Consulting
Never Panic!
Panic is not a good problem-solving tool, regardless of your position or role. It is especially bad when you are in charge of people or brought in for your expertise. Panic leads to a myopic view of the problem, hindering creativity.
The point in my career when this became readily apparent was when I was working for a small software company. We had a new product (Warehouse Management System) and were launching our third deployment. This one was more complicated than the rest because it was for a pharmaceutical company. In addition to requirements like refrigeration and lot control, there was a mix of FDA-controlled items requiring various forms of auditing and security and storage areas significantly smaller than previous installations. It was a challenge, to be sure.
A critical component, “Location Search,” failed during this implementation. About 10-12 people were in the “war room” when my boss, the VP of Development, began to panic. He was extremely talented and normally did an excellent job, but his reaction negatively affected the others in the room. The mood quickly worsened.
I jumped in and took over because I did not want to be stuck there all weekend and mostly because I wanted this implementation to succeed. I asked my boss to go out and get a bunch of pizzas. Next, I organized a short meeting to review what we knew and what was different from our prior tests and asked for speculation about the root cause of this problem. The team came up with two potential causes and one potential workaround. Everyone was organized into three teams, and we began attacking each item independently and in parallel.
We identified the root cause, which led to an ideal fix a few days later and a workaround that allowed us to finish the user acceptance testing and go live the following day. A change in mindset fostered the collaboration and problem-solving needed to move forward.
But this isn’t just limited to groups. I was a consultant at a large insurance company on a team redesigning their Risk Management system. We were using new software and wanted to be sure that the proper environment variables were set during the Unix login process for this new system. I volunteered to create an external function executed as part of the login process. Trying to maintain clean code, I had an “exit” at the end of the function. It worked well during testing, but once it was placed into production, the function immediately logged people out as they attempted to log into the system.
As you can imagine, I had a sinking feeling in my gut. How could I have missed this? This was a newer system deployed just for this risk management application, so no other privileged users were logged in at the time. Then, I remembered reading about a Unix “worm” that used FTP to infiltrate systems. The article stated that FTP bypassed the standard login process. This allowed me to FTP into the system and then delete the offending function. In less than 5 minutes, everything was back to normal.
A related lesson learned was to make key people aware of what happened, noting that the problem had been resolved and that there was no lasting damage. Hiding mistakes kills careers. Then, we created a “Lessons Learned” log, with this as the first entry, to foster the idea of sharing mistakes to avoid them in the future. Understanding that mistakes can happen to anyone is a good way to get people to plan better and keep them from panicking when problems occur.
Staying calm and focused on resolving the problem is a much better approach than worrying about blame and the implications of those actions. And most people appreciate the honesty.
As the novelist James Lane Allen stated, “Adversity does not build character; it reveals it.”
Understanding the Real Issue using Root Cause Analysis
Too often people, including Consultants, spend time trying to solve the wrong problem due to having incomplete or incorrect information. Once, I was investigating a series of performance problems and unplanned outages that were assumed to be two separate problems. As I gathered information, several people provided anecdotal stories of anomalous behaviors in various systems, speculation about the “real problem,” and discussions about “chasing ghosts” during previous attempts to resolve the problem.
I remember stating that I was there to solve a real problem having a serious negative impact on production and that it was not my intent to chase ghosts or do anything else that would unnecessarily waste time. Next, I outlined the approach I would use to make a Root Cause determination and that we would reconvene to discuss the real problem and potential solutions. A few people scoffed and felt this was a waste of time and money.
The process followed was simple, structured, and logical. It took everything that was known to be true and mapped it out. I looked for patterns, commonalities, and intersections of systems and events. Within two days, my team and I had identified a complex root cause involving multiple components, which we demonstrated would reliably reproduce the symptoms that our client was experiencing. From there, we worked with their teams to make minor network changes, system configuration changes, and several small application changes.
By the end of the second week, they were no longer experiencing major slowdowns or unplanned outages. Each outage cost this company tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales due to the time-sensitive nature of their product. Within one week, they had recovered the cost of hiring me and my team. What stuck with us was how many really smart people “believed in ghosts” and failed to focus on the information they already had.
A few years later, we created a white paper to potentially help others needing a simple structured approach. Below is a link to that white paper written by one of the top people on my team. We received very positive feedback then, so it seemed that this could still be useful today. Please take a look and let me know what you think.
Using Themes for Enhanced Problem Solving
Thematic Analysis is a powerful qualitative approach used by many consultants. It involves identifying patterns and themes to better understand how and why something happened, which provides the context for other quantitative analyses. It can also be utilized when developing strategies and tactics due to its “cause and effect” nature.
Typical analysis tends to be event-based. Something happened that was unexpected. Some type of triggering or compelling event is sought to either stop something from happening or to make something happen. With enough of the right data, you may be able to identify patterns, which can help predict what will happen next based on past events. This data-based understanding may be simplistic or incomplete, but often it is sufficient.
But people are creatures of habit. If you can identify and understand those habits and place them within the context of a specific environment that includes interactions with others, you may be able to identify patterns within the patterns. Those themes can be much better indicators of what may or may not happen than the data itself. They become better predictors of things to come and can help identify more effective strategies and tactics to achieve your goals.
