[MUSIC PLAYING]
EDDIE KENNEDY: Hi, everyone.
Welcome to this live stream
on developing your problem
solving skills, hosted
by Grow with Google.
Grow with Google helps people
grow their skills, careers,
and businesses by offering free
digital training and tools.
I'll start by
introducing myself.
My name is Eddie Kennedy.
I am the Shopping and
Retail Lead at Google.
And I've been around the problem
solving and strategy space
for a long time.
It's something that I'm
particularly passionate about.
I know you didn't tune in today
to listen to my life story,
but I'll just tell
you a brief rundown
of where I've come from on my
journey on problem solving.
So I started my journey
as a PhD in engineering,
which I like to think of
as a five-year project.
And then, I spent many
years at General Electric
as a Six Sigma Lean Black Belt
and a former project manager.
And I've also become
certified in a number
of different problem solving
project management and strategy
frameworks like
PMP, Agile Certified
Practitioner, et cetera.
So suffice to say that I've been
around this space for a while,
and I'm really excited
to be sharing some
of my learnings with you today.
So we want this to be as
helpful for you as possible
and make sure that you're able
to post your questions directly
under this live stream
video on the Grow
with Google on-air site.
Our team will reply and answer
questions directly in the Q&A
shortly after the
virtual event completes.
If you would like to
access additional resources
for this class, click
on the Resources tab
at the top of the screen.
And additionally, you
will be able to access
a replay of this virtual
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by clicking the On
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And one final thing--
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on YouTube closed captioning.
To do so, click the closed
caption button directly
on the video player
on your screen.
So what I hope you will
get from this training is
a focus on your biggest business
challenges, set great goals,
understand where you're going
and what success looks like,
demystify strategy, and get a
simple way to create one that
works again and
again, and finally,
make a plan to execute
on your strategy
and solve your problem.
So why is problem
solving important?
Well, the World
Economic Forum in 2018
told us that the
three core skills
that we will need to
be successful in 2021--
complex problem solving,
critical thinking,
and creativity.
And you'll be glad to hear
that we'll be covering those
to some degree over the
course of this training
in the next hour or so.
So every problem in every
industry, in every country,
follows a similar
journey to get solved.
You start with defining the
problem or the opportunity.
And that is the why question.
The next thing you do is you
answer the what question.
So that means setting
objectives and key results,
or what does success look like?
Then comes the how question.
You create solution options,
which is the, what could we do?
And then you decide
on a strategy,
which is the what should we do?
After that comes making
a plan and executing it.
And that answers the who, the
when, and the where questions.
So this is a very
standard framework.
And I think that you may have
seen more complex frameworks
in your journey on
problem solving,
but this is one
that I have found
over the course of my career
to be highly effective.
It's simple, but it's flexible.
And I'm hoping you'll find it
just as effective as I have
over the course of my career.
So we always start with why.
And you might be saying,
Eddie, obviously you
start with defining the problem.
Let's move on to
the next section.
Well, before you do, let me just
share this one piece of insight
with you from my experience.
In my experience, this is the
number one gap that people have
when solving
problems effectively.
And it's the number
one cause for failure
that I've seen over the course
of my career, where it's
people not solving or not
defining the problem correctly
and not being clear on
what it is they're actually
trying to solve for.
Let me give you an example from
the early part of my career.
So when I was in my early
20s as a young engineer,
I joined General Electric
and I figured out
that machines I was responsible
for, I could improve
their productivity by 20%.
So I was really
happy about this.
And I thought I could do better.
So I spent the next six
months getting that number
from 20% to 30%.
And I was really
happy with myself.
So then I prepared this huge
presentation for our managing
director, and I
went him and I said,
you won't believe
what I've done.
I've just improved the
productivity of these machines
by 30%.
You know what he said to me?
He looked at me
confused and said,
I don't have a problem
with productivity
on those machines, Eddie.
What I need is to reduce the
cost of the raw materials.
