Solving the Real Problem

One of the most important pieces in any strategic decision, especially those that will involve a change of some kind (all of them?), is the problem statement.  We’ve all worked in an organization that creates a change in process we see little value in.  This can be the result of many things, including poor communication of the vision, failure to create a sense of urgency, and poor problem definition.   The main issue that can be the root cause of this is the problem definition and subsequent statement. 

In order for people to buy in to change, you must first convince them there is a need to change.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?  Problem definition is the best way to start a change process to make sure you’re making a change to improve a process that actually needs improving.

To start the problem definition, follow these steps:

1.       Separate symptoms from problems

·         Symptom: The car won’t start

·         Problem: There is no fuel in the tank

 This step is crucial because we often find companies taking action to fix the symptoms while leaving the root cause untouched (often called a Band-Aid solution).  For instance, forming a committee to gather and push the car to its destination.  This gets the car to the right location, but it requires far more resources and it’s not a sustainable fix. 

2.       Agree on the problem – with the right people in the room

You can’t create a good problem statement without including the people who will be directly affected by the change.  From your perspective, you may only be exposed to the problem symptoms.  Using the car example, let’s assume there is indeed fuel and the problem is deeper in the engine.  You can’t expect a group of accountants to diagnose the issue unless they have a mechanic in the room. 

3.       State the problem

 

                 Now that you have agreed on the problem, start communicating it to the stakeholders    and build a task team to help with the next step.  (It will likely include almost all of the people who helped you define the problem, with a few additions if necessary).  Allow time for feedback!

 

4.    Begin brainstorming

Now that you know what the problem is, you can begin brainstorming solutions to fix it.  Again, with the right people in the room.  You will eventually need to implement your solutions, and you have been engaging with the stakeholders from the first step forward, assembling a change team of local influencers will be easy. 

Many managers and leaders want to jump straight to step 3 and start getting people together and brainstorming a solution.  For some simple problems that are quite obvious, this may be effective.  For complex problems that have a wide impact, it’s imperative that the people at the table first come to a consensus on what the problem is, or if there even is a problem to begin with.  I would caution skipping these steps even in simple problems until you have engaged the people doing the job at every level.  They may know something you don’t know and save you and the company time and money solving the wrong problem.

Don't Let Youth Stand in Your Way

When I was twenty-two, I started a job as a receptionist at SAIT Polytechnic.  The environment was what I was looking for, with multitudes of people from every background surrounding me.  Most importantly, they all had a deeply seated passion for what they did.  This passion translated into a workforce of smiling faces and proud organizational ambassadors.  The only problem; my long term goals exceeded my position at the front desk.

But I digress, we came here to talk about ageism. 

First off, I would like to point out that I refuse to play the victim card unless I am truly the target of a malicious, conscious attempt to destruct something I am aiming for.  I have yet to have this happen (we’ll talk about the theory and pathology of the victim card later…). 

Ageism is the discrimination of an individual based on age, be it young or old.  I have been lucky in a sense in that I have always looked significantly older than I am (a quality I will enjoy less as I get older).  I’m told this isn’t based on looks but rather how I present and carry myself.  In my role as receptionist, I wore a suit every day, or at least a tie and sharp clothes.  Within three months I was moved to administrative assistant for the department’s continuing and distance education team, and fifteen months later I took over as Coordinator and lead the department through some major curriculum changes.  At twenty-three, I was the youngest Coordinator at SAIT, and no one knew by quite how much.  I launched about fifteen new certificates, increased the sales of one program by sixty per cent, nearly doubled the distance education portfolio in size and profitability, maintained a staff of ninety contractors and two support people, and eventually represented wider groups on several committees as a participant and as a Chair.  I held the respect of my colleagues and built a successful career path by twenty-five.

What does all of my personal success have to do with age?  Simple, be whoever you want to be at home, but be who you aspire to be professionally when you’re at work.   Context is everything.  If I wore my suit and tie every day and my goal was to open a chain of tattoo shops, I would not gain a lot of respect.  The same goes for behavior; you may laugh, tell dirty jokes, wear sweat pants and goof around when you’re with friends, but at work you will commit career suicide with these action…. Unless you work for an industry that embraces it.  When I walked through the doors at SAIT, I looked around at the people in the positions I wanted to be in. 

