Problem-Solving in Meetings

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝟗𝟎 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎? 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅. Customer delivery was failing. Promises missed. Revenue bleeding. The entire meeting: "Whose fault is this?" Sales blamed Operations. Operations blamed Product. Product blamed Sales for unrealistic timelines. Sales blamed Leadership. Round and round. Finally, the COO stopped it: "I don't care whose fault it is. What's broken?" They mapped the process. Found the real issue in 15 minutes: a system handoff no one owned. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 90 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 "𝘸𝘩𝘰." 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 "𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵." 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅, 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔: Mistake 1: They hunt for WHO instead of WHAT Blame dissipates energy. It feels productive—someone’s accountable!—but it solves nothing. Quality thinker W. Edwards Deming estimated that most failures come from systems and processes, not individual employees. Yet we spend most problem-solving time on people. Mistake 2: They add resources to broken systems "We’re overwhelmed. Hire more people." But if the process takes 47 steps when it should take 12, more people just means more people struggling. 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝑴𝒚 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝑪𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎-𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 When a problem hits: 𝟏. 𝐁𝐚𝐧 "𝐖𝐇𝐎" 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 ❌ "Whose fault is this?" ✅ "What's happening? What's the actual symptom?" Focus on facts first. Blame later (or never). 𝟐. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧 Don’t solve symptoms. Use the 5 Whys: → Delivery late. Why? → Backlog. Why? → Orders spiked. Why? → Sales overpromised. Why? → Comp plan rewards speed, not feasibility. 𝟑. 𝐀𝐬𝐤: "𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐌?" If 3+ people struggle with the same thing, it’s not them. It’s the process. Fix the system first. Then see if you need more capacity. 𝟒. 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠? Problem-solving reveals character. Are you blaming or building? Reactive or strategic? Covering or learning? 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵. 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴. 𝑹𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕: → What problem are you "solving" by hiring more people instead of fixing the process? → When did you last spend more energy on WHO than WHAT—and what did it cost? (Next time a problem hits, ban blame for 30 minutes. Watch what shifts.) Next week: 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 — anticipating problems before they become crises. 𝘗.𝘚. 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦? → 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑬𝒅𝒈𝒆 https://lnkd.in/gi-u8ndJ 𝘗.𝘗.𝘚. 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵-𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮-𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺? 𝘋𝘔 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. #TheInnerEdge #ProblemSolving #RootCauseAnalysis #StrategicLeadership

Here’s an experienced consultant’s tip on how to unstick a meeting where people have gotten frozen into their positions. You need to do three things, in a particular order: 1. Ensure that people agree on the need to come to a decision. Sometimes that’s obvious, but in other instances “do nothing” might be a superficially-appealing way to smooth over dissent. You might perform some basic math showing how the status quo is unsustainable, or list out potential costs of delay, or assess when a decision has to be made in order to avoid bad consequences. Sometimes, doing nothing is indeed the best course of action, but too often it’s chosen because it’s easy and ruffles the fewest feathers. Slay that beast. 2. List out all the options. Make sure you include bad ones, too, because the point is to be comprehensive and not judgmental. If everything is on the table, then people can’t dispute whether something should or shouldn’t be included. 3. Last, for each option, list out “What You Need to Believe” for the option to be attractive. Get down to core assumptions that are related to discoverable facts. Some assumptions are so obvious that they can be either validated or invalidated by the group immediately – that’s good! Others will require research – that’s good too, because the research can be dispassionately objective. Now you’ve transformed the discussion from arguing positions into prioritizing facts to be researched. That’s a different, much more objective debate to have. Plus, you’ve established the basis for resolving disagreements as the facts come in. You’ve resolved both whether to make a decision and how that decision will be made.

