Are you solving the right problem?

Or failing to focus where you can drive results?

It’s tough to realize, but we’re halfway through 2024.

Many of us will wrap up the week, the month, and the quarter and prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday (or Canada Day on 7/1). I invite you to pause and consider the past six months, what you have accomplished, and what goals remain for you, maybe looking at how you are expanding your mastery of communication skills. You might even look back at my post comparing anxiety and excitement as we began 2024. In particular, I invite you to consider whether your efforts this year are focused on solving the right problem.

In Michael Michalko’s groundbreaking (for its time, 1991) creativity book Thinkertoys, he provided this illustration. In the 1950s, ocean-going shipping was a dying industry. Costs were rising, and it took longer and longer to get merchandise delivered. The longer goods piled up waiting to be loaded, the more theft occurred at the docks. Then the shipping industry formulated this challenge: “How might we make ships more economical at sea and in transit from one port to another?” They built faster ships, reduced fuel requirements, and limited crew size. Although costs continued to rise, the industry concentrated its efforts on reducing the specific costs related to ships while at sea and doing work.

They were doing things right, but they weren't doing the right thing.

A ship is capital equipment, and therefore its biggest cost is when its not being used. Finally, a consultant stretched the industry's challenge by asking: “In what ways might the shipping industry reduce costs?”

This allowed them to consider all aspects of shipping, including loading and stowing. The innovation that saved the industry was to load freight on land before the ship was in port. It is much quicker to take on and take off preloaded freight. They decided to concentrate on the costs of not working and reduce the time a freighter spends in port. The answer was the roll-on, roll-off ship, and the container ship pictured below.

This simple solution was the direct result of reframing the challenge. The results were startling. Michalko reported that freighter traffic increased fivefold from 1960 to 1990, and costs were down by 60%. Port time was reduced by 75%, and thus, congestion and theft also declined. As long as the industry was tied to answering the wrong question, “improving the economics at sea” there was no way to devise an innovative solution.

We often strive to solve problems for ourselves and our teams, but the challenge is to first determine which problem we are actually solving.

This was made clear to me in a recent conversation with a prospective client who insightfully said, “I’m not looking for public speaking training for my team. I want to bring greater clarity of thought, which will then be expressed in how well they communicate.” He was committed to solving a more nuanced problem than simply improving their speaking skills.

Here are some tips to consider as you begin your diagnosis and analysis of a problem:

1. Continually rephrase the problem while solving it - Challenge your team to phrase (and rephrase) the question from a number of perspectives: customers, vendors, front-line staff, senior management, shareholders, and even competitors. Strive to see how each constituency has a slightly different version of the same situation.

2. Look in unlikely places for answers - Just as hospitals are learning a great deal about how to treat patients and visitors from the hospitality industry, you too can find unlikely solutions in unlikely places. Always be looking for the solution.

3. Brainstorm - Learn and utilize effective brainstorming techniques in planning meetings. Not only does this get the team members’ juices flowing, but it engages a larger group in the process. Even if some solutions are not ultimately selected, the team will have more ownership of the solution if they are part of the process. Research shows that the more diverse the set of minds you gather to work on a solution, the greater the likelihood of creativity and effectiveness.

4. Don’t rush to implement the first answer - If the solution was really that simple, why didn’t your predecessor (or competitor) implement it? Keep looking for many answers before solving the problem. Sometimes, keep looking even after solving a problem because there may be room for even more improvement.

Entire industries have sprung up with the simple art of phrasing the problem correctly. History tells us that no manufacturer of “iceboxes” made the transition into becoming a manufacturer of refrigerators. They too narrowly defined their product and service to the consumer as “iced storage companies” rather than “food preservation firms.”

My friend Sam captured this shot on his vacation this year.

Similarly, only one blockbuster store remains, mostly as a museum/shrine, when the firm failed to adapt from DVDs to streaming videos. This narrow definition brought down an industry yet gave rise to another. Apparently, ship-building did not suffer the same fate because (in time) they could first identify and then solve the right problem, adapting to the changing world around them.

This week, as the calendar rolls over to July, look at what communication problems you’ve not yet solved, and see if there is a reframe that could make it easier to solve. I’d love to hear what you devise.

JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing:

• Reading: Just in time - check out Lisa Solomon’s insightful non-partisan piece: “How to watch the presidential debate with your future in mind.” 

• Hearing: Delighted to have found the Forged in Fire podcast by Liz Cavallaro and Bree Fram focused on LGBTQ Leadership Skills, but useful for everyone.

• Seeing: My friend and former GSB student Nick Padlo nails it with his first TEDx talk, Applying the recovery toolkit, released just this week.

Happy to share what’s lighting me up, but welcome your thoughts too. Let me know what you are reading, hearing, or seeing.

As always, jds

PS: The core of today’s newsletter came from my archives and is based on the work of creativity expert Michael Michalko. I first wrote this when I was an MBA student at NYU’s Stern School of Business. When I dusted it off and refreshed it, the ideas seemed just as relevant today as they were then. I’m happy to share them with you today with great wishes for your own re-thinking and renewal for the six months ahead.