What, exactly, is your problem?

If you had a problem.?And you had an hour. How would you spend it?

I had an hour this week, but I spent it on having a moan (I call it a conversation) about the complexities of delivering change. Especially the main one, other people.

If I only had one hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions. ?Albert Einstein

I don’t know about you, but as leaders of change, how often do we take the effort to really understand the problem we are trying to fix?

Last week I endured the full pack of cards, - the blockers, the naysayers, the strong opinions, the quiet ones who probably had better ideas than mine, the ego's that just want to be heard, the friends who support you so much they don’t provide a critical view and point out the fatal flaw in your reasoning, and more you could imagine.?

And though it might seem that these people are getting in your way on purpose tempting you to lose patience and demand, 'what exactly is your problem?' it’s far more likely are just doing what they think is right to the best of their ability and don't agree with or understand the problem you are trying to solve. (See Stakeholder Grid 2 PET)

It’s almost as if we have a fashion in ‘solutions of the month’.

As we conversed, we realised that we could describe the solutions we were transfixed on reaching much better than the problems they were to resolve.?What, after all, is the problem Digital Transformation is supposed to solve??How about Electric cars? Diversity at work? Hybrid working? Cultural Agility? Zero Carbon? The solutions feel morally right and have a brand and virtue of their own, but they are unconnected to any underlying pain and misery of the problems real people are crying out loud to have resolved. It’s almost as if we have a fashion in ‘solutions of the month’.?That feels weird.

How many of us are working hard on a solution unsure how it is connected to the fundamental problem??Test yourself now. Why do we need digital transformation? Did you reach an urgent, real, clear-and-present dangerous problem??Or you could ask yourself, ‘So what if that does/doesn't happen?' ?Did time implode? ?

You can’t make the world a better place... because you don’t know what the world wants!

Or you can engage with people to tell you. Now you glimpse the problem you can explore what a solution needs to do. There might be much easier, quicker and alternative solutions to the actual problem. Making people have fun and be efficient instead of digitising their work.?Putting on an extra cardigan instead of replacing all the cars on the road.

We realised that the closer the solution was to the real problem the more easily you can engage with other people.?They begin to bet on your solution as something that will help them and are more likely to want it. They ‘ll get on board and collaborate with you to work towards success. Together you will create an appropriate solution for the specific problem.?

It is NOT a solution if it doesn't resolve a problem... or creates even more in its wake

This week's #PET is Problem55. Inspired by Einstein we created it for him to use but alas he is no longer with us, so you will have to use it instead.?Mavericks and innovators who need to make progress without getting caught in the treacle of the organisation have a problem.?The example below maps the problem of resistance from being direct. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said to me that they need more collaborative and efficient ways of working. If I reply, ‘You know, you've been doing things wrong all this time. I have a much better solution for how you work. It's called QUBE and I’ve proven it for the past 10 years," I never get anywhere. If, however, I work through Problem55 with the stakeholder to make sure we both understand their problem. ?Now we glimpse the problem we can explore what a solution needs to do.?We will both be aligned to explore what the solutions might be.?

This week, look at your current leadership change challenge.?Ask yourself, ‘What is the real problem here'? Then repeat the process with your stakeholders, your team, your client. ?Spend that hour.

?END

p.s. If you discover the well-kept secret of why all these organisations need to digitally transform, please let me know. In fact, if you discover the clear and present problems any of our fashionable-solutions are set to address, that would be useful.?We could then collaborate and use #Problem55 to help craft better, real solutions.

p.ps. And if you recognise the problem in the example, definitely get in touch!