You’re seriously worried as a manager about a work problem, which you are responsible for fixing.

You’ve tried ignoring it.

However, it is already costing you time and money, and it might cost you customers.

The problem is not going away and looking severe enough to eventually affect the whole business, which is what is making you seriously worried.

You’ve tried quick fixes, but nothing works. It appears insoluble. Eventually, you have admitted to yourself you just don’t know what to do.

What you need is a different approach. A way to finally get you out of this mess.

There is a way.

It’s a way of dealing with problems and improving the way work is done that has been proven for almost five decades, which really works.

A3 Storyboard

Amazingly A3 Storyboard and process puts dealing with your problem on one page. There are three essentials to using the A3 Storyboard. Obviously, one is an A3 (42cm x 29.7cm) sheet of paper, which maps and summarises your journey step-by-step as you work out a way forward.

In addition, as the Problem Owner, it is essential you have two conversations. The first is engaging in conversations with people who are directly involved with the issue, including customers and suppliers. In these you will need to have your open-minded coaching head on!

The second is having a coaching conversation with your boss, a colleague or a coach. It is really important that this is a true coaching conversation with the other person asking “good” questions that challenge your approach and thinking.

The benefit of coaching is it creates the space and time for you to really think about the whole situation.

As you can see below, there are two sides to the A3 format. On the left is the “what is happening and why” side and on the right is the “way forward”.

Step 1 Title

The first thing you need is a title that is unique, short, sweet and to the point. It needs to be easily recognizable as identifying this particular problem.

Step 2 Background

Next you describe the background to the issue in, ideally, two bullet points that must link to some higher level “aims” such as the strategy, business plan, some operational need or perhaps some personal developmental issues.

So far so good. It has been quite straight forward. Now it gets a little more challenging.

Step 3 Current Situation

Critically, the current situation must draw on the knowledge and observations of those directly involved with the problem or issue. Get the facts!

To fit the information on this one-page visual images are a great help. These can include diagrams, charts and graphical presentation of measured data. A bullet-pointed problem statement is also useful in describing the situation.

Step 4 Goal/Ideal Future Situation

Next you arrive at a good but challenging part of the process. This is drafting a single bullet-pointed sentence stating the goal or ideal future situation. It needs to be agreed with all those familiar with the current situation, fit with the strategy, business plan and satisfy customer needs.

By the way, why not call it a ‘target’? Put simply, life can be more complex than you are expecting, so it is possible that you might not get a perfect cause and effect as a result of your change or improvement.

Just like a soccer goal, the ‘ball’ could go anywhere within the net! Be prepared for the change or improvement not to work. However, whatever the outcome, be prepared to analyse and learn from it. Knowing what does not work is valuable too.

Step 5 Root Cause Analysis

So far so relatively conventional. The final section on this left-hand side requires digging to really understand the underlying or root causes of your problem situation. As stated above, involve those people directly connected with the situation. Ask what is actually happening, good and bad.

As this step requires really digging down and it is useful to ask the “5 Whys”. Starting by asking why, at the surface, does this appear to be happening? What appears to be causing this. Then why might that be. Go on asking why anywhere between 2 and 10 times until you are sure, based on what you know now, you have found the underlying or root cause of your problem situation.

To record your analysis or outcomes from conversations, it may help others to understand the situation by using some form of visual method such as a fishbone diagram, plotting data in a graph or perhaps - if it is a process - a flowchart or value stream map.

The advantage of this visual approach is that it summarises and shares the results of the analysis in a highly space efficient way and communicates your findings more quickly.

There are many visual methods of analysis; however, with care, the so-called questioning method is effective and can also be made more visual.

Now you are ready for the right-hand side.

BTW: Problem Owner & Revision Dates

Heading the right-hand side is the admin box shown in grey in the image for you to enter your name or initials, as the problem owner, and the dates of every time the A3 is added to or revised.

Step 6 Recommended Countermeasures

First on moving to the right-hand side of the A3 process, you next focus on generating recommended ways forward. Again, input from those in the situation is essential.

With those directly involved with the situation, you need to ideally generate at least three possible countermeasures for the root cause. These then need to be assessed and compared to enabling selection based effectiveness, cost and risk.

At this point you might be asking why the proposed ways forward are called countermeasures rather than solutions. I’m afraid this is where stark reality is encountered. Any situation is the result of multiple influences and interactions. It is difficult to predict what the outcome of a change will actually be.

Step 7 Implementation Plan

Having chosen a way forward, you next need an implementation plan, which details who will do what, when, ideally using a Gantt chart and possibly including any special instructions indicating who is responsible for certain actions.

As you may already know, a Gantt chart commonly used in managing projects that shows activities against time. On the left of the chart the activities are listed and on the right a series of bars represent times for the start, duration and finish of the activity.

Step 8 Follow Up

Having created your plan, you will need to include actions to evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen countermeasure and implementation plan. Ideally this will include some form of data measurement.

There may be indications for follow-on activities and contingencies should risks have been identified in Step 6.

Step 9 Just Do It

Before you heard about the A3 Storyboard and process you had not been able to deal effectively with problems, issues, challenges or change. The quick-fixes you tried were ineffective and the ‘costs and risk’ to your business may have seemed serious.

Now you have your completed A3 Storyboard it provides a roadmap to guide the project and engage your team, colleagues and bosses. You can now have greater confidence in the steps required for working out ways that will be effective in resolving the current situation. So, just do it!

With the aid of your A3 roadmap you can better engage your team in dealing with problems and in addition present a more professional image to your bosses.

With use across five decades, including by industry leaders across the sectors, you can be confident that A3 will enable you to be more effective as a manager and still have a job! Yes, you can do this.

Next Step

Choose the problem, issue or challenge you need to deal with, the team members who are involved with the situation and someone to act as your coach.

Other A3 Formats

In addition to this problem-resolution format three other formats are common: Proposal Story, Status Story and Info Story.

An important thing thing to remember is that the A3 Storyboard and process can and should be varied according the the issue being dealt with. The fundamental point about A3 is the Conversations, Thinking, Reflection, and Learning not necessarily the format.