Hi ,
"Ah, people asking questions,
Lost in confusion.
Well, I tell them there's no problem,
Only solutions."
- "Watching the Wheels" by John Lennon
If you've been in the workforce long enough, you've undoubtedly had a manager tell
you, at some point, something along the lines of:
"Don't come to me with problems. I only want to hear solutions."
The implication being that you should learn to solve your problems for yourself.
This is sound advice, if the problems are your own. But what if the problem you've identified is one that affects the entire business?
Trying to solve a business problem in isolation, using
only the skills at your disposal, is likely to lead to sub-optimal results.
And if the problem affects the entire business, shouldn't management want to know about it, anyway?
Perhaps a
better approach would be for management to flip this message on its head and instruct staff to do the exact opposite.
For example:
"Your job is to actively seek out business problems - the bigger the better. And when you do identify such
problems, let me know, so I can support you in solving this problem, and making the business a better place."
As anyone who's ever worked with data science frameworks, such as CRISP-DM, knows, the first step in developing a data solution (or any solution, for that matter) is identifying and understanding the business
problem you're trying to solve.
And that's best done with the support and advice of management and other key stakeholders.
Yes, the ultimate goal should always be to find a solution. But
that's rarely done by working alone.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
