CATWOE

What do you do when you're faced with a really
big business problem? (Maybe your employee retention is low, and
you are looking for the reasons why.)
Perhaps your first step is
to brainstorm the possible reasons, and maybe then you apply a
range of different problem-solving skills.
But what if you've
focused on the wrong problem, or you're just looking at a symptom
of a larger problem?
By focusing on one specific problem, you tend
to stop looking for other problems. And that's when you risk
missing something that's potentially more fundamental than the
problem you first decided to investigate. This is where CATWOE can
help you avoid making a serious mistake.
Understanding CATWOE
In the 1960s Peter Checkland, a systems
engineering professor, developed a problem-solving methodology
called Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), which sought to apply
systems principles to business and other "soft" problems.
SSM conceptualizes the activities or business being examined as
a system, the essence of which is encapsulated in a "Root
Definition."
In 1975, David Smyth, a researcher in Checkland's department,
observed that SSM was most successful when the Root Definition
included certain elements. These elements, remembered by the
mnemonic CATWOE, identified the people, processes, and
environment that contribute to a situation, issue, or problem
that you need to analyze.
CATWOE stands for:



C ustomers
Who are they, and how does the issue affect them?


A ctors
Who is involved in the situation? Who will be involved in implementing solutions? And what will impact their success?


T ransformation Process
What processes or systems are affected by the issue?


W orld View
What is the big picture? And what are the wider impacts of the issue?


O wner
Who owns the process or situation you are investigating? And what role will they play in the solution?


E nvironmental Constraints
What are the constraints and limitations that will impact the solution and its success?



When you look at all six of these elements, and consider the situation from all of these perspectives, you
open your thinking beyond the issue that sits directly in front
of you. By using CATWOE, the output of your brainstorming and
problem solving should be much more comprehensive, because you
have considered the issue from these six, very different, perspectives.
Using CATWOE
Before you try to solve an important problem,
use the CATWOE checklist to brainstorm the various people and
elements that are affected.
Taking the example of low employee retention
rates that we used at the start of this article, start your thinking
not with reasons why it is happening or by trying to identify
solutions, but by using CATWOE to expand your thinking about the
situation in general.
Step One
Define what you are thinking about. Remember, this is not a problem statement; It is merely a statement describing the situation.
"Thinking about ways to improve employee retention."
Step Two
Brainstorm ideas around the various CATWOE elements:



C: Customers
"Who is being served and what
problems are they experiencing?"

Organization as a whole:


Lower productivity because not enough people.


High costs of retraining.

High costs of losing customers.


Teams/Employees:


More work with lots of vacancies.

Stress because of increased workload.
Low moral with the high turnover.


Organization's Customers:

Low production and inexperienced staff affects quality
and supply.
Higher levels of dissatisfaction.



A: Actors
"Who will implement the
solution?"

HR department:


Must look at recruiting techniques.

Must look at internal systems that may be affecting employee
leaving rates.
Organization wide:


Must look at how employees are treated.

How are employees trained and supported?

How can we keep people happy?

Impacts:

Lots more work for everyone, may trigger cultural
changes.



T: Transformation
Process
"What is being affected?"
The system of recruiting and selecting employees including
advertising, resume screening, interviewing, testing,
reference checking.
Other systems:
Performance evaluation.
Rewards and recognition.
Training and development.
Mentoring and coaching.






W: World View
"What is the larger picture?"
Is our company culture driving people away? Or are we not
hiring the right employees? Or are we driving the right employees
away? Do people feel that they – or we – are making a positive
contribution to the world?


O: Owner
"Who owns the process currently?"
Individual managers across the organization HR Department.
Must be aware of resistance to change. Have to show value in terms of money and satisfaction.


E: Environmental
Constraints
"What constraints must you work under?"
A culture that is traditional and change resistant.
Time and money – we need lots of both.
Employees' market – it's hard to find staff.



Step Three
Analyze your "answers" to the CATWOE questions. Look for underlying processes that are having
the greatest impact on the issue you are investigating. In the example above, the following likely have the greatest impact on the issue:
Corporate Culture.
Employee Training.
Step Four
From these processes, separate
out the problems that you can identify and then begin your process
of
problem solving . Notice that you will have a larger number
of problems, and presumably more root problems, than you would
otherwise have started out with. For instance:
Our company culture
isn't people-oriented – new people are left to "sink or swim."
There's no orientation training.
The rewards we give aren't motivating and engaging people.

Key Points
CATWOE is a method for expanding your thinking
about a problem or situation before you zero in on a specific
problem that you want to solve.
By analyzing the CATWOE factors (Customers,
Actors, Transformation process, World view, Owner, Environmental
constraints) that are influencing an issue of concern, you keep
your perspective broad and are able to see the issue from many
angles.
This is a great tool to keep in mind, especially when
you first start thinking about a problem, or try to come up with
a solution.