I’m a fan of problem solving, that’s clear from this website. I like problems, I like solving problems and I like pushing teams to solve their problems. After all these years, working with all these teams and seeing both the good and the bad examples, there’s only one conclusion: Problem Solving is the most critical tool for commercial leaders and their team members. It’s up to us as leaders, to enable our teams to solve their problems.
Don’t Worry About Problems, But Make Sure You Focus On Your Problems
A problem, in its finest form, is nothing more than the delta between where you are today and where you want to be. It’s typically a KPI telling you that you’re not at your goal…yet. I’ve come across leaders that have difficulty with the word ‘problem’ due to its negative sound. For me that only shows there’s some cultural work to be done, to create an atmosphere where ‘red is the new green‘.
Problems are everywhere and if you can’t find them, you’re not looking good enough. Problems, in the spirit of kaizen, feed into the journey of continuous improvement. And since this journey is continuous, problems are omnipresent. Worst case, we’ll just create a problem by moving the goal post. That trick always works.
So, problems are everywhere. This means that to stay ahead and build proper competitive advantage, we need to solve for those problems and build an organisation of problem solvers.
Every Success Starts with a Problem
True progress, on a personal level or on a global level, has always been achieved as an outcome of problem solving. I overcome my fear of heights and other anxieties. Humanity closed the hole in the ozone-layer.
It’s very often the problem, the moment you’re suddenly confronted with a new situation, that pushes us to think. Think about what is the obstacle in front of us, where it came from, what its cause is. And through ideation, experimentation, failure and perseverance we come up with solutions. Some are just to stop the hurting right now (a band aid), some focus on solving for the root cause and building a foundational new reality.
Think about why Steve Jobs came up with the iPhone – he was sick of having to deal with ill-designed technology that didn’t place the user at the center. Why was Spotify created? It was hard to find a radiostation (even among the thousands) that would play your individual music taste, it’s impossible and not economic to buy all music, even the music you’ve never heard. Problems drive innovation.
Leadership is About Leading Through Challenges
Us, as leaders, we’re task to navigate teams through the unknown. It might look like we’re living in unprecedented times with more and more challenges. Reality check: times have always been challenging, or as Morgan Housel puts it: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes”.
Our job as leaders is to build an organisation, like an organism, that is agile, adaptable to change. For we learned in high school that the one who survives is the one most adaptable to change. How do endure in times with changing technology, society sentiments that shift weekly, facing a climate crisis and greedy shareholders breathing down our neck. It’s to go full in and face the challenges. It’s about looking at what’s happening, what are the underlying causes and how you can deal with it. It’s about being specific what we as organisations can do, what’s in our control without being a victim. That’s problem solving in its core.
A Framework for Problem-Solving Creates Predictable Success
Speaking of our shareholders, those we compete for. What do they demand from us first and foremost? Predictability, keeping commitments and high say-do ratios. That is how leaders win over the hearts (and wallets) of investors.
Then you need a process, a framework and a talented team trained on the idea that they can solve any problem, as long as you define the problem properly, go deep for rootcauses and experiment, try and learn. If anything, the outcome of a problem solving exercise is an Action Plan, which when executed and sustained properly, leads to achieving the target.
Problem solving is your competitive advantage – act now!
The world keeps on changing, challenges are thrown at you by the world, by society and by competition. You need to innovate to stay in front while satisfying your shareholders.
You need a process, a tool, a mindset and a talented team. You need an army of problem solvers.
Ready to face challenges?
Problem Solving is my passion, I can share it with you and your team
