1.5 - About University

2. Brainstorm, makingthe elements of theproblem visible.3. Evaluate and assignpriorities.4. Plan action on thetop priorities.✔ Have the group brainstorm the elements of the big fuzzy, making the information visibleto all (e.g., flip chart, whiteboard). A powerful question is, “Can you give me an exampleof …?” This encourages concrete and actionable concerns. Don’t evaluate, debate, ordiscuss at this stage. Encourage questions for clarification only. Until the group hasassigned priorities, you don’t even know whether debate is necessary.[☛ 6.6 Six-Hat Thinking, 6.9 Brainstorming, 10.9 Visible Information]✔ It may be helpful to first discuss your priority-setting criteria. It may also be helpful tocategorize or group the issues in some way, but be careful! Grouping at too high a level canlead to overgeneralized, rather than specific, action plans.[☛ 10.11 Priority Setting]✔ For each high-priority item, determine what will be done, who will do it, how it will bedone, timelines, and follow-up actions.[☛ 10.12 RASCI Planning]H OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOLQuestion: “How do you eat an elephant?”Answer: “One bite at a time.”An illustration of the use of the Sorting Out Complex Situations tool was in a company where,over several months, the “communications problem” kept cropping up in conversations andon meeting agendas. At the CEO’s suggestion, the newsletter was beefed up. Employees werestill disgruntled. Some leaders suggested a motivation workshop, others an employee survey,while still others suggested an all-employee meeting to clear the air. Use of this tool preventedthe need for all of these costly “solutions.” A cross-section of employees was asked to helpbetter define the problem. Their concerns covered a wide range, from “The automated answeringsystem is losing telephone messages” to “I can’t talk to my boss.” No single action couldpossibly have alleviated such a wide range of concerns. The concerns were prioritized and themost important ones were dealt with.When you hear a big fuzzy coupled with name-to-blame, your antennae should go up. Thisoccurs when people label problems without giving them much thought. For example: the“engineering problem” (projects are behind schedule), the “personnel problem” (too manypeople are leaving the company), the “purchasing problem” (inventory is too high), and so on.In these cases, the problem needs to be renamed. Implied blame needs to be removed from particulargroups or functions and defined more practically and concretely, in order to render theproblem less emotional. Name the problem, not the person or department.Keeping all of this in mind, begin by tackling one big fuzzy in your organization that needsto be sorted out. Start by getting together a small group of interested stakeholders with varyingperspectives (e.g., 5 to 9 people), and use the chart provided to help you and your groupprioritize elements and plan action.SECTION 6 TOOLS FOR CRITICAL THINKING AND INNOVATION 177