“Don’t Bring Me Problems, Bring Me Solutions!”

Is this a useful maxim in management theory?? Is it still relevant in today’s world?

According to sources, Teddy Roosevelt said this in – wait for it – 1897!!!

(OK, he didn’t exactly say those words, he said: “Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.”? But it’s turned into the above popular maxim.)

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This week I reflect on the assumptions I carry about ‘management theory’ or ‘leadership theory’.

This is so important to us as Executive Coaches.? It’s like the ground we stand on, the foundations beneath us, as we work with managers and leaders, or anyone really, working within an organisation.

I’ve written before about changing our paradigm – about who we are in the world.? I’ve written about a ‘shift in consciousness’ – but this is pretty hard to get our minds around.

I write a lot about ‘the big problems’ in the world.? Such as climate crisis, mental health epidemics (increasing depression and anxiety), the cost of living crisis, burnout in organisational life, wars and social injustice.

The ‘polycrises’ of our time have no easy answers.? How do we know what to do, and what to say, as we sit with people, in our capacity as coaches, and they are mired in these problems?

I’ve written before about changing our paradigm – about who we are in the world.? I’ve written about a ‘shift in consciousness’ – but this is pretty hard to get our minds around.

Living Systems Theory helps us.? It gives us a different way to view our ‘agency’ in the world.? If we can move away from linear, rational thinking, when considering complex, ‘wicked’ problems, we can definitely find reassurance and hope.? (Again see a previous Blog for this….)

There is definitely a ‘way to go’ in our society, and amongst organisational leaders, to really understand systems thinking, and be able to step into this new modus operandi.?

So I’m always curious about other ways to frame our problems and how we can face into complexity and the potential for ‘waves of sheer disempowerment’’.

This is how I come to be thinking about management theory, and the deeper assumptions and beliefs which underlie it.

I was delighted to come across Professor Andy Hoffman’s work this week – I wrote a short Post on this.

https://andrewhoffman.net/

His career of over 30 years has been spent in eminent business schools in the US.? He is also now a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Business School’s ‘Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society’ (BiGS for short).

He is posing a BIG challenge!

Here’s a summary of his latest book (Management as a Calling:? Leading Business, Serving Society (2021) (the emphases are mine): https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=33255

“Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power.

This book is meant to challenge future business leaders to think differently about their career, its purpose, and its value as a calling or vocation, one that is in service to society.

We face great challenges as a society today, from environmental problems like climate change and habitat destruction, to social problems like income inequality, unemployment, lack of a living wage, and poor access to affordable health care and education.

Solutions to these challenges must come from the market

(as comprised of corporations, the government, and nongovernmental organizations, as well as the many stakeholders in market transaction, such as the consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, and banks),

- the most powerful institution on earth, and from business, which is the most powerful entity within it.

Though government is an important and vital arbiter of the market, business is the force that transcends national boundaries, possessing resources that exceed those of many nations.

Business is responsible for producing the buildings that we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the forms of mobility we employ, and the energy that propels us.

This does not mean that only business can generate solutions or that there is no role for government, but with its unmatched powers of ideation, production, and distribution, business is positioned to bring the change we need at the scale we need it.

Without business, the solutions will remain elusive. Indeed, if there are no solutions coming from the market, there will be no solutions. And without visionary and service-oriented leaders, business will never even try to find them.”

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I really find this great food for thought.

Katherine Hutt Scott of Harvard Business School’s BiGS interviewed Andy Hoffman (https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/blog/post/capitalism-faces-systemic-challenges) :

“Business schools are starting to realize that they aren’t adequately addressing

issues faced by today’s or tomorrow’s CEOs. There’s a growing movement

to encourage business schools to evolve education and produce more relevant

research that can support new models of capitalism.”

Hoffman believes that the capitalist model that’s been with us since the 1970s and 1980s now faces systemic problems like climate change and inequality.” “We’re watching this model die under its own weight. To fix a systemic problem, you have to change the system that caused it.”

“The question is, what comes next? We must ask tough questions if we’re going to address things like climate change,” Hoffman said.

Business education has been evolving over the last 30 years, prompted by a change in corporate culture as a whole. Today’s business school students can also learn about corporate sustainability strategies, circular operations or the social purpose of the firm in addition to the usual three C’s—company, customers and competitors.

He argues that a quantum leap is required in business education and research:

“It is time to take management research to the next level. That requires challenging the outdated research culture and norms that dominate business school scholarship……

Hoffman was also interviewed by the Financial Times: (https://www.ft.com/content/0500d456-6c2d-4bc9-af85-e4be5c9ae5d1 ):

"We must challenge the current research norms and culture by exploring what metrics will reflect environmental impact. We must look beyond narrow human utility and ask how to address the widening climate divide between the poorest people, who are least responsible for climate change but most at risk, and the most affluent, who are most to blame and have the resources to adapt to its effects.”

What does this challenge in each of us, in our practice as managers and leaders and executive coaches?

Where do we need to challenge our own paradigm, our (mostly) unconscious beliefs and assumptions, the theoretical ground we’ve maybe been standing on for 30+ years?

I can feel it, often, within my grasp, then I need to challenge my thinking again, stop, wonder, fret…..

I look forward to diving into this book!

I’m already sharing it’s title and ideas with supervisees (two groups so far this week!).

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And yes, an example of an outdated management maxim (“Don’t Bring Me Problems, Bring Me Solutions!”) …..SO unfit for purpose, in our world today.

Instead, we need to encourage others to sit with their ‘pain for the world’ as Joanna Macy would say.? Sit with ‘not knowing’.? Sit with difficult emotions.? NOT rush to solutions.? Honour our difficult feelings.? Be heard, be seen, listened to, be understood, be empathised with.? THAT is what is powerful.? And so, so needed.? And out of that human connection, there is the possibility for a client to then perhaps intuitively know, what they need to do.? What the next step is.? Or what inside of them needs attended to.?

Does this description remind anyone of 'coaching'?!

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To get in touch with me: [email protected] or Comment on LinkedIn.

'Til next time......Go Well.