During an evening last week Teresa and I participated in, what has become, an anticipated annual event. A young man, formerly from our neighborhood, stopped by our home on his regular summer pilgrimage back to his hometown. A Business Logistics major at Penn State University, Andrew will soon begin his senior year. In addition to the educational and social experiences he has gained while living the college life, he has spent some time as an intern in several businesses.
Listening to Andrew tell of his adventures, it is easy to feel his excitement about the future. Though, like many others, he is concerned about the economy and his potential employment opportunities. Andrew is optimistic though, and says he wants to work for a big conglomerate where he can use his education to the fullest.
One of his biggest life lessons came this summer as he interned for a Pennsylvania food bank. Through Penn State’s internship program, students, like Andrew, have the opportunity to put book-learning to the test. The food bank had requested help, so Andrew’s team has been building databases and logistics systems to streamline the process of getting food to those who need it.
The two things that stand out from Andrew’s food bank experience are not what you might think. Formulas and analysis were not prominent in this daily activities.
1 -Defining the problem
The team wanted to “jump in” and solve the food bank’s PROBLEM. But, pretty quickly, they discovered that they didn’t know what problem to solve. When interviewing the employees, it became apparent that there was more than one problem and the scope of the problems were not easily defined. There was little data. So before the team could begin solving the problem, they needed to define the problem.
2 – Information Sharing
The team needed to know how the systems currently worked. To do this, they interviewed several longtime employees. In the interview process, they discovered that there was some resistance from the employees to sharing the knowledge. Those with the knowledge seemed very possessive of it and were not willing to share. Whether it was a job security issue or just pride in being the “go-to guy”, Andrew wasn’t sure why they were so reluctant.
The “Real” Problems
I mentioned to Andrew that these two obstacles are more typical of the “real world” problem solving that he will encounter. The sophisticated models and analysis that he has learned at Penn State will likely be part of his future, but that his career success will likely depend on how he manages the “soft-skill” people problems. The other thought that we discussed was that solving the wrong problem is not much better than NOT solving the right problem.
What are the “basics”?
People create problems
We need to define the problems and we need data to do that
Show people the data and let the data speak for itself
Be respectful of the people, and the people will help solve the problems
Advertisement
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
I don’t believe it always comes down to being as simple as wanting to be the ” The go to guy ” I found in my career it took me years & I came in early stayed late for nothing went to school , training & paid attention & many of thousands of dollars of my own money to buy tools with , then they expected us to teach others what we worked years learning , let them lose & carry off that money while these guys didn’t even give a rats behind about the opportunity .