How can executive teams ensure all voices are heard during problem-solving?

Ensuring that everyone on the executive team has a deep understanding of the problem is critical. Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Using Design Thinking at the executive level can radically speed up the act of team understanding. It encourages everyone to share their views, making problem understanding richer. It also creates a environment of listening and understanding, which is key for including everyone in problem-solving. The collaborative nature of Design Thinking ensures that understanding the problem is a shared effort, using the diverse thoughts and experiences of the team.

In my opinion, fostering inclusivity in problem definition demands a meticulous approach. 🔍 Prioritize an evidence-based stance, grounding discussions in concrete data. 📊 Discourage unchecked assumptions; every assertion must stand up to current data. 🗣️ Cultivate an environment where challenging the problem statement is welcomed, enriching clarity through diverse perspectives. 🌀 Recognize that problem definitions evolve; regular reassessments ensure alignment with changing insights. 💡 In essence, a comprehensive problem definition is achieved not just by common understanding, but by continuous validation, openness to diverse viewpoints, and flexibility to evolve.

Along with defining a clear problem statement- have active examples and scenarios occurring in the business. It’s effective to address any elephants in the room. Employees will appreciate that their concerns or the problem brought to light is indeed what they are experiencing.

The most important element of defining the problem is ensuring there is a clear understanding of the desired outcome. It is critical to EXPRESS where we want to be and why. Then you can analyze what problems you have encountered. Without expressing where you want to be, you might end up solving for the wrong problem. Express + Engage + Execute is why Leaders succeed.

Immersive design thinking workshops are the way to facilitate this. The predefined structure of design thinking workshops naturally lays down the ground rules for communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making, thus removing any ambiguity and enabling a focused, constructive discussion. This allows teams to dive into problem-solving with clear minds and defined roles, making the process more effective and inclusive. One thing that is critical is defining who is the Decision Maker. When faced with multiple viable solutions or in the absence of consensus, having a clear decision-maker moves the conversation forward, keeping the session goal-oriented.

One method I’ve recently deployed amongst my team, is an added governance for responding. Along with dedicated roles, the facilitator reads or states issue. The governed response strategy is each person in order will state or say their comment for 1/2 min. If there is no comment or statement they will actively say pass. This allows the room to get a comment or understand of each contributor views. The second round will ask to add new commentary or questions to the first list of responses. You will find more participation but a very directed conversation. Example: 5 people in room Problem stated Person 1- comment Person 2 -comment Person 3-5-pass Round2 Person 1-3,5 pass Person 4-comment directed at person 1’s initial statement Etc

If you want to support diversity and inclusivity in problem-solving, you have to use methods that cater to individual communication and collaboration styles. Not everyone collaborates the same. This is especially important to support neurodiversity. Utilizing visual tools like mind maps, affinity diagrams, or fishbone diagrams helps those who process information visually. On the other hand, structured discussions or voting systems can support those who excel in verbal communication. The beauty of design thinking lies in its flexibility and emphasis on empathy, which promotes understanding and accommodation of different styles. This also nurtures a culture where all voices are valued, fostering more innovative exploration of solutions.

Absolutely love this answer! Yes, bring in 3D diagrams, bring in whiteboards. BE CREATIVE. You’ll be surprised how effective this method can be. Sometimes it takes more props to get the root of everyone’s voice heard or demonstrated.

A style that I have found to be particularly effective is for all the participants to submit their insights independently either before hand or during the initial phase of the session. Post that, spending some time reading through all the submissions before starting the discussion ensures that everyone is heard. This helps avoid bias and only hearing the loudest voice in the room.

The most innovative teams build continuous feedback and learning into every part of their organization...especially in the C suite. Ensuring a culture of open feedback is about creating a safe space where individuals feel comfortable sharing their opinions, disagreements and concerns. Techniques like iterative testing and prototyping are instrumental in fostering this culture as they inherently require feedback to refine solutions. The essence of feedback here isn't about criticism, but about collectively striving towards a more refined solution. By encouraging a feedback-rich environment, you're not only refining solutions but also empowering your executive team to bring their best ideas and their opinions and learn continuously.

Way before you implement a solution, when you are still in the process of understanding the problem, you should also be identifying what success looks like and how you are going to measure it. This forward-thinking approach ensures that once a solution is rolled out, you have clear metrics to evaluate its effectiveness. Design thinking encourages this mindset from the get-go, urging teams to define success criteria during the problem understanding phase. After implementation, it is more than just gauging effectiveness, but creating an environment of ongoing learning, reinforcing that problem-solving doesn’t end with implementation, but evolves through continuous analysis and learning, driving towards refined, better outcomes.

When deciding what to monitor, apart from the successful outcome metrics, it is important to also monitor input / process metrics that give an early indication, and guardrail metrics that safeguard against risk.

Depending on a situation, of course, but there is one app that removes group thinking and bias by anonymizing responses, allowing to vote the best and brightest and bubbling it up Called #Balloon