyses are often called fishbone diagrams because they look like the head and skeleton of a fish – see the example in Figure 6.1.

These diagrams are traditionally drawn from right to left. Start by writing a brief description of the problem in a box on the right-hand side of a whiteboard. Draw a line out to the left across the board (think of this as the head and spine of the fish – see Figure 6.2).

Then draw lines off for the major groups of factors that may affect the problem. It's helpful to use a standardized list of factors to make sure your analysis is comprehensive – for example, five Ms in manufacturing (machine, method, material, manpower, and measurement), four Ps in marketing (product, price, place, and promotion), or the McKinsey seven Ss (strategy, structure, systems, shared values, skills, style, and staff). This will give you a diagram like Figure 6.3.

For each major group of factors, brainstorm (see #48) the different elements that make up each factor and the possible causes of the problem for each. You can then evaluate each one in turn.

This process gives you a robust “map” of the problem situation, and the possible causes at every point, so you are more likely to find the real root causes than if you used a less structured approach.

35. Map Business Processes Clearly (Swim Lane Diagrams)

Cause and effect diagrams (#34) are great for taking a top-down view of a situation, but they don't help you think about how work is done within it. This is the domain of business process management, and many of the problems an organization experiences come from issues with its internal processes.

The first step in improving a business process is to map it out so you can fully understand the complexities of what is being done right now. As a manager, you're unlikely to be aware of many of the steps involved in delivering a high-quality product (especially when you have a highly skilled team with people who are used to taking a lot of personal responsibility).

Swim lane diagrams – developed by Geary Rummler and Alan Brache – are a useful way to map who does what and in what order. You can see an example of a swim lane diagram in Figure 6.4.

To draw a swim lane diagram, follow these steps:

1. Define the scope of your work. Decide which processes you want to focus on. Keep the scope of your work as narrow as you can, and be clear on what the desired output from the process is – for example, order fulfillment.
2. List the people and groups that use the process. List the groups of people who provide input to, work with, or receive outputs from the process.
3. Gather a problem-solving team, including people who routinely use the process. Bring representatives from each group. Make sure that these are people who actually use the process, as well as those who manage it.
4. Set up the “swim lanes.” Draw horizontal bands across the page, and label these with the names of the groups you've identified, in the order that they're involved in the process.
5. Map the process. Start with the very first action in the process, whether it's receiving raw materials, placing an order, etc. Draw this as a box on the left, then map out the process as it actually happens, not as it should happen in a perfect world. Follow the process through sequentially, drawing boxes for each step (with the boxes being placed in the correct swim lane for the team performing the activity), and linking them with arrows.
6. Analyze the diagram. Once it's complete, work step-by-step through the process, and, in a blame-free way, identify either problems that people are experiencing at each stage of the process or potential points of failure where things could go wrong (these will often occur at handover points between teams). Look for steps that are missing, such as inspection points; overlaps where teams are repeating the same activity; and activities that are no longer needed or that add no value, such as creation of reports that no one reads.
7. Remap the process as it should be. Now draw a new swim lane diagram showing the process as it should be – with problems resolved, possible points of failure managed, and activities restructured – so that they're done as efficiently as possible. You can then do a gap analysis (#30) between the two diagrams to identify the changes that you need to make.

As an aside, this type of analysis was reinvented as business process re-engineering during the 1990s. For a while, it became extremely popular, only to be discredited because many companies used it as a way of justifying mass redundancies. However, the underlying notion that business processes need to be periodically reviewed and simplified is still entirely valid.

36. Solve Problems by Capitalizing on What's Going Well (The 5-D Approach to Appreciative Inquiry)

We've looked at useful techniques for identifying things that are going wrong within an organization, and these are clearly very useful. However, there's also a completely different approach – appreciative inquiry – which focuses on what's going well. For example, imagine you're running a health club and you're struggling to retain members. In addition to focusing on solving the problems that are causing people to leave, you can ask long-term members what they love about the club. You can then work with your team to actively market these things to bring in new members who'll appreciate the things you're already doing well.

