Posted by Luke in But it’s not impossible? I was in a meeting today talking about research and it occured to me why we need to think and keep on thinking about how we think about thinking in problem solving.
Why?
A situation arose where a tough issue was up for the committee to discuss and the chair rightly made the statement that it’s probably too hard. Often they are. The kind of issues that require a lot of stakeholders, key input from a variety of people and large scale discussions of lots of people and many perspectives. Reaching consensus becomes hard, finding agreement becomes difficult and navigating the terrain of politics becomes very messy. In a hierarchy it’s even worse. The balance of power rests on the shoulders of those at the top who often are framing problems under pressure and as such go for what looks like the best option for everyone. This leads to compromise, satisificing and a situation where we all get some of what we want sometimes and everyone sacrifices something to keep the other group of people happy. In one way this kind of problem solving is negotiation and fails to really handle the deep issue that’s being discussed. Yet, in most situations I have been in, this kind of situation is exactly what we have to live with.
The too hard basket: Decisions that will never be made
True creativity that involves finding new perspectives and better ideas are often missing. Why? It’s too-hard to argue, it’s too hard to fight, it’s too hard to offend people, it’s too hard to be creative, it’s too hard to upset a risk averse culture, it’s too hard to risk the failure that might hold up my promotion, it’s too hard to risk the mortgage, it’s too hard to challenge people because they might not like me, it’s too hard to face up to reality that innovation requires a big risk with a small chance of reward, it’s too hard to create leadership and vision in an apathetic culture and so on and so on and so on. What’s too hard? Problem solving is too hard so we don’t do it. We work around it. We never make the decisions that need to be made because it’s too hard.
What constraints are there? Political, social, cultural…? Lots, that’s what makes it too hard. The cult of ‘balance’ and ‘feasibility’ will tell you that ‘it’s too hard’. They are right it is. We shouldn’t be ashamed of making these kinds of decisions because the opportunity to truly creative isn’t something you will find at most universities, businesses or fund raising events. No, it’s something you will have to search for.
True Creativity and Problem Solving means using the too hard basket
Rules are good except when they stand in the way of change. To be truly creative we need to be making decisions where we have the guts to reframe. Have you heard the saying don’t throw the baby out with the bath water? In most circumstances I have been in we empty a little bit of the water, keep the baby when we should have really tossed the kid and drained the tub. That’s not a good picture is it? Yet, that hidden assumption that things are generally ok is so bad it’s toxic. Sometimes, things are pretty far from ok. They are not ok. They are failing.
Failure is the signpost of change that says: this didn’t work. It’s like Microsoft Windows really or a badly leaking dingy… just patch it up! The bastard is sinking and water is coming in the boat but hey that’s ok because we have a lot of tape in here and that will keep this thing floating until the next poor sucker comes along and patches it up. The problem is…. it’s too hard to change when it’s easier to get people to agree, which in itself is very, very hard.
So what are we to do?
I don’t know. But I know this: things don’t always get worse before they get better, sometimes they keep getting worse until they become bottom of the fridge nasty. So we are faced with a tough choice. Do we innovate, negotiate or detonate? These are tough choices. In my meeting experience this morning I caught a glimpse of how hard it is to be innovative and create new directions when you answer to so many people. It’s difficult and requires support. In my limited experience, real problem solving means: bringing out the concern, the perspectives that construct it, the stakeholders and finding ways to reach a place where the problem is no longer a problem. It sounds simple? It isn’t!
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Hi Luke!..Its not simple at all.The late Russell,Johnie and I went through tough similar experiences like yours..I wish I could scream that it was time for changing
our mindsets on the issues you just-fully rose! But unfortunately with so many parties
hanging around that have to be taken into account,only Russell and I will readily destroy the the system overnight. The rest will chicken out.. the description of the mess that you have made is splendid,but
that you have made is splendid,but creativity has to be fought through..just get yourself promoted without any further
analysis and let others worry about the consequences! take my advice on this one!
Cheers!
This is insightful. Thanks Mike. It is very hard to stand up and argue against things like this. I am guessing that in time you either try or give up. Your advice is excellent as always.
Luke
My thoughts on this subject may seem naive, but I am a (perhaps former) successful professional problem-solver. Perhaps I have more experience of success in this field than most, but you may be sure that if I knew the secret, I wouldn’t be spilling the beans here. (;) It’s a lot easier to learn from failure than success
)
My first boss, in the days before there were PCs in the department, briefed me on my first assignment: “The solution is a green button. Your job is to sort out the details.” Needless to say, the solution was never going to be any kind of button of any colour; but it was good advice nonetheless. Excellent solutions are all but invisible.
