Working my way through a book on the implementation of “Lean” called “Manage to learn” an interesting book that further evolves the textbook as a story genre started by Eliyahu Goldratt’s best selling book “The Goal” originally published back in the early eighties, I saw the list of questions reproduced below.
The book itself is about the learning how to use A3 method of problem solving and teaching that has come out of Toyota and is very useful, but it struck me that the list is a generic list of sensible questions that should be asked in a wide range of circumstances where solving a problem is the task at hand.
1. What is the problem or issue?
2. Who owns the problem?
3. What are the root causes of the problem?
4. What are some possible countermeasures?
5. How will you decide which countermeasures to propose?
6. How will you get agreement from everyone concerned?
7. What is your implementation plan—who, what, when, where, how?
8. How will you know if your countermeasures work?
9. What follow-up issues can you anticipate? What problems may occur
during implementation?
10. How will you capture and share the learning?
Answer all these, and the path will be very clear.
