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• What exactly is wrong?

• When did the problem start and/or when is it happening?

• Where exactly is the problem taking place? Is it internal to the
organization or external?

• Why is this problem happening; what seems to be causing it?

• What is the extent or complexity of the problem? The more complex the
problem, the deeper one would have to dig. As will be demonstrated in
this discussion of problem-solving, it is often helpful to break a larger
problem into subsets of smaller problems to facilitate dealing with them.

• What is the urgency or priority? Some problems are more important

than others. It is easy to get caught up in dealing with a complex minor
issue when instead the focus should be on a major issue causing
significant problems for the organization. In any case, it is often useful
to prioritize which problems need to be addressed first.

The second kind of information that must be obtained involves a definition
of the characteristics of the desired condition:

• What exactly would happen if the problem were solved? What is the
ideal outcome? It should be absolutely clear on exactly what the
expected outcome should be. This is clarifying the desired state versus

the existing state.

• What evidence would be used to convince an observer that the
problem has, in fact, been solved?

It must be clear to those involved in the problem-solving process that the

payoffs for solving the problem are greater than the probable consequences
of not solving the problem

David Kolzow 192