Building solutions out of chaos

Yesterday, I introduced you to the seven dirty words of business. At the conclusion of that entry, we'd just finished walking through a brainstorming meeting, which left us in a room that was (with any luck) wallpapered with flip chart paper full of possible solutions to our business problem.

Today, my mission is to help you make sense of the chaos and figure out which of the many options is the best. Granted, you probably already have a pretty good idea of which solution is optimal (and I'm betting it's the one you thought of). Well, it's great that you've got a plan, but our goal is to get all the key people on board with a plan of action, because it's a lot easier to get everyone to do what's necessary if you can get them to agree to the solution. And I can tell you from personal experience that it's difficult to get buy-in when you force a plan down their throats.

So you've got this list of possible solutions. The first thing you're going to do is beat down every single suggestion on those flip charts. That's right: have the group play devil's advocate, and ask them to come up with every conceivable reason why each suggestion won't work (save "but we've always done it this way," of course); be merciless. This probably seems counterintuitive, but it's a good exercise because it takes the egos out of the picture. If the objective is to shoot down my suggestion, then I can't very well take it personally, now can I?

Now that you've gotten all the negative thinking out of the way, it's time to have some genuine dialogue. First, ask the group if they can agree on which possible solutions are completely out of the question (whether that's due to cost, time to implement, or some other logical reason). See? You've already shortened your list a bit.

Now you'll begin talking through the remaining solutions in depth. For each possible fix, you'll want to ask the following questions:

• Is this a long-term solution, or just a temporary fix? (Nothing wrong with bandages, but if you're looking for a long-term solution, a bandage just won't cut it.)
• Exactly how will this correct the problem and keep it from happening again?
• What resources will we need to implement this solution?
• Can this solution be broken? (This is critical; I've seen many a corrective action plan fail because it looked great on paper, but was easy to circumvent in the real world.)
• Will this solution break something else? (I've often seen this as well; you fix the original problem, but create five others in its place.)

At this point, you may find that some folks are unwilling or unable to get out of their original frames of mind, and they can't answer those questions effectively. Maybe they've got a personality conflict with the person who came up with the idea; maybe they're already emotionally or intellectually invested in another idea. Or perhaps they don't want to hurt someone else's feelings by shooting holes in a theory. Whatever the reason, you have to get them out of themselves if you're to get to an optimal solution.

I've found that using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats can be effective in breaking participants free of their preconceived ideas. Much like the "shoot down the solution" exercise above, the Six Thinking Hats tool can help people speak freely, because they're merely following the direction that's been given. Think of it this way: you ask Sally what's wrong with Joe's plan to modify the shipping software. But Sally and Joe are good friends, and she's reluctant to say anything that might rub him the wrong way. If, instead, Sally's "wearing" the black hat and therefore being directed to find the negatives, she's much more likely to give her real opinion: first, because she's doing what she's supposed to do; second, because Joe isn't going to take it personally, because she's performing the role she's been assigned.

In this fashion, keep whittling down the list until you've got a short list of solutions that will all work (no more than five). Then, identify which one will give you the highest degree of improvement with the smallest investment. I'm not suggesting that your goal is to do the minimum amount of work; but just as you wouldn't use a submachine gun to hunt duck, neither should you replace an entire CRM system to fix a single data maintenance function.

It really is possible to get a group of people (each with her own agenda) to come to agreement on a solution; but that can only happen when you get beyond ego, static thinking, and fear of speaking openly. I hope I've given you a few tools that will help the next time you need to get a group to come to agreement. Good luck, and happy brainstorming!

Comments

[James Manktelow]

Hi Kathleen

Thanks for the link, and an elegant and perceptive article!

Best wishes!

James Manktelow
MindTools.com