problem solving culture definition

How Do Different Cultures Solve Problems?

Written by: liu liu , executive contributor, executive contributors at brainz magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise..

I saw this poster a few times, and every time it made me chuckle. Funny aside, there seems to be some truth in it.

Here are three questions to help you reflect before we dive deeper to unpack the different approaches various cultures take to solve problems.

What is your approach to problem-solving?

What other different approaches to problem-solving have you seen?

What would you say are the Pros and Cons of these different approaches?

Group culture approach

In group culture, when there is a problem, people tend to look up to those who are in a higher position for a solution rather than start thinking for themselves about what the solution could be. The solution needs to be a group decision led by a leader. This cultural group is good at solving context-based problems, meaning if the problem has to do with relationships, connections, and issues related to humans.

Individual culture approach

Individual cultures might see problem-solving differently. They might see that everyone in the team can contribute to finding the solution despite their position in the team. People from this culture tend to look at a problem from a process and rule angle and are good at solving problems in these areas.

High context and low contact culture approach

When people from a high-context culture meet problems, they take a perceptual approach. This means the way to find a solution is guided by intuition, your heart, and soul, or your gut feeling as people sometimes call it. They would like to review the problem in connection with time and space because they don’t believe anything happens in isolation. Observation is the primary method to understand the problem.

Different from the high-context culture, the low-context culture approaches problem-solving from an analytical perspective. They don’t rely on their “gut feelings”. Instead, they like to use facts and data to understand the problem and try to find a solution through an analytic and subject process.

Relationship approach

When it comes to problem-solving, another set of cultural lenses we need to look through is our relationship-based versus task-oriented cultures. If you recall, broadly speaking, hot climate and high context cultures are more relationship-based; and cold climate and low context cultures are more task-oriented.

In my years of working with people from these two cultures, I noticed this. When problems occur, a relationship-based culture tends to accept reality quickly. The response often is,” This is bad, how can we work around it and find a new path?” When finding a new path to the solution, people are important. They will try not to embarrass anybody or damage relationships during the process. Ethics and social customs are followed.

Task-oriented approach

On the contrary, the first question task-oriented people tend to ask is “Why did this happen”. The why question is paramount, they want to gather data and analyze every detail and will not shy away from pointing out the mistakes made by people, no matter who that person is. The focus is solely on solving the problem logically.

Graphic by Yang Liu, source: How Western and Eastern people deal with problems

This picture by Liu Yang in an article called “How Western and Eastern people deal with Problems” very vividly summarizes these two different approaches to problem-solving. There is a link at the bottom of the slide to the full article which talks more about the culturally different views on issues. I would encourage you to read it.

Top tips for problem-solving across different cultures

Problem-solving across different cultures can be a complex task, as cultural norms, values, and communication styles can vary significantly. To effectively address problems when working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, consider the following top tips:

Foster Cultural Awareness: Begin by developing an understanding of the cultural backgrounds of the people involved. This includes learning about their values, traditions, and communication styles.

Active listening: Practice active listening to understand different perspectives and show empathy. This helps create a foundation for effective problem-solving.

Be Respectful: Show respect for cultural differences, even if you don't fully understand them. Avoid making assumptions or judgments about how others think or behave.

Find Common Ground: Identify shared values or objectives that can serve as a foundation for problem-solving. Focus on common goals to bridge cultural gaps.

Embrace Different Perspectives: Encourage diverse viewpoints and ideas. Different cultural backgrounds can bring fresh and innovative solutions to the table.

Avoid Stereotyping: Be mindful of stereotypes and generalizations. Each individual is unique, and cultural backgrounds should not be used to pigeonhole people.

Patience and Flexibility : Be patient and flexible, especially when working with individuals from cultures with different approaches to time, decision-making, or problem-solving. Allow extra time for discussions and adaptation.

Build relationships: Invest in building strong relationships with your colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds. Trust and mutual understanding are key for effective problem-solving in a multicultural environment.

