All’s Well that Begins Well
This note arrived from a young leader:
I’m spearheading some interdepartmental activities with the goal of more open communication and increased relationships between departments. Could you suggest some good resources? Would you consider posting a question on your Facebook page?
Reply:
You’re asking the wrong questions. Leaders often rush to fix painful symptoms before defining root problems.
First:
The first question is, “What is the problem?” Craft an agreed upon definition of the problem. (Agreed upon by all stakeholders, not just upper management.)
Powerful solutions begin with powerful problems.
You can’t solve problems you can’t define.
Every solution to poorly defined problems is unsatisfactory.
Ask:
- Why does interdepartmental communication (IC) matter? Think about mission, vision, and values.
- What’s frustrating about IC?
- What behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs interfere with IC?
Second:
The second question is, “What is the win?” Define success in behavioral and emotional terms.
- What does winning look and feel like?
- What improved results are we seeking?
- How will we act differently?
- How will success be measured?
- What does implementation look like?
- Who are the champions?
- How will we celebrate wins and correct failures?
Bonus: How will we stick with it?
You can’t implement solutions you can’t describe.
Tips:
Engage as many as possible in the process of defining problems and describing wins.
Engage people if you expect people to feel engaged.
Design training activities that solve real problems and create tangible wins. Don’t waste your time throwing communication building activities against the wall to see what sticks.
Facebook:
I posted this question on Facebook: Leaders who cultivate interdepartmental communication _______.”
What suggestions would you make to this young leader?
***
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Young leader,
You deserve credit for trying to improve things. If I could coach you it would be to back up a bit and find the real problem. You have described a symptom and your rush to fix it could cause even more challenges with relationships and communication. You are like a doctor who asks “what’s the treatment for a sore shoulder?”. Well, that depends on the real problem. The sore shoulder is a symptom and it could be nothing more than a pulled muscle or it could be something much worse, like a heart attack.
If you want to improve communications maybe you can start by improving your own. Ask more questions, really dive into what the issues are, get a better sense for what others are trying to achieve and what problems and challenges they have. Only once you have the true picture can you start making recommendations.
Good luck in your journey. You have taken one step. Take a few more and the walk will be more rewarding.
Thanks for jumping in Alf.
Love your second paragraph. Be sure to model the behavior.
It’s disturbing that this behavior is not limited to just young leaders. I know plenty of middle to senior level leaders who reach for the band-aid too quickly. Loved this article. Leadership Freak is such a great daily reminder of what the strive for as a leader.
Hello Dan, you demonstrate quite nicely why change agents need to be well educated and knowledgable about the change process. Inexperienced change agents may well be incompetent change agents as well.
I’ve been working at become a change agent for 30 years…Still haven’t got it figured out!
They have really cool business cards and a secret handshake Dan… 😉
OK, that totally made my day 🙂
Hi Dan, just finished listening to your call with Dr Cloud! How great was THAT?
I would recommend first 164 pages of AA Big Book.
The Greatest Salesman in the World
The Greatest Miracle in the World
The Secret of Teams
You know what you call that?
A Good Start!
Shifterp(Scott) OUT!
Glad you enjoyed the call with Dr. Cloud. Anyone who wants to listen, just go to: A Conversation with Dr. Henry Cloud.
Regarding books, I particularly like Mark Miller’s book, “The Secret of Teams.” I’m totally impressed with Mark’s insights.
Read the other ones then share with everyone how impressed you are with them….just saying!!!!
SP
Dear Dan,
I agree that ” what one can not define, can not be solved properly. I absolutely agree with it. This is the signal to emerging and young leaders that they should try to find out the reason for which they need solutions. Though it looks simple to find out reason, but actually it is not. And when leaders rush up to find out solution to ill defined or not understood problems, they find the quick fix solution. And this quick fix solution is quick pain reliever but not problem remover. But, I also believe that this is systematic issue of the organization. Whey leaders do that because top management or organization seek and expect quick solution. They do not have practice to wait for long term result. So, in order to really find out solution, young leaders need to have patience and try to convince management about the drawbacks of quick fix solution. They should try to remove fear by enhancing their knowledge, skills and expertise. So, the first point is enhance the knowledge and then suggest with lot of pros and cons. Over and above, organization and leaders may not heed to your advice, unless they realize your presence in the system. And to do this, young leaders need to fit in the system by relationship and performance. Then finally, when they suggest, people will listen to them.
I think, this step works.Other way around,may work for some time, but actually does not guarantee knowledge and relationship.
Love that you point out the challenge of top management that keeps pushing for quick solutions. Perhaps part of the problem is the quick solution approach to leading/managing. Great add.
You’re absolutely right on the nefarious effects of a push for quick solutions.
I’ve had the “fun” of managing innovation in a context where we can’t slow down and back up to make required fundamental changes in technology because to do so would mean 1) Admitting to investors that knowing what we now know we should have started down a different path and 2) We would have identify, quantify, and mitigate a whole new set of risks by adopting a second path. The quick solution management is to add multiple bandaids. The better solution is to address root issues, fix them, and build on solid foundations.
