Problem solving tips by David

Often sighted as a parable of how underdogs can overcome all the odds, is the story of David and Goliath. The story goes…………………

David goes to the king

The story goes on to call David, God chosen, and he becomes the king later in the story. With the God part aside, there are a few interesting things that the story speaks about with respect to problem solving and crisis management.

#Tip1: Address the issue as soon as you see it. The first thing that David said, “There is a giant who is taunting and threatening us, what are we going to do about it?” The resolution of the issue is conditional, but the most important step is to focus, acknowledge and evaluate the threat. Evaluation allows us to group and consider solutions, an issue left unevaluated is potentially the biggest risk.

#Tip2: Analyze the problem and think outside the box. Goliath the giant has been screaming, “Come to me, I shall tear you apart”. What if I fight him from distance? And David’s strategy worked. Never silence a solution, let it be told and pondered up on. Complex problems might not need complex solutions, a quirky simpler solution might end up being the most effective way. Once your team knows where they can flex their brains and, gather data to complement their thoughts the “out of box” thinking cap shall be donned.

#Tip3: Passionate team with limited skillset is better than unwilling team with exact skillset. David was not a trained warrior he did fight but not in wars. But he was the most passionate person on the field to take up the job. It is easier to work with passionate individuals who are willing to learn rather than the ‘all-knowing’ disinterested flock. Problem solving often involves hours and hours of research and trials, yes, a skilled resource is a plus but without the drive to fix, they end being morale killers.

#Tip4: Eliminate anything unnecessary. The armor, shield and sword were of no use to David, it would in fact hinder him from executing his plan of action and he dropped it. Dealing with dead weight team members and dead weight technologies can be either done by i) changing them ii) changing your expectation from them. But problem solving and crisis management generally come along with stringent timelines and the most ideal solution would be to let go of a dead weight. An unwilling senior developer no matter how talented will not be of any use when crisis hits. Dealing with genius jerks is a whole other topic for a different day.

#Tip5: Act on the biggest issue first. The biggest issue that David had with killing Goliath was the towering height of the giant, David nullified it by striking him to the ground before killing him. Project managers generally fall into either the trap of solving too many problems at once or picking up the problem that is making the most noise indifferent to the value of its fix. It is important to understand that prioritization is required, and it means to decide which problems will not get fixed. Prioritization of the bugs/problems/deliverables needs to be done based on the facts and not opinions. List out all the issues tag it with an estimated value, tag it with an estimated complexity, make a value to complexity graph, all the highly valued low complex issues will be the first to get fixed. Effective use of stakeholder management techniques greatly benefits during crisis management.

#Tip6: Resolve the problem completely. David chopped off the giant’s head after he fell to the ground, he did not jump around claiming victory till the job was fully done. While this point very subjective to the situation in issue resolution, it is always important to reduce the “we can live with this” part of the issues.