PROBLEM-SOLVING DIFFICULTIES

Sometimes problem-solving efforts face difficulties. These barriers can be avoided with cooperation and planning.

• Are you using the 8GPS problem-solving process, or something similar?

• Do the team members have the technical skills needed to solve the problem?

• Do all team members participate effectively?

• Has management allocated enough time and resources to support the problem-solving effort?

• Have you described the problem correctly?

• Have you completed each step before proceeding to the next one? (It is especially important to verify root causes and the effectiveness of the solution before taking further steps.)

• Have you found the root causes of the problem, or are you focusing on a symptom?

• Have you made permanent corrections to avoid the problem?

• Does the team have the authority to make "change"?

• Is the change doable?

A final point about the problem-solving techniques and, more generally , about everything that has to do with calculations and plotting. In this day and age, most, if not all, calculations and plotting are done by computers. To be sure, the computer is fast and precise, but it also is dumb. The human mind, on the other hand, is comparatively slow and inaccurate but also smart. This is because the mind's power for critical and inductive reasoning is much greater than the power of the computer's, which for the time being is very miniscule. Mind and machine therefore should each contribute what it does best, and data analysis as well as interpretation should be organized so that such cooperation is encouraged.

Therefore, as a data analyst, use the data (some people call it "massaging the data," whereas others have called the process "fondling the data"). Both the data and the outcome of the data must be mulled over. The analyst's imagination , intuition, subject matter knowledge, and experience MUST interact.