Jumping to Solutions: A Hard Habit to Break
Mark Graban
📈 Consultant, 📚 Author (“The Mistakes That Make Us"), 🎤 Speaker, Coach, Podcaster, Senior Advisor to KaiNexus. Previous books include “Measures of Success.” Psychological Safety + Problem Solving #Lean
We’ve all seen it happening around us. We’ve probably all done it.
What’s that?
Jumping to solutions.
I hope the above illustration I created gives you a bit of pause… not just to laugh at others, but to reflect on this personally. It's easier, sometimes, to see this problem in others than in ourselves.
In the Toyota Production System (or "Lean management"), we are taught the discipline of PDSA, or Plan-Do-Study-Adjust. Part of this discipline is not jumping to solutions. A key aspect of this is making sure we properly understand the problem statement before we even start brainstorming or throwing solutions around.
These concepts aren't difficult - they are just very different than the way many organizations operate. Toyota's "8 step problem solving" process starts with properly defining the problem and understanding it.
It’s hard to not jump to solutions. But, you can get better at recognizing that behavior when it’s happening. And, when you recognize it, you can stop yourself before saying or doing the wrong thing.
Part of the solution we jump to often involves blaming people. That another hard habit to break, but, again, it’s easier to be aware of it… and to control it.
The habits (jump to conclusions, blame people, be decisive, have all the answers, get things done) are hard to break.
These are harder habits to break for executives who have been in the workforce the longest. Executives have been rewarded for their "problem solving skills" for years or decades... and these skills might including blaming people and jumping to solutions.
We should be empathetic toward our senior leaders… especially if they want to change… if they are really trying to change and not just giving this lip service. We don’t need to have patience with those who aren’t trying to change, perhaps.
This is all an especially difficult transition in organizations where problems are something to be hidden and covered up, instead of being embraced as things to fix.
"Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions," is a common mantra. It sounds good, but it's not really that effective in practice.
This more-effective "Lean" problem solving discipline can be built up over time... it starts by looking in the mirror.
Has your organization been able to shift its culture from "jumping to solutions" to more effective problem solving and improvement?
Mark Graban (@MarkGraban) is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology. Mark is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen. His latest, The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen is now available. He is also the VP of Innovation and Improvement Services for KaiNexus. Mark blogs most weekdays at www.LeanBlog.org.
A cardiologist, 2 decades medical devices experience for Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, volcano & GE experience at middle & top management level
9yThat is what is taught to "Physicians" in their clinical practice as well
Digital Skills for Defence Commercial Lead
9yTo provide a solution you must understand the problem, whether it's the requirements of the customer or defining a proces otherwise the problem will most likely reoccur.
Quality Assurance Executive | Process Excellence Champion | Organizational Transformation Professional | Compliance Business Partner
9yMy experience is that this is one of the toughest obstacles for positive change to overcome... People are invested in their "solutions" and moving past these perceptions can be very difficult. For me, observing that "ah-ha" moment when individuals or teams come to the realization that their preconceived "solution" was incorrect and that they have identified the "appropriate solution" through analysis of the data is extremely rewarding. It is also one of the best ways to ensure they will "own the solution" themselves.
Health for all at no cost
9y“All the thoughts of a turtle are turtle” with regards
Business Excellence & Improvement Consultant at Effective Perspectives Consulting
10yGood article as I think this needs to be reiterated again and again and again. It is precisely this that differentiates what we call "improvement" from other approaches to change. If you are starting off with a statement to which the question "will this work?" can be applied, then it is a solution and not a problem statement or desired outcome. The discipline to throw it out and start from scratch is of course a big ask, but the more we have at stake, the more valuable that discipline is. We would intuitively expect to see a positive relationship between this kind of discipline and the scale of change being undertaken by organisations, so I wonder why does it sometimes diminish or disappear with larger changes? Perhaps the thought of systematically understanding a large number of outcomes, constraints and so forth turns people off, but I suspect that it has more to do with basic uncertainty avoidance, and having a draft solution on the table simply makes people feel much more comfortable.