So I realized at that
moment that I had not
defined the problem.
I thought it was a problem,
but it was a problem
that nobody cared about.
So I realized that I had spent
six months of my life working
on a problem that
nobody cared about.
I could have gone to this
framework straightaway
and said, wait a minute.
What is my problem and
who cares about it?
And it would have saved
myself a lot of work
and I would have been much
more productive in the company.
So before you think, let's
jump into execution mode,
just remember the story of Eddie
going to his managing director
and saying, I can improve
this productivity by 30%,
but unfortunately
it was a problem
that nobody cared about.
So we always start with why.
And the famous quote
from Albert Einstein,
"If I had an hour
to solve a problem,
I'd spend 55 minutes thinking
about the problem and five
minutes thinking
about the solution."
So a good problem statement
has a few key elements.
The first is that
it's quantifiable.
The second is that it's
important for your customers
and for your company.
And the third is that it's not
framed in terms of a solution.
So don't worry.
I'm going to step
you through each
of these three key
characteristics
in the next couple of slides.
So we quantify the problem
as much as possible,
and we'll also be as
specific as we can.
If you were to tell me that I've
got a big problem with quality,
if you then told me
that we were losing
$10 per year due to this quality
problem, I would probably said,
yeah, sure, who cares? $10.
Now, if you were to tell
me that we were losing
$10,000 a year because
of this problem,
well, now you've
got my interest.
So take this statement.
How could we make this more
quantifiable and specific?
Our online purchasing
process has too many steps.
Well, we could quantify that
by saying our online purchasing
process has too many steps.
It takes 14 clicks to
purchase a product versus four
for our main competitor.
So now that's giving us a
sense of scale of this problem
and it's something
that you can really
get people to care about and
avoid generalities like I have
in this first statement
on the left-hand side,
our online purchasing
process has too many steps.
So the second thing
is that your problem
needs to be important
for your company and/or
for your customers.
And a great way to figure
out whether your problem is
important or not is to
ask yourself, so what?
So if I take this statement
on the left-hand side,
our online purchasing
process has too many steps,
it takes 14 clicks to purchase
the product versus four
for our main competitor.
Now, as I explained
in the previous slide,
that's good because
it's quantifiable.
But it lacks a bit of a so what?
So what if I said to
you, sure, but we only
do 5% of our business
through our website.
What about the 95%
of our business
that's not through our website?
So how could we add a so
what to this statement?
Well, how about our
online purchasing process
is too many steps.
It takes 14 clicks to
purchase a product versus 4
for our main competitor.
Now, what if I added 50% of our
sales are through our website,
and we have a 60% abandon
rate in the purchase process,
resulting in us losing up
to 30% of our total revenue
opportunity?
Now, I'm pretty sure if you
presented that to your boss,
they would say, we need
to solve this problem.
So let's take it from our
online purchasing process has
too many steps to we are losing
up to 30% of our total revenue
opportunity.
And that is the power of a
good problem statement that
is quantifiable and it's
important for your customers
and for your company.
So the third key element
of a good problem statement
is that it's not framed
around a solution.
And I can't emphasize
this one enough.
And I know that this
sounds very obvious,
but I really want you
to challenge yourself
the next time you feel like
you're falling into this trap.
So you'll oftentimes
see a problem statement
that you or a colleague
thinks is a problem,
but it's really their way of
expressing their solution.
So for example,
the problem here is
that we haven't implemented
that new customer relationship
management system
that I recommended.
Now, that sounds like a problem,
but it's actually a solution
because what this
person is saying
is that their solution is to
implement this new customer
relationship management
system that I recommend.
So let's take another example.
The problem is that
we need to hire a web
designer for our team.
Again, it sounds like a problem,
but it's not really a problem.
It's actually a solution.
And this person is
suggesting that we
should hire a web designer.
Now, if our problem
statement is that we
need to improve our
website, well, then, there
may be multiple
other options for how
we would solve that problem.