By following these tips, you can create a more inclusive and effective problem-solving environment when working with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. It's essential to recognize the strengths that cultural diversity can bring to a team and leverage them to find creative and robust solutions to problems.

Also, check out these related Brainz articles on working with people who have different cultures:

Life Is All About Problem Solving By: Tugce Ozdeger, Executive Contributor

How To Problem Solve Like A Creative By: Eleanor Oliver-Edmonds, Senior Level Executive Contributor

Problem Solved By: Todd Richardson, Executive Contributor

Follow me on Li nkedIn , and visit my website for more info!

Read more from Liu Liu!

Liu Liu, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Liu Liu is a coach and manager with decades of experience, as a Cross-Cultural Intelligence Coach who specializes in helping international organizations and businesses to improve communications and cooperation among staff for better individual and team performance. He coaches managers and leaders working in a cross-cultural context to build trust, communicate effectively, and deliver results. He also coaches people on management, leadership, and career development. He is someone who helps you to imagine a greater possibility for yourself and supports you in achieving it.

As a senior manager in an international relief and development organization, he has worked with people in over 30 countries over his two-decades-long career. He uses a coaching approach to manage cross-country teams and complex programs to deliver results and impacts.

He is also an experienced trainer and facilitator who has delivered training on management-related and other subjects in over 30 countries.

With a cross-country marriage, developing a career in a second country, and working in an organization that has a reach of 50 countries, Liu Liu understands the importance and pitfalls of working cross-culturally and developing a career in an unfamiliar environment.

Liu Liu is an Associated Certified Coach(ACC), a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and an Executive Contributor to Brainz Magazine.

He holds a BA(Hon) in International Studies and an MSc in Development Management.

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Why Problem-Solving Skills Are Essential for Leaders in Any Industry

• 17 Jan 2023

Any organization offering a product or service is in the business of solving problems.

Whether providing medical care to address health issues or quick convenience to those hungry for dinner, a business’s purpose is to satisfy customer needs .

In addition to solving customers’ problems, you’ll undoubtedly encounter challenges within your organization as it evolves to meet customer needs. You’re likely to experience growing pains in the form of missed targets, unattained goals, and team disagreements.

Yet, the ubiquity of problems doesn’t have to be discouraging; with the right frameworks and tools, you can build the skills to solve consumers' and your organization’s most challenging issues.

Here’s a primer on problem-solving in business, why it’s important, the skills you need, and how to build them.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Problem-Solving in Business?

Problem-solving is the process of systematically removing barriers that prevent you or others from reaching goals.

Your business removes obstacles in customers’ lives through its products or services, just as you can remove obstacles that keep your team from achieving business goals.

Design Thinking

Design thinking , as described by Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar in the online course Design Thinking and Innovation , is a human-centered , solutions-based approach to problem-solving and innovation. Originally created for product design, design thinking’s use case has evolved . It’s now used to solve internal business problems, too.

The design thinking process has four stages :

• Clarify: Clarify a problem through research and feedback from those impacted.
• Ideate: Armed with new insights, generate as many solutions as possible.
• Develop: Combine and cull your ideas into a short list of viable, feasible, and desirable options before building prototypes (if making physical products) and creating a plan of action (if solving an intangible problem).
• Implement: Execute the strongest idea, ensuring clear communication with all stakeholders about its potential value and deliberate reasoning.

Using this framework, you can generate innovative ideas that wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise.

Creative Problem-Solving

Another, less structured approach to challenges is creative problem-solving , which employs a series of exercises to explore open-ended solutions and develop new perspectives. This is especially useful when a problem’s root cause has yet to be defined.

You can use creative problem-solving tools in design thinking’s “ideate” stage, which include:

• Brainstorming: Instruct everyone to develop as many ideas as possible in an allotted time frame without passing judgment.
• Divergent thinking exercises: Rather than arriving at the same conclusion (convergent thinking), instruct everyone to come up with a unique idea for a given prompt (divergent thinking). This type of exercise helps avoid the tendency to agree with others’ ideas without considering alternatives.
• Alternate worlds: Ask your team to consider how various personas would manage the problem. For instance, how would a pilot approach it? What about a young child? What about a seasoned engineer?

