Hello. Thanks for stopping by. If you would like to learn more about personal and organizational change, why not subscribe to the RSS feed. Or, if you're old school, Bookmark This Site
During a conference in Tempe, AZ I had time to climb up a small mountain. It was a great way to get a new perspective on Tempe and the surrounding area.
For your SmallChange this week, change your perspective on an object from your everyday life by getting a different view. See if it helps you stretch your creativity and problem solving!
Editor’s Note: If you’re viewing this in a reader and can’t see the player, click through to the blog. Mobile post sent by NSRT using Utterz. Replies. mp3
In this post, I mentioned a brainstorming exercise called the 5 Whys. This is a great exercise when you or your group is stuck on a problem and need a framework to find a root cause and brainstorm a solution.
How does this exercise work?
Essentially, the 5 Whys is an opportunity to let out your inner 2 year-old. You begin by stating the problem as you understand it:
Our sales have dropped in the past 6 months. Why?
We are losing ground to our competition. Why?
We aren’t innovating as quickly. Why?
We’ve cut our Research & Development budget. Why?
We’ve been managing by the stock price and focusing on quick hits. Why?
Our upper management receives the majority of their compensation in stock options.
As you can see, asking “Why?” forces the participants to continue to dig deeper and deeper into a problem until a root cause emerges. In the case of the example, decreased sales seem to be caused by a short term mentality that is the result of compensation structures.
The number 5 is a general guideline. Depending on how deep the problem is, it might take more questions or few questions to hit upon a root cause. You know you’re done when further questions don’t add any useful or actionable information. For example, a “Why?” answer to statement number 6 might be, “Because the board is made up of idiots.” That may be true, but it’s not particularly useful. Management can act on step 6, but not on step 7.
How does this relate to change?
In order to change, we have to recognize where we are stuck, whether as an individual or an organization. I may know that I have a problem maintaining communications with my friends, but I don’t understand the reason. Using the 5 Whys I can seek out a root cause and might discover that I need to schedule time on my calendar to call or email friends, or I need to set up a personal blog or Facebook profile to improve communications. The point is that understanding informs action, which is the key to effective change.
Brainstorming is like many tools that can be used to build great things or to do incredible amounts of damage. (Belt sanders also come to mind…) I’m sure we’ve all been to office brainstorming sessions that went on for an hour or more without generating any actually creative solutions to the situation at hand.
For some reason, people often think that brainstorming doesn’t require any preparation or knowledge to be effective. Change This recently released 10 Guidelines for Effective Brainstorming by Randah Taher, which explains some guidelines for making good use of brainstorming time.
Some of my favorite suggestions include:
Think and Re-think the Real Issue. People often focus on the surface issue when trying to resolve a problem. Randah gives a great example of a group trying to deal with work that is not intellectually stimulating. They continue to re-phrase the question they are brainstorming around and go from, “In what ways can we occupy our minds while we do a dull task,” all the way to, “In what ways can we engage ourselves [in our work]?” This reframing changes the entire nature of the situation and encourages the group to brainstorm around an issue that generates positive energy.
Come Prepared. Ask everyone coming to the meeting to have at least two ideas to get the conversation started. I love this idea because it will help you skip over the silence at the beginning of the session. It’s more productive and encourages people to come with the mindset of being a contributor.
Threaten Yourself. This is the weirdest sounding suggestion, but a completely new one to me. Rendah suggests working on worst-case scenarios and catastrophes (ie, What if we lost our biggest client and had to replace 50% of our revenue overnight?). By generating solutions to this problem, a group can identify useful ways to improve operations in the present.
One of my personal favorite brainstorming tools is called the 5 Whys. It is a great exercise used in the Toyota Production System and Six Sigma. Essentially, the exercise starts with stating the problem as you understand it, then asking Why? until you reach a workable solution. Often this takes up to 5 Whys. I’ll detail this tool more in future post. In the meantime, please leave comments about tools and exercises you have used in brainstorming.
