GB600 Unit 4 Problem Classification Exercise Example

Eleven Uncovered Depositions, Four Problems: A Unit 4 Problem Classification Exercise for a Court Reporting Firm

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GB600: Leadership Strategies for a Changing World

Unit 4 Problem Classification Exercise

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The firm, its people and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.

The Presenting Problem

At the quarterly partners' meeting, the founder described the problem this way: "We had eleven depositions with no reporter last quarter. We need more stenographers and a scheduling system that actually works." Each uncovered deposition cost the firm the job and, in four cases, a client's confidence; two law firms have since sent work to a national competitor.

The statement treats the shortfall as one problem with two fixes. Looking at the eleven cases one by one shows four separate problems that could each exist without the others.

Four Parts, Pulled Apart

Part 1: Two calendars that never synced. The firm uses one calendar for depositions booked by clients online and another for those booked by phone through the office. Four of the eleven uncovered depositions were booked in one calendar and never appeared in the other, so no reporter was assigned.

Part 2: Forecasting coverage and pricing subcontracted days. Five of the eleven fell on days when every staff stenographer was already booked. The firm has no forecast of peak demand and no standing agreement with freelance reporters, so it searched for coverage at the last minute and failed.

Part 3: What the firm sells. Two of the eleven were depositions where a client asked whether a digitally recorded transcript, reviewed by a stenographer, would be acceptable. The office did not know whether the firm could certify such a transcript, so it declined and the depositions went uncovered. The underlying question is whether the firm should sell machine-drafted transcripts at all, and what its certification would then promise.

Part 4: A courtroom left without a report. On one morning, a judge's courtroom that the firm covers under contract had no reporter when proceedings began, because the assigned stenographer was ill and no backup was named. The judge delayed a hearing for two hours.

Grint's Three Categories

Grint (2005) argues that leaders often decide what kind of problem they face by how they choose to define it, and he distinguishes three kinds. A tame problem may be complicated but has a known solution that can be found through management and expertise. A wicked problem has no clear solution, is entangled with other problems and values, and requires leadership in the form of asking good questions and engaging others. A critical problem is a crisis that demands immediate command, with little time for consultation.

Part 1 is tame. Merging the calendars or adding a sync rule is a known fix.

Part 2 is tame but complicated. Forecasting demand and negotiating freelance agreements require analysis, but the methods are known.

Part 3 is wicked. Whether to sell machine-drafted transcripts involves the firm's identity, its stenographers' livelihoods, licensing rules still in flux and clients' changing expectations. No expert can settle it.

Part 4 is critical in the moment and tame afterward. When the courtroom has no reporter, someone must decide immediately who goes. Naming a backup for every contracted courtroom prevents the next one.

Cynefin as a Second Axis

Snowden and Boone (2007) sort situations by the relationship between cause and effect. In the clear domain, cause and effect are obvious and best practice applies. In the complicated domain, experts can work out causes by study. In the complex domain, cause and effect can be seen only in hindsight, and leaders must probe before acting. In the chaotic domain, there is no time to find cause and effect, and leaders must act first to restore order.

Part 1 is clear. Part 2 is complicated. Part 3 is complex, since no analysis can tell in advance how clients, stenographers and regulators will respond to a new service. Part 4, in its first hour, is chaotic. The two frameworks agree on every part, which gives some confidence in the classification.

The founder's two fixes solve the parts with known answers and leave the one that decides the firm's future untouched.

The Eleven, Counted Again

Counting the eleven uncovered depositions against the four parts shows how far the founder's diagnosis reaches. Four came from the unsynced calendars and five from days when no staff reporter was free, so better software and more staff would have prevented nine. Two came from the unanswered question about digital transcripts. Those two are the smallest number, but they are the only cases in which a client asked for something the firm did not know whether it could sell, and both clients have since moved work elsewhere. The courtroom failure in Part 4 does not appear in the eleven at all, because it was a contracted court, not a deposition, yet it drew the most attention from the firm's largest public client.

Who Gains from a Tame Label

Grint (2005) also observes that leaders have reasons to call a problem tame. Tame problems can be solved by people the leader already commands, with budgets the leader already controls. Hiring stenographers and buying software fit that description. Treating Part 3 as tame, for example by deciding that the firm will never offer digital transcripts, would spare the founder an uncomfortable conversation with senior stenographers. But it would not make the question go away; clients would keep asking, and the answer would be made by default each time the office declined.

Owners and Modes, Part by Part

Part 1. Owner: office manager. Mode: management. Action: merge the calendars within a month. Confidence in classification: high.

Part 2. Owner: director of operations. Mode: management with analysis. Action: build a demand forecast from two years of bookings and sign standing agreements with three freelance reporters. Confidence: high.

Part 3. Owner: the founder, with a group of senior stenographers. Mode: leadership. Action: frame the question openly, gather clients' and stenographers' views and test options in a small pilot. Confidence: medium, because parts of it may become complicated once licensing rules settle. Heifetz and Laurie (1997) would have the founder frame the question and protect the debate among stenographers rather than announce a verdict.

Part 4. Owner: the scheduling lead on duty. Mode: command in the moment, management afterward. Action: name a backup reporter for every contracted courtroom each week. Confidence: high.

The founder's plan, more stenographers and better software, addresses Parts 1 and 2 and helps with Part 4. It does nothing for Part 3, which is the part most likely to determine whether the firm is still covering depositions in five years.

References

Grint, K. (2005). Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of 'leadership'. Human Relations, 58(11), 1467-1494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726705061314

Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (1997). The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 75(1), 124-134.

Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A leader's framework for decision making. Harvard Business Review, 85(11), 68-76.