p>Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote b

The meeting started like a hundred others before. There were five people sitting around the conference table, like they always did, trying to solve a problem that had popped up in the last few weeks. If you could watch and listen from another room you wouldn’t find major arguments or conflicts. These people had worked together before and from all outward appearances were pretty effective as a team.

After nearly an hour though, they seemed at a stalemate. People had begun to describe possible solutions to the problem and an agreement was no where to be found. The longer they talked, the more disagreement there seemed to be. Finally Susan, the newest member of the group, asked a na?ve question, “Are we all trying to solve the same problem here?”

They scoffed, both mentally and through their body language – and Tom, the old veteran of the team, spoke for everyone else when he said, “Of course we are solving the same problem. Where have you been for the last hour?” Since the meeting time was over, and people had other meetings to attend, they hastily scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon.

Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote ba

r conflicts. These people had worked together before and from all outward appearances were pretty effective as a team.

After nearly an hour though, they seemed at a stalemate. People had begun to describe possible solutions to the problem and an agreement was no where to be found. The longer they talked, the more disagreement there seemed to be. Finally Susan, the newest member of the group, asked a na?ve question, “Are we all trying to solve the same problem here?”

They scoffed, both mentally and through their body language – and Tom, the old veteran of the team, spoke for everyone else when he said, “Of course we are solving the same problem. Where have you been for the last hour?” Since the meeting time was over, and people had other meetings to attend, they hastily scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon.

Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote b

und. The longer they talked, the more disagreement there seemed to be. Finally Susan, the newest member of the group, asked a na?ve question, “Are we all trying to solve the same problem here?”

They scoffed, both mentally and through their body language – and Tom, the old veteran of the team, spoke for everyone else when he said, “Of course we are solving the same problem. Where have you been for the last hour?” Since the meeting time was over, and people had other meetings to attend, they hastily scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon.

Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote b

ran of the team, spoke for everyone else when he said, “Of course we are solving the same problem. Where have you been for the last hour?” Since the meeting time was over, and people had other meetings to attend, they hastily scheduled a continuation for later in the afternoon.

Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote b

p>Drew, the team leader, couldn’t get Susan’s question out of his mind though, and so after his next meeting he stopped by her desk. Since she wasn’t there, he went to his desk and dropped a quick email to learn why she asked that question.

When Susan got the email she wrote back saying that a mentor had taught her something about problem solving several years before and that as she watched the meeting progress the words she had learned kept coming up in her mind. Then she typed the phrases that she kept thinking about, phrases that had been burned into her mind by her mentor:

“Many problems go unsolved by groups because people aren’t working on the same problem.”

“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”

“What problem are you really trying to solve?”

She then explained she had been taught to always start problem solving by writing a problem statement and she through that experience had learned problems were typically solved much quicker. She closed by typing, “If we had started by writing a problem statement this morning, we would likely not need to meet again this afternoon.” As she re-read the note before clicking “send” she erased the last sentence.

As people arrived for the second meeting Drew was already there. On the flipchart he had written in red marker – “What is the problem we are trying to solve?”

He re-started the meeting by asking e