1.1 From Challenges to Opportunities
In the workplace, many of the communication tasks you perform are designed to solve a problem, improve a situation, or act on an opportunity. Whether you are working for a client, for your employer, with your team, or for someone else, you will typically use some sort of organized process to tackle and solve the problem, pursue the opportunity, or to transform a challenge into an opportunity. Along the way, your communications reflect the values and policies of the organization, which, in addition to aiding in achieving goals, should also include active promotion of inclusion, diversity, and sustainability, among other socially responsible initiatives. Remembering that the foundation of any successful business is its people will lead you to creating communications that are people-focused even though they may also be goal-oriented. This focus should underlie any work you do because all business thrives on fostering and sustaining strong relationships.
Using a design process can offer a clear, step-by-step plan for finding the best approach for addressing communication situations. Take a moment to search the Internet for the term “design process” and look at “images.” You will find many variations. Have a look at several of them and see if you can find a common pattern.
One commonality you will likely find in examining other people’s design process diagrams is this: The first steps in designing any solution is to analyze the audience and then clearly define the problem. Analyzing the audience allows you to adapt the process to the needs of the audience. When defining the problem, you are also determining, in part, a course of action. Figure 1.1.1 shows Elon University’s basic design thinking process. Think about the kind of communication that each step of this process might entail.
You cannot begin to work on solutions or pursue opportunities until know your audience and have a clear definition of the problem or situation and the goals you want to achieve. These critical first stages of the design process require that you effectively communicate with the “client” or whoever has the “problem” that needs solving or wherever the opportunity lies. Poor communication at this stage can derail a project from the start.
Before we examine the step-by-step process to developing a business/research problem, the video below will review the importance of clearly defining a business/research problem.
For our purposes, we will use Barry Hyman’s Problem Formulation model (2002) to define a problem. Hyman’s Problem Formulation model consists of four elements:
- Need Statement: recognizes and describes the need for a solution or improvement to an “unsatisfactory situation.” It answers the questions, “what is wrong with the way things are currently? What is unsatisfactory about the situation? What negative effects does it cause?” You may need to do research and supply data to quantify the negative effects.
- Goal Statement: descri