When teaching year five math to my daughter, I often use the following steps as an approach:
- Understand the problem and identify what you need to find out.
- Identify the missing information to get the solution.
- Find out the missing info with minimal effort to get the answer.
Straightforward, problem-solving approach. Isn’t?
Yet, we rush to predetermined solutions in the business world without always understanding the problem.
You may come across a few solutions without understanding the problem:
- The new CEO gets the marketing team to change all sales and marketing materials’ corporate logo, font size, and colour palette.
- The new executive restructures the organisation and appoints a team from her previous organisation.
- The organisation chooses to implement a new ERP, as the current ERP is very clunky, and no one uses it.
- The company is implementing a new CRM. The new Sales Director chose the same CRM he used in his last organisation.
Consider slowing down and understanding problems thoroughly before rushing to any solution.
