13. EIGHT PROBLEM-SOLVING TIPS THAT WILL MAKE YOU SHIINE AT YOUR 9-TO-5 JOB
“Life isn’t out living without problems. Life is about solving problems.” - Tom Krause
As I have shared in earlier chapter, “Be a problem solver, not a complainer” is one of the six personal growth tips to have a financial rewarding career.
Here are 8 powerful tips to help you become a more effective problem solver at your job:
1. Power of discernment
In order to be an effective problem solver, you must have the power of discernment. You need to be able to understand the real issues at work. In order to understand the real issues at work, you must first be a hands-on, operational person.
Many employees are good theoretically based on what they read or study, but they lack the hands-on experiences. When I mean hands-on experiences, I mean rolling up your sleeves, getting yourself dirty by going to the so-called production / operation floor, doing the jobs of the executive level, experiencing each process well, struggling though actual problems and challenges on the ground.
When you know the operations, the team, the processes inside out (because you have been there), it's no longer hear-say from so and so. It's what you have personally experienced. You fully understand what the real issues at work are. You can tell the differences between something theoretical or practical. You can tell the differences if a solution is workable or not. This is exactly how automatically build up your power of discernment.
2. Be critical
I have seen way too many employees who manage to see problems at hand but fail to be critical about it.
If you are not critical, the problem won't be solved smoothly. You will tend to take the easy way out.
Some of the managers who reported to me kept telling me they already solved the issues in their team. But when I assessed the outcome, I found that the solutions were not well thought of. If a problem was not well thought of and not being looked at critically from the beginning, you could almost expect a disaster or just a so-so average outcome.
I always liked to ask them: "Are you happy with the solution?”, “Was it well-thought of?”, “Do you see there are some underlying issues on your solution?”
I also tried to let them see things from another perspective. I asked, “If you were a judge in a reality show, would you give a pass to this participant who came up with the solution?" More often than not, these managers would not accept the solution if they were the judge.
Therefore, I urge you to be critical about all issues at hand. If you were the judge and you wouldn’t be happy about the solution outcome, keep working on it. Only then you can solve the problem effectively.
3. Have urgency
"This is not urgent! Let's do it tomorrow."
Procrastinators love to take things easily with no urgency. There is always tomorrow in their dictionary!
We need to know that a business problem in your department or another department may impact the revenue or reputation of your organisation. The first priority is to solve issues which are urgent and critical.
If a customer complains about your company's product or service, will you have the urgency to solve it?
If a customer sends you email to enquire about company's products, would you respond 5 days later?
In many organisations, they practise and measure turnaround time (TAT) for most critical processes. For example, SOP (standard operating procedure) in a company may state that customer’s response time should be within 2 hours or the same day. If you have this TAT mindset, you will act quickly on all problems.
Remember, the faster you solve a problem, the less negative impact or damage it will have on your business and your team.
4. Facts and figures speak louder
Most people are idea-driven. They constantly have hypotheses on what their organisation should do to improve.
For instance, some employees or managers may give their suggestions or solutions based on gut-feel.
Their hypotheses include, "the competitor just launched an aggressive pricing. We need to do a discount promotion campaign in order to win deals.", or "Many customers complain that we lack this switch-on feature. We need to include it to make customer happy."; or "the commission scheme is not attractive. That's why they are not motivated to achieve their sales targets."
When you hear such rising problems, do you jump on the bandwagon and agree with their "assumptions"? Do you quickly ask product team to come up with the new feature, or seek your boss' approval for more discounts on your products, or change the commission scheme?
If you solve a problem based on "gut-feel" or unproven hypotheses, it may lead you to unintended results and consequences. You may fall into the trap of the sales people by making their commission scheme more attractively without realising the fact that it could probably be their skillsets issues or lack of call or visit activities to all customers. You may end up not hitting your monthly target because of the discounts you decide to give to counter attack the competitor. But in actual fact, it only impacts a handful of small customers. In fact, your decision wipes out the revenue from the majority 80% of the customers by giving the unnecessary discounts.
Product team may come up with a "new feature" as you claim is what the customer wants. But in actual fact, it's a non-critical function in the product that serves the needs of only 1% of highly demanding customers.
You see, if you act upon these problems harshly based on your gut feel, intuition or opinion, you may end up with disastrous outcome. In some cases, they may cause your year-end bonus or your annual increment.
Even if the gut feel may be correct, you still need proof. Without finding the facts to prove or disprove your hypotheses, there is often a fatal flaw that you may turn your hypotheses into false facts.
Ibu Datin, the director of Jobstreet.com Indonesia at that time, taught me well during my two-year stint in Jakarta. She loved to have this phrase on her lip all the time, "Facts and figures speak louder. Make sure whatever you do, please present real facts with supporting data and analysis. Facts and figures speak louder. You can't make a good decision without looking at facts and figures."
Her advice resonates very well with me indeed. Being educated with a degree in Statistics, I love to make decisions based on facts and figures that support the hypothesis. Being a process engineer and later quality assurance engineer at Seagate Penang, it further sharpened my fact-based problem solving skills.
What really transformed me into everything data-driven was the 9 years of employment with Jobstreet.com. The founder / CEO Mark Chang (Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering), Chief Operating Officer Suresh Thiru (Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering), and Chief Technology Officer Dr Albert Wong (PhD in Computer Aided Engineering) were graduates from one of the world’s best universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Not to be left out, my two direct bosses Leong Wai Kong and Chook Yuh Yng were both engineering graduates from another top global university - University of Cambridge.
