You must first understand the full extent of a problem before you can resolve it. When was the last time you sat down and focused on what is actually causing your business to struggle? Or even what is causing you to struggle?
It might be a good idea to get input from key members of your team about what they see as pain points. Cull through their responses to locate similarities or patterns. This is a time when it is important to make sure that you and other key executives are being honest with yourselves. If something you are doing is causing the issue, take responsibility and take steps to change your behavior to resolve it.
Once you have identified the top two or three pain points, see if there is data available that can assist you in finding the right solution.
I am a solutions kind of guy, so when confronted with a problem, I tend to jump right into finding solutions without necessarily having all the facts about the extent of the problem. Although I often come up with solutions that I think are good, if I were completely honest, I suspect I would come up with better—or perhaps more appropriate—solutions if I spent more time understanding the problem. Then I could focus on what the data was telling me.
Looking at the data, you might be surprised that something you identified as a problem isn’t really a systemic problem but rather a one-off situation. You don’t want to spend your resources solving a problem that does not exist or one that is not big enough to warrant a full-court press by your management team. So, make sure you spend time identifying exactly what the problem is before going into problem-solving mode.
Often, we want to be problem solvers, like the white knight that comes charging in on his steed, so we jump right into the solution phase without first ensuring that we have all the facts about what we have to deal with.
Let me challenge you—and me—not to offer solutions the minute a problem is identified. Rather, take a step back and spend time understanding the nuances and scope of the problem. I bet if we all do that, we will find better solutions that will fix the problem more completely and quickly.
