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  Most teams suffer from different challenges when solving issues. The common ones include fear of conflict, lack of focus, lack of discipline, lack of commitment, and personal ego. There are scores of different issue resolution models and approaches, but most people find them too complex and time-consuming. Some of the more detailed conflict resolution and problem-solving techniques require hours of preparation and mountains of paperwork. There is a better, faster, and more efficient way. After observing this phenomenon for many years, I created a simple tool that allowed my clients to resolve their issues. It’s called the Issues Solving Track.

  The Issues Solving Track consists of three steps:

  1. Identify

  2. Discuss

  3. Solve

  To start, you must first examine your Issues List and quickly decide on the top three issues to be solved. Do not make the mistake of starting at the top of your Issues List and working your way down. If the most important issue is seventh on the list, you will rarely handle that many issues in one sitting, and as a result you will not get to the most important one. In addition, when you take them in order of priority, a few issues will fall off the list because they turn out to be symptoms of the real issue you solved. For example, say you decide that the most important issue is that the handoff process from sales to operations is ineffective. After solving it, you might realize that the first and second issues on the list—frustration with the sales team and slow project starts—were also symptoms of the same thing. As a result, they go away on their own.

  Assuming you’ve decided what the three most important issues are, start with the most important and follow the Issues Solving Track:

  STEP 1: IDENTIFY

  Clearly identify the real issue, because the stated problem is rarely the real one. The underlying issue is always a few layers down. Most of the time, the stated problem is a symptom of the real issue, so you must find the root of the matter. By batting the issue back and forth, you will reach the true cause.

  Plan on getting a little bit uncomfortable. Most causes of real issues are people. The discussion can hit close to home if either someone on the leadership team or one of his or her staff is responsible. You have to be able to talk about the elephant in the room. That is why trust is so important. You have to become more vulnerable with each other and be willing to be straight about real problems. Remember the greater good.

  The time spent identifying the real issue can take far longer than the time used for the second and third steps, and that’s okay. That’s because the root problem may have multiple symptoms. Put another way, sometimes you will spend most of your time identifying the issue. As a result, the Discuss and Solve steps will take just a few minutes because the real issue is now clear.

  Here’s an example. The stated issue is that John’s customers are too demanding. John runs the warehouse and has been complaining that, between ordering and receiving products, customers are expecting too much with a two-day delivery time. By discussing the issue, you go from thinking that John’s customers are too demanding to thinking you might not be communicating with your clients as well as you should. As you dig further, you might find that maybe the process isn’t working. But through more digging, you discover that it’s John that isn’t working.

  All the way down at the bottom, you realize that John is in the wrong seat. The reality is that the customer’s two-day delivery request is very reasonable, and if you don’t achieve it, the company will start losing those customers. John is just incapable of organizing, managing, and getting product out on time. He doesn’t have the capacity (remember GWC). So, assuming you’ve now clearly identified the real issue—John is in the wrong seat—you can now move on to discuss what to do. Sometimes this process feels a bit like peeling an onion.

  * * *

  One helpful context when identifying is to understand that there are three types of issues. One is a true problem that has to be solved. The second is information that needs to be communicated and agreed to by the team. The third is an idea or opportunity that needs feedback, brainstorming, insight, and/or a green light from the team. As a result, in the identify step, it’s the issue owner’s responsibility to make it clear what type of issue it is and what is needed. For instance, if it’s the second type of issue, the owner starts IDS by stating, “I just want to make sure that everyone is clear and agrees on the new pricing policy.” This will help the entire team know the objective and makes for much more efficient issue resolution.

  * * *

  STEP 2: DISCUSS

  Most people spend the majority of their time at this step. They rarely identify the real problem before they start discussing, and thus they rarely solve anything. They just discuss everything ad nauseam, and they actually think they are being productive.

  The task of clearly identifying an issue enables you to stay focused on the issue at hand and avoid tangents. Once the issue is clearly identified, don’t be afraid to suggest a solution. Sometimes you don’t have to spend much time in the discussion step, because the issue is so clear and the solution is so obvious. In the above example of John, what more is there to discuss? The solution is to people-analyze John, sit down with him, determine if he can correct his issues, and then follow the three-strike rule. Taking a shot at voicing a solution forces others to react, which prompts a fuller discussion.

  In its simplest form, the discussion step is everyone’s opportunity to say everything they have to say about the issue. You get everything on the table in an open environment where nothing is sacred.

  Everyone should say what they believe but they should say it only once, because more than once is politicking. In the discussion step, you’ll need to fight for the greater good, not what is best for you or your department. If an issue is starting to hit home and the solution causes you discomfort, you must try not to push the solution in a direction that’s more favorable to you or your team. If you do, you aren’t fighting for the greater good of the company; you’re just protecting your turf. You should have healthy conflict and let the best solution come to light, even if it causes you some pain.