“It’s not too hard, it’s too early.” And that, I’m sure, is a good thing. My point is that it’s far too easy to get bogged down in all the constraints and issues, politics, barriers to change, and what-have-you. These are not as unavoidable as they seem but, in any event, if you can’t or won’t do anything about them today, what are you going to do? The wise thing to do is something that it is not too early to do, even if that is only enumerating the reasons why it is too early to do anything else.
“What’s the problem exchange-rate?” The aging cynic in me is inclined to the view that a “solution” to a well understood problem is a new set of poorly understood problems. What I really want to hear from a stakeholder is what they would like their new problems to be. You can imagine that the direct approach is not one I’ve often dared to take. But when you can have a serious discussion about whole-world priorities, it always sheds new light on the particular “problem” we’re supposed to be solving. What we want is a solution that is woven into the fabric of the post-solution world.
“And then a miracle occurs!” Perhaps you know the cartoon? There is a perceived risk that we might put too much effort into nibbling around the edges of a problem and somehow forget to solve the problem itself. I’ve never come close to this scenario because focusing on things we can settle straightaway does lead to the discovery of a solution or, at least, a preferable set of problems that, understanding the circumstances, we decide we can live with.
“We can dream, can’t we?” You are living in the post-solution world, recalling this comment. With the benefit of hindsight, the foresight seems remarkable! For now you do indeed have pretty much exactly the problems you anticipated and accepted you would have. And this is how we define success!
Hi Alan,
You should be teaching at a university. Perhaps a university that would allow people to explain what problem solving really is to students… the phrase you used (which I am paraphrasing!) is that we exchange one set of problems for another group we are happy with, or that focusing on that which we can settle straightaway is a kind of genius to me. Perhaps it’s because I am yet to work out the meaning of my own research or my life experience is still low. As a matter of fact I think changing my definition of problem solving to problem exchanging is a really good idea… I should write a paper on that. Somebody may read it. What an excellent idea.
My own experience of course of working with a senior manager one time was that he was convinced that his business needed more exposure. Then one day it happened by accident. This particular business hasn’t looked back really. All because of a happy accident. This attention gave him ideas for marketing that he didn’t know existed. It made me realise that problem solving is really a matter of thinking about how to solve the problem and the reasons why we think it’s a problem and how best to frame it. Which sounds counter-intuitive to me but as you say, solving stuff now that can be solved leads to better solutions later. I have found the same thing in designing programs and basically being a fairly mediocre academic (so far). This lends itself to the idea, from my academic perspective anyway, that problems even though we interpret them as such, are more like learning opportunities that we should take even though failure is an absolute certainty in most cases. The thing that got me thinking about the challenge was am I up to it? Or as you say is this the right time for the challenge or to wait?
Sorry for the long comment but it reminds me of the Garbage Can model of decision making too. Problems float around for a while in our mind until an opportunity comes along to solve them and make a decision about it. They also float around in our business and we notice the pain they cause (I read a great book on this once). The pain stays we don’t change the problem or whatever it is that’s cycling around until we have reached a point where we have to or can’t. It’s an interesting thing to study… but I should move on or grow to something serious like ‘strategy’.
Thanks as always Alan.
You’re welcome, Luke.
“Everything’s a problem, or nothing is.” I confess that I do object to the term “problem solving” for all sorts of reasons. I’m not in the buzz-phrase business, but my interest is in “outcome optimization” in the context of “organizational change”. The “problem” is the rationale for the “change” and the “solution” is what we choose to “optimize” within the post-change “outcome”.
Real-world outcomes are always multi-dimensional, and the general rule is that improving the outcome in one dimension tends to result in a lesser improvement or a deterioration in another dimension, or other dimensions. Consequently, a trade-off across objective-dimensions is implicit. Explicit modelling of the trade-offs, in what I call an “objective function”, seems more or less impracticable for all but the simplest of scenarios, bearing in mind that the Law of Diminishing Returns applies independently to each objective-dimension (and differently for each stakeholder).
Oh dear, I’m in danger of saying too much and too little at one and the same time! The destination I was heading for is that the objective-function is, in large part, common to a range of actual and plausible scenarios within the same context (reflecting, as it does, the stakeholders’ values). It can therefore be considered “solution independent”. What happens in the Garbage Can, or, as I prefer to think of it, the Compost Bin, is that the abstract objective-function is increasingly well understood (tacitly, as a rule) and the innate, non-conscious creative-critic within the individuals involved is able to conceive of more promising ideas for less sub-optimal scenarios (no, seriously!).
Good luck with your paper!
Very well-said and so insightful. Creativity is something all of us in the corporate world could use to direct good results our way; however, as you have mentioned, indeed, it’s the fear of failure that keeps us from using it. But in my case, what I foundnd ridiculous is that we already had a big flop in our hands yet still our heads persisted in sticking to the same failed formula instead exercising creativity and good judgement by analysing the many creative proposals submitted to them to reverse the situation.