Changing perspectives & finding times when the solution is happening or has happened or might happen or can happened Exceptions… Will point to the solution itself, making the problem irrelevant.
Got an Example?
Working with an IT team they kept getting negative customer feedback about their responsiveness to customer requests … the IT team admitted that they struggled with customer requests because the customer did not communicate the changes needed until it was too late in the coding & development phase.
We found several people who did not have this problem.
We asked them, “How are you being responsive to customer needs?”
They told us, “We use a shared scoping document that is completed with the customer & spend more time in the early phases creating trust on what the Solution will look like & we educate ourselves & them using a Rapid PDSA process. Frank has become our Customer Relationship Manager, we shifted some of his workload. He talks with the customer weekly & shares updates, walks through the PDSA process & communicates + connects us with some small next steps.”
We copied the solution that was shared. Within 6 weeks the number of customer complaints decreased by 68%.
A problem that solves itself is no longer a problem
How can you use this?
Solution-Focused Questions
- What does “Solved” look like?
- How will you know it is solved?
- Who has already solved this? What questions can you ask them that will be useful?
- What about this problem / systems / process is already showing signs of the solution? From a little bit ———————- completely
- What changes might I make that will make this problem irrelevant?
- When I make that change what do I expect to have happen?
Try it and share how you managed to have the problem solve itself.