Expecting your team – or any particular employee – to be expert problem-solvers can lead to errors, missteps, frustrations, and finger-pointing. Instead, it is useful to engage the entire team in problem-solving. This can start by asking three questions:
- What do you recommend? Encourage people to come to the discussion with a hypothesis. Take time to brainstorm, but ask everyone to come back with possible solutions at a later date. Let your team know that you trust them and have confidence in their ability to problem-solve.
- How can we test that? Walk ideas through scenarios to ‘road test’ them; discuss potential costs and risks.
- What do you need from me? Consider obstacles that the team will face as they contemplate ideas. Try to be supportive as possible, with money, a testing environment, access to teammates or experts, etc.
Your team won’t have all the answers, but they can be the best source of solutions for many problems. At the same time, when people who have good ideas aren’t allowed to contribute, they can become disengaged and unmotivated. At a time when staffing is short and people are more stressed than ever, engaging staff in problem-solving can boost morale, confidence, and loyalty.