"No complaining without solutions.” Great for junior employees. For executives, it’s catastrophic. Alan Mulally confronted this at Ford. In his weekly Business Plan Reviews, every metric was green while the company hemorrhaged $17 billion. Finally, Mark Fields showed a red slide—the new Edge had a suspension problem halting production. The room held its breath. Everyone expected Fields to be fired. Instead, Mulally clapped. "Mark, that's great visibility. Who can help Mark with this?" The room exhaled. Ideas poured in. They solved it together. The next week, every slide was "splattered with more red than a crime scene." Ford turned around. Almost every executive meeting I’ve observed works this way. Functional leaders sharing victories. BU heads reporting progress. Everyone demonstrating their competence. Everyone avoiding the problems they haven't solved yet. It's Arnold's rule on steroids: Don't just avoid complaining—only discuss what you've already handled. Your executive meetings shouldn't be status updates on solved problems. That's what email is for. It should be your smartest people tackling what none of them can solve alone: → "Revenue's soft in the Midwest and I don't know why" → "Customer churn is up but the data's conflicting" → "Our competitors just did something I don't understand" These aren't complaints. They're invitations to think together. How do you break the pattern? 1. Role model vulnerability. Be the first to show red. Your courage gives others permission. 2. Celebrate the brave. When someone admits they need help, thank them publicly—like Mulally's applause for Fields. 3. Enlist your stars. Get your most respected team members to go first. Everyone already knows they’re competent. Ask yourself: What percentage of your executive meeting is people reporting wins versus wrestling with unsolved problems? If it's mostly wins, you're wasting the most expensive brains in the building. And if you can't get your team there alone, that's what facilitators like me are for. Sometimes you need an outsider to reset the room. Image credit: James Huang

2 — Solving Goal & Priority Misalignment with Is/Is Not + Perspective Circle.  SOLVING THINGS with SYSTEMS THINKING (STwST) — a series of mini, real-world applications of DSRP. When a team says, “We’re working hard but not pulling in the same direction,” it’s usually not a motivation problem. And it’s rarely a communication problem. It’s a distinction + perspective problem. Different people are carrying different mental pictures of what the goal is and is not, and different perspectives on what actually counts as a priority. So even when everyone uses the same words, they’re not aiming at the same thing. They might be reading the same page but interpreting it differently. Two simple thinking moves fix this. The first is an Is / Is Not list. Take the goal and the priorities and make them explicit: what this goal is, what it is not; what matters now, and what does not. This forces clarity where assumptions usually hide. The second is a Perspective Circle. You don’t need everyone to think the same way—but you do need everyone looking at the same picture. Different roles, levels, and functions can keep their own viewpoints, as long as they’re all anchored to the same shared view. Then keep that shared model on the table. Revisit it at the start of meetings. Use it when tradeoffs show up. Let people argue with it, stress-test it, and refine it. Don’t laminate it. Put it to work. Alignment doesn’t come from hearing the right words once. It comes from people rebuilding their own internal picture until it matches the shared one. When that happens, language cleans up, decisions get faster, resources line up, and the friction fades—because action always follows the mental model. If you listen carefully, misalignment announces itself in sentences that shouldn’t exist if the goal were truly shared. Those sentences are the signal. #STwST #SystemsThinking #CabreraLabPodcast #SystemsThinkingStandardsInstitute

For over 20 years, I’ve coached Fortune 500 CEOs. Along the way, I’ve sat in thousands of meetings, boardrooms, off-sites, and virtual calls that should have been emails. Here’s what I’ve learned: most meetings fail before they even start. Not because people aren’t smart or the agenda is wrong. Because the collaboration happens in the wrong place. Here are four shifts that will transform how your team meets. 1. Move the debate before the meeting. The best teams don’t show up to learn and debate for the first time. They show up having already been briefed and weighed in asynchronously, in shared documents, with real thinking on the table. The meeting becomes a decision room. 2. Shrink the room. Not everyone needs to be there. If someone’s contribution is already captured in the pre-work, free them. Smaller rooms move faster. They also talk more honestly. 3. Assign dissent. Consensus is comfortable, but it’s also dangerous. The highest-performing teams I’ve coached assign the team to provide challenges. Not to be difficult, but to make the final decision stronger. 4. End with commitments, not summaries. Most meetings end with a recap of what was said. That’s useless. End with who owns what and by when. Clarity beats closure. If you do these four things, your meetings won’t just feel better. They’ll actually produce results.

Most organisations are trying to solve the wrong meeting problem. They shorten meetings. Cancel recurring meetings. Tighten agendas. Cut attendance lists. All useful. But a shorter meeting that still goes nowhere has not solved anything. One CFO I worked with had the authority, the data, and the right ideas - but kept getting sidelined in the same meeting every fortnight. The breakthrough did not come from better slides. It came from better preparation. Before the next meeting, he researched every person in the room. What were they struggling with? What decisions were they under pressure to make? What would make their quarter easier? He walked in and spoke to their problems, not just his agenda. The result? They asked him to roll out his program across the other seven entities in the group. Same person. Same room. Different preparation. This is the piece most meeting reform misses. Yes, reduce the number of meetings. Yes, make them shorter. Yes, cancel the ones nobody needs. But if people walk into the room without understanding what matters to the people across the table, the meeting is still likely to fail. It is not just a productivity issue. It is an influence issue. Before your next important meeting, prepare the people, not just the agenda. That is where buy-in begins.

