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What's the Problem?

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

Most companies and even individuals aren’t rigorous enough in defining the problems they’re attempting to solve and articulating why those issues are important. The problems and the issues get lost in translation. For how many times have you been aware that the problems that you are trying to solve are different than the one that you should be solving? The realization however dawns in hindsight while the problem is still at large?  Prior experiences, organizational constraints, biases and perception add to the odds of reducing successful outcomes that one wants to achieve. 

In the movie Moneyball, Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane is upset by team's loss to New York Yankees in the 2001 post season. With impeding departure of star players to free agency, Beane needs to assemble a competitive team for 2002, but must overcome Oakland's limited payroll. Realizing the constraints and the problem at hand,  Billy knows it's not business as usual. Billy tries to sensitize his scouts to the fact who believe they are in thick of things (just like the way we believe we are) but not quite. 




However they are the stuck with the process which they have applied earlier, the logic they have used before and trying to solve the problem of replacing the players, getting the home runs. This however is not the problem. The real problem is not about replacing the players but as Billy puts it

"The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us. It's an unfair game. And now we've been gutted. We're like organ donors for the rich. Boston's taken our kidneys, Yankees have taken our heart. And you guys just sit around talking the same old "good body" nonsense like we're selling jeans. Like we're looking for Fabio. We've got to think differently. We are the last dog at the bowl. You see what happens to the runt of the litter? He dies."

So no matter what is going to be tried the results are going to be the same. They are going to be end up like organ donors for the rich. Until and unless they think differently. Challenge their assumptions. Challenge their logic and experiences. Let go off their biases. Let go of wanting to maintain status quo (replacing the three players).

Only then shall one be able to think differently. Go through the rigors of identifying and defining the real problem. Asking the right questions. For the way the problem gets framed influences the solutions / outcomes to a great extent. Or else its going to be a case of missed opportunities, wasted resources.

As Einstein has very rightly said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions."
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