How to Identify Preventable Problems
So, the problem you address is a problem experienced by your market. It helps if you have experienced the problem too because that shows you understand it. However, the problem must be owned by your market. In today’s post I shall discuss some early questions about preventable problems in the Circuit Questionnaire.
Is this a problem that occurs at a specific point in time?
This question asks whether the problem is acute or chronic.
Acute problems happen at a specific time and usually have a clear cause. Everything was going well until something happened that triggered the current problem. Sometimes, removing the cause will help solve the problem. However, it is not always possible to remove the cause and the challenge is to make changes in response to it.
A chronic problem has been around for some time with no clear cause. There may have been a cause a long time ago but the problem has become a state a being. Here the reason for the problem may be internal; the person experiencing it will need to make changes to tackle it.
Acute and chronic problems are not all that different. Most problems have characteristics of both. So, an acute problem triggered by an event may be no problem at all for one person and an insurmountable obstacle for another. You can point to the cause and know the day and hour when the problem kicked in but the issue is really how the person responded to it.
Sometimes the cause is a presenting problem, there is another deeper issue. If someone comes to you seeking removal of a presenting problem, is it your job to do as they ask or probe a bit deeper?
Some businesses deal with the immediate problem. They are not offering to diagnose deeper problems; they specialise, it’s what they do. So, a pest exterminator exterminates pests. If someone approaches citizens’ advice and asks for help with mice infestation, is their job to help them find a suitable contractor, probe a bit deeper or both?
Or is it something that it is worth preventing before it happens?
This question implies potential customers may not be aware of the problem. This is a problem health services face all the time. How do you persuade people to make changes to their lifestyles on the grounds that such changes will prevent problems in the future?
Eating these and similar foods may cause type 2 diabetes in the future. Whose problem is this? ArtsyBee / Pixabay
What is the problem here? The problem you are going to prevent in the future, may well be your problem. A health service faced with increasing numbers of patients with diabetes may seek to persuade patients to change their lifestyles to reduce the numbers requiring treatment in the future. Whose problem is that?
If I have an unhealthy lifestyle, it is a problem for me but I won’t necessarily see it that way. The challenge is how to market the message “your lifestyle is unhealthy and it is in your best interests to do something about it”.
My unhealthy lifestyle is a chronic problem and the challenge is to do something about it before it becomes acute. Once it becomes acute, I may have an incentive but it may also be too late. The task is an educational campaign that shows me the immediate value of doing something about my unhealthy lifestyle.
Is your problem preventable?
Even if the problem is worth preventing before it happens, there is still a question whether it is preventable. The consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle may be preventable, if action leads to changes in my lifestyle now. Once I develop the acute problem there may be no cure.
So, are you trying to prevent people developing the problem, helping people with the problem resolve it or offering palliative care to those stuck with it?
So, you might offer a service that supports people in demanding roles, so that they can review their work and anticipate likely problems. You may support people in demanding roles, who have a problem and need help resolving it. You may support people who were in a demanding role, crashed and burned and now need to rebuild their career.
Is it worth investing to prevent?
People fail. They make a mess of things all the time. The challenge is to learn from the experience, pick yourself up and start over. Without failure we would not encounter experienced people who have learned how to handle failure.
People in challenging positions sometimes think they were set up to fail. Perhaps a malevolent manager put them there deliberately to fail. But actually, many people learn from their mistakes.
So, when is it worth investing in prevention? Obviously where someone’s health is at stake, it may be worth taking precautionary methods. However, one of the things people who face problems learn is the value of making space to reflect and be aware of the situation they are in. They may undertake coaching not because they don’t feel competent but because they are competent.
Experienced people know they need help.
Is this a problem that the proposition prevents before it happens, or solves after it happens?
You can see this is an important issue. If your market is professional people, you may be seeking people who want to prepare themselves for problems through your services. They are confident they can solve their own problems and so they are not seeking a consultant who can solve problems for them.
If someone has a problem and needs help resolving it, they may have less experience and need help with their approach to problem solving. It may be they need some specific expertise they can’t find in-house and if that is what you offer, that’s fine.
But let’s assume you are a website designer. Someone’s website is not bringing in the business they were expecting. How do you know the problem is with the website? It could equally be a problem in the customer’s organisation. If it is, your work on the website will make little difference.
Your ability to dig deeper and seek the really causes of problems is crucial, whatever business you are in. Find out what the real problem is and be prepared to make a referral if it is something you cannot address. Solving the immediate problem without addressing the reason for the problem may do your business little good.
Can you remember when you solved a problem but did not address its cause? What happened?