Hello!

Hope everyone is staying warm, because it's darned cold in Georgia right now. I just completed chapter 3 of my book on problem solving. This chapter is titled "Understanding the Process" and it covers exactly what you'd expect it to. I would love to hear your wise feedback and guidance.

Warm regards,
Craig

Good job, Craig! Thanks for sharing. When do you think the book will be done?

Craig,

My progress has been very slow. Not because it's a difficult topic, but because I got tired of writing. I think I've got some momentum now, though. Hopefully by the middle of 2009 it will be ready. Thanks for taking a look at the chapter. I'm also going to try to weave a case study throughout the book, illustrating each of the problem solving steps in action.

Craig C.

As usual, another good start from your expertise Craig. It looks good. The case studies, what specifically are you asking for here?

Corey,

Thanks for taking a look at it, my friend. The case studies are something I will have to develop. What I had in mind was showing the application of the problem solving method with a real problem. As you know, the concepts sink in much deeper when they have actual examples attached to each one.

Craig

Craig,

I like it, as I have the other chapters.

Many thanks for sharing. :applause:

Sparky,

Thanks for your kind feedback. If you have any suggestions for how I could make this more effective, just let me know.

Stay warm,
Craig

Craig,

Thats really good! I'm pretty new to this site and can't find your other draft chapters. Any chance of a point in the right direction?

Phiobi,

The first two chapters are also here in the 'reading room' forum.

Here is chapter 1:
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=29599

And here is chapter 2:
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=28407

Craig

Hi Craig,
This is Garrison from China. I have read your several articles and learned a lot. Hope get more in future on your insights.
:agree::agree:

Garrison,

Thanks for your friendly message! It is nice to hear from you. I'm inspired to continue writing when I hear that somebody finds value in the output. Hopefully you will like the rest of the book.

Craig

Phiobi,

The first two chapters are also here in the 'reading room' forum.

Here is chapter 1:
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=29599

And here is chapter 2:
http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=28407

Craig

Thank you for the links. I look forward to reading them fully. Love the squirel story :-)

Hello!

Hope everyone is staying warm, because it's darned cold in Georgia right now. I just completed chapter 3 of my book on problem solving. This chapter is titled "Understanding the Process" and it covers exactly what you'd expect it to. I would love to hear your wise feedback and guidance.

Warm regards,
Craig
Craig,
Thanks for nice writting. The topic explain in natural & practical way.
Keep it up!
can you have other topics to share with us?
Warm regards,
Vijay

Phiobi,

The squirrel story is true, believe it or not. That only goes to show that there's a quality lesson just about anywhere you look.

Vijay,

Thanks for your gracious feedback. Yes, I will hopefully have more chapters to share soon. I appreciate your interest.

Very best regards,
Craig

Hi Greg
I've just get and be sure i will read it
I had read the chapter one and believe me i love your books. It is clear, and really i learned lot from you
Keep sharing, :agree:
:thanx:

Selena,

It's good to hear from you! Hope all is well in Morocco. I'm glad you like the material. With some luck, there should be another chapter available soon. Let me know if you can think of anything I should add or change.

Warm regards,
Craig

Thanks Graig
Every thing is okay. we got a lot of rain which is not usual in Morocco but what can i say, we get also our part of pollution :(.
I will catch you surely if i get something and all your writting is always wilkomen :agree1:

Craig:

Depending on the complexity of the case studies you are considering, you have a pretty good pool of experience here in the Cove! There may be some people who are willing to discuss their own organization's problems and how these issues were resolved. It would be even further proof of your problem-solving process if the steps they used aligned with the steps you're outlining!

An appendix in the back detailing problems from various industries, fields and sectors would demonstrate that the problem-solving approach can be used for any application.

Of course, it goes without saying that there are potentially some confidentiality issues to consider. A brief description of the organization and its problem, along with how the problem was resolved would be all that is needed...no names or organizational details required.

However, at the end of it all, you may have some wonderful examples of problem-solving that use different tools (e.g., storyboard templates, simple forms, complex databases, etc.) but all aiming to get to the root-cause and resolve the real issue and not just the symptoms.

Craig,

I've now read through the 3 chapters - congratulations, and good stuff.

I don't have a lot to add to what has already been posted, other than to agree with Roxanne that I really like to see some summaries & tables at times. Yes, I know it's 'all in the text' but it really does help either to prepare people for what's coming and/or to reinforce the main points. Where you put them of course is up to you ultimately, because it's your book.

Re. the number of people you suggest as a minimum/maximum (4 - 8) - I do think that this shows a strong bias toward a larger organisation (although you may not agree with me). I'm not sure that many of the smaller organisations could field that number of people, and would be (perhaps) a bit taken aback to consider 4 the absolute minimum, and particularly since in smaller orgs multiple people often wear multiple hats. You might (re)consider whether 3 could work.

Who is your target audience? I wasn't always quite sure.

Finally, I read through asking myself: if I were the owner/GM/QM etc of a service organisation, can I see any evidence in here of things that acknowledge the existence of problems in a service organisation - such as examples? My answer was: No. Not at all. Every single example I looked at appeared to focus solely on product and the making (or whatever) of physical stuff.

Now, you may be perfectly fine with that, and in fact, have that as your focus. And I don't mean to suggest that what's in there isn't helpful in a general way, and the principles can certainly be applied. But I think you could reach a wider audience (assuming you want to) if you offered something to service and not just manufacturing/product.

For example, there are people in the non-profit sector who could do with all the help they can get on problem solving!

So, can I suggest you either make it clear upfront (if it's focussed on that) or if not, at least include some examples from the service side of things?

