“We must notfocus on just theproblem, since wewill also need tomaximize the goodsystem for thesolution”.

Page 10 Communiqué Issue 3, 2011 Jan

I would like to share my firsttraining experience with Toastmas-ters. I was lucky to attend the train-ing conducted by Division-E of Dis-trict 79. The module “ImprovingYour Management Skills” waspresented by Cyril Anand, CL,(Senior Sales Manager—QtelBusiness Solutions). The modulewas a brief description on the follow-ing. Is management an art or a science? Why manage when you can lead? How to imply the problem solving

methods?The problem solving method dis-cussed was known as “APOLLO”A - ASSIGN talented, capable, ex-perienced, effective people to leadtasks and projects. We must havetrained and responsible people or wewill jeopardize any endeavor.P - PREPARE for the inevitableproblems that can occur with yourequipment and processes and oh! yes,even with people. After all, we knowthat “Stuff Happens”. And whetherflying through outer space or officespace, every endeavor will experiencetwo classes of problems to preparefor:

Normal, ANTICIPAED problemsdue to the ordinary expectedsituations or the systemswhich have failed in the past.We should have already de-veloped, documented andtrained with specific proce-dures and solutions.

New, UN-ANTICIPATED situa-tions or system failures whichhave never come up beforeand for which there is no spe-

cific solution prepared yet.O - OUTCOME . When any problemcomes up, we must define the desiredfinal outcome, “If you don’t knowwhere you are going, you might end upsome place else” – Yogi Berra Quoted.The are three outcomes to problems:L - LESSON LEARNED. Learningfrom previous failures and know weak-nesses are very valuable. They help de-velop more effective process & identifyresources to prevent or handle re-occurrences.L - LIMITATION. To be able to solveproblems, we must know the existingsystems. But also the limitations ofthose systems.O – OBSERVATION. Once a problemcomes up, Don’t Act. Stop and Pay At-tention! The details are very impor-tant. Sherlock Holmes never developed“theories” until he had investigated allof the data.

Accurate, detailed and completeObservation is one of the mostimportant aspects of the prob-lem solving method and the onemost ignored. Many people willjump to conclusions from lim-ited, incidental or misleadingdata and this lead to wrong ac-tions.

We must observe all symptomsand ultimate consequencesof the failed system but also theGood system that are remain-ing. We must not focus on justthe problem, since we will alsoneed to maximize the good sys-tem for the solution.

TM Risman Hatibi

Problem Solving MethodToastmasters’ Training