I also absorbed information about how others perceived them.  You don’t want to hitch your wagon to a horse that stinks, get it? 

Within a couple of days, I knew what level of professionalism, what language, what apparel would help me avoid ever being the target of ageism.  I ironed my shirts, I spoke up at meetings (with respect, always), I volunteered for committees and task-teams.  Note, this is not the same as volunteering for fun events.  Committees make decisions and steer the organization.  Event volunteering is good, but I personally suggest being careful not to volunteer for too many unless the activity you’re doing is a step above the type of work you perform daily.

Here’s my cheat sheet to avoid ageism (more geared at the young side of the coin, I’ll give you my perspective on the older side in about thirty-five years)

·         Be the position you want, don’t just dress for the job.  Adjust your vocabulary, talk about subjects relevant to the industry when mingling with colleagues, research your industry and keep up to date with current events. 

·         Don’t gossip – Gossip is a tell-tale sign of immaturity.  When someone tells you a juicy tidbit, just let it end there.  In most cases it’s a perversion of the truth and you would be spreading lies.  I would suggest approaching the person who the rumor is centered around and getting the facts straight.

·         Two drink rule – Never exceed two drinks at a company event.  Regardless of how well you can tolerate your liquor, you don’t want to be seen as the person who either “can really handle a lot of booze” (indicating you must drink often and a lot) or “really made a fool of himself”.  Trust me, have one or two, chat with colleagues, rub shoulders, and most importantly, listen.  If you really feel like you need to let loose, leave early and call some friends.  It takes decades to build a great career, and one sentence to destroy it.

·         Tell appropriate jokes – People like to laugh, but the workplace is increasingly pushing for political correctness.  Even if you’ve heard someone tell a bad joke, don’t reciprocate with another.  Tell clean, appropriate jokes.  Avoid racist, sexist, derogatory jokes (this includes blond jokes boys) at all cost.  It demonstrates a lack of judgment when the wrong audience hears it.  Imagine when you’re “friend” at work repeats the joke to a VP and tells her where he heard it…

·         Speak up – When you’re in a meeting and you have a valuable piece of information, share it.  Don’t sarcastically mock other ideas, just add your perspective.  Ask yourself “Is what I’m about to say adding value?” Never speak up at a meeting just to be heard.  Information without context is just noise.

·         Committees – Join them!  Limit your engagement to a few so you can be valuable and not over-worked.  You must always perform your primary job at 100%, so watch to make sure your involvement isn’t becoming a distraction.  Choosing committees that will have an impact on business decisions lets you show your skills to other workgroups and the organization. 

·         Never burn bridges, always repair them – No matter how much someone aggravates you, never purposefully do anything to make them look bad, sabotage, or otherwise denigrate them.  Every person in the organization holds the keys to a door somewhere, and you never know when you’ll need to open it.

·         Build rapport with peers.  When you have a big initiative or change to suggest at a meeting, it helps if a few people at the table are already on your side

·         Never blindside your boss.  If you want his job, make him look like a star.  Credit will flow your way and people will recognize your skill behind him, and in a good company you’ll be rewarded.  Be modest and don’t disparage others.

Engaging a Small Team

The (White)Board Meeting

Throughout my career I've been told to help staff celebrate the small wins in order to keep momentum moving forward and resist losing the discretionary efforts of key staff members. If you manage to do this, you can truly capitalize on team dynamics and create efficient workflows.

OK back up, what's discretionary effort? This is the effort over and above what someone needs to do to satisfy job requirements. Typically you can assume your staff spends a significant portion of their day focused on personal, non-work-related tasks. Could be banking, facebook, texting, water cooler chats, etc. This is normal and somewhat predictable, and it can also be beneficial when properly harnessed (we'll visit that topic again another time). Discretionary effort is just that, staff using time they usually reserve for their personal sanity to further the goals of the business (and they feel good about it!). This does not always mean working late, it simply means higher and better quality output, don't confuse the two!

Alright, so back to the whiteboard meetings. I was looking for a way to show my team just how much they accomplish day to day, which isn't always easy. We expect people to contribute to the organizational goals, participate in projects that impact the company, and continue to support their workgroup and accomplish day to day tasks.  We write a to-do list and then get depressed when we don't achieve anything on it as a result of daily business distractions requirements. When people get too jaded with these fruitless efforts, they stop keeping a to-do list.  This can often lead to poor prioritization and failure to complete important tasks. 

