In Brief
The Issue
Many C-suite executives (85% of those surveyed) say their companies struggle with problem diagnosis, which comes with significant costs.
Why It Happens
Part of the reason is that we tend to overengineer the diagnostic process— but most problems are faced in daily meetings.
The Solution
Here’s a new approach, in the form of seven practices for successfully reframing problems and finding creative solutions.
How good is your company at problem solving? Probably quite good, if your managers are like those at the companies I’ve studied. What they struggle with, it turns out, is not solving problems but figuring out what the problems are. In surveys of 106 C-suite executives who represented 91 private and public-sector companies in 17 countries, I found that a full 85% strongly agreed or agreed that their organizations were bad at problem diagnosis, and 87% strongly agreed or agreed that this flaw carried significant costs. Fewer than one in 10 said they were unaffected by the issue. The pattern is clear: Spurred by a penchant for action, managers tend to switch quickly into solution mode without checking whether they really understand the problem.
