Solving the Problem with Problem Solving Meetings

This insightful post by Jonathan Levene, Leadership Coach and Facilitator at the Harvard Business School, gives team leads and managers the tools they need to cut through the clutter and get down to business.

At Project Evident, we often work with partners who have clear ideas of what they want to achieve, with team members who come to the table with very different perspectives on how to move from problem to solution.

As we engage with these partners, it is important for us to consider their perspectives and work with them to synthesize different thought processes in a way that makes sense to them, and helps them further their work.

Incorporating lessons learned by considering the thought processes of team members can lead to a greater group understanding of problems, and empower them to come up with more collaborative solutions.

Levene uses to the "Ladder of Inference" framework to describe how teams use their own past experiences to inform different points of reference to the available information, and form their own solutions to bring to the group. By tapping into the differences in thought processes, Levene posits that managers can empower their teams to become more effective problem solvers.

According to Levene, this ladder  "is an essential framework for understanding human reasoning, identifying opportunities, and keeping group reasoning on track. It is especially helpful when your challenge involves ambiguity or complexity."

Find it by clicking here.