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Structured Problem-Solving
Strategic thinking is about recognizing the most important emerging challenges and opportunities and establishing the right priorities. But then, of course, you’ve got to mobilize your organization to do something about it, and that’s where structured problem-solving comes in. Structured problem-solving is what you do with teams to help them engage in rigorous processes of framing and solving the most consequential problems that the organization faces. The structured part is really essential because it ensures that you’re doing a good job of truly solving the right problem. That’s the framing part. And then generating and testing the right options so that you end up with a robust solution.
What’s sometimes missed about structured problem-solving is that at its heart, it’s a process for moving people’s minds forward together. Especially in the context of uncertainty and ambiguity, there can be many different opinions about what we need to do to deal with a given challenge or to pursue a given opportunity. There can be many stakeholders involved that have an interest in what happens and so it’s essential, therefore, to establish a process that moves people through framing and solving of problems such that at the end of the process, they’re in alignment, if not enthusiastic, about what happens going forward.
A Consensus-Building Process
This is a social consensus-building process. It’s essential to be clear on the roles that different constituents are going to play. This is based on a model that many people are familiar with, the RACI model, responsible, accountable, consulted, informed. I do it in a slightly different order. I start with accountability because that’s where I find personally the framework works the best. But at its core, what’s essential is clarity about stakeholders and clarity about their roles. Who’s ultimately accountable for the results? Who’s responsible for making things happen in this situation? Who needs to be consulted but may not ultimately have decision-making authority? Who needs just to be informed about what’s going on?
And if you’re not clear at the outset who the affected stakeholders are and you’re not engaging with them in a productive way, and if you’re not demonstrating that you’re using a fair and transparent process, you can reach a conclusion at the end only to find tremendous resistance to what you’re trying to do. And then, of course, move through the systematic process of thinking about how to frame the problem and ultimately how to generate potential solutions, evaluate them, and ultimately make a decision.
Staying Flexible
A common mistake people make when engaging in structured problem-solving is to assume that they need to go through the process in a specific sequence as prescribed by the overall model they’re using. And the reality is that solving complex organizational problems involves typically much more flexibility and adaptability than that. As you move through the process and you frame the problem initially and you’re starting to explore solutions, you may find there aren’t great solutions, but you may also realize that we’re really not even solving the right problem. So structure, highly valuable. Inflexibility in implementing the process, often not helpful.