Stop Spiraling Meetings Today
I have been growing frustrated at meetings.
In meetings, conversations seem to spiral into incoherence. It’s unintuitive how a team that is supposed to be heading in the same direction are across so many different pages.
But such is the nature of business. What I have found to work when competing agendas pull at each other is begin with a clearly defined problem statement.
What is a problem statement?
A problem statement is about purpose. It defines the core reason for a teams’ or meetings’ existence.
The value of a problem statement
A clear problem statement means that everyone in the conversation is focused on solving the same problems.*
*Common sense, I’ve come to realise is not so common.
Elements of a problem statement
- What is the problem?
Clearly stating the problem you are looking to solve means keeping solutions in scope and iterating becomes easier. #agile
- Who has the problem?
This is where your customer personas come in.
James the early adopter doesn’t have the same problems as Jill the technologically inept.
Writing a problem statement
Clearly defining a problem is harder than it looks. How do you begin to write a problem statement?
American linguist S. I Hayakawa created the concept of the “ladder of abstraction” in his 1939 book Language in Action. This concept of abstract laddering has been adapted as a framework through which public speakers should refine their speeches.
Effective speakers “climb up and down the ladder of abstraction” says Roy Peter Clark in Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer.The ladder of abstraction can be useful in cross functional discussions about business. It helps stakeholders move up and down the ladder to understand if solutions (which are more concrete and sit closer to the bottom of the ladder) fit the overarching problem the team has been assembled to solve.
Imagine this, you have account management teams at odds with sales teams because the latter promises the world that the former has to bend over backwards to deliver. This means your cost to serve is higher than anticipated and the margin you’re making diminishes.
In a meeting which pulls together sales, revenue and account management, each stakeholder will have solutions that benefit their agendas. When working to clearly define the problem statement in this case, you would start with a solution i.e. create pre-packaged bundles of product and / or service.
Now sales of course hates this idea. Pre-packaged bundles? Customers don’t want pre-packaged bundles. They want customised solutions that fit the problems they’re looking to solve.
And the downward spiral begins.
Abstract laddering means that you take this statement and work backwards. Why pre-packaged bundles? What does this solve towards? And in direct opposition, what do custom solutions solve towards?
Once these solutions have been abstracted it becomes an easier to align stakeholders behind the cause for their gathering. It also allows us to quickly point towards flaws in logic and prioritise initiatives.
If the business had been growth focused, this exercise would help the team identify that the root of the problem lay in balancing profitability and growth. Which is a far more worthwhile conversation as compared to the pre-packaged bundles VS custom solutions debate.
Introducing problem statements in meetings
When’s the best time to introduce a problem statement? When you’re about to start a meeting about an initiative. Or better yet, even before you propose an initiative, start with a clearly defined problem statement.
Make it a core of the discussion and encourage stakeholders to buy into and agree on the problem your team has been assembled to solve.
White-board it, if that’s what your company is into. Or put it in agendas. Return to it after tangential discussions.
In conclusion
Take action! Try the problem statement framework at your next brainstorm/ workshop/ ideation session and see how it structures discussion.
Let me know in the comments how this framework has worked for you.