45
Brainstorm Possible Problem Causes

In today’s global business environment, the luxury of sitting around a table to discuss and solve a problem is often geographically unrealistic. If you have team members in different locations, but are keen to use the group dynamic to solve problems, you can start by using the power of e-mail to brainstorm the possible causes of a problem.

The first step is to determine the group of individuals who should participate in the problem-solving process. It’s best to select people who have a hands-on relationship with the problem and/or have useful knowledge to contribute. Once the group is selected (between four and 10 people works best), publish a simple, clear description of the problem and send it to all team members.

Explain in your message that this is a brainstorming process, and encourage everyone to write down as many causes as they see fit. For those concerned about getting to solutions, let them know that these potential causes will be evaluated and whittled down in the next step. For example:

Subject: Donut Problem
From: Howard Uno
Date: Oct 6
To: Donut Team

Dear Team:

I would like to get your input regarding a problem that we’ve all been experiencing: A serious shortage of donuts every morning. Before we go about trying to solve this problem, I’d like to find out from each of you what you believe are the causes of this problem. I am open to hearing all of your ideas, so don’t hold back. Please write down your thoughts and get them to me before noon on Wednesday. I will send you a list of what the group came up with on Monday morning. Please keep in mind that the purpose of this first step is to brainstorm causes, not evaluate them. We will do that later. Just as a reminder, brainstorming is a technique designed to get as many different ideas as possible generated about a specific subject. The goal here is to throw on the table whatever you think may be a contributing factor to our pastry problem.

Thanks,

Howie