It can be tempting to fall back on how problems have been solved before, especially if they worked well. However, if you’re striving for innovation, relying on existing systems can stunt your company’s growth.

Related: How to Be a More Creative Problem-Solver at Work: 8 Tips

Why Is Problem-Solving Important for Leaders?

While obstacles’ specifics vary between industries, strong problem-solving skills are crucial for leaders in any field.

Whether building a new product or dealing with internal issues, you’re bound to come up against challenges. Having frameworks and tools at your disposal when they arise can turn issues into opportunities.

As a leader, it’s rarely your responsibility to solve a problem single-handedly, so it’s crucial to know how to empower employees to work together to find the best solution.

Your job is to guide them through each step of the framework and set the parameters and prompts within which they can be creative. Then, you can develop a list of ideas together, test the best ones, and implement the chosen solution.

Related: 5 Design Thinking Skills for Business Professionals

4 Problem-Solving Skills All Leaders Need

1. problem framing.

One key skill for any leader is framing problems in a way that makes sense for their organization. Problem framing is defined in Design Thinking and Innovation as determining the scope, context, and perspective of the problem you’re trying to solve.

“Before you begin to generate solutions for your problem, you must always think hard about how you’re going to frame that problem,” Datar says in the course.

For instance, imagine you work for a company that sells children’s sneakers, and sales have plummeted. When framing the problem, consider:

• What is the children’s sneaker market like right now?
• Should we improve the quality of our sneakers?
• Should we assess all children’s footwear?
• Is this a marketing issue for children’s sneakers specifically?
• Is this a bigger issue that impacts how we should market or produce all footwear?

While there’s no one right way to frame a problem, how you do can impact the solutions you generate. It’s imperative to accurately frame problems to align with organizational priorities and ensure your team generates useful ideas for your firm.

To solve a problem, you need to empathize with those impacted by it. Empathy is the ability to understand others’ emotions and experiences. While many believe empathy is a fixed trait, it’s a skill you can strengthen through practice.

When confronted with a problem, consider whom it impacts. Returning to the children’s sneaker example, think of who’s affected:

• Your organization’s employees, because sales are down
• The customers who typically buy your sneakers
• The children who typically wear your sneakers

Empathy is required to get to the problem’s root and consider each group’s perspective. Assuming someone’s perspective often isn’t accurate, so the best way to get that information is by collecting user feedback.

For instance, if you asked customers who typically buy your children’s sneakers why they’ve stopped, they could say, “A new brand of children’s sneakers came onto the market that have soles with more traction. I want my child to be as safe as possible, so I bought those instead.”

When someone shares their feelings and experiences, you have an opportunity to empathize with them. This can yield solutions to their problem that directly address its root and shows you care. In this case, you may design a new line of children’s sneakers with extremely grippy soles for added safety, knowing that’s what your customers care most about.

Related: 3 Effective Methods for Assessing Customer Needs

3. Breaking Cognitive Fixedness

Cognitive fixedness is a state of mind in which you examine situations through the lens of past experiences. This locks you into one mindset rather than allowing you to consider alternative possibilities.

For instance, your cognitive fixedness may make you think rubber is the only material for sneaker treads. What else could you use? Is there a grippier alternative you haven’t considered?

Problem-solving is all about overcoming cognitive fixedness. You not only need to foster this skill in yourself but among your team.

4. Creating a Psychologically Safe Environment

As a leader, it’s your job to create an environment conducive to problem-solving. In a psychologically safe environment, all team members feel comfortable bringing ideas to the table, which are likely influenced by their personal opinions and experiences.

If employees are penalized for “bad” ideas or chastised for questioning long-held procedures and systems, innovation has no place to take root.

By employing the design thinking framework and creative problem-solving exercises, you can foster a setting in which your team feels comfortable sharing ideas and new, innovative solutions can grow.

How to Build Problem-Solving Skills

The most obvious answer to how to build your problem-solving skills is perhaps the most intimidating: You must practice.