Maybe we need to hire
an external vendor
and pay them to revamp our
website rather than hiring
a full-time person who
will be on our books
for the next number of years.
So the problem with framing
a problem around a solution
is that you miss
some opportunity
to find a potentially better
solution, as we'll see later.
You miss that
critical opportunity
to do, first of all,
expansive thinking
and then reductive thinking
to settle on a good idea.
So why don't you
try this yourself?
So think of a project that
you're currently working on.
How would you describe
the problem statement?
And remember, it needs
to be quantifiable,
important for your customers
and for your company,
and not framed in
terms of a solution.
So why don't you give
it a go yourself?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So now that we've defined
what our problem is,
our next step is to set
objectives and key results.
This is what you
want to achieve.
And a great way of thinking
about this part of the program
is saying, what does
success look like?
And you might have heard about
objectives and key results
before.
It's a core part of how
Google sets our strategy.
And I do want to tell you
that it sounds simple,
but this is a very effective
and very difficult to get right.
And in fact, there
are a number of books
that you can find online purely
dedicated to the topic of just
objectives and key results.
So it sounds simple, but
it's extremely powerful.
And once you get
this right, it can
be completely transformational
for you, for your career,
and for your business.
So what does success look like?
Well, your objective is
what you want to achieve
and your key results
are how you'll
know if you've achieved it.
So in this example,
my objective is
to launch a beautiful and
intuitive new website in time
for the holiday
peak sales period.
So that is what I
want to achieve.
And it's very descriptive and
it's an aspirational vision
of where I want to get to, given
that I know what my problem is.
My key results are
how I measure success.
So how will I know when
I've hit that objective?
Well, the three key
results that I've defined
here are that 40%
of users return
to the website in two
weeks, user bounce rate
from the website
is less than 20%,
and the website loads
in under three seconds.
So these things
and the key results
are all things
that I can measure,
and they prove that I
have met my objective.
So for your objective, focus
on describing what you want,
not how you'll measure it.
So for example,
make your website
an intuitive and
rewarding experience
for people who visit it,
or expand our customer base
beyond the US to increase
revenue and decrease
dependency on a single market.
Or as a final example,
reduce quality variations
in our product to ensure
a consistent experience
for our customers.
Those all sound
like things that you
would want to do
for your business
and are potentially solving
a problem that you've
defined in your first step.
Now, your key results on how
you will measure whether or not
you have met your objective.
So there's three things that
I would say about key results.
Your key results need
to be measurable.
So for example, a
better experience
could be measured by the
number of repeat visitors.
An increase in quality could
be measured by the percentage
of customer returns.
But it should be
something where you
can come back at the end of
a certain period of time--
let's call it a month,
let's say three months--
and say, yes, I did that.
So the second piece is
achieving your key results means
that you met your objective.
So your key results are the
proof that your strategy works.
And the third piece
is that it's often
useful to introduce constraints
to ensure balance and quality.
So for example, if you had
an objective or a key result
around volume, you
could balance that
by having a key
result on quality.
So rather than saying we
want to make 500 new units,
we want to make 500 new
units with a less than 1%
defect rate.
And what that will do
is it would balance
the speed of production
and the drive
to get more volume with
the quality that you know
is needed in your operation.
Second example would be
the number of features
that we want to
include in our product
versus the cost of those.
And what that then
results in is you
don't have one element
of your strategy
or one element that
is running away,
and it's negatively
impacting other elements
of your business.
So volume versus quality,
features versus costs
are just one example,
are just two examples.
So why don't you
try it yourself?
So think of a project that
you're currently working on.
What is the objective that
you're trying to achieve,
and what are some
of the key results?
And remember that your objective
is what you want to achieve,
and your key results are how
you'll know whether or not
you've achieved it.
So give it a try yourself.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So now that we understand
what our problem is, and we
understand what we
want to achieve,
and how we measure success
given that problem,
the next piece we
want to move onto
is creating solution options.
And now we're into
the how phase.