Working with this top management team graduating from the world’s best universities with engineering back ground really forced me to sharpen my hypothesis-driven approach in solving business issues. Everything needed to have facts and figures to support the hypothesis or assumptions. With their critical minds, they would question the proposed solutions from every single angle, looking at all data and analysis from various angles before a decision was made. Any recommendations or proposed solutions without solid facts would be thrown out of the windows.
It’s good to have clues but you still need to have proof. You still need facts and figures. But I recommend that you work like a detective using hypothesis-driven approach to solve a problem.
You can use mind-mapping tool to help you identify problems during the hypothesis process. It helps you to ensure you cover all areas and don't miss out anything before you decide on the next step. Indirectly, it also means that you need to be analytical in order to be hypothesis-driven in solving problems in your organisation.
You also should be able to have business acumen in order to transform the data to make sense commercially to the way people from all levels and all departments can understand.
If you master this hypothesis-driven approach, your proposals and recommendations will definitely carry weight and credibility. It also reflects your sharpness in your thinking process, which is a key to your success at your job.
5. Be practical about your solution
Your recommended solutions need to be practical after weighing all different situations and conditions. There is no perfect solution. There is only the best solution for that situation. Your proposed solution needs to be executable in business-running organisation, and not some theoretical unpractical advice that only sounds good in a lecture hall.
I came across some managers who presented their proposed solutions that were not so practical for implementation. The solutions were well-thought of, but they were not practical to execute. I believe it was due to the lack of in-depth hands-on knowledge and experience, resulting in such impractical recommendations.
Hence, the solution is not only supported by facts and figures. The solution needs to be practical for implementation. If possible, you shall also think of a plan B as an alternative solution.
Having said that, you should not throw both plans in front of your boss or colleagues and ask them to choose. You will be seen as a person with no opinion. Instead, you should recommend the best solution to them and present the pros and cons with all the facts and figures to support them. It’s only the best solution is rejected that you may bring up your plan B.
6. Manage unlimited needs with limited resources
Every organisation has its own mission statements and core values. I have worked for 7 companies in 27 years. I couldn't remember most of the core values after I left. However, until today, I still can remember Jobstreet.com's five core values vividly.
One of the most memorable core values that all staff committed to was "managing unlimited needs with limited resources". In those good old days, Jobstreet.com had to run the business in the most cost-effective manner. There was no extravaganza in office setups. Everything was at the bare minimum. In terms of manpower, you wouldn't find any extra manpower. Many of us were all multi-taskers.
When you had operation cost in mind, these types of questions always popped up, " We can't hire new people. We can’t purchase new software. How can we do this task at the minimal cost? How can we tap on existing resources to solve the problem without any delays?"
As part of management team, we constantly had to stretch our creativity and imagination. We tried to be as resourceful as possible, finding creative ways to make things happen, tapping on any multi-tasking talent that we could find. By doing so, we managed to bring the business operation cost down. We managed to deal with unlimited needs with limited resources.
Of course, there was a down side to this too. Those who were very capable with multiple skills or more willing would end up very stretched with additional roles and projects.
Personally, I had no complaints though. If management entrusted me with additional project, that means they trusted that I could deliver. And even though those were extra work, but I could also learn new things which helped me to grow.
What I'm trying to say is that once you have a solution to your problem based on hypothesis-driven approach with the help of mind-mapping tool, you need to be able to quickly identify resources for your proposed solution.
Many managers may come up with good proposed solution but they just couldn't execute because they lacked of resources.
Hence, if you can really manage unlimited needs with limited resources, you will be seen as truly capable person and leader.
7. Measure what you do
Every project, every task in any organisation is time bound. If you work on some jobs without a time-bound mindset, you may not produce the desired results at a given time period. Hence, setting goals is so important at work. It helps you to be focused and disciplined. It helps you to be organised too. You know exactly what you need to achieve within the given time period.
It's good to break down your goals into short, medium and long term. You can then apply what I call S.M.A.R.T.s. rule. S stands for specific; M stands for measurable; A stands for attainable; R stands for relevant; and T stands for time-specific. Most people stop right there: S.M.A.R.T. However, I personally prefer to add a small little "s" behind. What does the small "s" stand for? It stands for "stretch". "Stretch" also ensures that you set a higher S.M.A.R.T. goal.
Who knows? During implementation of your recommended solution to your company’s business problem, another related issue may pop up along the way, offsetting the original plan.
Originally, your company may plan to change internal ERP system. Unfortunately due to covid-19 pandemic, the whole project is shelved. What do you do then? Do you sit there and wait for the project to be revived again? Or you quickly adjust to change and review what's required of you for the change?
You shall embrace change positively. Perhaps you can focus more on existing ERP system's issues to see how best you can improve them. Or perhaps you can focus on process change first which is not relying so much on a system change.
In any organisation, with the ever fast-changing business world, strategies can change overnight. You need to be adaptable to change. In order to do that, it also means you need to constantly seek feedback from others so that you can make necessary adjustment or changes in necessary.
Once you equip yourself with these 8 problem solving tips, you will become an effective “problem solver” in the eyes of your bosses and colleagues. You will be perceived as someone who can help solve business issues effectively. Which employer doesn’t like someone who can help solve problems, right? Be that someone!
SECTION 2
INVEST IN YOURSELF AND YOUR CAREER
“The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself…
The more you learn, the more you’ll earn”
Warren Buffet
F I L L
Financial Independence, Live Life
achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50
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