At investor level, ROI is highly time dependent, since all MBA’s have a notion of the time value of money and the free movement of capital to maximize risk/return. The notion of planting and reaping long-term profits a la Lincoln Electric, Toyota, and Amazon is not consistent with the VC, private equity, and stock markets that drive much of US business. However, it is easy to demonstrate that on the average the best fund managers do not outperform the best companies in the long term.
Long-term, fundamental thinking is good for organizations, their members, and their clients.
From my perspective, it is critical to identify the most important issue (not the top 3 issues) to resolve, gain agreement between all members as to what success looks like, and have open discussion about how all team members can work toward the goal.
I also think it’s important to note that this may not be a harmonious undertaking and that’s okay. True growth in an organization oftentimes (maybe always, unless you’re self-employed!) involves compromise at some level. Positive conflict, which involves honest dialogue in a respectful setting, is hard but so incredibly valuable.
Chris McGoff’s book, “The Primes,” pops to mind – Chapter 4 specifically: “Gaining Shared Perspective”. He lays out some great ideas which never fail to get my thinking process moving.
I think part of the conflict that happens during problem definition comes from lack of clarity on mission/vision/values. Departments define problems from their own point of view when it may be more useful to define them from an organizational view point.
I have Primes on my shelf but sadly, haven’t read it yet. Thanks for mentioning it.
Definitely agree with your comment, Dan. Seems to be human nature to see any issue from our personal perspective. If we can shift the discussion to the organizational veiw point, the conversation can gain momentum.
Beautiful thing about The Primes – each Prime is about 1.5 – 2 pages long so you can get a lot of wisdom to ponder in a very quick read.
I like how you re-frame the question, Dan.
My advice would reiterate what you had said: engage all of the people to find out the wants, not just the wants of upper management. Once you have the wants of people at all levels, you can properly identify the problem, then create a solution.
Trouble is, upper management may feel a need to control the process. And to be honest, sometimes the boss/owner or whoever, has the right to define the problem. The idea is to get everyone owning the problem. That comes from seeing the gap between who we are and who we want to be as defined by mission/vision/values.
I find that some of my clients are really resistant to being asked questions. They are so focussed on finding solutions (and getting me to help) they feel that more questions are simply wasting time. It’s a patient education process to help them realise that their solutions lie in those very questions.
Great post as usual Dan. 🙂
You hit the nail square – “… their solutions lie in those very questions.” Oftentimes, hearing the question asked out loud brings the answer into such clear focus. Thanks, Stuart!
You feel that awkward silence when there are not easy answers and everyone has to step back a few steps and engage in a new exploration. Sometimes thinking we have the problem figured out is the problem.
Good morning Dan! As I was reading today’s blog I got a ‘chuckle’. I am currently applying this logic as well as asking myself simular questions while I continue working on the Leadership Development Program. “Your advice is universal”!!! Keep on keep’n on my freind…
Best wishes as you work to make a difference! Hope to see you soon.
Wonder if ‘engage people’ should be well before the repeated question of what is the problem, why, why, why, why…or maybe that is where you craft an agreed upon definition of the problem and begin engagement. Still think it needs to be a prelude and not the first movement.
Prior to that would suggest that culture needs to be in gear with a continuous learning/continuous improvement mindset. Same sheet of music perhaps.
BTW-One man’s ‘problem’ is another’s ‘things are better than they have ever been.’
Too often we find answers (not solutions) to the wrong problems, simply because we don’t ask the right questions.
Add to that equation that we usually just find the temporary answer instead of the solution. It’s a BandAid when surgery is needed.
Begin with the right questions, and you’ll usually end up with the right solution!
Hi Dan, I wish you could come to Sweden and share some of your wisdom with us!
Dear Young Leader,
There is a frustratingly simple book that you need to read: “Are Your Lights On?” (subtitle: “How to Figure Out What the Problem REALLY Is:). Start there.
Dan, thank you again for a helpful article. The articles you write always cause the right kind of cognitive dissonance that I need to continuously question my assumptions. The fact that I’m still mauling over the deeper messages with the article several hours later is quite a benefit for me. Keep up the great work, it is appreciated! Brian.
What does winning Look like? I like to ask. If you are to be successful, what does it look like. Very similar question and gets the ball rolling in terms of outcome and agenda.
This is so true in many areas. My focus is customer service, and I’ve found failure to define winning is the number one cause of service failures. Companies (and their employees) haven’t taken the time to describe what great service looks like, so they endlessly react.
What do u NOT Understand about the word STOP in CAPITOL letters
Sent from my iPod
This is a golden opportunity to extol the wisdom of mentoring. The idea that an organization or a boss would assign such a task with little apparent guidance screams culture and systems problems. I agree completely with the advice that you can’t adequately fix a problem by throwing off the shelf, generic feel good activities on it and that if you don’t know the cause you can’t know the solution.
All that being said, in this situation I would sharpen my powers of observation and find a mentor with more time in that specific trench to provide insight and guidance n what the issues are and how to go about collecting the right information to make an informed decision on the right solution.
Early on in my work career I was never tasked with fixing organizational or cultural problems like this, but I remember many a time I was over my head or waist deep in mud on an important part of a project and getting input and feed back from a generous old soul not only got me through, but taught me how to get through it the next time also. My advice then is don’t go it alone get insight from others who are in the trench with you.