Again and again, you’ll encounter challenges, use creative problem-solving tools and design thinking frameworks, and assess results to learn what to do differently next time.

While most of your practice will occur within your organization, you can learn in a lower-stakes setting by taking an online course, such as Design Thinking and Innovation . Datar guides you through each tool and framework, presenting real-world business examples to help you envision how you would approach the same types of problems in your organization.

Are you interested in uncovering innovative solutions for your organization’s business problems? Explore Design Thinking and Innovation —one of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses —to learn how to leverage proven frameworks and tools to solve challenges. Not sure which course is right for you? Download our free flowchart .

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How To Create A Proactive Problem-Solving Culture? 10 Useful strategies

Last Updated: December 17, 2023 | by Paul Harstrom

How can one establish a proactive problem-solving culture? Before addressing this query, let us understand the rationale behind the need for such a culture in the first place.

Even the most well-established and reputable companies often face situations where customers express dissatisfaction by posting negative reviews about their products or services on social media.

Occasionally, companies respond to these complaints by offering apologies, refunds, or solutions, but only after the damage is already done. So, they kind of lost out this way. This reactive strategy can lead to potential customer dissatisfaction and harm the brand’s reputation.

Now imagine a company, where employees are actively monitoring customer feedback, analyzing trends, and identifying potential issues before they escalate. If they notice a pattern of dissatisfaction or receive early complaints, they take proactive measures.

This could involve reaching out to affected customers, implementing improvements to the product or service based on feedback, and communicating transparently about changes. By addressing concerns before they become widespread issues, the business maintains customer satisfaction, loyalty, and a positive brand image.

Hence, a reactive approach involves addressing complaints only after they have gained attention, potentially causing damage to the business’s reputation.

In contrast, a proactive approach to problem solving culture focuses on identifying and addressing customer concerns before they become critical, promoting a more efficient and resilient operation.

LEAD Diligently helps faith-driven executives gain clarity and wisdom to grow profitable enterprises. In this article, you are going to learn 10 useful strategies to create a proactive problem-solving culture so that you can enhance your organizational performance and grow profitably .

What Is A Proactive Problem-Solving Culture?

In the words of business visionary Peter Drucker:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker

This ethos encapsulates the essence of a Proactive Problem-Solving Culture—an organizational mindset where potential challenges are addressed before they burgeon into critical issues, setting the stage for a company’s success.

In a proactive problem-solving culture, employees are encouraged to be forward-thinking and take the initiative to identify potential problems, analyze their root causes, and implement solutions. This approach contrasts with a reactive mindset, where actions are taken only after a problem has already occurred.

Building a proactive problem-solving culture involves creating an environment that values continuous improvement , open communication, and empowerment.

It encourages employees at all levels to think critically, share insights, and collaborate on innovative solutions. If you want to maximize the productivity of your employees click here to learn 5 scientifically proven ways to motivate and engage employees in the workplace .

How to Create a Proactive Problem-Solving Culture? (10 strategies):

Addressing issues in a company and solving problems effectively requires a systematic and proactive approach. Here’s a structured guide including 10 valuable strategies to create an effective problem-solving environment:

Acknowledge Issues:

Start by acknowledging and recognizing the existence of issues within the company. Utilize regular assessments, encourage open feedback, and monitor performance metrics diligently.

Categorize and Prioritize:

Categorize identified issues based on their nature, urgency, and impact on the organization. Prioritize them to focus on the most critical problems that need immediate attention.

Create an Issues List:

Establish an “issues list” to systematically track and document identified challenges. This list should be regularly reviewed and updated, providing a clear overview of ongoing issues. These can be challenges, opportunities, or unresolved matters.

Regularly revisit the issues list, assess the impact of implemented solutions, and refine strategies based on the evolving company’s demands.

Transition from Identification to Action:

Issues that are identified as potential company rocks , or priorities, but not immediately addressed as individual rocks should move to the issues list.

