It’s often said that very few people have clearly defined goals. I agree. And I also think that very few people are clear on what their problems actually are—that stand in the way of those loosely defined goals. They might complain about what they perceive as the problem and they may even diligently work on solving it. But in my 35 plus years working with business owners and leaders, they rarely have the problem clearly identified and unambiguously articulated.
Charles Kettering said, “A problem clearly stated is a problem half-solved.” The way we define the problem has a lot to do with how we approach the solution. Many times a re-definition will work wonders on opening new and different possibilities.
Working on solving a problem when it’s not really the problem will give you poor results. It might even be worse than doing nothing at all.
To get clear, we need to challenge our premises, drill deeper into what the problem is really about and make sure we have it identified and properly and effectively defined it. Only then can we achieve elegant results.
An erroneous belief of and a misunderstanding of the actual problem is a large and very common situation. So is an unproductive attitude or belief. Captain Jack Sparrow, the lead character in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, used the line, “The problem is not really the problem. The problem is your attitude toward the problem.” Since he was a pirate, he most likely stole or paraphrased the line. But it does have some real truth in it.
Having an ineffective attitude about a problem can be just as bad as having misdiagnosed the problem. But combine them together and problem solving becomes very difficult indeed.
We all have problems—some big, some small. And we must resolve them. In fact, that’s what we get paid to do. A business exists to provide for the needs and wants of its clients. It’s just another way of saying the business solves problems. As an employee, you’re paid to solve problems, too. But I’m guessing few people think of their jobs that way. And the better off you are at solving problems, the more value you bring to the marketplace.
So what are your biggest challenges? Are they truly the problems you think them to be? I would challenge you to question that. If you’ve been in a committed relationship for more than a few months, you’ve probably figured out that you rarely, if ever, fight about the things you think you’re fighting about. It’s almost always something deeper. And when you get to the real issue, it’s much easier to solve. Unfortunately many people never do.
This idea of trying to solve wrongly defined problems and having erroneous beliefs and attitudes about them is a big subject indeed.
Best Life Insight: The problem is rarely the problem—the problem is usually one’s attitude toward the problem.
This article was originally published on SuccessNet.org in 2012.