  Likewise, when the discussion starts to become redundant, it’s time to move to Step 3. But before we do, let’s have a quick word on tangents.

  TANGENT ALERT!

  RE/MAX First was suffering from veering off on tangents more than any other client I had ever had, so much so that I was running out of ways to help them. As a last resort, I looked up the definition of the word in the dictionary and wrote it in big block letters in front of them. When they came back from break, this is what they saw:

  Tangent:

  Diverging from an original purpose or course; see irrelevant

  That did the trick. To this day, they are one of the best at staying focused, and are now much more productive. Incidentally, after that meeting, they went on to have their most profitable year in the history of the company.

  The number one reason most leadership teams spend the majority of their time talking is tangents. I’ve observed teams that go on as many as 10 during the discussion of one issue. I know this because I write each of them down and then share them when the team is done discussing. That can be a great wake-up call. They’ll start out talking about increasing sales, and five tangents later they’re talking about letterhead. The conversation goes like this: Sales are down; we have to increase sales. Then someone brings up the salespeople and what they are doing, and from there we discuss one of the salespeople, Jack. Then the subject of Jack leads to that of Jack and Sue in accounting not getting along. This leads to the question, “Did Sue send the letter to customers who are past due?” which raises the question, “Did she use the new letterhead?”

  You don’t have to sit there helplessly. When someone starts to go on a tangent, get in the habit of saying “Tangent Alert!” It’s a friendly triggering mechanism that keeps you on track. If the tangent is a real issue, but not relevant to the current one being discussed, put it on the Issues List and get to i
t in order of priority.

  Upon the completion of the discussion step, all of your options, data, ideas, solutions, and concerns regarding the issue at hand will be out in the open. This enables you to move to Step 3—making the issue go away forever.

  STEP 3: SOLVE

  The solve step is a conclusion or solution that usually becomes an action item for someone to do. The item ends up on the To-Do List, and when the action item is completed, the issue goes away forever.

  George Perles, the head football coach of the Michigan State Spartans from 1983 to 1994, once gave a dinner talk at a function I attended. He shared a mantra from his days as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers during their heyday in the 1970s. He said, “We made every decision like we were going to the Super Bowl,” and they ended up winning the Super Bowl four times. That is what every leadership team needs to do. You should make all of your decisions as though you are going to your own Super Bowl—as though you were achieving your vision.

  It’s important to note that you cannot jump right to solving issues without implementing the Vision Component first. If your Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO) is not complete and your leadership isn’t on the same page, you’ll never solve issues well. It’s like driving a car, not having a destination, and making turns randomly. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t make decisions on which way to turn. Where decisions may have been difficult in the past, this step becomes much easier when your vision is clear.

  Solving issues takes time. By solving issues now, you’ll save time exponentially across departments by eliminating all future symptomatic issues. The old days of shoving issues to the side so you can make it to next week have to come to an end. Jury-rigging problems with duct tape and twine will become a thing of the past. To build a well-oiled machine, you have to solve issues for the long term in accordance with your vision.

  Three types of resolutions will emerge from an issues-solving session. The first is when the issue is solved and requires action. For instance, “John is going to revise the accounts receivable past-due letter to include the new language.” In this case, John takes the action item and completes it, and it is solved. The second is when the issue is merely awareness, and the conclusion is that everyone concurs with that awareness. For instance, “Okay, so we all agree that meetings will start on time.” The third is when the issue needs more research or facts. In this case someone is assigned an action item to do the research and bring it to a subsequent meeting. For example, “Bill will gather the client data for the last two years, and we will make the issue a top priority in next week’s meeting.”

  As you master this third step of the Issues Solving Track and become stronger at solving your own issues, your team must internalize the following 10 important aspects of solving issues.

  THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF SOLVING ISSUES

  1. Thou Shalt Not Rule by Consensus

  On a healthy team where the vision is clear and everyone is on the same page, eight out of 10 times, everyone will agree with the solution. However, sometimes they won’t, and someone needs to make the final decision. Consensus management does not work, period. Eventually, it will put you out of business. Not everyone will be pleased in these situations, but as long as they have been heard and if the team is healthy, they can usually live with it and will support the decision. From there, you must present a united front moving forward.

  One of the worst cases of consensus management was a company being run by its next generation of family members. The company’s growth was stagnant, and some tough decisions needed to be made to restore profitability. In our first few sessions, every time a hard decision needed to be made, the team would either retreat out of fear of hurting someone’s feelings or someone would say, “Let’s vote.” This had been going on for years. They were some of the nicest people you could ever meet. Yet they would come to the next session complaining about all of the same issues and how nothing was working. After a year of forcing more openness and a few very uncomfortable sessions for some people, one of the owners finally stepped up as the integrator and started to make the tough decisions. Finally, the ship is starting to turn around for them.