This approach requires that a person view an event (desired or historical) from various perspectives to help understand:
- Things that are accidental but predictable because of human nature.
- Things that are predictable based on other events and interactions.
- Things that are the logical consequence of a series of events and outcomes.
Aside from the practical implications of this approach, I find it fascinating relative to AI and Predictive Analysis.
For example, you can monitor data and activities proactively by understanding the recurring themes and triggers. That is actionable intelligence that can be automated and incorporated into a larger system. Machine Learning and Deep Learning can analyze tremendous volumes of data from various sources in real-time.
Combine that with Semantic Analysis, which is challenging due to the complexity of taxonomies and ontologies. Now, that system more accurately understands what is happening to make accurate predictions. Add in spatial and temporal data such as IoT, metadata from photographs, etc., and you should be able to view something as though you were very high up – providing the ability to “see” what is on the path ahead. It is obviously not that simple, but it is exciting.
From a practical perspective, keeping these thoughts in mind will help you see details others have missed. That makes for better analysis, better strategies, and better execution.
Who wouldn’t want that?
Perspective and Expectations Establish your Starting Point
We may have seen the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now I am seeing more and more articles about the “New Normal” and “Next Normal.” Interestingly enough, I have also been seeing a few articles over the past two weeks about this being an opportunity. Once the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (aka “FUD”) began to diminish, people finally began to look for a silver lining.
Fear is a powerful demotivator, so I find it interesting that some managers and executives use it to help achieve their goals. There may be short-term gains, but the long-term effects can be devastating. In times of chaos (real or perceived), one of the best things that a leader can do is be genuine and concerned for the welfare of their team, communicate in an honest and timely manner, and display confidence as a way to help shift emotions from a negative state towards a positive state. Fear holds you and your team back.
What I find interesting is that two months ago, I posted about this unfortunate time being an opportunity – something that led to several negative comments at the time. Three weeks ago, I posted about changes coming as part of the “New Normal.” I believe this is simply insight coming into play, which is one reason why Consultants, great Salespeople, and new Executives can often add immediate value to an organization.
As an aside, diversity of backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, expertise, and opinions lead to various perspectives- fostering creativity. The best team-building practice is finding people whose strengths help cover your weaknesses.
So, perspective and expectations determine where you begin and not where you will end. The benefit of having a better starting point is that you should be in a much better position to win. The best part is that you can teach yourself to become better at identifying different perspectives. You may find it much easier to understand the big picture of whatever problem you face with that new skill.
From time to time, we are all faced with situations that we know will suck. Avoidance may be an option, but it usually isn’t the best option. The military has a saying, “Embrace the Suck,” that essentially boils down to “just deal with it.” Focusing on “the gain” (rather than “the suck”), identifying the small wins along the way, and visualizing success is part of the process that I have personally found helpful to maintaining a positive attitude and an open mind. This simple process helps balance optimism with realism and, most importantly, creates high expectations.
So, what are your thoughts? Do you want to lead or follow? There is nothing wrong with following, especially when contributing to the team’s success. Perspective and Expectations are two tools that can help in any role.
Innovation, Optimization, and Business Continuity
Originally posted on LinkedIn.com/in/chipn
Recently I read that the U.S. is experiencing a significant jump in unemployment claims. Much of that is understandable given the recent decline in many businesses, concerns about how long this crisis may last, and the need to protect ongoing viability by business owners and executives. But, in the near future, business activity will resume, and it will be very important that businesses maintain a business pipeline and retain qualified staff to deliver their products and services.
Now could be the ideal time to challenge your team to focus on improving your business. Look at business processes and identify:
- What works well today? Are you able to identify what makes it work so well? Simplicity, automation, and lack of friction are typical attributes of effective and efficient systems and processes that positively impact any business.
- What could be improved and why? Specific examples and real data will help quantify the impact and support prioritizing follow-up activities.
- What is missing today?
- Good ideas have likely been raised in the past, so why not revisit them?
- What are competitors or businesses in other segments doing that could be helpful?
- Brainstorm and consider something completely new that could help your business.
- Start a list, describe the needs and benefits, provide specific examples, and then estimate each idea’s potential impact and time to value.
- Take the ideas with the greatest promise and estimate the cost, people/skills needed, and other dependencies to see how they stack up.
Something else to consider is the creation or updating of Business Continuity Plans. Now is a perfect time – while everything is fresh in the minds of your team. Not only will this help in the future, but there could also be several useful ideas for the coming weeks.
For example, do you have sufficient documentation for someone who is not an expert in your business to take over with a relatively small ramp-up time? How will you maintain quality and control of those processes? Are your plans stored in a repository that is accessible yet secure outside of your organization? Do you have the processes and tools to collect documentation and feedback on things that did not work as documented or could be improved? Are your Risk Management plans and mitigation procedures up-to-date and adequate?
Investing in your business during this slowdown could have many benefits, including maintaining employee morale, enhancing employee and customer loyalty, retaining employees and their expertise and skills, and increasing sustainability and long-term growth potential.
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