Identifyingroots

It's important to take a logical scenario for framing the right problems and deal with them interdisciplinarily.

People are complex, organizations are complex, and societies are complex, so problems and accomplishments co-exist in the world. Theoretically, every meaningful initiative is to solve a certain problem and achieve a certain value. Usually, human beings are both the cause and effect of such initiatives. However, problem-solving in the majority of organizations today is woefully inadequate. 

In management practice, many well-intentioned initiatives didn’t generate the expected value because any business initiative involves a certain degree of risk, ineffective disciplines, or unknown unknown. It’s critical to analyze root causes and fix the right problems effectively.

Lack of understanding leads to “fixing the symptom, not the root cause” syndrome: Diagnosing the root cause, not just the symptoms is the first step to identifying the real problem before solving it. Silo thinking is often one of the thought processes focusing on symptoms, not the root causes. Often, issues are observed on the surface, and then action is taken to fix the symptom, but that is inappropriate. Trying to fix the wrong cause of a problem will waste time and resources. Unfortunately, many people or organizations identify the wrong cause of the problems and inadvertently try to fix the symptoms. Until the underlying problem is addressed, the symptom or result will continue to return.

Understand the interconnectivity of root causes, the cause and effect relationships, and how outcomes are actually being produced: There are small issues and large problems, understand which of these root causes is being addressed. Sometimes, even though you intend to solve problems but perhaps cause more serious problems later on. If you only fix the symptom, not the root cause, then it perhaps causes more problems later. It is important to identify the root causes and encourage critical thinking, open attitude, constructive behavior, and collective wisdom upon the issues, to discover underlying root causes and fix the real issues.

Understand the proposed solution and how it is expected to address the root cause you chose to address: Problem-solving is about understanding a problem and actually finding a solution to that problem, not just the band-aid approach to fixing the symptom. Understand what your high-level outcomes are related to the issue, opportunity, or problem. A well-designed solution helps to eliminate confusion, apply a holistic view, take customized approaches to each problem, and make continuous improvements.

It's important to take a logical scenario for framing the right problems and deal with them interdisciplinarily. Encourage critical thinking and creative thinking, ask open questions to collect relevant information, and think of premium solutions to fix real issues or a set of interconnected issues effectively.

Posted in: Digital Pitfalls,Problem Solving