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Determine whether the description of the problem and its root causes is sufficiently rigorous by subjecting them to the five criteria that come under the acronym LASSO: limited, (capable of being) acted (on), specific, supported, and owned. Go through each of the following questions and use the five criteria to redraft the problem definition as needed.
- Which of the problems and root causes that you have identified are solvable by you or your agency? Some problems are simply going to be either too big or too far outside your jurisdiction to be subject to your impact. Eliminate those.
- Make sure that you have the authority, acceptance, and ability to act on that root cause.
- Choose a root cause you are passionate about tackling.
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L: Have I limited the scope? In other words, have I narrowed down a large problem to more readily definable smaller problems?
A: Have I described something capable of being acted on? Have I made the problem clearer by describing a problem we can realistically do something about?
S: Have I described something specific? Have I made the problem more capable of being acted on by being concrete and detailed in my description?
S: Have I described a problem that will be supported? In other words, will my organization care enough about the problem to take action and invest in an evaluation process to determine whether the solutions will work?
O: Have I identified a problem owner? Someone needs to manage the problem-solving process and communicate back to collaborators. In a well-authored problem definition, someone has responsibility to manage the solution process.
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