In this instructional video, Jermaine Edwards argues that problem solving is a pivotal skill for personal, business, and customer growth. He outlines a seven‑step framework for tackling complex problems, using the example of a customer who wants to leave a service. The steps are: (1) precisely define the underlying problem rather than its surface symptom; (2) explore possible causes by gathering cross‑functional data and perspectives; (3) generate a list of potential options for each identified cause; (4) evaluate each option against effort, required resources, and implications; (5) make a decisive choice without delay; (6) act by assigning owners, tracking progress, and measuring outcomes; and (7) review the results to capture learnings and improve future service. Throughout, Edwards emphasizes systematic, methodical thinking, the importance of measurement, and continuous learning to become a prolific problem solver and trusted advisor. He ends with a call to subscribe, like, and share the video.
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Hey, it's Jermaine Edwards, your customer growth guide, and in this video we're going to talk about how you can become a prolific problem solver. So let's talk about problem solving. Now, if you could acquire one particular skill that would increase or accelerate your ability to get results today, what do you believe that might be? Well, I want to present an argument for you that perhaps problem solving is that one skill that if you were to get better at, even 1% better at every single day, it would significantly increase your results. Here's why. Every single result that we want has a problem in front of it. There are the lacks of, lack of resources. There are the people that are perhaps we need to influence and particular arguments that we may need to present in order to convince other people to take your action, to buy into our messages. All of those are potential challenges. I guess you could call them problems, but either way, you need to become somebody prolific, somebody empowered and equipped to do this consistently in order to access the benefits and resources and results that you want. That's why being a problem solver is so important, both for you, for your business, and for your customers. So let's talk about some of the areas in which, from the best practice point of view, you'd want to kind of begin to shape your mind to think about these areas on how to solve problems. And I'm not talking about simple problems like your shoe is untied and you simply tie the shoe. That's a simple problem. I'm talking about complex problems that may involve multiple different components and parts that if one isn't addressed, it impacts the others. So that's what we're going to talk about, complex problem solving. So they were going to look at 7 different areas, and in those 7 different areas, we're going to make sure you leave with some really great insight. So number 1, we want to speak about defining. So the first thing we do, and what most people miss, is the importance of defining what the problem actually is. So an example, someone may walk into a business and they're working with a customer, and all of a sudden that customer says that they want to leave. Now that's a problem, right? Absolutely. But is that the real problem? It's not the problem necessarily the customer wants to leave. That's a problem for you, not for them. But the real problem underneath that could be that the systems that sit underneath serving the customer aren't working. We need to define what things aren't working for this customer that might be causing the customer to feel like they need to leave. That's the real problem underneath. The symptom we're seeing of a customer wanting to leave is an external representation of the problem, but the real problem sits somewhere underneath the actual systems. We need to define what the problem actually is so we can solve it. That's number 1, we need to define what the problem really is. So now we want to talk about the next stage, stage 2 in problem solving, particularly complex problems. We now need to explore the possible causes. So let's just say the problem in front of us is a customer wants to leave, or perhaps it's something else, maybe it's a systems issue within the business that has really frustrated a customer. Now we wanna explore the possible causes and we would need to really do this pragmatically. And oftentimes we can't do this alone because we only have one particular view for the customer or with the customer. And we may need to look at other departments to bring in information from us or data in order to establish or get a real view for what the causes or potential causes could be. So now is an opportunity for you to say, well, here are the potential causes that I believe could be causing this, but I need to now go and explore this with other people. And you may need to bring in people from other departments and say, look, here's a problem I see. Is this really the problem? And what might have been the causes here? How can we look at this together? That's an opportunity for you to bring in the right kind of resource and insight, data, people, whatever that might be, to explore what the real causes are. That's the power of exploring. So now we're on step 3 of becoming a prolific problem solver. We've defined the problem. Perhaps it's, you know, a customer is leaving, or some systems that aren't quite working. We've now also looked at the possible causes, and we know that perhaps from a systems point of view, the current operations and processes just aren't clear within the business. But now we need to identify some actual options we could take? What are the options we could take to actually solve this problem? What are the potential things that might come out of the exploration of those causes? So now, as we do that, you want to list under each specific cause the potential options. What are the options underneath that particular cause