I’ve noticed that some problems just don’t seem to go away. They aren’t being ignored. Some of the biggest on-going problems I’ve seen have had teams working on them on and off for years. This isn’t unique to just one company or industry either. I see it happen everywhere. It’s certainly not for a lack of effort or creativity. More often than not, I’ve found that people are simply solving the wrong problem.

How can you avoid this? Here are a few quick tips:

Don’t confuse a bad solution with the actual problem – This is the most common mistake I see. The solution takes on a life of its own. Eventually it becomes the focal point rather than the real problem. For example, in one organization, front line staff were frustrated that they were not getting good career advice. The organization made many attempts to develop career counselor training but nothing seemed to help. Developing career counselors became a key priority for the organization. They lost sight of the problem. The problem wasn’t poor career counselors; it was poor career guidance. Career counselors were one solution to that problem (That didn’t work). The organization eventually changed focus and found alternative ways to get career information to its people.

Keep asking “why” – Don’t stop after just one “why” no matter how good the answer sounds.  The classic “five-whys” is always good place to start.

Sales have hit a plateau.

“why?”

We are not getting new customers.

“why?”

The sales force spends most of its time with existing customers.

“why?”

They don’t know what other customer segments use their product

“why?”

We haven’t provided them with details about how and where the product is being used

“why?”

We don’t capture segment data in our sales systems

Stopping after the first or second “why” might lead you to a temporary fix. It would probably involve some type of incentive program for making calls. It might even work for a while. Asking the last three “whys” gets you the real answer. This isn’t an issue of motivation; it’s an issue of information.

Ask “What are we really trying to accomplish?” – This will also help you differentiate solutions and problems. You train your employees, conduct quality reviews, implement policies, and use computer systems for a reason. None of them are ends in and of themselves. Training staff should not be your goal. Having a staff who can perform their job should be. If training isn’t working step back. Training isn’t the problem. The problem is poorly preforming staff. Maybe you can hire people with a greater level of skill. Perhaps you can restructure people’s responsibilities. There are a lot of possible solutions to the true problem. If too many errors get through your quality control process step back. Don’t just fix the quality control process, figure out what’s causing the errors in the first place – that’s the actual problem.

Be suspicious when new versions of the same solutions don’t fix the problem – I was once asked to provide customer service training for a poorly performing department. After reviewing the department’s data, I had a hunch that the problem wasn’t a lack of skill, it was poor processes. I mentioned this to a couple people and was surprised to learn that this team had been through customer service training two times in the prior eighteen months! If your solution doesn’t work, tweak it. If it still doesn’t work, step back and consider whether you’ve got the right problem.