A concise document is extremely valuable for problem solving. Answering what is the deficiency, what is the root cause, what are the corrective actions and current status, in a clear and concise manner is what leadership is looking for. Most steps can be documented with a single sentence or usually a short paragraph.

Demonstrate a sense of urgency with clearly defined timelines. Passive statements — i.e., “We are planning to,” “Eventually we hope to,” may unintentionally show a relaxed approach to resolution. Action statements — i.e., “Accomplished plan implementation,” “50 percent complete,” “Reviewing with an ECD of 5 Jan.,” clearly define and exhibit active engagement. Remember the Inspector General is looking for “Who will do what by when.”

Frequently the individual that identified the deficiency is also expected to develop the resolution. At times this may be appropriate, but often a team of knowledgeable members with a depth of experience and synergy develop better Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) and corrective actions.

Never start the process with the concept of “I already know what the problem is and how to fix it.” Often this ends in failure because not all the facts are explored and information that points to another problem or solutions are ignored. Always go through the process and look at all the facts critically. Only then can you create a corrective action plan that will eliminate deficiency reoccurrence.

Step 1, clarify and validate the problem deficiencies identified during Compliance Inspection or Operational Readiness Inspection have been clarified and validated. Deficiencies from a Self Inspection must have supervision review to ensure accuracy. When the review is complete write the verbatim deficiency from the report or checklist on the form.

Step 2, break down the problem and identify performance gaps — this step is for additional information to clarify the circumstances behind the deficiency, past corrective actions taken and other performance gaps. Performance gaps are other issues relating to the area of the deficiency — i.e., if reoccurring training is the deficiency, but during a RCA several training record errors were discovered, this additional information would be annotated in this step for leadership review.

Step 3, set improvement target — The intended outcome of correcting the deficiency is to be in compliance — i.e., if several personnel are overdue ladder training then the target is for all personnel to be current on ladder training. A good check for this step is the statement is the opposite of step 1.

In the next issue we will discuss Steps 4 through 8 of the 8 Step Problem Solving Model.