Problem Solving Tool - Step 6: Tapping your Inner Medieval Salesperson [Matt Schlegel]

After a much too brief summer break, I pick up where I left off. In the last blog I wrote about Step 5, creating a plan to solve your team’s big problem. This step I affectionately referred to as “The Path of Least Danger.” Now that your team has constructed the path, it is time to start the journey down that path, right? Well, not quite yet. Your core, problem-solving team may be revved up and ready to charge down that path, but the wider group of stakeholders may not be there, yet. At this point, it is time to bring the wider group of stakeholders, including the executive sponsors, up to that same level of enthusiasm. It is time to sell your plan.

Folks in sales will understand this phase of the problem-solving process very well. When facilitating problem-solving groups at this phase, I recommend that the team create a presentation that tells a story. The first part of that story sets the stage: you remind your stakeholders of the pain that they are experiencing because of their very big problem. To make this more dramatic, let’s call the problem “the Dragon.” Then, you introduce your heroes, the highly credible team of talented folks that want to slay the Dragon. You may want to share some examples of havoc wreaked by the Dragon, and some stories of early, unsuccessful attempts to slay the Dragon. Then, you will want to share the insight that your heroes had that exposed the path to the Dragon’s weakness. Finally, your story will explain the careful preparation that the heroes have made to march down that path and destroy the Dragon once and for all. And, there you stop.

What do you think that your executive sponsor/decision maker will do at this point? In my experience, having facilitated this process over a dozen times, the response is unequivocally – Go Slay That Dragon! I have found that all reasonable requests for resources - people, capital and cash – are made available for the Dragon Slaying Quest. Also, there is a strong sense of empathy about the shared problem and anticipation of a world in which the Dragon is eliminated. That anticipation is infectious – certainly the executive sponsors feel it. Also, the broader organization will eagerly support our heroes in their quest. That wide-spread support is certainly important since killing this Dragon will not be easy and will require everyone’s cooperation.

I may have stretched the Dragon metaphor to the limits here, but I think it does highlight the important step of having the team get direct permission from the executive sponsors to proceed with expending company resources to solve the big problem. The manner in which this is done is very similar to a sales process. I recommend that the team enlist the help of an enthusiastic, people-oriented salesperson-type to assist the team in both creating and telling your compelling story. With that permission, we then arrive at Step 7 in which you solve your problem. I will describe this step in the next blog.



Growing up, Matt Schlegel was much more interested in riding dragons than slaying them and fondly recalls reading the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.