A Step-by-Step Process for Ring-Fencing and Unraveling a Messy Problem

This post is part of a series of posts on how to problem-solve and negotiate change the agile way, rather than using traditional goal-setting and productivity techniques. The posts in the series so far are:

• How to use your whole mind to problem-solve and negotiate change.
• Kicking off the problem-solving process: The problem with problems

The problem-solving and change process

In the previous post I gave you an overview of the four stages in the problem-solving and change process:

1. Specifying the problem.
2. Deciding what you want and determining a solution to your problem.
3. Figuring out how you’ll get what you want and implement your solution.
4. Taking action on your change strategy, implementing your solution, experiencing reality, seeing what works and adapting to improve your results by going back to step 1, where the spiral starts again.

You can’t solve slippery, vague problems

In the previous post I talked about why you can’t solve slippery, vague problems and gave you the low-down on the stuff that makes problems vague and slippery and prevents you from being able to create relevant and effective plans to solve your problems. Some problems are easy to pin down and ring-fence just by pressing yourself to be more specific in articulating the problem, but others are more complicated, evasive, pervasive, tangled up and messy and that’s when a more comprehensive process for analyzing it all and finding and prioritizing the real problems.

And remember that the first stage of specifying your problem is a left-brain-directed task because the left-brain is good at analyzing and breaking the big picture down into its parts, zooming in on sequential cause and effect relationships and details, and getting specific with labels. Any exercise that’ll help you to think in that way will probably be useful in helping you to find and articulate your problem, but here’s a left-brain-directed exercise I’ve found really useful if you’re feeling generally dissatisfied, have more than one problem area that immediately comes to mind, and are wanting to do a full life review.

This exercise is an combination and adaptation of the exercises that Jinny Ditzler uses as part of the Best Year Yet process and the wheel of life exercise that’s become a life coaching staple because it’s such a simple and effective way to review your life and find the problem areas so you can start solving those problems.

7 Steps to nailing down your specific problem

• 1. Open up an excel spreadsheet (or use this worksheet that has all the headings already). Start by listing the following life areas in the first column: Physical health, Relaxation and restoration, Play, Financial health, Spirituality and contribution, Work, Learning and growth, and Relationships.
• 2. Now think of all the main roles you play in your life: Mother, Daughter, Wife, Business leader, Project manager for so-and-so project, Committee member at that organization, and so on. List them one below each other in the same column, so now it’ll look something like this:

• 3. In the next column, rate each of the items in column A, out of 10, according to the degree to which you feel fulfilled in that role or area of your life. So if you feel totally dissatisfied, you’d fill in a 0 and if you feel totally fulfilled, you’d fill in a 10, and of course you can use any number in between.
• 4. In the following column, list all the experiences you’re dissatisfied with in that role or area of your life – the experiences that you’d like to get away from. Take time about this and list everything that comes to mind, even if it’s a bit repetitive or doesn’t entirely make sense. Write it down uncensored. If you feel a little stuck with this, then it can help to tap into your right-brain-directed thinking and do some mind-mapping or brainstorming or fee-writing for a bit. It might also help to complete the following sentences with whatever first comes to mind: “It irritates me that…” “I’m disappointed that…” “I hate it when…” “I wish I never…” “If only…”
• 5. Get really clear on problem-ownership by asking yourself, “What part of this situation is my problem?” In other words, ask yourself what would have to happen for that situation to no longer be a problem for you personally – even if someone else still owned a problem. Check that you’re in your own business, not someone else’s business, by finding the part of the problem that is a problem for you personally and which you personally can control.
• 6. List the specific problems you’d like to solve. Once you’ve eliminated the problems you don’t own or have control over, get really specific with the problems that are left over by asking yourself, “What specifically about that role or area of my life is a problem for me and where, when and with whom is it a problem?”
• 7. And finally, rate your specified problems in order of priority. You don’t have to deal with it all at once. Give yourself permission to start with one problem – your most important problem, and to deal with that first. You might want to prioritize a smaller, more manageable problem first because you don’t have the energy or confidence right now for the bigger stuff. Or you might want to go for working first on a problem that you suspect might have the biggest impact if it were solved. On the other hand, there might be something urgent and time-sensitive that you want to prioritize first and you can get back to the slow-burning problems that you’ve had for a long time later. It’s up to you where you start, but you’ll feel a lot better and more empowered about it all once you just get started with solving something. So rate your problems 1 to 10, with number 1 being the problem that’s the greatest priority for you to solve first.

Next steps

Now that you’ve got a clearer picture of the specific problems and you know what your top priority problem is, you’re ready to move on to the next stage of the problem-solving and change process: deciding what you want and determining your solution to the problem. I’ll guide you through this crucial stage through a series of right-brain-directed exercises starting with the next post. If you’d like to make sure that you don’t miss any posts in this series, then sign up for the blog RSS.

Photo by Kevin Labianco