Which problems to solve before they occur?
Some problems are best addressed before they occur. Areas where the cost of a problem manifesting is too high, or the problem’s impact is too complex, irreversible, and unknown are the right areas to solve the problem before any occurrence.
In an individual context, learning any life skill — like swimming is an example of problem-solving before a potential occurrence. In this example, learning swimming could prevent you from drowning or saving someone else from drowning.
In an organizational context, having redundant network connectivity or power connectivity in your office complex are simple examples of solving the problem in a way that either prevents the problem itself or prevents the impact of a problem and therefore causes less to no disruption.
Why don’t we prevent problems always?
Firstly, not all problems are preventable or completely preventable — for example, data breach or cyber-attack. A firm may have taken some preventive measures to ensure they can handle such problems. But many times, we see that these actions fall short.
Secondly, problems that are not severe and cost-significant to solve than prevent are preferred for a solution over prevention. Here the existing solution is so optimized and cost-effective that it acts as a deterrent in preventing the problem.
Thirdly, organizations at any point are battling multiple problems simultaneously at a macro level. Solving invisible problems (haven’t occurred yet) or having a significantly less probability of occurrence despite being severe generally do not find strong support in the organization. The necessary resources are not allocated towards preventing it.
How can we identify preventable problems?
Problems those are an excellent candidate to prevent rather than solve have few key traits; let’s take a look at them:
Low to no variance:
In situations where the output or outcome cannot vary, those situations are good candidates for preventive solutions. Take the example of medicine. Would you want variance in dose between 2 pills of the same medication? — No, this is true for almost all customer-facing processes. Take banking; you would not want your bank to make mistakes while you remit from one account to another? All these are processes where low to no variance is expected, and hence good candidates for organizations to develop highly robust strategies to prevent any variance from occurring.
High Severity:
Areas where even a single occurrence of the problem can have severe consequences for the organization, its customers, or the environment are good areas for potentially preventable problems. Take the example of a chemical factory handling poisonous gas. Here, all processes, infrastructure, and controls need to be developed to ensure that not even a single gas leak occurs.
High cost of the solution:
Some problems are very expensive to solve and therefore much better to avoid and prevent completely. Take the example of an oil spill; the loss to the firm, environment, reputation, etc. are too high, and therefore efforts must be made to prevent such problems.
Non-Availability of the solution:
Areas, where you have very little knowledge available, are the right areas to go for preventable solutions.
Some or all of the above traits may help you make an informed decision to identify problems that are good candidates for prevention.
To what extent you want to prevent?
Preventing problems is ultimately not always possible or feasible. However, while thinking of solving or preventing problems, one must assess to what extent the problem can be prevented in the first place.
Prevention of a problem has many levels:
Partly Preventable: Here, you want to prevent some part of the problem; these are segments you do not want to fail or create a problem.
Reduce Occurrence: Here, you want to make the occurrence of a problem as few as possible. The focus here is to ensure that a problem seldom occurs, and if it does, there is a fast allocation of resources and talent to resolve the problem at the earliest.
Complete Prevention: Here, the outcome is to eliminate any occurrence of the problem from happening. An example of such a preventable solving level is vaccines, which are developed and thoroughly tested to ensure that the targeted disease does not occur.
Preventing problems seems very intuitive, but it’s not common.
Most of the problem-solving action in an organization begins when a problem occurs. Preventing a problem from happening should not be an afterthought. Instead, it should be the constant guiding factor to improve our processes and products and improve an organization’s competitiveness. In the end, one must ask — How can I prevent it?
Picture: Unsplash — George Bakos and Visuals