But notice that we spent
a long time focusing
on the why and the what before
we get into what I call how
mode.
So creating solution options
answers the question what could
we do to achieve my objective?
The key to how
mode is to leverage
both expansive and
reductive thinking.
So expansive thinking answers
the what could we do question,
and then we switch to
reductive thinking to answer
the what should we do question.
This takes the large
number of potential ideas
and whittles them down to
the smaller set of ideas
that are best to
solve our problem.
So there's a great quote from
the famous American scientist
Linus Pauling who has won
the Nobel Prize for chemistry
and the Nobel Prize for peace.
He's a pretty smart guy And
there's a famous interaction
between him and one of
his graduate students,
where his graduate
student asked,
"Professor Pauling,
how do you come up
with so many great ideas?"
And he said, "Well, it's easy.
I simply come up
with a lot of ideas
and then I throw
out the bad ones."
So that just gives you
an insight into how
one of the great American
scientists thought of it--
expansive and then
reductive thinking.
So when we think about
expansive thinking,
brainstorming is one of the most
well-known and effective ways
of generating
expansive thinking,
but the problem is that
people generally get it wrong.
So has anybody ever been at one
of those brainstorming sessions
where you walk into
a room for an hour,
everybody comes up with
some amazing blue sky ideas,
and then everybody walks out
of the room with no action plan
and no realistic ideas
as to how you're actually
going to move forward?
Well, if you have ever
been in that situation,
you won't be alone.
And there are three essentials
for effective brainstorming.
The first is that somebody takes
the lead and they facilitate.
This is really important,
because that person
needs to keep the
group on track,
needs to set the
norms of the group,
and then call people in a
friendly and a healthy way
when we're not
adhering to the rules
that we've set ourselves for
this brainstorming session
to make it most effective.
The second is that
it's a great idea
to be clearly in expansive
or reductive mode
and not mix the two.
So we've all been in those
brainstorming sessions
where somebody has said, that's
not going to work because, OK?
That is an example of somebody
being in reductive mode
when the rest of the group
is in expansive mode.
So this is a job
of the facilitator
to make sure that you're
setting time out for expansive
and then you're actively making
a decision as a group to move
into reductive thinking.
So the other example
of mixing the two
would be, in reductive
thinking somebody says,
I've got a great idea.
How about we do this?
And that really
disrupts the flow
and the structure of the
brainstorming discussion.
And that's what it degenerates
into chaos, which many of you
may have been familiar with when
we do brainstorming in a not
very structured manner.
And the third thing I
would say is leave time
at the end for
reductive thinking
and a plan to move forward.
I would say that in my
experience, that is the number
one failure of brainstorming.
We run to 57 minutes on the
clock in a one-hour meeting,
and then we say, oh, so what
are we going to do next?
And then everybody
leaves the room.
So I think it's a
facilitator's job
to make it really clear we
are going to do 40 minutes,
for example, of
expansive thinking,
and then we will do 20
minutes of reductive thinking.
And what that also does is
it manages personalities
in the room so you
don't have people
who are 50 minutes into the
brainstorming session thinking,
I need to get into
reductive mode
or we're going to walk out
of this room with nothing.
So clearly signaling
that at the start,
and wherever you are in your
brainstorming mode, making
an active decision
today to say, we're
done with the
expansive thinking.
Now, let's move on
to reductive thinking
so that we can walk out of
this room with a clear plan
and a smaller set of ideas for
how we want to move forward.
So once you brainstorm
potential solutions,
you can structure them,
then, using a solution tree.
And a solution tree is a
classic consulting tool.
And what we do is
we put our objective
on the left-hand side.
And you can do this
on a sheet of paper,
you can do this on a slide,
you can do it on a whiteboard,
wherever you can write, you
can create a solution tree.
So your objective goes
on the left-hand side,
and then you start breaking
this out into branches.
This is why it's
called a solution tree.
And these, ideally,
should be what consultants
call MECE, which is Mutually
Exclusive and Collectively
Exhaustive.