This list serves as a backlog of items that may require attention in the future . Decide when the right time is to address each issue.

Implement Structured Problem-Solving Sessions:

Conduct structured problem-solving sessions or meetings. These sessions should be action-oriented, focusing on finding solutions rather than dwelling on the problems.

Prioritize Implementation Over Discussion:

Emphasize the importance of implementing solutions rather than spending excessive time discussing issues. The goal is to move from identifying problems to actively resolving them.

Strategic Decision-Making with Deadlines:

Set specific timeframes for strategic decision-making through proactive problem management . It can be achieved by determining deadlines for resolving specific issues, such as making final decisions about new hires within 90 days.

Cultivate Individual Accountability:

Encourage a sense of individual accountability . Assign specific responsibilities to team members for addressing and resolving particular issues. Consider the concept of “individual rocks” as tasks or priorities individuals commit to.

Click here to learn 7 tips to create a culture of accountability in the workplace.

Integrate Future Planning:

Incorporate forward-looking planning into the problem-solving process. Consider future quarterly planning sessions where issues can be anticipated, and strategies can be developed to address them proactively.

Document and Analyze:

Document the entire problem-solving process, including the identified issues, proposed solutions, and the outcomes or plan for resolution. The goal is to prevent important matters from being forgotten and to have a structured approach to addressing them.

Concluding 10 Useful Strategies To Create A Proactive Problem-Solving Culture

10 Useful Strategies mentioned above help leaders Create A Proactive Problem Solving Culture in their companies. Adopting this structured approach not only addresses current issues but also anticipates and mitigates challenges in the future.

Did you find these strategies useful? Enlighten us with your thoughts in the comment section below!

Can you provide examples of companies that have successfully created a proactive problem-solving culture?

Many tech giants, such as Google and Microsoft, are known for promoting proactive problem-solving cultures. They encourage employees to engage in continuous improvement and innovation, encouraging them to address challenges before they escalate.

How does technology contribute to problem-solving in modern workplaces?

Technology plays a pivotal role by providing tools for data analysis, communication, and collaboration. Platforms like project management software , data analytics tools, and collaborative platforms enable teams to anticipate issues, share insights, and collectively address problems in real-time, contributing to a proactive work environment.

What steps can employees take individually to contribute to a proactive problem-solving culture within their teams or departments?

Employees can contribute by staying vigilant and identifying potential issues early on. Actively participating in team discussions, proposing effective solutions, and taking the initiative to address small problems before they arise are necessary steps.

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The Lean Post / Articles / How a Problem-Solving Culture Takes Root

How a Problem-Solving Culture Takes Root

By Jim Luckman and David Verble

March 4, 2014

Changing one's own leadership behaviors is no easy task, but it can be done. Leaders can shift away from giving top-down commands and solutions to a more engaging and collaborative way of addressing problems that both gets results and develops people.

There are few leaders with more responsibility, and often more frustration, than lean continuous improvement coordinators and facilitators.

As we point out in workshops, when change leaders start sharing some of their challenges, their companies have placed an incredible amount of faith in them and their CI teams. (These teams typically consist of one, maybe three, sometimes five, but very rarely any more than 10 members). And they’re expected to “transform” an organization with 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 or more people!

On a day-to-day level, what most CI leaders want from management is more active participation in CI events and more consistent support for work on CI projects. And when their managers and executives are involved, they would like for them to act less like traditional managers and to think and behave more like CI leaders. It’s only human nature, of course, to think things would be better if certain people would do what we want them to do.  But as anyone who has ever expected someone else to change knows, asking others to change, and complaining when they don’t, doesn’t work. The only person we can ever really change is ourselves. And even that is far from an easy task!

That’s not to say that line managers and business executives—particularly those who have been promoted and rewarded in a traditional management environment based largely on their problem-solving success—cannot change their default leadership responses. They can shift away from giving top-down commands and solutions to a more engaging and collaborative way of addressing problems that both gets results and develops people.

