Danielle V. Minson — Raising the Bar

August 22, 2016 | 0 Comments

Fundamental #12: Fix Problems at the Source

For the better part of two years, our Federation team has been making a deliberate effort to define what drives our work and how we do it. The four core values of Community, Inclusivity, Learning, and Integrity rose to the top. The next step was to identify a list of fundamentals: actionable, daily core behaviors that bring our core values to life and define our culture. Each week, we make a point to focus on practicing a different fundamental, and I kick off that effort by sharing my thoughts on each one at the beginning of each week. Here are my thoughts for our twelfth week:

Fundamental #12: FIX PROBLEMS AT THE SOURCE.  Address issues by discovering the root cause rather than simply tackling the symptoms. It’s better to invest time in developing a long-term solution rather than putting on a “Band-Aid.”

First, I want to thank every member of our staff for embracing the Fundamentals as the execution of our Federation values and team culture. I appreciate everyone’s commitment to start group meetings with a few minutes reflection on the Fundamental of the week.

I have to admit that this week’s Fundamental is trickier than it sounds. Before we can fix problems at the source, we have to look at everyone who may be part of/affected by the problem and define the problem (or challenge) together. Our culture values happy, good news. So we may be concerned that announcing that there is a problem or challenge may be unpopular. It’s easier just to apply a Band-Aid. So let’s start encouraging each other to call out when there is a problem or a challenge. And let’s jump in to help define the problem and its roots.  

However, we also have to be clear that fixing problems at the source is time consuming. So sometimes, we may decide to flag a problem and schedule the “fixing” part for a later time. 

See here for Shep’s comments on all the fundamentals so far.



Shep Englander Denise Brundage Federation Way Fundamentals


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