or causes that you may need to think about? Under each option, you're going to have a range of different options, And then you're going to assess which ones are viable with two specific criteria. And that's what we're gonna cover in the next stage. So here we've got to stage 4, and it's all about identification, identifying the ideal action that we can take to solve that particular problem or causes of problem, multiple causes. And so if we've got the evaluation correct and we have the options written out underneath the varying different causes, we can now do two criteria checks to understand what might be the most reasonable place to begin to solve these problems. Now, the first is, what are the actual upsides and downsides to taking the action? Meaning, what are the actual— what's the effort needed and what is the resource needed and what are the implications of applying that? So what are the effort needed? What's the resource needed? What are the implications underneath that when you try to apply it? Let's give an example. Let's just say that it is a systems issue and you've identified some options to solve this on changing the actual processes and technology that you have versus going through the actual process, evaluating the areas that aren't working and assessing that, and then retraining people on the new process to move that forward and improve what you're doing. So those are two very different solutions. So what you do is you look at that and you say, okay, what's the effort needed in order for us to go and assess, search, and onboard new technology? Well, we need to bring in more people, we need to go and do a selection, we need to go through a tender process. There could be a whole range of different things. You think, actually, do we want to go through all that effort to solve the problem? Is that worth it? Will that give us the advantage benefit we're looking for. Or on the other side, you might say, well, let's look at the other option. The other option is for us to have a look at the processes, evaluate the places that are perhaps the most risk, have the most risk attached to it, are that aren't working as well. And we look at that, we rediscover, retrain, and we improve those processes. The effort is slightly less. It still gives us the impact we want. And it enables us to act quickly to the processes so no other customer is, you know, feels that frustration of the process not working and allows us to eliminate the possibility of a customer leaving. So that's the power of identification, looking at the effort, the resource, and the implications to those specific choices that allows us to take the right kind of action. Stage 5, we now got to decide. So we now have all the possible options. We've identified the potential choices based on effort, resource, and implication, now we need to decide. So that decision piece is the most important. We cannot, you know, lag and now delay and drag things out. We need to make a decision. So now's the point in time where you say, okay, the effort, resource, implication is there. Now, are we willing at this time to make the effort, resource, despite the implication in order to get the benefit and result. So are we willing at this time to put in the effort to drive the resources needed despite the implication to get the benefit of our customers not leaving or eliminating the frustration from our customers? Is that worth it? You have to ask the question because that is the choice of the decision. You're foregoing something else in order to do something much more beneficial. Now you need to decide. So now we're on stage 6, which is Act. We've made a decision on what we want to really pursue as a potential solution. Now we need to assign owners, we need to track those actions and measure the output of that. Has it been successful? Are we making progress? Is this thing improving? We We need to do that because what gets measured gets tracked, and what gets tracked gets improved. And so we want to make sure we're constantly improving and keeping ahead of the game so that we don't fall into the trap of believing that something is working when it isn't. And the best way to do that, particularly because in this scenario we're thinking about the improvement to the customer, is as a measurement, seeing if the customer feedback and experience of that particular process is actually getting better. So that might be a great way to think about that for that example. So assign those owners, track those activities, and measure the output. Was it successful? Is this improving? 'Cause if you don't, you're unlikely to be able to understand if things are getting better. So now we're on stage 7, which is to review. Now here's where the real big benefit comes. It's not just in the solving of the problem, which we're going to come to, it's actually also in the learning. So 1, did it work? 2, what did we learn? And 3, how has this impacted the way in which we serve our customer? So number 1, Did it work? Number 2, what did we learn? And number 3, how's this changed the way we think about serving our customers? If you can ask those questions and it will guide the way in which you might respond, that review process from the actions that you've been taking will be all the more beneficial to you. You can feed that back into the business, both the, your successes and challenges, but also the learnings on how you could serve your customer at a much to a higher level and become the advisor your customer never wants to leave. So those are the 7 areas for prolific problem solving, complex problem solving. If you can go through those areas systematically, methodically, you'll ensure you get the best possible options for taking decisions and solving the problems that matter to improving your relationships, customer relationships, and business outcomes. Now, if you've enjoyed the video, you've got value from it, I want you to subscribe, to like this, to share it, and I'll see you in the next video.