Appreciative inquiry is often conducted using a 4-D approach – discover, dream, design, and deliver. Here, we're adding in a define stage, making five Ds:

• Define – If you are working with a problem that needs resolving, your starting definition will probably be quite negative. So express it in a positive way: For example, if you are trying to stop members from leaving, define the goal as “to delight long-term members and thereby increase retention.”
• Discover – Next, look at what is going really well. In our example, you could interview long-term members and find out what they most like about the health club. Bring together their answers to identify the top factors that matter to them – let's say here that they love a particular type of exercise class that you run.
• Dream – Pick up on the top factors you identified in the discover phase and brainstorm “what might be” – how you can take these positives and build on them to take them to the very best level. You might run this class more often, make the studio environment nicer, or bring in “celebrity” instructors.
• Design – In this phase, you choose which of these dream ideas to work out and how.
• Deliver – Implement your plan, and as you do so, make sure that you communicate these new positives to the people you serve in an inspiring, exciting way.

Enjoy using appreciative inquiry – it's an uplifting and transformational technique!

Source: Adapted from Kessler 2013. Reproduced with permission of Sage Publications, Inc.

37. Bring People Together to Solve Problems (Manage Group Dynamics)

When we're faced with a thorny problem, our first instinct is often to gather our team to discuss it. Groups bring a diversity of perspectives to a problem, and of course their buy-in is needed to implement whatever solution is chosen. In our survey of 15,000 managers, “bringing people together to solve problems” was the most popular in the whole category of problem-solving techniques.

But there can be big practical challenges here because groups do not always function in effective or efficient ways. There are plenty of famous cases where groups have gotten into “groupthink” mode or have fallen out with each other, and have ended up making spectacularly bad decisions.

You need to understand these risks so you can guard against them. Research has identified a number of issues to watch out for:

• Too much homogeneity – For example, when most of the group comes from similar professional, social, or cultural backgrounds. With little diversity of experience to draw upon, the range of solutions is likely to be narrow.
• Weak leadership – Without a strong leader, more dominant members of the group – who may lack key information – can take charge, leading to a lack of direction, infighting, and a focus on the wrong priorities.
• Diffusion of responsibility – Here, people can subconsciously try to share their responsibility for solving a problem with the group, meaning that no one feels accountable for the situation and the right things do not get done.
• Excessive deference to authority – This is where people hold back their contrary opinions out of respect for a leader, even though they have information that shows that the direction being taken is wrong.
• Evaluation apprehension – This happens when people feel that they are being judged harshly by other group members and they hold back their opinions to avoid criticism.
• Free riding – Here, some group members take it easy and leave their colleagues to do the hard work, thinking that their lack of contribution will not be spotted.
• Groupthink – This is where people place a desire for consensus and being part of an “in group” above their desire to reach the right decision, again narrowing the range of solutions available.
• Insufficient idea development – Here, people don't fully develop each idea before they go off on a tangent to explore the next idea, and this means that they can end up selecting less than ideal solutions.
• Blocking – Where bad behavior from certain individuals in a group prevents information flowing freely between members of a team. Types of blocking include aggression (being unhelpfully combative), negation (excessive criticism), recognition-seeking (egocentric suggestions), withdrawing (disengaging from the discussion), and joking (using humor at inappropriate times).

So how can you avoid these problems?

Start by selecting a group of people with diverse professional expertise and cultural experiences. Give them time at the start of the session to think, as individuals, about how they'd solve the problem so they can develop their own ideas in some depth. Encourage them to come up with several options so that they've thought beyond the most obvious solutions.

Then, during the session, make sure to manage the process – in other words, take stock periodically of the way the conversation is going, and be prepared to intervene if you think that group dynamics are going awry.

Other Useful Problem-Solving Techniques

So which useful problem-solving techniques didn't make the cut in our global survey of 15,000 businesspeople? Three are particularly useful, and you can discover them at http://mnd.tools/c6c.