How to Solve Problems Easier: The One Thing Most Managers Get Wrong

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I was sitting in a boardroom last month watching a senior manager spend forty-seven minutes trying to solve what should've been a three-minute problem. The issue? A customer complaint about delayed deliveries. Simple enough, right?

Wrong.

Instead of asking the right questions, this bloke launched into a full forensic investigation that would've made CSI jealous. Flowcharts appeared. Root cause analysis frameworks were mentioned. Someone actually said the words "let's circle back on this offline." I nearly threw my coffee at the wall.

Here's what nobody wants to hear: most workplace problems aren't complicated. We just make them complicated because we've been taught that complex solutions somehow make us look smarter.

The Australian Approach: Cut Through the Noise

After seventeen years in workplace training across Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, I've noticed something peculiar about how Australians solve problems compared to our overseas counterparts. We're naturally more direct, which should be an advantage. But then we get into corporate environments and suddenly everyone's speaking in riddles.

Take Bunnings, for example. Walk into any Bunnings on a Saturday morning with a problem, and the staff will give you three practical solutions before you've finished explaining what's wrong. No workshops. No stakeholder meetings. Just common sense applied efficiently.

Yet the same people who can troubleshoot a leaky tap in five minutes will spend weeks in committee trying to figure out why the office printer keeps jamming.

The 73% Rule Nobody Talks About

Research shows that 73% of workplace problems can be solved using what I call the "Five Why" shortcut. Not the traditional Five Whys methodology that takes forever – my version that actually works.

Here's how it really works:

Problem: Customer complaints are increasing.

Why #1: Because delivery times are longer than promised. Why #2: Because the warehouse is understaffed. Why #3: Because we haven't replaced Jenny who left three months ago. Why #4: Because HR says we can't afford to hire anyone new. Why #5: Because the budget was allocated to that consultant who told us we needed better problem-solving processes.

See the irony there?

What I Got Wrong for Years

I'll admit something that might surprise you. For the first eight years of my career, I was exactly like that manager I mentioned earlier. I thought complicated solutions were better solutions. I created elaborate process maps that looked impressive in presentations but did absolutely nothing to help people solve actual problems.

The turning point came when I was working with a small manufacturing business in Geelong. The owner, a no-nonsense woman who'd built the company from scratch, looked at my 47-slide presentation on "Systematic Problem Resolution Methodologies" and said, "Mate, can you just tell me how to stop my workers calling in sick every Monday?"

That question changed everything.

The answer wasn't in my fancy frameworks. It was simple: their Monday morning meetings were boring as hell, so people were avoiding them. We changed the meeting format, and Monday sick days dropped by 60% within a month.

The Three Questions That Actually Matter

Forget everything you've been told about problem-solving. Here are the only three questions you need:

1. What's actually happening? Not what you think is happening. Not what you hope is happening. What's actually happening. This means getting out of your office and talking to the people who deal with the problem every day.

2. What should be happening instead? Be specific here. "Better customer service" isn't an answer. "Customers should receive their orders within 48 hours as promised" is an answer.

3. What's the smallest change that gets us closer? This is where most people go wrong. They try to solve everything at once. Toyota didn't become Toyota overnight. They made thousands of small improvements over decades.

Why Most Training Gets This Wrong

I've seen companies spend hundreds of thousands on problem-solving workshops that teach people to overcomplicate everything. They come back to work with new terminology and fancy templates, but they still can't figure out why the office coffee machine always breaks down on Friday afternoons.

(Spoiler alert: it's because nobody cleans it properly during the week, and by Friday it's clogged. The solution isn't a root cause analysis – it's a cleaning roster.)

The Email Problem That Proves My Point

Last year, I worked with a tech company in Sydney that was drowning in email-related problems. Employees complained about communication breakdown, missed deadlines, and general confusion.

The IT department suggested implementing a new project management system. HR wanted communication training for everyone. The CEO considered hiring a productivity consultant.

Instead, I spent two hours observing how people actually used email. The problem? Half the company wrote emails like text messages ("yeah ok sounds good"), while the other half wrote novels with seventeen bullet points and multiple action items buried in paragraph four.

The solution? A simple one-page guide on how to write clear emails, plus a rule that any email requiring more than three back-and-forth messages should become a phone call.

Problem solved. Cost: approximately $50 for printing and laminating the guide.

What This Means for You

If you're reading this as a manager, here's your homework: identify the three biggest problems your team faces this week. For each one, resist the urge to schedule a meeting about it. Instead, go ask the people dealing with the problem what they think would help.

You'll be amazed how often they already know the answer.

And if you're not a manager? Start solving problems anyway. Don't wait for permission. If the printer keeps jamming, figure out why and fix it. If customers keep asking the same question, write a FAQ. If meetings always run over time, suggest an agenda.

Most workplace problems persist not because they're complicated, but because everyone assumes someone else is responsible for solving them.

The Real Problem with Problem-Solving

Here's something that might annoy you: the biggest problem with problem-solving in Australian workplaces isn't that people don't know how to do it. It's that they're afraid of getting it wrong.

We've created environments where making a mistake is worse than not trying at all. So people spend weeks planning and analysing instead of just trying something, seeing what happens, and adjusting accordingly.

This is backwards.

Some of our most successful companies – Atlassian, Canva, Guzman y Gomez – got where they are by trying things, failing fast, and moving on. Not by having perfect processes from day one.

The Bottom Line

Problem-solving isn't rocket science. It's about paying attention, asking good questions, and having the courage to try simple solutions first.

Stop making it harder than it needs to be. Your future self (and your sanity) will thank you.

And if none of this works for your particular situation? Well, at least you didn't spend six months in meetings talking about it.