THE TOOLKIT
The Issue
As professionals in the workplace, people are expected to decipher complex issues and communicating them in a clear, concise, solution-minded manner. This template helps you break down problems and issues, organize them into a logical framework, and communicate them in a structured, solution-oriented manner. There are six elements to this template with the top half outlining the problem and the bottom-half discussing the solution.
- Problem: First, communicate the problem, issue, or challenge as you see it. One of the ways to clearly communicate the problem is to answer the question, “What is wrong with what?”
- Cause: Then, provide at least one (but ideally no more than three) reasons for this problem. Providing too many causes gives off an impression of negativity and pessimism. Also, keep in mind, when it comes to the solution step, you must be able to solve for all of your causes.
- Impact: This is the “cause to action” step. Tell your audience why this issue is important, and why, if we don’t act, we will be in dire straits. As such, if you can communicate a loss of revenue, time, quality, morale, market position, or any other business driver, you will be that much more likely to get your listeners bought into your message. In addition, you can tailor the impact to your audience focusing on the items they care about most.
- Solution(s): You need to be able to answer the question, “What should we do about it?” Whether you believe it is your place or role to provide a solution, provide a recommendation or suggestion on how to solve the problem. When people present a problem without a solution, we risk coming across more as a problem-promoter as opposed to a problem-solver. In addition, your solution(s) should alleviate the causes you stated above in order to come across competent and credible.
- Implications: Solutions have advantages and disadvantages. For example, while we may be able to bring in a new system, it will cost money. Or, we can eliminate these errors, but it will require more time. Share the pros and cons to the solution(s) you are offering. This will demonstrate a broader, more comprehensive view of the situation. In addition, your advantages should outweigh your disadvantages to be more persuasive.
- Downside: State the disadvantages of the solution you are suggesting. For example, most of the time solutions require funding. Be clear about sharing these details. Share the investments required to achieve the solution. Remember, you are no longer talking about the problem or its causes, these should be disadvantages associated with implementing your solution. The recommendation is to start with the downside so you can end on the upside and move to next steps.
- Upside: Share all the advantages and benefits associated with the solution you suggest. This could be money, time, customer service, competitive edge, or any number of business drivers. Make sure your upside (advantages) outweighs your downside (disadvantages) to be more persuasive. If you notice your downside outweighs your upside, you may have a difficult time gaining buy-in.
- Action Steps: You can either offer action items to be taken in order to accomplish your solution, or you can ask for ideas from your audience on what they think are the first steps to move forward. If you can gain alignment on an action item to be taken within 24-48 hours, your message tends to resonate and stick more.
Objectives
People face issues and problems in the workplace everyday, and we get asked to report or update on them regularly. This communication template helps accoplish the following objectives:
- Structures your thoughts around complex problems.
- Organizes the salient and most important pieces of information when outlining issues.
- Provides a logical, cause and effect approach to sharing situations.
- Allows people to come across as broad-minded, strategic, and solution-focused when problem-solving.