I was having a quick business meeting today, when mid meeting, it occurred to me that I was assessing a problem for a business in an almost identical way to a common clinical pain assessment technique.

Back in 1997, I started my career as an Ambo. Back then we were taught to always assess “pain” by following a simple process, identified by the acronym

PQRST. It stands for…

• Provokes (What is causing/provoking your pain?)
• Quality (What does the pain feel like? We always asked the patient to “describe” the pain to get an understanding of the problem)
• Radiation (Where is the pain? In one specific place? In many places?)
• Severity (How sever is this pain? Rate it on a scale of 1-10 relative to your own experience with pain)
• Time on onset (When did the pain start?)

It occurred to me that I can also use this simple process in business. It also occurred to me that I was doing it anyway…I just didn’t match it up with my clinical training until now.

This process can be applied to any situation in business. The principle of understanding the history of a problem cannot be ignored.

Provoke: What is causing the pain? Cash flow? Poor sales? Product or stock?

This will assist in identifying the underlying cause

Quality: Describe what the pain feels like (the symptoms of the pain).

Breaks down the information in Provoke. Provoke could be the “cause” and quality (symptoms) can be the “effects”.

Radiation: How far has this problem spread?

Gives an understanding of the ‘size’ of the problem. Is it just internal, or is it affecting your suppliers, customers or other stakeholders?

Severity: On a scale of 1-10, how do you rate the severity of this problem?

How much attention should you give to this issue? Is it the worst problem ever? Or will it help if you can prioritise other business activity around this so you don’t go creating more problems by making this a higher priority than it should be?

Time of Onset: When did this problem start? (that you know of).

This can assist to identify the actual cause of the problem. More often than not if you can attach issues and problematic symptoms to a timeline, it can help identify the point of error,  helping you to learn from your mistakes (and we’ve all made some big ones…right?)

So next time you’re facing a problem in business, try assessing the problem using the PQRST method and see if it can provide you with some problem solving clarity.