The behaviors and perspectives of traditional management are deeply ingrained habits and assumptions that cannot be turned off and replaced by throwing a switch. We suggest, based on our experiences, that traditional managers and executives focus on and practice three behaviors to help them personally make the transition.  

1. Grasp the actual conditions of problem situations.

Don’t jump to solutions or accept when others go straight from problem recognition to solution. Grasp the actual conditions of problem situations firsthand whenever possible and insist that others clearly describe the problems they are trying to solve. Rather than assume you know enough about the nature of a problem situation, go to the gemba (wherever the work processes are) and try to understand the sources of performance problems yourself. Look for and ask about the problems, often caused by variation in the way the work is being done. Look for bottlenecks and rework that prevent the work from flowing from start to finish. And when you are at the workplace, engage those who work in the process to learn what they know about what is actually happening. Ask them for ideas for what needs to be done.

2. Show respect for what your employees know, think, feel and can do.

If you do not allow employees to share their observations and ideas with you as though you were a peer, you will not be able to fully grasp the problem situation and you may never know things you need to know. Connect with people one-on-one at the level of their personal interests and concerns. Practice Humble Inquiry to learn about the problems they encounter in trying to do their jobs. Ask questions that don’t assume you already know the answers or that seek specific responses. Recognize that employees will often give you the answers they think you want unless you show them you genuinely believe they have insights and the ability to solve the problem.

3. Pay attention to how employees talk to you (and each other) about problems.

Do your employees seem hesitant to speak frankly about the what, when, where, and who of problems? Do they “polish” their problem and project reports and gloss over details to avoid criticism or blame? If so, teach employees to compare standard or plan to actual and talk about why there are differences. Push people to reflect on what they know about why those differences exist. And make it safe for employees to self-reflect and consider how what they did or did not do might have influenced their results. This is best taught by modeling this behavior yourself.  

These behaviors will go a long way toward creating a management environment that can grow into a problem-solving culture. The following signs will indicate that your transformation is contributing to a transformation in organizational culture:

• Problems are resolved the first time and do not recur as often because actions taken to address them are based on a better understanding of actual operating conditions, where and how problems at the process level are affecting performance.
• There is more self-initiated problem solving by employees because they feel they are not only allowed but expected to respond to problems within the scope of their jobs. Moreover, they feel respected for their knowledge and capability in doing so.
• An atmosphere of trust and safety exists in which problems can be exposed and countermeasures tried as experiments without concern for the consequences of speaking up or failing the first time.

There’s a reason why we refer to shifting to the leadership behavior described above as a “transition” and not a “transformation.” Absent a moment of blinding revelation on the road to Damascus, it takes time to unfreeze old habit or behavior, try out new patterns, practice them, and make them your default responses as a leader.

Managing to Learn

An Introduction to A3 Leadership and Problem-Solving.

Written by:

About David Verble

A performance improvement consultant and leadership coach since 2000, David has been an LEI faculty member for 17 years. Recognized as one of the first Toyota-trained managers to bring A3 thinking from Japan to the United States, he has conducted A3 problem-solving and leadership programs for 30 years. Overall, his…

About Jim Luckman

An engineer by training, Jim has expanded beyond his technical problem-solving expertise to solving complex social problems in organizations. He works with diverse companies by coaching leaders on how to transform their organizations into a culture of energized problem solvers.    Jim has dedicated his life to problem-solving. He has over 30 years of experience…

Problem solving and leadership are very important in our society also they needed to be learned so that it will give a positive impact to the society

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Taking a systematic approach to problem-solving requires strict discipline and patience. As a leader with experience, it's important to recognize that there are no shortcuts to the problem-solving process. The most successful leaders ensure that their approach remains consistent and is understood by all employees. When an organization achieves a high level of problem-solving consistency that takes a proper approach, it creates a new 'shared language' that enables employees to collaborate more and drastically improve the process. To achieve this, the organization needs to avoid getting overwhelmed with the many problem-solving 'frameworks' and establish a simple one to start. Efficient problem identification, asking the right questions, engaging employees’ in the effort, and flexing employee's problem-solving muscles is a great place to start as the primary objective. Here at WorkClout, we've developed 5 simple steps that you can deploy using our tool as a helping guide in your process.