  In countless cases of tough decisions, I’ve observed that in instances when the team was divided, if the integrator had gone along with the majority, it would have been the wrong decision. In a Fortune magazine issue on decision-making, Jim Collins is quoted as saying that in his years and years of research, “no major decision we’ve studied was ever taken at a point of unanimous agreement.”

  2. Thou Shalt Not Be a Weenie

  The solution will always be simple; it’s just not always easy to implement. You must have strong will, have firm resolve, and be willing to make the tough decision.

  3. Thou Shalt Be Decisive

  Remember the study from Think & Grow Rich. The 25,000 people who failed lacked the ability to make decisions and procrastinated, whereas the several hundred millionaires made decisions quickly and changed them slowly. Remember, it’s less important what you decide than it is that you decide … so, decide!

  4. Thou Shalt Not Rely on Secondhand Information

  You cannot solve an issue involving multiple people without all the parties present. If the issue at hand involves more than the people in the room, schedule a time when everyone can attend. Tyler Smith of Niche Retail calls these “pow-wows.” When someone brings him an issue involving others or secondhand information, he says, “Time for a pow-wow” and pulls everyone involved together and solves it.

  5. Thou Shalt Fight for the Greater Good

  Put your egos, titles, emotions, and past beliefs aside. Focus on the vision for your organization. You will cut through the candy-coating, personalities, and politics. If you stay focused on the greater good, it will lead you to better and faster decisions.

  6. Thou Shalt Not Try to Solve Them All

  Take issues one at a time, in order of priority. What counts is not quantity but quality. You’re never going to solve them all. The faster you understand that, the better your odds are of staying sane. Solve the most important one first, and then move on to the next.

  7. Thou Shalt Live with It, End It, or Change It

  This is another great lesson from my dad. In solving an issue, you have three options: You can either live with it, end it, or change it. There are no others. With this understanding, you must decide which of the three it’s going to be. If you can no longer live with the issue, you have two options: Change it or end it. If you don’t have the wherewithal to do those, then agree to live with it and stop complaining. Living with it should, however, be the last resort.

  8. Thou Shalt Choose Short-Term Pain and Suffering

  Both long-term and short-term pain require suffering. Remember the “36 hours of pain” rule, and solve your problem now rather than later.

  9. Thou Shalt Enter the Danger

  The issue that you fear the most is the one you most need to discuss and resolve.

  10. Thou Shalt Take a Shot

  Taking a shot means that you should propose a solution. Don’t wait around for someone else to solve it. If you’re wrong, your team will let you know. Sometimes the discussion can drag on because everyone is afraid to voice a solution even though someone may have it right at the tip of his or her tongue. Often, a team will discuss an issue for far too long. They’ll be stuck and no one will be offering solutions, when suddenly the quietest person in the room might speak up and suggest something. There might be a silence, then someone who says, “That’s a good idea” and everyone agrees. Don’t be afraid to take a shot. Yours might be the good idea.

  One important point: When the issue is completely solved, someone must make the solution statement. For example, in the case of John being in the wrong seat, someone states the solution: “Barbara will sit down with John and discuss the warehouse seat issue, offer him the assistant manager seat, and see if he wants it. If not, we will part ways.” You’ll know after the statement that the
problem is solved because you’ll hear the sweet sound of agreement in the room. The issue is then owned by someone (in this case, Barbara), it’s added to the To-Do List, and it gets done. Occasionally after the solution statement, someone will say, “Wait a minute, that is not what I heard,” and the discussion will begin again. That’s okay. You’re creating clarity and getting everyone on the same page. Be patient.

  The Issues Solving Track always follows the three steps: identify, discuss, and solve. The acronym for the track is IDS. As you move forward in mastering the Six Key Components, IDS will become an important aspect of your day-to-day running of the business. From now on, when faced with an issue, you simply “IDS it.”

  The power and simplicity of IDS is demonstrated by two EOS clients who do business together. They were facing some tough issues, so they scheduled a meeting. They sat down in the conference room, and one walked up to the whiteboard and wrote this:

  The other smiled, and they went to work and resolved all of their issues. Not only does the Issues Solving Track work internally, but it works externally as well. The ability to “IDS it” became a common language between the two of them, and it’s helped them not only to achieve resolution, but also to get there faster.

  THE PERSONAL ISSUES SOLVING SESSION

  Building a healthy team is not always a smooth process. If a team is not opening up, it might be because two individuals don’t get along. They may even be at odds with one another. When this situation occurs, you must resolve the tension. Sometimes it’s the only obstacle holding you back from being a functional, cohesive team. And you need a functional, cohesive team to be a healthy, growing company.

  A personal issues solving session usually provides the remedy. This is an opportunity for the two people involved to come together to clear the air and resolve their differences. It’s recommended that you have a third party facilitate the session.