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The role of the problem manager

25 September 2021 by Robert Falkowitz Leave a Comment

Before I talk about what I think a problem manager should be doing, we might start by summarizing what problem managers typically do. Of course, every problem manager performs dif­ferent­ly a role that each organization defines differently. So, I can only make a list of some of the major responsibilities of problem mana­gers. Rare are the problem managers who perform all these activities.

What problem managers do

Manage problem records

If an organization has a formal problem management discipline in place, it pro­bably has a problem manager making records of problems and how they are being handled.

Act as a gateway

The formalism of problem management requires some­one to identify problems and when the organization meets the entry and exit criteria for each phase of the problem management value stream. The problem manager ge­ne­ral­ly plays this role, if anyone does.

Form resolution teams

Since problems often require multiple sets of expertise to resolve, an organization needs a means for identifying who can reasonably contribute to that work and for getting these people to contribute.

Chair progress meetings

Although some problem re­so­lution teams might be self-organizing, many org­an­i­za­tions have a culture re­quir­ing the presence of a formal meeting chair who calls meetings, fixes meeting agendas, conducts the meet­ing and often documents what was done and decided during the meeting.

Train problem resolvers

To the extent that an organization has a problem management process that it expects resolvers to follow, the problem manager might be the person who trains those resolvers. Sometimes, the training also includes the use of various problem ma­nage­ment tools.

Coach problem resolvers

Due to the limited ef­fec­tive­ness of one-off train­ing, the organization might find var­i­ous follow-up activities useful to develop the ma­tu­rity of problem re­so­lution over the long term.

Interface with other process managers​

Problem management has many close relationships with other disciplines, such as risk ma­nage­ment, in­ci­dent ma­nage­ment, change ma­nage­ment, inter alia. The managers of these disciplines exchange information, ne­go­ti­ate boun­da­ries, agree on the handling of specific cases and many other little details of the interfaces.

Track problem status

Sometimes, problems just seem to disappear without anyone having done anything explicitly to resolve them. Of course, something did change, but the link of that change to the resolution of the problem was not recognized. So, a problem manager may per­i­odi­cally review the lists of open problems and de­ter­mine if they still exist.

Create and distribute reports

Problem managers oversee the creation of periodic re­ports about the health and progress of their discipline, as well as analyses of the ag­gre­gated problems being handled.

What should problem managers do?

I wouldn’t ask this question unless I thought something were missing from the typical roles performed by problem managers. Most of the activities described above are non-value-adding activities. Problem re­sol­vers—the people who figure out the causality of a problem and define what should be done to mitigate the problem—perform the real added value of problem ma­nage­ment.

OK. A little bit of coordination does indeed help. However, many organizations have a culture that perpetuates control and coordination activities. Is problem management not as effective as you might like? Maybe you need more detailed processes, more training, more policies, more control. In short, more problem managers. A command and control approach to problem management thus dictates such behavior.

I would argue that a good measure of the success of the problem manager may be measured by the decreasing need for the role. There will always be problems. There will always be a need to handle them. But can we find a way to achieve the goals of problem ma­nage­ment with less and less input from the problem manager?

Coach individuals in the formation of ad hoc teams

As an ad hoc team, a problem resolving group usually has a short life span. What per­centage of that life span does the team spend in figuring out how to col­la­borate and what per­cent­age does it spend in the value-adding work of resolving problems?

In my role as a problem manager, I have frequently seen cases where the strength of personalities in the re­solv­ing group determines its working approach. Some people make snap judgements about the causes of a problem and refuse to listen to the contributions of others. Other people have ideas about the problem, but are afraid of appearing foolish should their ideas not pan out. In any case, they might be unwilling to enter into conflict with their outspoken teammates.

In other cases, team members don’t know how to handle uncertainty. Many tech­ni­cians either believe they know something (with 100% cer­tain­ty) or they are simply unwilling to commit them­selves. In other words, they see no useful ground between 100% sure and not knowing at all. And yet, that is precisely the ground where we almost always find ourselves.

Wouldn’t problem resolution be more efficient if the team’s storming and norming phases could be skipped? Shouldn’t it be possible for an ad hoc team to be performing from the start? I suggest that the problem manager should play a coaching role to develop teaming skills, encourage psy­chological safety, help people learn how to calibrate their levels of uncertainty and advise on appropriate levels of risk in the problem re­so­lu­tion activities.

Coach teams in self-organization methods

Often, existing organizational units have all the skills and authority required to handle a problem from end to end. In such cases, the presence of an external problem manager can be viewed as a form of external interference in the affairs of that organization. And yet, left to their own devices, such organizations often let problems fester until they provoke serious incidents.

Self-organization is the low­est overhead approach to resolving such problems. But teams often have hierarchical managers who dictate their activities and priorities. An organization will not likely transition spontaneously to a self-organizing culture. Thus, a problem manager/coach may usefully nudge org­ani­za­tions in a lower overhead direction.

But is this truly a role for a problem manager? In my view, the most fundamental problem of all—org­ani­zational units that perform ineffectively and in­ef­fi­cient­ly—is indeed mat­ter for a problem ma­nager/coach.

Coach leaders in low overhead methods to find consensus

Although many problems may be handled by existing teams, handling other prob­lems may require a con­sor­tium of people from multiple organizational units.

Some organizations depend on formal methods to re-assign people temporarily to ad hoc tasks. These cum­ber­some methods impede the rapid and flexible re­so­lu­tion of problems. Often, teams do not share the same priorities or have conflicts between internal priorities and en­ter­prise pri­o­ri­ties. A classic example of reinforcing and rewarding such attitudes and behavior is the use of personal and team bonuses based on achieving personal and team objectives.

Again, such situations are unlikely to change spon­ta­ne­ously. Indeed, I have seen more frequently the re­in­force­ment of the causes of the issues rather than a true improvement. Is the team’s work ineffective? En­force better compliance with the process! Find a manager who better controls the team! Increase the frequency of audits! Add more validation and approval steps. And so forth.

Instead of such regressive, illogical behavior, a problem manager/coach could play a role in helping diverse teams find a consensus in priorities and develop low-overhead be­ha­vior to ensure that people are available to address problems. Org­ani­zation members should move toward spon­ta­ne­ously vo­lun­teer­ing to work on problems rather than waiting for a manager to formulate a request, which is submitted to a resource allocation board and ap­proved by a top level manager with a budget.

Withering Away the Problem Manager Role

I promote a vision of problem managers becoming more like problem coaches. The problem coach’s role is to encourage a culture of behavior to rapidly and flexibly address problems with a minimum of overhead. The more successful the execution of this role, the more the organization becomes capable of spontaneously ad­dress­ing problems as part of normal work. At the same time, the role of the problem coach becomes less and less needed. Ideally, the problem mana­ger/­coach role should tend to wither away.

Creative Commons License The article The Role of the Problem Manager by Robert S. Falkowitz, including all its contents, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Summary
What should be the role of the problem manager?
Article Name
What should be the role of the problem manager?
Description
Some people believe organizations need to strengthen and increase the role of the problem manager. Perhaps we need the problem manager role to wither away.
Author
Robert S. Falkowitz
Publisher Name
Concentric Circle Consulting
Publisher Logo
Concentric Circle Consulting

Filed Under: Problem Management, Service Management

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