Business executives often come to you with a problem in their mind (say team building or communication) and ask you to look for a trainer to help them ‘solve’ the problem.
If you take their ‘problem’ at the face value, you are taking two risks. One, if nothing happens after the ‘solution’ is imparted; your credibility is at stake. You cannot say that ‘you did what was told’. A business executive expects you to be an expert in these maters. Two, you may miss a golden opportunity to solve a ‘deeper problem’ that is hidden behind the ‘superficial problem’. With the business executive’s permission, you could have hit the right button.
In order to act as a HR expert and increase your credibility, you need to follow a four-step process to determine if the problem is to be solved and how.
Business executives, because of their action orientation, often live in the mode of ‘Ready, fire, aim’. When they come to you, they have not only ‘labeled’ a problem, but also found a solution. They come to you with a problem of ‘team building’ and expect you to organize or conduct a program on ‘team building’. As a HR expert, firstly, you are better off if you ask questions about the problem situation at hand, so that you do not miss the ‘leverage’ when you are thinking of a solution. For instance, you may investigate why the problem of ‘team building’ has cropped up now. Is it due to a new project that a company has got? Or is it due to a new recruit in the team?
You may understand the ‘problem symptoms’ through which the business executive has identified the ‘problem’. Are there conflicts on the substantive issues of the project? Or are the team members showing ‘covert’ resistance by not staying behind after office hours? What other symptoms have been linked with ‘team building’ problem? This will help you understand what the ‘true problem’ is.
Secondly, you would also do some analysis to find that you are not hastily linking the ‘problem’ with ‘cause’? For instance, are the problem symptoms surfacing because the boss is trying to suppress ‘overt’ resistance? Or is the problem surfacing because of the hidden competition between two contenders for a possible post? Or is the conflict between two functions a ‘normal’ manifestation of the two ‘purposes’ of the function?
Third question is whether the problem is worth the time and effort required to resolve. To understand this, you may have to understand the performance parameters of the organization/department that get influenced by ‘team building’. The typical performance parameters are quality, cost, productivity and customer service. Depending on what objective is being pursued at that time, you can decide if the problem is worth pursuing. This will determine if the problem is important and/or urgent? And how much time and effort should you spend on solving it?
This will pave way for you to explore the solutions, the fourth step of the process. Training on team building may not be the right solution. It could just be training the boss who does not know how to allow team members to express resistance overtly without toppling the cart. Even if training is a better solution, you will know the major causes of team building that will have to be tackled by the trainer. This will not only ensure that the ‘solution’ will indeed solve the problem at hand.
Summary: Step one is differentiating ‘problem’ and problem symptom to understand the true problem. Step two is analysis to find possible causes, because problem symptoms may reflect deeper causes than are obvious to an inexperienced eye. Step three is linking the ‘problem’ with the critical performance parameters of the organization to find if the ‘problem’ is worth solving. Step 4 is exploring possible solutions and ensuring that the problem is indeed solved effectively and efficiently.
On the website www.seveneighths.in, we help HR executives use this four-step process in diagnosing a problem in their organisation, through Free diagnostics.
If you take their ‘problem’ at the face value, you are taking two risks. One, if nothing happens after the ‘solution’ is imparted; your credibility is at stake. You cannot say that ‘you did what was told’. A business executive expects you to be an expert in these maters. Two, you may miss a golden opportunity to solve a ‘deeper problem’ that is hidden behind the ‘superficial problem’. With the business executive’s permission, you could have hit the right button.
In order to act as a HR expert and increase your credibility, you need to follow a four-step process to determine if the problem is to be solved and how.
Business executives, because of their action orientation, often live in the mode of ‘Ready, fire, aim’. When they come to you, they have not only ‘labeled’ a problem, but also found a solution. They come to you with a problem of ‘team building’ and expect you to organize or conduct a program on ‘team building’. As a HR expert, firstly, you are better off if you ask questions about the problem situation at hand, so that you do not miss the ‘leverage’ when you are thinking of a solution. For instance, you may investigate why the problem of ‘team building’ has cropped up now. Is it due to a new project that a company has got? Or is it due to a new recruit in the team?
You may understand the ‘problem symptoms’ through which the business executive has identified the ‘problem’. Are there conflicts on the substantive issues of the project? Or are the team members showing ‘covert’ resistance by not staying behind after office hours? What other symptoms have been linked with ‘team building’ problem? This will help you understand what the ‘true problem’ is.
Secondly, you would also do some analysis to find that you are not hastily linking the ‘problem’ with ‘cause’? For instance, are the problem symptoms surfacing because the boss is trying to suppress ‘overt’ resistance? Or is the problem surfacing because of the hidden competition between two contenders for a possible post? Or is the conflict between two functions a ‘normal’ manifestation of the two ‘purposes’ of the function?
Third question is whether the problem is worth the time and effort required to resolve. To understand this, you may have to understand the performance parameters of the organization/department that get influenced by ‘team building’. The typical performance parameters are quality, cost, productivity and customer service. Depending on what objective is being pursued at that time, you can decide if the problem is worth pursuing. This will determine if the problem is important and/or urgent? And how much time and effort should you spend on solving it?
This will pave way for you to explore the solutions, the fourth step of the process. Training on team building may not be the right solution. It could just be training the boss who does not know how to allow team members to express resistance overtly without toppling the cart. Even if training is a better solution, you will know the major causes of team building that will have to be tackled by the trainer. This will not only ensure that the ‘solution’ will indeed solve the problem at hand.
Summary: Step one is differentiating ‘problem’ and problem symptom to understand the true problem. Step two is analysis to find possible causes, because problem symptoms may reflect deeper causes than are obvious to an inexperienced eye. Step three is linking the ‘problem’ with the critical performance parameters of the organization to find if the ‘problem’ is worth solving. Step 4 is exploring possible solutions and ensuring that the problem is indeed solved effectively and efficiently.
On the website www.seveneighths.in, we help HR executives use this four-step process in diagnosing a problem in their organisation, through Free diagnostics.
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