The mutually exclusive part
is that none of these ideas
should overlap.
So they should be
separate ideas that
are growing out on branches.
And the collectively
exhaustive is
that it should encompass
the whole space of ideas
of potential solutions.
And once you have the
expansive part done,
you can even see on this slide
how it's expansive, then,
we move to reductive
thinking and chopping off
some of these branches.
So to give you this
example, if our objective is
to increase product revenue,
well, then, the next two trunks
on this tree, if you
like, or branches,
are that we can sell
more of the same products
or we can sell new products.
So you see that those two
ideas are mutually exclusive,
they don't overlap.
Selling more of
the same products
and selling new products
are two different things.
Then, if I was to break out
sell more of the same products,
I could break that
out into branches
for attract new
customers in Europe,
I could expand to Asia-Pacific,
and I could sell more
to existing customers.
And again, each of
those three solutions
are mutually exclusive
and don't overlap.
On the sell new products
branch, I could say, well,
two potential ways I
could do that would
be that I could expand
into the mobile space
or I could expand into
the Cloud Services space.
And then, by the end of this
expansive thinking exercise,
you should have a full
map in front of you, which
is mutually exclusive,
collectively
exhaustive, a full map
of potential solutions
that you can use to
solve your problem.
The next step is to focus
on the best solutions.
And now, you are into
reductive thinking,
and you need to chop
off some of the branches
from your solution tree.
Now you might be thinking,
well, how do I do that?
That's easier said than done.
And the good news
is that I'm going
to give you a very simple,
very well tried and tested tool
for chopping branches
off your solution tree.
And that is called a
prioritization matrix.
And it's a great way to
prioritize ideas or actions
where a large number of
options have been uncovered,
like we've just seen
in the previous example
with our solution tree.
So what you do is you
take out a piece of paper,
or a whiteboard,
or whatever it is,
and you draw a vertical
line, which is impact,
and you draw a horizontal
line, which is effort.
And now, you divide up
that into four boxes.
You mark low effort
and high effort,
and you mark low
impact and high impact.
And now what you're
going to do is
you're going to take all of
those ideas that you've had
and you're going to
throw them at this matrix
and you're going to decide which
category do these fall into?
And then you're going to take
some action on that idea,
depending on where it falls.
So if I step through each
of these boxes with you,
if I look at the most
obvious one, something that's
low effort but high
impact, so in other words,
it's easy to do, but
it's really going
to impact my problem
in a positive way,
those are called quick wins.
And they're the
ones that you want
to focus on early,
because they're
going to have the greatest
impact on your problem,
but they're also very
important for building
stakeholder confidence.
So whether your stakeholder
is an internal stakeholder,
like your boss, for example,
or whether your stakeholder
is your customer,
what you don't want
to end up in a situation is,
you've identified a problem,
everybody buys into
the problem statement,
you've told them
what the goals are,
they're all excited about
where this is going to go,
and then seven months
later, you're still saying,
I know I haven't
got anything done,
but it's just around
the corner and I
promise it's going to
be great as soon as I
deliver that solution.
Because pretty soon, people are
start going to get itchy feet
and they're going
to start wondering,
is this person really going to
deliver on this problem for me?
So that's where your quick
wins are really important.
You get out of the
doors early and you say,
I've identified this one thing.
If we do this right now, it will
chip away 10% of our problem.
The next bucket I'll focus on
is another obvious one, which
is high effort but low impact.
So in other words, this is
going to take you a lot of work
and it's not really
going to deliver much.
Discard that idea.
And you might be thinking,
there will always
be ideas where other people
have come up with the idea,
or you come up with
the idea and it's
hard to say that's a bad idea.
But the key here is that
this is a relative scale.
If you have 10 solutions,
there will always
be two or three
solutions that sounded
like they were good
options, but in the light
of all of our other options,
are just not as good.
And that's OK.
That doesn't mean
it's a bad idea.
