160: The 5-Step Strategy For Solving Problems, with Michael “Coop” Cooper
Coaching for Leaders
Dave Stachowiak
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2014
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael “Coop” Cooper: Innovators + Influencers
Do you feel like you are playing whack-a-mole, constantly putting out fires in your organization? Are others and you clear on the real reason for most problems? In this conversation, I welcome Michael “Coop” Cooper from Innovators + Influencers to share a 5-step strategy that will help you define problems so it’s clear what to do next.
1. Describe the situation
- There’s a lot of information in the situation that people don’t talk about.
- This does not have to take as long as most people think it does.
2. Draft a problem statement
- The problem we’re trying to solve is…
- Find the simplest statement possible.
3. Ask “Why is that a problem?” (REPEAT)
- Be aware of the thud factor and the pause.
4. Is this the real problem?
- Involve someone else
5. Is this problem worth solving?
- Will it save you time or money?
- Will it make your company/department more competitive/productive?
- Will this solution make your work or life easier in the long-run?
- Does this solution or solving this problem actually align with your company goals?
“If I were given an hour to save the world, I’d spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it.” -Albert Einstein
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Do you clear on the playing whack-a-mole constantly putting out fires in your organization? |
| 0:05.4 | Are others and you clear on the real reason behind most problems? |
| 0:11.4 | Today a proven five-step strategy that will help you define problems so it's |
| 0:17.1 | clear what to do next. This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 160. |
| 0:22.1 | Produced by Innovate Learning. for Leaders, Episode 160. |
| 0:23.0 | Produced by Innovate Learning, |
| 0:25.4 | Maximizing Human Potential. |
| 0:28.4 | Greetings from Orange County, California. This is coaching for leaders and I'm your |
| 0:36.3 | host Dave Stahophiac. This is a weekly coaching show to help us all be better leaders through improved communication, |
| 0:45.8 | human relations, and personal leadership. |
| 0:49.7 | Welcome back to the ongoing conversation we have here every week on how we can be more effective |
| 0:57.0 | as a leader for not only our organizations and for the people we work with but also for our own careers too. |
| 1:04.8 | And I am really glad you've joined us today because we're going to talk strategy today and strategy |
| 1:11.8 | is a topic that is an important one for leaders and |
| 1:16.7 | strategy is also sometimes the things that can get us into trouble if we don't |
| 1:21.2 | approach it in the best possible way. |
| 1:24.0 | And one piece of every strategy is thinking through how we are solving problems and are the |
| 1:30.5 | problems that are on our plate, problems that are worth tackling. |
| 1:35.4 | And I'm so glad that I have with me today someone who has done a lot of thinking, |
| 1:41.6 | coaching, training, facilitating leaders around this and that is Michael |
| 1:46.4 | Coop Cooper. He goes by Coop. And Michael is an executive coach, trainer, and facilitator. |
| 1:53.0 | He is, his organization is named innovators and influencers. |
... |
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