Every organisation has an “idea blocker”, they mean well but they are the ones who hinder the adoption and successful implementation of new initiatives which lead to higher growth and improved productivity. They can be difficult to spot too, they are very well liked and respected, they use uncomplicated language which is so familiar and believable to point out why a suggestion won’t work; phrases like “Ah… you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink!”.
unsolvable problems; when you think about it has to be true, it’s just we don’t think about it that way; we are more likely to express the problem in a specific business context like: “we need more customers” or “we need more cash” or “we need to be more productive!”. The experts have even created some jargon for it and you can even get consultants to assess if your organisation is VUCA ready?
That is the thing with problem solving - people in general do not understand how to solve problems. That is not to say that people don’t solve problems, they do; it’s just if you asked 100 people how they managed to solve a problem, my experience as a coach would suggest that 99% of those asked would have no idea of the process they used. They will probably shrug their shoulders and say something like “I don’t know, lucky guess!”. I am one of the rare 1% who has the ability to solve complex problems and understands the process that I use; it was pure accident that I found out. Twenty five years of experience of managing complex projects and senior management roles in the ever changing IT services sector gave me the skills to solve complex problems, aided by retraining as a coach when I was made redundant 10 years ago gave me, to my surprise, the techniques and insights to discover how I did it, and the ability to teach others.
Let us be a bit collaborative in our thinking and borrow some wisdom from one of the greatest problem solvers of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein:
So why are organisations poor at solving the big problems that make a difference to the amount We have heard phrases like this so many times, of success that can be achieved (such as more they are etched deep in our psyche, we accept sales, better cash flow, more productivity)? them as a universal truth, the effect on most of us is instant, we dismiss the idea and search for The most immediate answer that comes to another idea. Actually, the statement is totally mind is that generally in business there is wrong; there is a way you can take a horse to always extreme time pressure, a quick answer water and make it drink, and when I explain it is wanted or at least a quick easy win, and that to you later it will seem so very obvious. is never a good starting point.
“I’m not particularly smart I just stick with problems longer than others” So this explodes the myth that “smart” is another word for “intelligence”, and suggests that a key element in solving big problems is sticking at it or being persistent; and based on my experience I would suggest that to be good at “persistence” you need strong emotional resilience to keep going in the face of annoying problems (probably people related) which will either distract you or make you procrastinate. “If I were given an hour in which to solve a problem upon which my life depended, I would spend 55 minutes deciding the proper question to ask. For once i know the proper question to ask myself, i will solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.”
This has led me to believe that an organization’s ability to achieve sustained success year after This provides us with a massive clue about how year is built on a core skill of solving seemingly to solve big problems. Essentially we have to 23