One man Dale Carnegie interviewed, who was a CEO or captain of industry of some sort, found that he was bombarded by memos and calls from people of the, "What should we do about the xyz problem?" sort. He solved this by asking his staff to format all their memos in the following way:
1. What is the problem? 2. What is the cause of the problem? 3. What are all possible solutions to the problem? 4. What solution do you suggest?