Agree on the problem before solving it

One of the biggest problem-solving challenges any team faces is ensuring that everyone on the team can agree on the problem that needs to be solved before they start solving it.

You’ve probably been in this situation. There’s a crisis. A meeting is called. Everyone brings different solutions and ideas on how to solve it. Discussion ensues.

If everyone has the same understanding of the problem being solved, then consensus should be pretty easy to attain.

When consensus is elusive, these meetings often devolve into some version of power struggle or personality conflict. People get attached to one solution or another, and they start to use words like pointless, useless, and wrong for all the other ideas.

Often, what I’ve seen is that the presented solutions are all good ones… aimed at fixing different problems.

This was the case in the customer service issue I’ve written about before, and I have seen it countless times in other situations.

Example in product design: A software company was putting out a new product. The product manager was focused on getting to market ASAP, but the chief engineer wanted a modular product that could be easily maintained and extended. Those are two valid solutions to different problems, but because they didn’t agree on the problem, their fights over feature set, schedule, and release date had them at each other’s throats, and the product was too late to market to be successful.

Example in nonprofit fundraising: The executive director and development director agreed that the organization needed more revenue. The ED kept chasing after big grants and dropping unexpected meetings on the development team, which frustrated and disrupted the development director’s efforts at building a broad-based major donor program. They didn’t agree on the problem they were solving, so they conflicted in their attempts at solving the problem their own way. Ultimately, the development director left in frustration.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other examples from my own experience alone. From family situations, to volunteer-led clubs, to corporate settings, to politics, examples are everywhere.

So much conflict and wasted time can be avoided if we all just put a little more effort into ensuring that everyone agrees on the problem being solved. This means both articulating the problem in clear, unambiguous terms, and ensuring that everyone agrees on what those clear, unambiguous terms actually mean.

Sign up for a free coaching consultation

Looking to be a better leader? Contemplating a career change? Struggling with a big life question? Want to write or publish a book? Thinking about retirement? I can help. Schedule a free coaching session now.