One of the Top 3 skills that organizations look for during hiring is
Critical Problem Solving Skills. This is as per the survey by the World
Economic Forum. People are employed in the organization to resolve problems. If
there are no problems then I think, employees are not required. In life to, if
there are no issues / concerns then human-being were not required. However, be
it an organization or life, resolving issues / problems is critical and for
this we need to apply certain principles or tools or a statement than can be
understood by all. Then apply brainstorming or some other methodology to apply
solutions. However, many a times, the problem repeats the causes may be
different.
The author prescribes Upstream and Downstream for resolving the problems.
Upstream is to identify the problems before it occurs – in normal terms we could
say it’s about Proactive way of identifying the problem and resolving. Downstream
is once the problem is occurred, it is resolved. The upstream focuses on the early warning
sings, use of system thinking, and directions. In case of Downstream is about reacting,
where a hero resolves the problem.
Hurdle for the upstream thinking
- Problem Blindness: This occurs when we believe that it is normal - Story of the Sexual Harassment case in 1975.
- Lack of Ownership: The author narrates a story of car seat belt
- Tunneling: The story of how a nurse solved a problem every 90 min in average
Thought Provoking for Upstream:
- How will you unite right people - Surround the problem, use data for learning?
- How will you change the system - Look for the system change
- Where can you find a point of leverage – Start with target a small population, event and data set etc.
- How will you get early warning
of the problem – Look for the historical patterns to inform your predictions, maneuvering etc.
- How will you know what you’re succeeding - Use of paired measure
- Who will pay for what does not happen – Create closed feedback loops to continuously improve.
