Leaders that cannot describe the correct method for solving problems are doing a disservice to their followers; if they can’t describe it they aren’t doing it. The good news is that this performance discrepancy is very fixable.
We’ve recently witnessed with amazement and sorrow how adept so many leaders are at creating problems and how inept they are at solving them. Since today’s leaders do not have the devine insights we associate with Jesus, Mohammed and Buda, they must embrace the Universe’s single most effective problem-solving process and systematize it within their organizations. That problem-solving process is GIADA: goal, information, analysis, decision, and action.
The following example of GIADA is excerpted from my soon to be published book, The Supervision Solution: Manage Performance, Not People.
Imagine a tiger in the wild. She is hungry and needs to eat. Food is her goal. GIADA is how she will achieve that goal. She’s surrounded by information, some of which she collects and some of which she ignores. There is a field mouse about ten feet away; a large deer grazes 100 yards away in a clearing; and a smaller deer grazes 50 yards away near some high grass. She analyzes the situation. She could catch the mouse, but that wouldn’t be much of a meal; she’d expend more energy catching the mouse than it is worth, and she’d alert the deer to her presence. The large deer would be a great catch, but there’s a good chance it would escape before she could get to it. The smaller deer, however, is near some high grass that she could use for cover, and she doesn’t have to traverse as much ground to get to it. She makes her decision. She’s going after the smaller deer. She takes action. She stalks her prey. The moment she sees the deer alert to her presence, she pounces. In the space of about 40 yards and eight seconds, the hunt is over. She has achieved her goal.
Whether it is strategy, operations, or addressing a personnel issue, GIADA is the right way solve problems. It is therefore indisputable that leaders must bring GIADA to their workplace, systematize the approach and hold others accountable applying it. The stakes are so high nowadays; we really need to start doing the fundamentals correctly. GIADA is the simple, powerful and correct approach we were given to solve problems – let’s use it.