Defining the Problem

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

•   List the two steps of the problem-solving process.

•   Identify the Ws and use them in problem solving

•   List the two questions you can use to test whether you are defining a problem or proposing a solution.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFINING THE PROBLEM

Experts have researched the process of problem solving extensively, and there’s one thing they all agree on. You can’t solve your problem if you can’t define it (Stice, 1987). When you stop and think about it, that’s just common sense. You won’t be able to arrive at workable solutions to problems unless you have figured out what is actually wrong in the first place. If you define the problem incorrectly, the solution is likely to be wrong also.

Defining Is a Process

Defining the problem is really the first stage of solving it. Reaching the correct definition is a process, which means that it doesn’t happen all at once; it happens over a period of time. Think of the process as a dialog with yourself. You propose a definition, then you think it over and make an improvement. You think that definition over, and then make another change … and so on.

If you are dealing with a simple problem, the process of defining it is likely to be short. Think of Ron, the bakery manager who found that his ovens weren’t working one morning. He had to solve his problem quickly because the bakery couldn’t operate without functioning ovens. That meant figuring out the problem.

Defining the problem was a simple, two-step process for him. First, he said to himself, “The ovens aren’t working” (accurate, but very general). Knowing from experience that there were only two possible causes, Ron checked them both to find out whether the malfunction originated in the natural gas system or in the oven mechanism. After he checked, Ron was able to say to himself, “The oven mechanism is malfunctioning” (accurate and specific). “I need to call in the oven repair service” (appropriate solution). Not all problems are so easily defined, however.

Think of Kim, the computer installer. She arrived at her two-o’clock assignment, only to find that the customer address took her to a building with a “gone out of business” sign posted. Here’s what she did. She started to place a call to her dispatcher at Sunrise Computers. She was planning to tell him that her two-o’clock customer had gone out of business and that she was driving to her next assignment. Just as she started to dial, she began wondering why a company that was going out of business would order new computers. Maybe the two-o’clock customer hadn’t gone out of business at all. Maybe, instead, the address was erroneous, and the customer was still in business and expecting a computer delivery. If so, it was also likely that there was an error in Sunrise’s customer records.

Kim now had a different message to give the dispatcher: “We need to get the correct address of the two-o’clock customer so I can install their computers, and someone needs to check that customer’s record and correct any errors in the address.” As it happened, Kim’s message alerted the Sunrise systems manager to check their customer record system. She found a problem. Address data entered in the order screen were being transposed and transferred to the permanent customer record when the rush box was checked. Within an hour, she had corrected the systems problem.

Think back to Kim’s original definition of the problem: Our customer must have gone out of business. If she had tried to solve that problem, there still would have been a systems problem at Sunrise and one unhappy two-o’clock customer. According to the experts, Kim’s story is an example of the way problem definition is supposed to work. It is a process of trial and error (Stice, 1987).

A trial-and-error process is one in which the answers come bit by bit, and errors are made along the way. There’s comfort in this for many of us. We tend to compare ourselves to those comic book heroes for whom the answer comes in one perfect, blinding flash. When answers don’t come to us that way, we tend to get discouraged and give up. You can expect to make errors in this process.

Remember that trial and error also requires some old-fashioned perseverance. We rarely see our comic book heroes slogging through this process because it’s often not glamorous. When your first try doesn’t work, you need to try a second time, and a third time, and maybe even more.

The Process Has Two Steps

In textbooks, defining the problem is a classic two-step process. First the problem is defined in general terms. Once that has been accomplished, the general formulation is fleshed out to become concrete and specific.

Ron, the bakery manager, defined his problem according to this classic process. His general formulation was: The ovens aren’t working. After a little research, he refined his formulation to: The oven mechanism is malfunctioning. He called the appropriate repair service.

Life is rarely as neat as the textbook process. Think of Kim. She started with a very specific definition of her problem: The two-o’clock customer went out of business. However, that turned out to be totally wrong. Then she tried again with a more general formulation: I wonder if there’s a data error. This formulation worked by getting Kim and the other Sunrise staff on the right track. As a result, the two-o’clock customer got the computers, and the Sunrise manager identified and fixed an error in the computer system.

Let’s revise the textbook process a little to make it better fit our needs. We’ll start with the concept of a working definition, the one with which you play around and refine or replace entirely as you go through the process. For example, Kim had two working definitions for her problem. The first was “the customer has gone out of business.” The second was “there’s some kind of data error.”

The first step of the two-step process consists of developing a working definition that is in the “right ballpark.” Ron, the bakery manager, accomplished that on his first try. Kim didn’t get her working definition into the right ballpark until the second try. Her first working definition was not even close.

The second step consists of refining the “ballpark” definition. Again, Ron’s task was simple. He checked to see whether the problem was in the gas system or the oven mechanism and refined his formulation: The problem is with the oven mechanism. Kim, instead, threw out her first idea and replaced it with a hunch about erroneous data. She checked it with the dispatcher and found out she was in the right ballpark. At that point, the systems manager took over and refined the definition by conducting systems tests to isolate the problem.

If you’re a beginner at problem solving, you’re probably having a difficult time coming up with some ways to apply the two-step process to your own situation. In the next section of this chapter, you will learn a simple process that you will find useful at just about any stage in problem solving.

HOW TO DEFINE PROBLEMS

The trick to defining problems is to learn how to talk to yourself. Not just any kind of talking, but a conversation in which you formulate ideas and ask yourself challenging questions about those ideas. It requires, as we discussed in Chapter 2, some objectivity—the ability to step outside yourself and become your own critic.

