Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Identifying and Creating a Problem Bank

Identifying and formulating the problem is the most difficult part of creative problem solving. Very often we state symptoms of the problems and end up wasting scarce resources chasing the illusionary “golden deer of the epics.” Management then becomes so emotionally committed to the wrong path that we can end up moving faster and faster along the wrong road. It is like a man who drills an oil well, in a bad spot. More and more money is spent with no resulting strike. But those involved, refuse to fill up the unproductive well and move on to a new location. They continue throwing good money after bad, because they do not want to admit that a mistake had been made initially.

6M Map for Problem Analysis
6M Plus, Minus, Interesting
Men
Materials
Machines
Methods
Markets
Money

It is important to involve everyone in identifying the real problem. What is a problem for the worker need not seem like a problem for the manager.

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