what I wish everyone knew about problem solving & troubleshooting…

When people first start working with me, they often make general statements like, “This isn’t working.”

OK sure, but:

– what’s not working?

– what is happening?

– what should be happening?

– (if appropriate) why do you think it’s happening?

Not trying to be rude..

Just managing bandwidth..

Just triaging priorities..

If you can’t give me 3 minutes to capture the real problem, it’s probably not worth my energy to look for a solution.

This has a broad application:

– technical issues

– personnel issues

– process issues

PERSONNEL —

“It’s not working out with Joey. We should fire him.”

OK, maybe! But..

– what’s not working?

– what is happening?

– what should be happening?

Oh, and does Joey know the above information? If so, what’s the real reason Joey isn’t doing what he needs?

– do you expect Joey to care about things he doesn’t naturally care about?

– do you expect Joey to act in a way that’s stressful and unnatural?

– or does Joey simply not care?

It might be Joey’s responsibility to perform…

But it was YOUR responsibility to fill the role w/ the right person.

TECHNICAL —

“These automations aren’t working.”

“Great, can you give me an example?”

“No, because I just blow past it.”

“No problem. When you can give me something specific to go on, we’ll take a look.”

PROCESS —

“We keep having problems with our employee time sheets.”

“OK, great. What’s the problem?”

“I don’t know, I just hear complaints about it from the employees and from the accountant.”

“Wanna go have a chat with them to find out?”

Pretty sure it’ll be an easy solve once you actually find out WHAT the issue is, and you take the time to get to the root of it…

THE 2 WAYS to get STUCK:

How to get stuck 101:

1 – Overthinking means getting stuck in your head, overanalyzing, waiting to pull the trigger when you’ve 80% or more of the information you need.

2 – Underthinking means making an emotional decision when you’ve got the non-critical 20% of information, and you haven’t gotten to the root of it issue

It’s often surprising how easily the solution is when you properly diagnose first.

And one of the sources of pride is when I have clients who…like one of my star estudiantes…who sent me an email clearly answering the above questions. My reward? A prompt, decisive solution.