Question

• Identify a problem impacting a team of your choice
• Analyze the problem using five different facilitation approaches to problem solving (force field analysis, SWOT analysis, brainstorming, fishbone analysis, and repetitive why analysis.)
• Share the results of your analyses with the class
• Describe which facilitation approach you think was most effective for your analyses, and why. [Make sure to discuss the factors that helped to improve your ability to analyze the problem.]

Answer 1

I work in the recruitment and selection department of my company. My company is a manufacturing company and employs both blue and white collar workers. Every year our company goes on a hiring spree in the months of April to October. However, there is one critical problem in the recruitment and selection process. In the last 5 years, we were able to close a recruitment requirement timely in just 35% cases. Most of the others went aboard and hence hiked the recruitment costs by more than 40%. We need to analyze and find out the root cause behind this time constraint in the hiring process.

The different facilitation approaches:

• Force field analysis: Force field analysis will not be much effective in this case as it is mainly used to identify the equilibrium between the forces facilitating a change and the forces resisting a change. We will not be able to identify the root cause behind the delay in the recruitment process
• SWOT analysis: SWOT analysis helps in introspection and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of an entity. Again this tool will not help in identifying the root cause of the problem at hand
• Brainstorming: In the process of brainstorming, the primary stakeholders of the process sit together and brainstorm about the factors which can have a probability of being a cause. However nothing concrete can be concluded through this tool.
• Fishbone analysis: In my views, the best tool in this case will be cause and effect diagram or the fishbone diagram. We will be able to infer the main cause behind the time constraint problem using this method
• Why why analysis: Why why analysis also has the potential of analyzing the rot cause, however this can be a time consuming process.

Fishbone Diagram for the time constraint problem in the hiring process: