Solving Problems

Construction is a complicated process that requires repeated and skillful problem solving. Your ability to solve problems will have a significant effect on your success as a foreman. Problem solving is a skill — and like most skills, it can be learned, and you can expect to improve your skill with practice and experience.

Problem solving is part of a foreman’s everyday life, and some days it will seem like the incoming problems are arriving from several directions all at once. You’ll find it helpful to sort problems into four categories:

• Minor people-centered problems: requests that you can handle quickly according to acceptable practices. Occasionally you might make an exception to the standard rules, especially if your crew’s overall performance isn’t likely to suffer and the exception doesn’t affect others working on the project. But make sure you know how much actual authority (or slack) you have to make exceptions.
• Minor job-centered problems: minor adjustments that need to be made to equipment, layout, work methods, your Look Ahead Schedule. The budget isn’t significantly affected, and minimum time and effort is required.
• Major people-centered problems: a hostile employee; coordination difficulties with other crews and subcontractors; a crew whose craft skills just aren’t up to the requirements of the job. Much time may be required to solve major people-centered problems.
• Major job-centered problems: safety or quality issues, major changes that need to be made to your budget and/or Look Ahead Schedule, problems involving other crafts and crews or people not at the jobsite.

When to deal with problems? When a problem arises, or a mistake happens, or your crew’s results fall short of planned targets, you, as foreman, must take immediate corrective action to get back on track — as soon as you become aware of the situation.

Solving major problems — whether people-centered or job-centered — requires time and a systematic, 8-step procedure.

1. Identify the Real Problem — which may be concealed by various symptoms of the problem. Symptoms may be noisy distractions or simply the “tip of an iceberg” that brought a problem into view. You can’t find the right answer until you identify and ask the right questions — and isolate the Real Problem. Step 1 is the most critical step in this process.
2. Gather data about the Real Problem and review the way you’ve defined it. Talk to your crew and others who are close to the work.
3. Analyze the data and information.
4. Discuss your observations and conclusions with others.
5. Identify possible solutions and their costs and benefits.
6. Choose an action by selecting one of the possible solutions.
7. Implement the solution and communicate it to everyone affected.
8. Follow up to see if the solution actually solved the Real Problem— if not, start again at Step 1. Step 8 is the 2nd most critical step.

Plus…when you’re writing up a report, sending an email, or talking in a meeting, you can use these 8-steps as an outline for planning and presenting your definition of a problem or opportunity, your analysis, and your recommended action.

The people you need to say “yes” will appreciate your clear message, and it will keep you from overlooking some key aspect of the situation – or chasing a symptom.

Remember: Always keep your supervisor informed about major problems — and your progress toward putting solutions in place.

A word of caution

It’s tempting to short-cut the process by jumping to Step 5. It looks and feels decisive to spot a problem and — Bam! — hit it with a solution. But if you skip over Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, or Step 4, you run the risk that your quick solution is an illusion — that you’ve only dealt with a symptom. Worse yet, you may not realize this until the process finally reaches Step 8 — and then only if your feedback is strong — and you listen to it.

Then it’s back to Step 1 to do it right. But there’s often a penalty for this kind of short-circuit approach: some solutions that may have been effective at the beginning are no longer available. And, of course, the problem has continued to fester, and its effect has continued to undercut your crew’s performance — affecting safety, quality, the budget, and/or the schedule. Affecting your performance. Do it right the first time.

Step. By. Step.

Starting. With. Step 1.

If your follow-up at Step 8 shows the solution you chose didn’t solve the Real Problem, don’t be tempted to go back to Step 6 and chose among your original runner-up solutions. Go back to Step 1 and review your analysis of the Real Problem. That’s probably where you got off track. Confirm that you’ve actually identified the Real Problem. Then move to Step 3.

A word about identifying the Real Problem

Step 1 is the most difficult step. It’s not easy to sort out the Real Problem from its symptoms. Here’s an Acid Test you can apply to determine whether you’ve identified the Real Problem:

• Where the situation is now — that’s Point A.
• Where you want the situation to be — that’s Point B.
• The Real Problem is that One Single Factor which, if you fixed it, would move the situation from Point A to Point B.
• If — after you deal with that One Single Factor — it looks like you’ll still fall short of Point B, then you know you fixed a symptom. You didn’t fix the Real Problem. Or the best you can do is to reduce or minimize it.
• To give it another shot, go back to Step 1. And don’t move on to Step 2 — to collect data and information — until you’re certain you’ve accurately identified that One Single Factor that’s the Real Problem.

Start and maintain a problem solving database

A smart foreman keeps a problem solving list — each day adding new items and crossing off problems he’s solved — creating a digital record on his laptop or tablet — with smartphone snapshots. A few problems will turn out to be repeaters, and a written history can be a valuable resource and time-saver. When you’re a foreman, here’s what your problem solving database could look like:

• Real Problems you identified — and the related symptoms you sorted out;
• your analysis and diagnosis of the Real Problem;
• all the solutions you put in place — and how each one worked out.
  • solutions you considered;
  • solutions you chose that worked — the results and why;
  • solutions you tried but didn’t work — the results and why — and what you did next;
• what you learned from this problem solving experience.

Summary

As a foreman, you’ll develop a good problem solving track record if you:

• keep a cool head;
• focus on identifying the Real Problem and persist until you’re sure you’ve isolated it from its symptoms;
• use your creativity to identify a wide range of potential solutions;
• choose the best solution and communicate it thoroughly to all who need to know — and confirm that they got the message;
• follow up vigorously to confirm that the Real Problem has been resolved — that your solution passed the Acid Test.

Problems are often noisy and attract attention. Sometimes that attention moves at warp speed and travels beyond your crew and the jobsite. Then the heat is on. But don’t let the drumbeat push you to skip to Step 6.

When you develop the reputation as a foreman who methodically analyzes problems, then takes decisive action to put effective solutions in place — most people will cut you some slack on your problem solving leadtime.

Solving problems — and avoiding them — will be one of your most important responsibilities as a foreman. In fact, once you become a foreman, your performance on the Four Fundamentals and your problem solving track record are the two items that will stand out on every future performance review and every future job interview.

Make a note on your calendar and your smartphone to review this Problem Solving topic a month from now. And again a week or two before your next performance review.

Stuff To Think About. Most people think of problem solving as a recovery activity that’s put into play when a problem interrupts The Plan — a reaction. But this 8-step model can have even greater impact on your crew’s performance if you use it before a problem arises.

Why wait? Pick out a potential problem & apply the 8 steps to it — starting, as always, with Step 1. See what sort of solutions and actions you come up with. Choose one and talk to your supervisor about trying it.

Of course, this pro-active approach lacks the urgency that the symptoms of a problem bring to a situation — which makes it easier to set aside because the heat’s always on to keep the schedule.

But a pro-active approach also avoids the direct and indirect costs that a problem brings — to the budget, to the schedule, and to the people affected.

BTW…this is exactly the way a first-rate safety program works: Avoid problems. Eliminate or remove problems. Minimize or reduce the effect of problems — all by taking action before a problem occurs. A solution that avoids a potential safety problem avoids the direct, indirect, and human costs of that problem — and the cost of putting a solution in place. A win-win.