Every day, managers (Strategic, Middle or Operation ) face problems and try to solve them, and also make decisions. As known to all, the standard way of decision making is to:
- Define the problem.
- Identify possible solutions and evaluate the solutions, and
- Compare, choose, and recommend a potential to the problem.
Defining the problem properly in the first place will guarantee a good start for a correct solution. But what if the manager faces an unknown problem? What if we see the signs of the problem but these sign can be indicators for several problems? How can we precisely identify the problem?
Managers with experience and knowledge in their fields can do proper judgments and make good calls. But in such business environment, like big or multinational corporations, this could be complex task. For example, a company has implemented new system, yet the system is not performing well as expected. Perhaps the employees were not trained to use the system, the interface in poorly designed, or may be other problems. So how can we determine which is the real problem that need to be solved?
I have been reading about a method used by physicians to identify diseases. This method is called “Differential Diagnosis”. It is basically an elimination process to diagnose (solve) an unknown disease (problem). A patient has these symptoms that could indicate several diseases. So physicians list all the possible diseases with such symptoms. With ordering blood tests, checking the medical history, Radiology, and the physicians’ intuition and estimations, the list is narrowed and the disease is indentified. Then what ever solution (surgery, drugs or others) is best to cure disease is done.
Different terminologies same concept in businesses. So Differential Diagnosis can be useful method to identify unknown problems. A manager can form a team, that will investigate the symptoms and try to figure out the problems that cause them. Also being able to connect symptoms with causes and see what fits the problem.
By using tools such as, reports, output measures, asking the employees, past experience, intuition , and anything helps in collecting information to discover the problem.
Let us take one more example to clarify the idea. A department in a big company, productivity is lower than it should be. errors in the outputs too much high. Also employees are unsatisfied. Three symptoms, each one can lead to different problem, and any combination of these problems also can lead to other problems. One might say : “ The problem with productivity is that employees are not motivated !! ”. Motivation comes in forms of loyalty, salary, competition or respect… etc. How can you be sure !!!!. other one could say: “ I think that the processes are old or obsolete compared to the competition outside ”. The first one could response by saying: “ Aha, what about this, our system in old !!”. The process goes on until the group sees that these symptoms fit a problem or problems, with any means that help to identify the problem.
It is not going to be easy in the future. Problems in businesses are getting more complicated each and every day. Also dealing with them and understanding their nature. Most of the time we are not deal with the problems. We are dealing with their results. Being able to differentiate between them is a sign of a good manager, and it is the first step for good decision making.
