Stay Focused on Three Goals "A three-step process for effective problem-solving meetings can make the difference between chaos and success. 3. Your attendees are anxious. Generate and agree on solutions. Chris translated the steps for triaging a physical emergency into a basic meeting agenda Pay attention. Problem Solving Meetings are appropriate only for issues that concern the whole staff and that can be discussed without naming names. At the start of the meeting, set the stage by reiterating these intentions. Create consensus by assessing team dynamics and manage team dysfunction and conflict with expertise and confidence 6. When your people are busy justifying their past behavior, they’re not busy thinking about future solutions. If you can’t clearly articulate it, draft a succinct problem statement. Some of the best ideas will indeed come from the personalities in the room that tend to speak up quickest and loudest, but not all of them. Here are five steps that will engage and empower the team in finding a solution. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. This article isn’t for you. one of the first posts on this blog, our friend and former partner wrote about adapting his emergency response training as a SCUBA instructor to the business setting. The worst meetings bring time to a crawl leaving everyone mentally and emotionally exhausted and more than a little bit frustrated. They’re just getting defensive, and can easily descend into responding emotionally rather than rationally. Here are five steps that will engage and empower the team in finding a solution. 5. If the problem has several aspects, concentrate on one or two that can be adequately addressed at the meeting. But you can change that. The last stage, once you’ve selected the solution, is to develop an implementation plan. Check for the following:1. Make sure you’re making room for everyone to contribute. How you respond to setbacks, not how you avoid them, will define your success as a leader. Step 1: Identify the problem. Creativity 3 Steps to Leading a Meeting That Inspires Productive Problem Solving and Creative Thinking This approach can help you solve complex problems. Unfortunately, too many of the meetings we attend seem to be just the opposite. Thank them. (See “Lisa, defiant toward the teacher” on page 71.) In this step, you live up to that promise. In fact, if you think everything is going to plan, that might be the first sign that they’re really not. The result can be reduced collaboration, inefficient problem solving and stifled creativity. Select the right team. 2. They are viewed by team members as unproductive and tedious wastes of precious time. There can be no question about where your head is at while you’re facilitating this discussion, and there can be no question about what you’re doing with your electronics in the meeting. In this Lean Minute we discuss how to arrange your concern strips to enable an effective daily meeting in typically 5 minutes, but rarely longer than 10 minutes. No laptop, tablet, or phone in the conference room. Jane, I know you’ve got some thoughts here, so before we leave this topic I want to make sure we hear from you. The challenge is to sort the concern strips into an order that can be quickly referenced in the meeting. If you already have solutions, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and develop a list of pros and cons. You’ll be amazed at how good your team can be when they’re not defensive or too busy protecting themselves. Instead, ask “forward facing” questions that get everyone focused on resolving the issue. If there’s someone you want to hear from but haven’t, try giving him or her a little nudge. They anticipate needing the time of others to raise the fog high enough so that they can determine what they need to get done over the next week, until the next meeting. Group problem-solving skills, like exercise and playing the piano, grow easier and more effective with ample practice.Unfortunately, most managers fail to recognize the need to develop the decision-making and problem-solving muscles of their teams, leaving money and performance on the table and potentially damaging their reputations. Neither have we. You’ve sent the message. So something has gone wrong. There’s nothing worse than getting a group of smart people together to solve a problem and having the discussion devolve into chaos. Analysis has uncovered a serious design flaw. Copyright © 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. Explore acceptance. As difficult as it may be, you have to avoid asking “backwards facing” questions. Problem-solving meetings should never be used to appoint blame, but to objectively review the situation and develop an approach to mitigate risk and solve the problem. No matter how gently or politely you ask these questions, the result will be the same. 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