That just means that you
have better ideas that
will have more
impact and be easier
to put in place on your
prioritization matrix.
So that's quick wins
and discard gone.
So then, we're going to
focus on the top right next.
And that is high
impact and high effort.
So this is going to be the main
focus of your project work.
It's going to take
a lot of work,
but you know it will deliver
against your problem.
The bottom left are things that
are low impact and low effort.
They don't take a lot of work,
but they have a little impact
on your problem.
So work on those
when you have time.
And once you have
solved your quick wins,
you generally, then, focus
on your main project work
and dip in and out of those
low impact, low effort actions
when you have time.
So for example,
let's say that you
are waiting on a new machine
to come into your factory.
It's going to take a week
for that to get delivered.
Maybe there's
something else that you
can work on in the meantime.
Maybe you can do a little
bit of work on your website,
and as soon as the
machine comes in,
then you can get to work on
installing it in your business
and making sure that you're
delivering for customers.
So quick wins first.
Discard the ideas that are
high effort and low impact.
And then, you're going
to be mainly focusing
on the top right, the
high impact, high effort,
and then dipping in and out of
those low effort, low impact
items whenever
you have a chance.
So now, we've come
along to this journey,
and now we're getting into
making a plan and executing it.
Now, you might think that
we've gone through a lot
before we're
getting to the point
where we're actually
doing something,
but I want to make a very
important point here,
which is that you
will most likely spend
the majority of your actual
time in this section.
So you might spend
80% of your time
or more on the plan and
actually executing it,
but it's critically
important to make sure
that you've taken the time
to work through why this is
a problem, what
objectives and key results
do I have based on
that problem, and then
how do I, first of
all, think expansively,
and then think reductively
to decide on a strategy?
There's a very good
"Forbes" article
by Stephanie Burns where she
talks about a solution looking
for a problem.
And she quotes an alarming
number that over 40%
of entrepreneurs
and businesses fail
because they are a solution
looking for a problem.
So when you are in this mode
of execution and planning,
just make sure that you
are not a solution looking
for a problem.
And when you spend
your six months
like I did, improving that
machine to bring greater 30%
productivity, that
somebody actually
cares about that problem,
you have a clear objective,
and you've thought
expansively before spending
the majority of your time
making this plan and executing.
So the three key elements to
turn a strategy into reality.
The first is to make a plan
with clear accountability.
The second is to make
time to focus on it.
And the third is to
track your progress
and adjust the plan
as you need to.
And I'll step through
each of these in a moment.
So the first piece
about making a plan.
One very simple plan that
I have found very effective
throughout the
course of my career
is what I call who
does what by when?
So it's a very simple
structure that you
can do in any spreadsheet.
And what you do
is you write down
in one column what is the work
package or the action that
needs to get taken.
So for example, my
work package here
is to expand to a
new location, and one
of the actions I need to
do is design a process,
and the second is to
build a prototype.
Next thing I do is I put
an owner beside that.
So you can see that
designing the process
is Rachael's action.
The third column I write
down is the due date.
So when does Rachael feel that
that action would be done by?
And am I comfortable
with that as the project
manager or the person
who's ultimately
responsible for
solving this problem?
And the fourth
column is the status.
So where am I?
Is it on track?
Is it complete?
Or is it at risk?
And then, I find sometimes
a comments column is useful,
where either you
or your team can
drop in comments into this
spreadsheet that just give us
a progress update and
tell us where we are
against each of these items.
Now, if you've done some project
management work in the past,
you may think that this
is a very simplified plan,
and it is.
There are much more complex
frameworks out there.
And certainly if you were
building a nuclear power
station for example,
this would not
be a very good
strategy for success.
But the reality
is that most of us
are not building
nuclear power stations,
and a lot of the tools
and project management
frameworks that I have
become certified in
and that you may
have seen are very
useful in specific
industries, but are not
a great general-purpose
tool for solving
smaller-scale problems with
limited amount of team members.
