How to distinguish between symptoms and the core problem
Distinguishing a core problem from a symptom can be challenging. For instance, lack of trust may be the core problem when people first start collaborating. However, a lack of trust at later stages of a partnership is usually a symptom of another underlying issue, such as a lack of transparency in resource allocation or failure to address members' competitiveness. The solution in these cases differs as well; at later stages, you can't overcome a lack of trust simply through team-building retreats or job shadowing.
To effectively distinguish between a problem and its symptoms, try answering the following questions as specifically as possible:
What makes me frustrated or causes difficulties? Why is it problematic?
When does it happen?
What are three possible reasons for this? ("My partner is an idiot" is not one of them).
These three reasons are your working hypotheses. What data do you need to test it, and where can you get it from?
Example:
You think that the problem is low meeting attendance. The answer to your previous steps may look like:
What makes me frustrated or causes difficulties? Why is it problematic? Because of low attendance, we often do not have a quorum to make important decisions and waste a lot of time.
When does it happen? It happens every time we need to approve the budget.
What are three possible reasons for this? What data do I need to test these hypotheses?
