You’ve figured out the root cause of a problem, or at least you think you have. The next step to fixing that problem is to consider solutions, or “countermeasures,” as Professor Mohamed Saleh prefers to call them, “because I’m not really sure if it’s going to work or not yet.”
The conundrum is that a good team may generate hundreds of solid ideas to resolve an issue. How do you choose which one to pursue?
In this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, podcast co-hosts Saleh and John Dyer discuss how to funnel that portfolio of ideas into a logical, select few. Among the tools Saleh mentions is the impact effort grid, also called a PICK (possible, implement, challenge or consider, and kibosh) chart, which evaluates ideas based on payoff and degree of difficulty.
From Dyer: “Another one that I really love to use, because it takes a lot of the emotion out of it, is utilizing selection criteria. So basically, even before the brainstorming takes place, and this may be something that you do with the sponsor of the team or the leader of the team, is to list out what are all the considerations the team needs to think about when selecting the final solution.”
The options don’t end there. The co-hosts wrap up this episode with a discussion about risk and introduce another tool: failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), which “is an easier tool to use than the name implies,” Dyer says.
