Expressing problems is more important than discovering problems.

Why is expressing problems more important than discovering problems?
Before explaining this principle, let's look at a joke that has been around for a long time:
A gentleman has prepared a large number of banquets to help his four important guests. The banquet time has passed, three guests have arrived, and one has not yet arrived. So the host said to himself, "why not ?"
After hearing this, one of the guests thought, "I shouldn't have come yet ?" So I got up and quit.
The host regretted his mistake and said, "You shouldn't leave again." Another guest thought, "You shouldn't leave now. I should leave now, also leave.
When the master saw that he had left the two guests carelessly and regretted it, his wife complained that he could not speak, so he defended his wife and son: "I am not talking to them ".
When the last guest heard this, he thought, "It's not them! It was me, So I sighed and left.

This joke shows, Express your thoughts clearly and appropriately Is very important, If you are not good at expressing your feelings, you may do bad things. . There are also a lot of similar situations in problem management.
I was invited by the President of a large company to conduct research in various departments as chief problem officer. After half a month of research, I sorted out the problems I found, and systematic and organized. Then, I made a report at a meeting of managers at the middle level and above. After the presentation, I won unanimous applause and was also praised by the President.
However, afterwards, I heard from some employees that the problems I have mentioned are actually nothing special. They also know most of the problems, these problems have also been reported to the company's senior management through the company's suggestion box, President's e-mail, and coordination meetings, but the President does not want to listen, and I am a new employee, due to the influence of "external monks will read the scriptures", the President of the questions I mentioned can be heard, but the president of the original employees can't hear the questions.
Later, I discussed with the president and other senior management personnel in private why the problems previously reported by the employees did not attract the attention of senior management personnel, and the problems I spoke about caused the attention of senior management personnel, it is also recognized by senior management personnel. They agreed that the problems reported by employees in the past were scattered, with insufficient reasons and insufficient evidence, especially in the past, it often involves some inaccurate problems and obviously biased problems, so that even if the problems previously reflected by employees contain insights, it is difficult to recognize them. The problems I have reflected are comprehensive and objective, it is well-founded without prejudice or personal complaints. Therefore, it has been unanimously recognized by senior management personnel. Of course, most of these problems have been raised by different employees on different occasions.
From then on, I realized a new principle of problem management, that is:
Problem expression is more important than Problem Discovery. Only by expressing the problem appropriately can the Decision-Making layer, senior management personnel, and even opponents approve the problem.
(2) three-layer method and Three-Point Method
How can this problem be clearly expressed? Generally, The analysis of the cause of the problem should be refined or deepened at three levels, and each viewpoint must have about three (usually more than three) bases. . This can be called the three-layer method of problem expression and the three-point method.
If the problem expression goes deep into three layers and conforms to the three methods, you can think that the problem is clearly expressed. For example, the chief problem officer of an automobile company proposed: "the key problem in the new vehicle model marketing strategy is the low pricing ". This general conclusion is equivalent to a level 1 problem. To illustrate this problem, he proposed three reasons for Level 2:
(1) the price of this model is about 10 thousand yuan lower than that of other suppliers with similar configurations.
(2) The supply of this model is in short supply. On average, it takes two months for the customer to pick up the car after booking.
(3) Some dealers charge a-yuan expedited fee to customers eager to get the car
In order to make the above three reasons more adequate, it is necessary to go deep into the third level of the problem, that is, to provide further evidence or examples of the above reasons. According to the three principles, the company's chief problem officer gave examples to illustrate his above points.
In addition to the three-layer method and three-point method, we also try to achieve the following "six" in expression ":
> Simplify complicated problems

> Systematize scattered Problems

> Profound popularization of Theories

> Graphical display of numbers and text

> Deduction and induction

> Symbolic statements
Due to limited space, this book will no longer explain how to achieve the aforementioned "Six modernizations". Interested readers can read the second book in the "China's first problem management series" published by the Mechanical Industry Publishing club 《 Chief problem officer: senior corporate officials without "Privilege" .
Having mastered the above skills can greatly improve the problem expression ability and increase the possibility of your solution being accepted, but this does not mean that the decision makers can accept the questions you have expressed, in the presentation process, we also need to consider the people present, the habits of listening to people, recent key work of the company, and other factors.
I have previously put forward a point of view: "an unacceptable solution is a bad one ". There may be two situations when the program is not accepted, one is unreasonable, the other is reasonable, but the expression is not good. In either case, it can be considered as a bad solution.
Case. It can be accepted by decision makers only when issues are expressed in an appropriate manner, at an appropriate time, and on an appropriate basis.

In my later work, I repeatedly realized the importance of this principle in problem management. After some experienced problem managers finish writing the problem Mining Report or the first draft of the problem solution, I thought it was useless, so I asked them to modify it. After my modifications, there are also facts and opinions, but most of them are changes in the expression. Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality of the company's internal affairs, the comparison cases before and after these changes are not suitable for this book. However, can readers analyze the problem expressions in the following cases by themselves? Where are not appropriate?