Why did that not solve the problem?

Failure is a big component of problem solving.    We try an experiment and it does not work.  We rework the solution and try new actions and it still does not work … but why? What have we learned?

Single Loop Learning– Typically, we will revisit the solution to the problem and come up with another solution based on what we already know. This is called single loop learning.  This is adequate for smaller problems but may not be good enough for larger problems.  It does not help us understand the thinking or problem-solving model we used to develop the action. It also does not address how our mindset was at the time or what our viewpoint was that informed the thinking.   These are critical components to understanding the results.

Triple Loop Learning– We need to dig deeper than just trying to understand what solution we tried and why it did not work.   This is significantly more difficult as we are not just looking at the solution, we are trying to understand what thinkingwas used to get the solution and what our stanceor mindset was at the time we launched the problem-solving activity.     

In his book, Creating Great Choices, Roger Martin describesstanceas ‘How you see the world and how you see yourself in the world’.  This has been an interesting concept to wrap my head around, but I look at it as ‘we all have viewpoints of the world that we use to make sense of what we see.  We also see what our role is in this viewpoint’.   

For example, if I put on my healthcare hat for a moment, when I am working in that world I may feel that the most important thing is the patient. I may also feel that I need to be the advocate for the patient. With this stance, I will then focus on solving the problem with a patient focused tool to gather data, such as a patient survey.  I will collect patient skewed data and use my problem-solving methodology to solve a problem that the data has led me to. When the solution had limited impact, then what?  What if it was not only a patient focused problem but had other conflicting stakeholders that also had problems?

My stance or opinion and my belief in my role lead to a way of thinking that did not help with the actual problem.  In a traditional single loop learning model, I would continue to try a solve a problem based on the patient data.   

I need to understand what my mindset was and what thinking I used.  I need to understand my stance and what my role should be.   

In this case, my stance should be much broader, I should focus on all our stakeholders and what they all need – the patient, community, team members, partners.   My role should be to facilitate a great solution for all the stakeholders.  I need to look at data that shows the impact on all the stakeholders.   This will be more difficult as some of the data may not exist and I will have to create data through running a number of proof-of-concept experiments.   I will also need to measure the results beyond the patient frame. 

Then, and only then will I be able to effectively solve the problem.

About the Author - Scott Smith is the facilitator of 5 Leveraged Learning Networks and the developer of OS Thinking - Organizational Systems Thinking. Through the Leverage Learning Networks and the OS Thinking approach organizations learn how to win.