Craig Tedrow spent twenty-seven years at the same company. He was thinking about a career change. It was 2011, and at that time computer networking was all the buzz. He enrolled in a two-year program to become a computer networking professional. If you ask Craig, he will tell you he learned two things during that endeavor. One, despite his extraordinary ability to get his 88-year-old mothers T.V. and remote control talking to each other again, his basic computer skills left a lot to be desired. And two, he learned very quickly this was not going to be a good fit for him! However, Craig remembers one computer programing course in particular. During this course, he was taught to break down the problem, or issue you are trying to solve, into more manageable chunks. The smaller parts can then be examined and solved, or designed individually. That way they are easier to work with. In computer science it’s called decomposition. Or, I like to say, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew”.

Similarly, trying to understand how a complex system works is easier using this method. For example, understanding how a vehicle works is more straightforward if the whole vehicle is separated into smaller parts. Each part is examined to see how it works. Operating this way, we will walk away with a much better understanding of the process.

Why should our problems be any different? They shouldn’t be.

Desmond Tu Tu said, “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”  When he said this, he meant everything in life that seems daunting, overwhelming, and even impossible can be accomplished gradually by taking on just a little at a time.

Follow these steps:

First, work as a team to look at the big picture. Understand the whole system and how each piece fits into the whole and how they all work together to create a final product or service for a customer.

Second, leverage the team to break your problem down into smaller problems. Then, determine a logical order for addressing the problems.

Next, create a timeline to address each problem individually with structured root cause analysis. Have a plan to stay on track!

Finally, as you solve each problem at the root, take time to pause and celebrate before moving to the next small problem. Share your progress.

Soon enough, you will have eaten the entire elephant!