Demanding Solutions is Not a Solution

Most companies I've worked with struggle to have honest conversations about risks. For example,

• Company A: Banned the use of the word "problem" or "issue" in all meetings and documents. We only had "challenges" or "opportunities" to promote a growth mindset.
• Company B: Implemented the rule, "you can only report a problem if you have a solution."
• Company C: Decided that all risks must have a written mitigation plans with updates in a weekly status report.

What we don't know can kill us:

1. Company A: There were so many rules and punishments around the language of problem solving that employees gave up entirely. Executives only knew about issues when they became catastrophic (i.e., fraud, IP theft, data loss, losing the largest client to quality "challenges").
2. Company B: Requiring solutions meant that the only employees who raised problems were the most skilled at explaining and solving them. We flew blind on risks obvious to junior staff in the areas of sales, customer service, and marketing.
3. Company C: The risk matrix exploded to the length of a school bus. No one could understand or read the weekly status report. Eventually, employees just stopped reporting risks entirely... and congratulated themselves for reducing the rate of new reported risks!

Too Many Problems, Too Little Time

So why do companies implement rules like "only report a problem if you have a solution?"

The short answer? Decision fatigue.

The long answer? Executives and other high ranking decision makers have strong demands on their time. They're already dedicated to solving the most important problems. Constant updates on seemingly solvable issues from the team saps energy from higher priorities and creates the impression the team is incompetent and can't manage themselves. For the executive, requiring a solution should force employees to get creative and get better.

Hidden Complexity

Demanding solutions only works if (1) the person who identified the problem has the authority, ability, and time to solve the problem and (2) they do not require additional aid or approval to resolve it. Here's an example:

1. You go to a coffee shop, add milk to your coffee, and it tastes spoiled. You notify the owner. The owner checks the milk, calls the supplier, and orders a new batch for delivery in the next hour. They reimburse you for your coffee and give you a gift certificate for the next one. Nice!
2. The next day, you go to the same coffee shop. The milk is spoiled again! The manager is out, so you inform the junior barista. The barista checks the milk, and... stands there awkwardly. The owner won't be back for a few hours, they're not authorized to give refunds, and they don't have the milk supplier's phone number. You go to a different coffee shop. Bummer!

The more complex an organization (more employees, departments, silos, decision makers), the less likely any individual within the organization can solve a problem themselves. The volume and frequency of issues reaching leadership is an indicator of hidden complexity preventing employees from doing their jobs, not incompetence.

Whenever I hear an executive utter "we should be moving so much faster than this," or "employees should be solving these problems without me," I know they're in a quagmire of unrecognized complexity.

Simplify, Standardize, Delegate

If the only way to solve a small problem is to get an executive involved, the solution is to build systems to push risk identification, prioritization, and response below the executive level:

1. Establish a common risk assessment and prioritization framework. Not every organization needs a massive risk matrix, but every organization does need employees to be on the same page as to what a problem is, how to prioritize it, and how to work together to solve it. The litmus test is if employees can consistently reach the same conclusions as an executive without help.
2. Delegate decision making authority to the lowest possible level. If employees can't make small decisions without executives, then executives will spend all day making small decisions. If we take the coffee shop example, enabling any employee to order emergency supplies with a company credit card or process reimbursements up to $10 would have saved a customer.

Originally published on willhea.com