And they're oftentimes
designed for huge projects that
involve hundreds of people,
like the example of building
a nuclear power plant.
So this is not the
only plan that works,
and certainly, you
may have other plans
that you've seen that
you find effective,
but this is one plan that
I found very effective
in my experience,
and it's something
that you could try out
as a starting point.
So the second piece of turning
a great strategy into reality
is making time to focus on it.
And this can be
difficult. We're all busy.
The reason I put this idea
of the whirlwind in here
is that we are all
caught up in a whirlwind
in our day-to-day job.
There's always
stuff to get done.
There's that email to answer.
There's that customer
complaint to deal with.
The reality is that the
whirlwind will suck you up
if you let it, and it will
take up all of your time.
Your job is to carve out
the right amount of time
to focus on this problem--
which, remember, you
have defined as critical
for your business--
and give the appropriate time to
be able to solve that problem.
So I would suggest something
like 20% to 30% of your time,
depending on the problem
severity for your business,
would be appropriate.
And you need to carve out
that time to focus on.
And just remember the whirlwind.
If you don't, the
whirlwind will get you.
The final piece is to track
progress and adjust the plan.
If all plans went exactly
as they were planned,
there would be no jobs for
project managers anywhere
in the world.
We would just simply
set a plan and then
everybody would do exactly
as they were supposed to.
The reality is that we live
in an ever-changing world
and things happen.
So track your progress using the
tracker that I just showed you.
And then, hold a meeting
with some of your team.
That might be a virtual meeting,
that might be a phone call.
But the key thing is
that you're checking
in with the other people who
are contributing to your plan.
Or if it's just you
who owns the plan,
you're checking in for yourself.
You're seeing, where am I
against all of these key things
that need to happen?
Am I on track?
Do I need to adjust the plan?
If this is at risk,
well, then what would
I do to remove that risk and
make sure that my project goes
back on plan?
So the three key
elements-- make a plan
with clear accountability,
make time to focus on it,
track the progress,
and adjust the plan.
The last thing I
would say on this
is that try to keep it
as simple as you can.
I'm a big believer
in that things
should be as simple as
possible, if not simpler.
And I avoid making
overly complex plans
unless I absolutely need to.
So what I would say is that
the plan should work for you,
you don't work for the plan.
And only add layers of
complexity as you need them
and as the complexity of solving
this problem really needs it.
So if you only remember one
thing from this training,
I really want you to remember
the journey of why, what,
and how.
So we define the problem
or the opportunity,
that's the why question.
We then set our objectives
and our key results.
That's the what question.
And then, we can
move into how mode,
creating solution options,
and deciding on a strategy.
I just want to
reiterate what I said
at the start of this session.
The biggest problem that I have
seen over the past 15 years
in my career in
multiple industries
is that people are in
how mode too early.
So when you find
yourself saying,
I have a solution to that,
just check yourself and think,
I have a solution to what?
Do I know what the problem is?
Have I quantified the problem?
Have I shown that this
problem is actually
indeed a significant
problem for my customers
or for my business?
Once I know what the problem is,
have I been clear on what goal
I have?
Do I know how I measure success?
Have I talked
expansively before I then
decided on my great idea?
And then, you make a
plan, you execute it,
and you solve your problem.
If you'd like to learn
more skills you can apply
to your business, your
career, or your job search,
Google has training
resources that you
can access from anywhere.
There are many different
training paths and options,
so we'll talk about
these tools and determine
which ones make the most
sense for you right now.
Grow your digital skills no
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Curious about the workshops you
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Visit g.co/growonair, for
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If you want to quickly
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check out Primer's lesson
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If you have an
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Thank you all for joining us
today to develop your problem
solving skills.
I hope you enjoyed
your experience
and that you've learned how
to solve problems in a more
structured and strategic way.
You can find all of
our follow-up resources
on the same page you're
watching in the Resources tab
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It's really important
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So thanks again for joining
Grow with Google today,
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