Solving the Wrong Problem

 

A news item from Dec 2021 caught my attention and made me exclaim "You are solving the wrong problem buddy" and also reminded me of the age-old Dilbert comic that first introduced me to this concept 15+ years ago. A concept I have talked about often during my career while working with teams and even Leaders. 

The news item was titled "IISc Bangalore replaces ceiling fans with wall-mounted fans to prevent student suicides in hostels"  

And I am sure you see the irony there. Removal of ceiling fans is simply not the solution to avoid suicides and it is simple basic common sense. And yet, we are not even surprised that the institute took the easy way out.

Hopefully, the institute has done a lot more to address the issue and this headline and newstime is just looking at a very narrow picture of partial cause-effect to sensationalize and create a headline with shock-value. 

Now lets come back to 'solving the wrong problem' phenomenon.

How many times have we seen this happening?

How many times have we been a victim of it ourselves? 

And the roots of this phenomenon lie in not asking WHY/WHAT/HOW enough. When superficial and top-of-the-mind recalled symptoms of an underlying issue are considered the issue - what u do is fight the symptoms and not the issue. 

You must have heard before that the first step in solving a problem is to correctly identify the problem. And that is what most people miss out on. Problems don't present themselves on a platter. Symptoms and Effects do. The real problems / issues / causes remain hidden ... waiting to be uncovered. 

The Consulting World has existed and thrived because of this. They did exactly that. Uncovered problems and issues after digging through the symptoms.

A coach does that with individuals and teams. Works with them and enables them to dig through the rubble and find the epicenter of the problem. And even enables them to find the solution.  

A Manager should also be doing that as part of his/her daily job -- finding the root cause of any and everything that impedes the progress of work in their team ... and then resolve it directly or help the team to resolve it. 

A senior leader of the organization should also be digging through the mountains of data, information, (jumped-to)-conclusions and figure out the actual problem that needs solving, look through market research and reach the crucial customer-insight and need that needs servicing. 

As a coach, I am #OpenToConversations to help individuals uncover their issues (the real ones) as well as reach their true potential. I also help Teams reach their combined potential to achieve their stretched goals. I work with mid and senior-level executives who feel trapped in glass walls and ceilings - enabling them to go further and higher in life as well as get the best out of their teams.

#team #job #people #people #leaders #problems #solutions #coaching #teamcoaching #managers #growth #selfdevelopment #bounceback