Based on your experiences in your professional environment, discuss which step of the problem-solving process appears to be the most challenging? In a brief and clear manner, answer the following questions:
– What step of the problem-solving process is most challenging? Explain.
– Speaking from a facilitator’s perspective, what can be done to overcome this challenge?

The most challenging step is discovering the problem. My team is quick to take action to solve a problem without getting to the root of the issue. This came up recently when we were looking at the metrics for email campaigns that ran during the second week of February. We found that across the board, interaction with emails decreased significantly compared to the monthly average. Our director was quick to suggest that we look at the layout of the emails and start running a/b tests with a new format to see if we could fix the dramatic drop in opens.

During a busy week in February, we spent time creating a new email template and deploying it to various segments. When the results came back, we found that the activity on emails the third week of February was back up to the normal rate, regardless of what email template was used.

Had we taken time to get to the root of the problem, we may have discovered that the decrease in readership may have been due to President’s Weekend, February break, or other events that were in the news. It may have had nothing to do with the format of the emails.

To overcome this challenge, a facilitator could ask the group to pause, before rushing to solutions, and suggest doing an activity such as a fishbone diagram, to see if we could get to the root of the problem before devoting a significant amount of time to what could be, the wrong solution.

Of the Tools for Problem Solving noted below, one area where the facilitator could spend some time, is moving us away from data (although noted as a step towards problem-solving) or suggest that we compare the data to historical data. Perhaps there is always a decrease in readership in mid-February. There are times when we get too wrapped up in what’s happening right now, that we don’t step back. A good facilitator could help us to pause, take a breath, and step back. One great way to do that is to go through a brainstorming exercise as to what could have led to the problem. It would get our creativity flowing, and move us out of the state of being reactive to proactive. Sometimes all we need is someone to slow us down and get us out of our own way.

The next time something like this comes up. I will challenge myself to slow down and suggest that we come up with different scenarios as to why something is happening instead of running with a hunch.

Six Steps to Problem Solving

Reference

Bergstrom, E. (n.d.) The facilitators toolbox. Accessed from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2096836/modules/items/31419815