Download our PDF e-book   "How To Build A Problem-Solving Culture That Lasts" for an in-depth overview.

1. Define the problem . Give your employees an easy way to indicate that a problem exists. Also, provide them with the tools to expand even further and clarify where the problem is occurring. Defining the problem well and providing context that can be easily shared with the team enables everyone to gain insight into what the real issue is.

Using WorkClout, employees can define a problem by creating an issue in as little as two clicks. Additional context can be provided by snapping a photo or video of the issue. All relevant employees are notified about the issue and can collaborate to get a deeper understanding of issues happening in real-time. 

...employees can define a problem by creating an issue in as little as two clicks.

• Create and tag an issue with an asset
• Upload multiple images and videos to provide additional context
• Collaborate with your team on a message thread

2. Identify Root Causes.  Observing the problem first hand to learn about it as much as possible is important. This step is often skipped, but it is essential to ensure that you are 1 - solving the problem correctly 2 - making sure that the problem does not come up again.

Once corrective action is tracked on WorkClout to resolve an issue, create a root-cause analysis task with a custom form to track and identify the underlying cause of the issue in the first place. Add detailed questions within the form to help guide the analysis and develop potential solutions.

Create a root-cause analysis task with a custom form to track and identify the underlying cause of the issue.

• Assign a root-cause analysis task to an employee
• Add a custom form to detail your findings
• Collaborate with team members by leaving comments in WorkClout

3. Develop solutions.  Good solutions come from being able to separate cause and effect. Solutions that eliminate root-causes ensures that the problem does not recur. To prove that a solution is effective, removing the solution should lead to the problem recurring.

Create a project on WorkClout to track and test potential solutions to a problem. Set project goals, set target end dates, add custom KPI reports, and add tasks to compartmentalize every action needed to accomplish the project’s goal.

Create a project on WorkClout to track and test potential solutions to a problem.

• Define a goal and measurement
• Add teams to your project
• Connect reports that align with your project goal
• Track tasks as potential solutions for the project
• Collaborate with project comments

4. Test and observe your solutions.  Make sure that the expected impact of your solutions holds by testing them. If you find that the solution isn't effectively solving your problem then further tests and potential solutions may be needed because the expected impact is met. To validate this, you can run a final experiment and see if the problem recurs when removing the proposed solution.

You can observe the trends and impact of your solutions using reports within a project on WorkClout. Our Statistical Process Chart (SPC) will even help identify if your solutions are impacting projects positively or negatively.

...observe the trends and impact of your solutions using reports within a project

• Set a goal for your team to reach
• Get notifications when a trend or signal is identified
• Track tasks or events that could correlate to your KPI trends

5. Adapting your solutions to new standards . Once you've confirmed that your solution is effective in solving the root-cause, the next step is to embed this within your organization's standard processes. Make adjustments to existing processes, training material, or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Doing this eliminates the possibility of the problem recurring. By implementing solutions broadly across your organization, you allow employees the opportunity to give additional insight into different scenarios.

There are several actions you can take on WorkClout to implement new standardizations; such as updating existing work instructions, creating new troubleshooting guides, creating new preventive tasks, and much more. Revisit your project periodically over time and ensure that your KPI's results remain consistent after you've taken action to standardize the solution.

• Distribute new standardized step-by-step documents 
• Automate new tasks into daily work processes
• Create new troubleshooting guides for employee reference

One of the key components of success, when an organization adopts a problem-solving culture, is to provide teams with the right tool. It is the responsibility of the leaders to support their workforce in a way that allows them to fulfill their new responsibilities in the problem-solving process. 

Adjusting to the change in role and outlook can take time for leaders that are typically accustomed to being the primary decision-maker, but learning to adapt and help employees participate to the fullest of their ability makes for a much more powerful way for employees to add value to the organization. WorkClout's mission is to help organizations adapt and embrace a problem-solving culture to the fullest of their ability.

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