But these are really only minor criticisms - excellent stuff.

Roxane,

Your advice is right on target. My hope is to have an appendix after each chapter, providing at least 1 example of the chapter's concepts in actual use. The ideal scenario would to have 2 examples: 1 from a service organization and 1 from a manufacturer. And these could definitely come from the Cove.

I will put together a package of tools that the book will make reference to, and ask people to run through the method using the tools. Another option that I'm still pondering is to make myself available at not cost (other than travel expenses) to facilitate an onsite session of my problem solving course, with the condition that I can use the output as part of the appendices of the book.

Jane,

Thanks for checking out what exists so far. Yes, I badly need real examples. No matter how good an explanation is provided, showing a concept in use is much better. Your point about the 4-8 team members is a good one. My experience has been that rich and dynamic interaction of people usually starts with around 4 people. Of course rich and dynamic interaction could just as easily start with 2 people, but becomes more likely with around 4. If the organization is small, this might not be an option, though. I'll make sure I qualify the recommendation.

I'll also try to keep a strong focus on service providers in the book. For some odd reason, I seem to always revert back to a manufacturing mindset, no matter how hard I try to be broad and universal. The practical examples, if chosen well, will help illustrate the use of the problem solving method in a non-manufacturing environment. The bottom line is that the method works well in ANY environment that uses processes to acheive an outcome. (It does not work well in political environments driven by ideology and few real processes.) I like your idea of incorporating a non-profit example.

Thank you both for your wise guidance, Roxane and Jane. I much appreciate it a lot.

Warm regards,
Craig

My experience has been that rich and dynamic interaction of people usually starts with around 4 people. Of course rich and dynamic interaction could just as easily start with 2 people, but becomes more likely with around 4. If the organization is small, this might not be an option, though. I'll make sure I qualify the recommendation.

I agree with you to a large extent - but you're right, it isn't always an option. 'Twould be wonderful if it were, but 'taint. Though I'm sure all the people whose sole experience is in organisations of 300+ (if not 3000+!) will fall about laughing at the idea of not being able to field 4 people.... And I'd hate for people who need this kind of information available at low cost (and what is more low cost than a book?) to be turned off.

Re. service providers, I think we all have a tendency to revert to a manufacturing mindset. ('revert back' hey - tut! :lol:). I use mf examples myself at times, because they are nice and 'concrete'.

But again, service firms need help too - as you say, any environment that uses processes, which is most organisations. (I'll leave political ones & ideology to the 'controversial topics' forum.) My experience is that people scrabble around for service examples and usually fall back on a 'restaurant' scenario which isn't a good one in my opinion - I've haven't seen any restaurants with certification.

I will have a think if there are any examples I can supply, but problem for me (as I'm sure you'd understand) is that I can't release information about clients and must protect their confidentiality. We all have plenty of information about service failures - the issue is finding examples of where problems were effectively solved.

I'm aware I mixed up a few different chapters in my response to this thread (thanks for your tolerance). Some of the many things I liked in this particular chapter (Understanding Process) were:

your focus on understanding the process first and then asking why?
explanation of why 5 Whys doesn't always work (things aren't always linear, even though engineers would like them to be!)
guidelines on how (eg, flowcharting, types of people you need, time required)
highlighting importance of the facilitator - how many sessions go off track without a good one of these?


Keep up the good work, Craig.

Jane,

I would love to see any problem solving examples you can share, as I bet you have some good ones. Yes, all names must be changed to protect and shroud the guilty. I have a few problem solving courses coming up at companies, and I'm hoping to be able to use some examples from the group outputs in those. None of them are with restaurants, so I'll be able to avoid that paradigm. I wish I could apply the problem solving method to the Baxley, GA, plant that produced the poisonous peanut butter in the US. What an incredible failure of management.

Thank you for highlighting some aspects you liked. You and I think much alike. Maybe I can make it to Melbourne sometime. You line up a client and the beers are on me.

Warm regards,
Craig

Hi Cove
:applause:Graig for the chapters. its are really good and give overview of all steps. and the ideas to make instances from real situations.

I don't know what do you thing about this, but what do you think to use the solving problems cartoons. I will tell you, i get this idea, and i seek in the internet and i find it
It can resolve the issue of confidentiality.
Regards

Selena,

I love your idea of cartoons. That would certainly grab people's attention! I'll start working on that angle right away. Thanks for your inspiration.

But here's an important question: If you were a cartoon character, who would it be? My me, it would have to be Buggs Bunny.

Craig

Welcome Craig
When i suggested cartoons, i was thinking of the kind of cartoons which is used by, in instance, the HSE matters. I saw several time cartoons talking about how it is important to use gloves during working in manufacturing; and which kind of accident we can get in case of the use of its is just neglected. I'm sure that you see what i'm talking about.
But if we want to use famous one; as buggs bunny and Cie;
The idea is to use the ones who covey, by themselves; one message; idea...etc in instance, gadget inspector is for inverstigation; Tom Sawyer is for silly :lmao: ...etc. To use of course just one set of persons in the same company which can cover all the samples that you want to show is sound nice in my opinion.

By the way, i wanted to ask you if the childdren can be the audience that you target, I like the idea to establish the Quality matters in the mind of children since early in order to implement it. :yes:.

Regards

Selena,

Ah, I understand what you're talking about. That's a very good idea. I was also hoping to take a few photographs of groups working together at one of my upcoming problem solving courses. And of course include some of their team output.

Thanks for your great suggestions,
Craig

Welcome Craig
good luck on your book :agree1: