Guidelines on How to Put Solutions To Work

How communication works

 Problems are “changes” in the way things go. Solutions are also changes. Some people and organizations are better able to handle change than others. At times, a problem can become so entrenched that it becomes “comfortable.” It can even become “normal.” There can actually be resistance to a solution because people are more worried about making a change than they are in living with the problem.

See also Thoughts on How To—And How NOT To—Solve Problems

The 10 steps to take in defining a problem

Questions That Can Identify Problems

 

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1.      Putting Solutions To Work

            Once you have your solution, it’s time to put it to work. There are seven points involved in doing so:

  1. Is The Problem Still The Same?
  2. One Change At A Time:
  3. Give It Time   
  4. Watch Closely & Take Good Notes 
  5. Review Everything

 

Is The Problem Still The Same?

         In some cases the solution you find to the original problem will no longer work because the problem changed while you were looking for the solution. So when you have the solution all set to go, ask yourself the following question: Has the problem changed while I was looking for the solution?

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One Change at A Time

    If there is an outside factor that you cannot control that could be influencing your situation, don’t make any changes yourself until you see what influence it is having. See what the change results in, and, if necessary, react to the new situation, not the old one.  If there are no outside factors, if, in this case, the weather stays the same, limit yourself to one change at a time, and measure its effects.

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Give It Time

            How long does it take for change to happen? How long does it take for the solution you introduce to get the job done, to actually solve the problem?    Solutions can take time to work. It takes only a nanosecond to turn on a light switch. It can take a lot longer to turn on an entire computer system, or all the machinery in a factory and have it operating at peak efficiency.   Make sure you give your solution enough time.

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Watch Closely & Take Good Notes

One of the keys to having a successful project/programme purpose is being aware of everything that is going on in ands around it. This involves more than the end results. We’re talking about everything that leads up to them well; the entire process.   Keeping accurate and thorough records lets you know where you stand in relationship to your goal, and to your past attempts to meet it.It’s true that some situations lend themselves more to measurement than others. If you want to build 100 widgets a month, and you build only 98, you know that you are two widgets short. If, however, you want to build the best or most beautiful widgets possible, how do you know how close you are to you goal?    Even if you can’t “measure” or “quantify” the result, you can measure what you did to achieve it. You can also measure how your beneficiaries reacted; what they bought and didn’t buy. project/programme purposees are involved in an ongoing process. You have to constantly monitor that process and use the information to compare yourself to where you were in the past before the problem developed, and how close your solution beings you to your goal.

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Review the performance

The people best qualified to determine if the problem has been solved are usually the ones who pointed out the problem in the first place, and then helped come up with the solution for it.   Reviewing the performance based on the solution will not take as long as coming up with the solution did, but it should be as thorough. This is where you take your goals and expectations, your past performance, and your current performance, and do a careful comparison.    The review process must look at more than the end result. You must also see if there have been any side effects of the new process or procedure put into place to solve the initial problem. Those side effects may very well create additional problems independent of the first, which could be worse than the problem you are trying to solve. The purpose of the review process is to make sure that all your initial goals were met, and to make sure that no new problems have come up as a result of the solution. The amount of time spend in review will vary from project to project. As a rule, it should last as long as it takes to ensure that you are getting consistent results from whatever new process or procedures put in place to solve the original problem.  See also Reporting performance -

 

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Make The Solution Part Of The Standard

Once you know that the solution works, you have to inorganizational it into the process that led to the initial problem.

            Once you have a solution that works, then, you have to review the entire process that led up to the problem and ask three questions:

  1. Is there a way to inorganizational your solution in the standard process, replacing the portion that caused the problem in the first place?  Do you replace old steps A and B of the process, for example, with new steps A & B?

  2. Is the problem such that the solution has to be added to the process, instead? Do you add step X to the process?

  3. Is the problem such that the solution is needed only some of the time? Do you have step Z available for use as needed?

 

You must  make sure that solutions don’t cause bigger problems.  

 

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Talk About It

            If you have a major problem, people will know it. The longer the problem lasts, the more people will know it; the people directly involved, other employees, branch offices, vendors, beneficiaries, stockholders, even the media.  So instead of trying to hide your problems, which you cannot do, broadcast the fact that you and your team can solve them. Tell everyone in the organization, your sales staff, and your beneficiaries. Solving a major problem is something to brag about.   Human nature is such that we respect, trust, and appreciate problem solvers more than people who have never had to face them. We have more confidence in people with a proven record of accomplishment.   Record your solution, and share it with others so that it becomes part of the knowledge base. See how your solution compares to those of other similar problems—and even of different ones.    There is a great deal of personal satisfaction in solving a nagging and persistent problem, more than enough to go around. Let everyone involved share in it. It will make them—and others—more eager to work on the next problem to come along.

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See also Change Is Not Blame   One common problem associated with accepting change is the feeling that there is blame attached.

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Assignments on How to Put Solutions To Work