“You can not solve a problem with the same mind that created it” by Albert Einstein.
Two issues that affect the problem solving capabilities of people are that they focus less on problem identification and more on problem solving and they do not think explore the problem from different angles.
There is a famous incident quoted by General Motors where a person who bought a GM car encountered a strange problem – every night he would go to buy ice cream from a nearby store and on the night he bought vanilla ice cream the car would stall. This seemed ludicrous but the company took him seriously and send an engineer who after days of observation identified a critical problem. Why only the vanilla flavor created this problem? – This was because the vanilla flavor sat in the front of the store and the time frame was the critical contributing factor. But the willingness of the engineer to listen and explore without a pre-determined mindset was what resolved the issue. These are important elements in problem solving.
MMM often conducts training for BPOs on telephone etiquette as part of the problem solving program because the agents solve customer issues through phone conversations. This can be frustrating for the agents, as they do not get to watch the reactions and body language of the customers. So good telephone etiquette with the capability of reading the tone of voice is important for customer satisfaction.
Two issues that affect the problem solving capabilities of people are that they focus less on problem identification and more on problem solving and they do not think explore the problem from different angles.