Are You Solving the Right Problem? As leaders & professionals, we're often under pressure to act quickly when challenges arise. Our instinct—or perhaps muscle memory—is to dive straight into solution mode. But over the years, I've found that one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is: Are we solving the right problem? Consider the hybrid workforce. Organizations often roll out solutions like employee engagement activities, gift cards, virtual celebrations, enforcing video-on policies during calls, or hosting virtual team-building sessions. While these seem like good ideas, they may serve as quick fixes that don't address the real issue. So, what's the actual problem? ❓Is it a lack of engagement? ❓A drop in productivity? ❓Struggles with team cohesiveness? ❓Or could it be something deeper, like communication barriers? ❓Disconnect between leadership and employees? ❓Or even more fundamental issues like trust and culture? Getting to the heart of the problem is crucial. 🛠️ 3 Steps to Identify the Right Problem: Observe and Listen: Start by carefully observing the symptoms. What are the visible signs that something's not working? Gather data and listen to feedback from your team. This will help you understand the nature of the issue. Ask Deep Questions: Go beyond surface-level explanations. Use techniques like the "5 Whys" to dig into the root causes. If engagement is low, ask why—several times over—to uncover the core issue. The real problem often lies beneath the symptoms. Understand the Context: Consider the broader organizational environment, team dynamics, and culture. What seems like an issue in one area might be a symptom of a deeper problem elsewhere. Context is critical to accurate diagnosis. Once the right problem is identified, solving it effectively requires careful consideration. 💡 3 Considerations When Solving the Problem: Engage Multiple Perspectives: Involve diverse voices from across the organization. Different perspectives can reveal angles you might miss and lead to more robust solutions. Collaboration ensures broader acceptance and better outcomes. Resist the Quick Fix: It's tempting to go for quick solutions, but they often only address symptoms. Focus on sustainable solutions that tackle the root cause. This may take more time, but the long-term benefits are worth it. Reflect and Iterate: After implementing a solution, reflect on its impact. Did it address the problem effectively? Be prepared to iterate and adjust as needed. Continuous improvement is essential for long-term success. The most successful leaders don't just jump to solutions—they take the time to define the problem accurately. By doing so, they create a foundation for meaningful, lasting change. So, before you dive into solving what seems like an urgent issue, ask yourself: Am I truly solving the right problem? #Leadership #OrganizationalDevelopment #ProblemSolving #HybridWorkforce #Culture

If the decision meeting is "exciting," I failed. I used to treat project reviews like courtroom dramas. Surprise evidence. Heated debates. Last-minute persuasion. It was exciting. It was also a disaster. I’ve learned that if you are hearing a key stakeholder’s major objection for the first time when everyone is already seated... You have lost control of the room. I’ve realized that "Drama" is usually just a synonym for "Lack of Preparation." So now, I aim for "Boring." Before any high-stakes review or Go/No-Go decision, I run a shadow campaign to ensure the meeting is a tool for Resolution, not Discovery. 1. I don't wait for the deck to be perfect. I take the "ugly," half-finished skeleton to key stakeholders individually. "Here is where the data points. What part of this makes you uncomfortable?" Result: We identify the landmines while they are still easy to move. 2. I make a deal with anyone who disagrees: "You don't have to agree with the recommendation right now, but you will not be surprised by it in the room." We define the gap before the meeting starts. Result: We don't waste time arguing about the facts; we focus on the trade-offs. So, why have the meeting at all? We aren't meeting to find out what people think. We know that. We're meeting to bridge the gap between known positions. We're meeting to leverage the collective brainpower to solve the final 10% of the problem. By the time we start: The shocks are gone. The emotions are managed. We focus on the solution. The meeting becomes a boring, highly efficient engine for consensus. Boring is efficient. Boring is scalable. Boring is professional. Save the drama for Netflix. Keep it out of your project reviews. – I share actionable frameworks and real-world stories for tech leaders. 👉 Follow me, Rony Rozen, to get them in your feed.

Making progress on controversial problems Have you been pulled into a problem where everyone has an opinion, no one agrees, and no one has an actual solution? Like “Should we pivot this big ongoing project that the CEO isn’t convinced about?” My early attempts to tackle these didn't go great. I’d end up presenting a cautious solution to my boss’s boss’s, while another exec vocally disagreed.  Fun, right? 🙂  I needed a process that helped me stay calm, make progress, and get back to focusing on customer impact. What worked:    1. Understand where we are in the problem-solving process.  Most problems are like a universe — they expand in size and complexity with every new piece of information, then contract as potential solutions get eliminated. That gives me a roadmap. If I’m still hearing new information, it’s too early to propose answers. If I’m hearing repetitive info, time to consider solutions. Just naming where I am helps me stay grounded. 2. Use documents to get specific and share context.  Writing down facts and assumptions surfaces obvious questions, like “Is the main goal user experience, or perception?”  It can feel remedial, but that’s how I know everyone agrees on the core info.  It also means we can separate gathering information from jumping into solutions, which saves hours in real-time meetings.  3. Over-communicate the process and status.  For big problems, everyone wants to know what's happening and how to help. A regular update solves that: “This week I’m talking with X, Y, and Z;  Monday I'll share a recommendation draft;  Wednesday I'll share with leaders A, B, and C;  please share feedback by Tuesday.”  If I get inbound questions, I can just respond with the existing written process. 4. Ask questions even if they're embarrassing.  For crucial info, like “actually, who is the most important audience for this?”, I find someone safe, ask directly, and write the answer in my list of facts.  Usually someone else is missing that context too.  5. Write an opinionated recommendation.  My core proposal includes: - Summary:  problem statement & recommendation - Information learned:  facts v. assumptions (both are important) - Goals and decision criteria  - Options & pros / cons for each - Why this recommendation - Next steps if the recommendation is agreed on, including mitigating risks - Discussion of recommendation & other options Real-time discussions are more effective because everyone has the same info. 6. Don’t hold out for a perfect solution.  If a problem is controversial, by definition there’s no clear solution.   That gives me permission to propose my imperfect solution.   This process, simple as it is, has helped me tackle even the hardest problems.  And it’s helped me figure out how to diagnose and manage disagreements rationally, so even when everyone disagrees, we can figure out what it takes to make progress.  (For regular updates + the doodle, check out amivora.substack.com!)

Problem-Solving Is a Verb, Not a Noun In many organizations, problem-solving is treated like a concept — something you learn in a training or list on a resume. But real impact doesn’t come from knowing about problem-solving. It comes from doing it. Problem-solving is a verb. It lives in action — not in decks, dashboards, or laminated posters. Visual Management: Built to Solve, Not to Admire Tier boards, KPIs, hour-by-hour charts — they exist for one reason: To make problems visible, solvable, and preventable. They’re not there to color-code your way to green before the site director walks by. If your board looks perfect but no one’s solving anything, it’s decoration — not management. Tier Meetings: Where Problem-Solving Culture Starts Tier 1 meetings should solve 80% of problems — right at the source, by the people doing the work. If every issue escalates to Tier 3 or CI, you don’t have a tier system — you have a fire drill. Simple tools like 5-Why, checksheets, and immediate containment should be the norm, not the exception. Pareto to Prioritize. 8-Step to Solve. Here’s how high-performing teams operate: 1. Use Pareto to identify the top recurring issues. 2. Apply 8-Step Problem Solving only to those — not every squeaky wheel. Use 8-Step for: • Cross-functional or cross-shift issues • Customer complaints or audit findings • Safety or compliance risks • Anything that keeps coming back Don’t waste 8-Step rigor on one-off hiccups. Use your data to pick the right battles. Tier Meeting Power Questions To shift from reporting to solving, ask: • “What problem did we actually solve yesterday?” • “Is this a one-time issue or a trend?” • “What’s the real root cause — not just the symptom?” • “Who owns the countermeasure?” • “How will we know it worked?” • “If it comes back tomorrow, what’s our next move?” And the one that cuts through the noise: “Are we solving the problem — or just passing it along?” Making Tier Meetings Matter • Let the gap drive the conversation — not the metric. • Push ownership to the lowest responsible level. • Build visual triggers that demand action, not just updates. • If it hits Tier 3, require full 8-Step rigor. • Celebrate fixes, not just escalations. Final Thought Pareto helps you focus. 8-Step helps you go deep. Tier meetings give you rhythm. But none of it matters unless someone takes action. Because no board, no chart, no meeting has ever solved a problem on its own. Problem-solving is a verb. It starts at Tier 1. #continuousimprovement #lean #leadership