Enter the collaborative team task list, my Whiteboard Meeting.

I came up with a strategy that works with small teams and I called it simply the “Board Meeting”.  These are weekly meetings that take about 30 minutes with a team of 5 or so people.  I called the team together in the hallway where we had a whiteboard hanging, and no chairs nearby.  One member asked if she could grab a chair and I replied with “No, This will be quick and we’ll be moving too much.”  Here are the steps I followed to create a collaborative team task list that the staff truly embraced:

Week One

1.      Gather team in front of the whiteboard

2.      Have all members write down the tasks on their plate for the following week or two.  (long term tasks can also be added, but be wary of things that will take more than a month to accomplish)

3.      As items are written on the board, discuss them for about 30 seconds.  What barriers will be in your way?  Do you foresee any problems?  Is there something you could use additional support on?

4.      Do NOT add deadlines.  Talk about them, but do not write them down

Now here’s where the fun starts.  Over the next week, before the next meeting, the team goes about their daily tasks.  As they complete items on the board, the come out and cross them off (don’t erase them, just strike them through with a dry-erase marker to indicate completion).  Team members are free to complete tasks they didn’t add if they have time to help. 

Second, third, fourth week (and so on)

1.      Gather the team at the whiteboard again

2.      Take a picture of the board in its current state

3.      Go through the list of items that have been crossed off, discussing briefly how each item was completed successfully.  If it’s a routine item, acknowledge it, but don’t waste time.  If it’s a more significant item, spend more time learning about how it was completed, who was involved, etc.  Let the person who completed it take ownership and explain the process.

4.      Once the item is discussed, erase it.

5.      Repeat this process until all completed items are removed from the board.

6.      Next, go through the items remaining and discuss each one.  Why is it still there?  Time constraints, resource limitations, external barriers?  Talk about these so you can share the combined knowledge of the team.  Maybe someone has dealt with an issue where they learned how to bypass the barrier being experienced here. Maybe the leader needs to take control and raise it up to break down an impasse.  The communication piece here is key and will make your whole team feel supported and celebrated

7.      Once you’re satisfied with the answers in the previous step, start adding new tasks.  DON’T OVERDO IT.  If the team is sitting quietly with more than 30 seconds between task suggestions, the meeting is over.  Team members are free to continue to add items during the week at any time if something comes up.

This process provides several key benefits on a weekly basis:

·         Weekly acknowledgement of the amount of work being completed

      ·         Keeps priority items visible to the entire team
      ·         Allows team members to take on additional work when capacity (and desire) allow them to
      ·         Creates a sense of pride and ownership of the completion of tasks

In addition to all of these benefits, I would collect all of the weekly pictures illustrating how much work was completed and print them out on a semi-annual basis.  We would have a celebration lunch where I would display the pictures around the room and supply catering to thank the team and remind them that while we accomplish many large scale goals to help drive the organization forward, we also maintain a day to day business that is no small accomplishment. 

Celebrate often, work smart, and capitalize on team dynamics.

 

About Acute Businessitis

Welcome to Acute Businessitis.  In this blog I encourage you to leave comments and help enrich the conversation by adding in your own experiences.  I will do my best to post a relevant management topic each week, including guest bloggers who may want to contribute or co-write. 

A little about me

My name is Adam Romano.  With a Bachelor of Management and 10 years of progressive experience, I've managed continuing education portfolios with SAIT Polytechnic, lead as a Campus Director for CDI College, and currently act as a contact Training & Development Specialist for TransCanada Pipelines.  I have taught online courses for SAIT for the last 6 years, assisted and lead development of new curriculum, and even had the chance to teach a class in Yellowknife (another story, another day).

In the years I've worked in these roles, I've gained a fantastic view of society from an education perspective, andhave now translated this to the energy sector in Alberta.  What I realized in my transition from the public to private, education to corporate environment, is that passionate people are everywhere, and when find a way to tap into their passion (regardless if the task at hand is completely related) you will increase retention, productivity, discretionary effort, and the number of employees who bring you cookies at work.  Building on peoples strengths and passion (ok, I'll try to use that word less..) is the key to a happy, sustainable human capital strategy. 

Welcome to Acute Businesitis, I hope you enjoy the topics