This department of a Fortune 500 Financial Services company was responsible for publishing a critical report that the entire organization depended on for decision making. The project team required information from every key department in the organization and the report was consistently published late. They had met in meetings many times to try and diagnose the problem, but the discussions always got derailed and heated.
The leader of the department brought 25 key stakeholders from his team and other departments to the table and, together, we set out to determine why the reports were always late. The Problem Loop involved only one hour from the stakeholders and the results were a shock to both the leader and the project team. It turns out that the leader himself was the major cause of the delays! He had been changing his mind on the content for the report frequently during the report build process. (sidenote: He was a wonderful person who had a belly roll laugh when he finally realized he had been the problem all along.)
Problem Loop Results!
The Problem Loop was a great experience for the entire team because:
psychological safety enabled the cause of the problem to surface without the blame-game and in a respectful way that allowed the leader to “hear” the feedback
the project stakeholders, very busy subject matter experts, were able to participate in a way that worked with their schedules (and when their brains were at the hottest).
the cross-functional approach produced several creative potential causes ... many of which were also solved and the report was delivered on time next cycle!