Learning How to Talk to Yourself: The Ws

The Ws provide problem solvers with a way to conduct a dialog with themselves that’s easy to remember and very effective. There’s a good chance that you’ll recognize the Ws from your school days. They are

•   Who?

•   What?

•   Why?

•   Where?

•   When?

•   How much or how many?

You’ll notice that one of the Ws is really an H (How?), but it’s just the proverbial exception. People still call them the Ws. If you don’t know them by heart, you may want to memorize them. They will come in handy often.

In order to get some practice using the Ws, let’s return to Andrea Jefferson, and watch how she might have used these questions as she tried to solve the problem of the complaining customers.

Using the Ws: An Example

The Ws can be useful as soon as you suspect you have a problem because they impose some discipline on your thinking. For Andrea, that moment came when she realized she was getting an unusual number of customer complaints about late deliveries. Jotting down her responses to each of the questions might have looked like this:

Andrea’s next step was to do some research to find out whether other departments were receiving similar complaints, and she started to see some patterns. The next time she used the Ws to organize her thoughts, it looked like this:

After Andrea reviewed the information she had collected, she leaped to a generalization. She redefined her problem as: Acme Trucking is responsi-ble for making late deliveries to our west side customers.

However, that definition of the problem turned out to be wrong. Andrea, like Kim, was nowhere near the right ballpark. But (and this is an important distinction) it was not wrong for her to do that. Rather, it was part of the trial-and-error process she used to define the problem.

Here are the important points. First, she stated her working definition in terms that could be investigated. (It’s either true or false that Acme made late deliveries, and the truth could be determined by checking Acme records.) Second, she actually investigated (by talking with the Acme manager) and learned that Acme was not responsible. She also learned something crucial: All the late deliveries involved her company’s new video game, Super Karate Frogs.

At this point, Andrea decided it was time to put her findings in writing for her manager. She revised her Ws notes as follows and used them to write a memo.

Andrea didn’t know it at the time, but she was finally in the right ball-park. When she and the vice president started talking, it became clear that the problem involved the new Super Karate Frogs product, and that it was bigger than just late deliveries. The vice president moved quickly to put together a task force to find out what the problem was, and he asked Andrea to serve on it.

During the next 2 weeks, the task force learned that the problems with the Super Karate Frogs had started last spring, when the Metropolitan Toys’ CEO had asked a high-powered marketing firm to help find out why test sales of the Frogs video game were so disappointing. The marketing people, together with a special team from Metropolitan, reconfigured the game to include a super-realistic figure of a Super Karate Frog and repackaged it in an eye-catching, oversized box. Retailers couldn’t keep the new version on their shelves. Metropolitan’s CEO committed the company to a major sales campaign for the holiday season.

Unfortunately, Metropolitan’s regular department heads had been left out of the process and were not prepared to support the new campaign. It was critically important to explore problems so they could be resolved in time to get the Super Karate Frogs on the market for the holiday season. Andrea’s work group used the Ws as the basis of its investigation. The findings are displayed in Exhibit 4–1.

Don’t Confuse Solutions with Problems

Many people are tempted to skip the problem-definition stage completely and jump immediately to proposing solutions.

How often have you overheard conversations such as the one that follows:

Conversation 1

Jane defined the problem as we need a new printer. But needing a new printer is not a problem. It’s a solution, and probably not even the best solution. Bob never learned what the real problem was. Therefore, he was not in a position to decide whether purchasing a new printer was the appropriate response.

Contrast Bob’s reaction with James’s in the following conversation:

Conversation 2

James, unlike Bob, realized that he was being offered a solution (hire new staff) before he understood the problem. Once he had identified the problem (other company departments were borrowing his staff), he was able to identify a simpler and more cost-effective solution (I’ll put an end to that).

Presenting a solution in the guise of a problem is common. It happens for several reasons. For one thing, it’s simpler and faster than actually analyzing a situation. In addition, it can be used as a tactic to achieve certain goals. Jane and Roy simply might have wanted a new printer and staff and had hoped their bosses wouldn’t evaluate their requests critically.

To tell the difference between a problem and a solution, use the following questions:

1.   What’s wrong? What’s not working right? The answer to these questions defines the problem.

2.   What’s needed to make things work right? The answer to this question describes the solution.

Failure to know the difference between a problem and a solution can have serious consequences. Think of Andrea. Early in her problem solving, she had announced to her boss that she had solved the problem: Fire the trucking company that (she thought) was making the late deliveries. If Metropolitan Toys had followed through on Andrea’s recommendation, it would have lost a high-quality contractor and failed to identify its serious problem with the Super Karate Frogs.

And that is, after all, the real problem with confusing problems with solutions. Chances are that a bad solution will be implemented while the real problem will be overlooked. If you have already identified a problem at your workplace that you want to resolve, follow the steps in this chapter to avoid mistakes.

Defining the problem is a process. Your definition of the problem will change as you collect and analyze new information. At the beginning of the process, people often confuse the symptoms of a problem with the problem itself.

There are two steps to the problem-defining process. First, get yourself in the right ballpark. Then begin to refine your definition with specific information and precise descriptions. Use the Ws—who, what, why, where, when, and how much or how many—to help you ask the right questions.

Don’t confuse solutions with problems. A well-defined problem describes something that is not working right. A solution describes steps that are supposed to fix the problem.