When Solutions Create Problems
“The greatest intellectual discovery of this generation is that the real cause of problems is solutions.” Eric Sevareid.
- Prohibition (1920-1933) helped organized crime develop.
- Social media was supposed to strengthen connections.
- Overuse of antibiotics leads to superbugs.
- Email causes inefficiencies.
Overcome the danger of solutions:
#1. Walk around the problem:
Three blind men come across an elephant.
The first man happens upon its leg and says it’s a tree.
The second man bumps into its trunk and shouts it’s a snake.
The last blind man feels its tail and exclaims it’s a broom.
When problems are elephants, walk around before trying to solve them.
#2. Avoid anchoring bias.
“… we can be blind to the obvious and we are also blind to our blindness.” Daniel Kahneman
- Walk around the elephant with others. Ask them to define the problem.
- Ask, “What problem are you solving,” when someone brings you a solution.
- Ask, “What are we missing?”
- Use the Five Whys approach.
- Why? – The battery is dead.
- Why? – The alternator is not functioning.
- Why? – The alternator belt has broken.
- Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced.
- Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (Root cause)
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.” Kahneman
#3. Confront confirmation bias.
You’re a genius in your own mind. You don’t have stupid ideas intentionally. We search for reasons we’re right not for reasons we’re wrong.
We don’t see our own stupidity until it smacks us in the face.
- Ask, “What if I’m wrong?”
- Explore assumptions. What do you assume will happen if you implement your solution? What needs to be true for your solution to work?
- Sleep on it.
- Develop three solutions before choosing one.
How might solutions cause problems for leaders?
Still curious:
5 Things to Do When Pedaling Faster Doesn’t Work
John David Mann and I invite you to checkout our new book, The Vagrant: The Inner Journey of Leadership.
Gather the appropriate people to discuss the question: What are the unintended consequences if we do XYZ?
Research what other company implemented your solution? What happened? What were the surprises?
Thanks Paul. It would probably be easy to make a long list if we asked the team, “what could go wrong?” But that question might encourage naysayers too much.
Perhaps after asking, “What could go wrong,” ask, “How likely is that to happen?”
For people of faith, I find the phase, “The Lord is leading me…” as ultimate confirmation bias.
Thanks Janeil. I hear you on that one. I find that God’s voice ends up sounding a lot like mine. Not to say people can’t be led. Just saying that sometimes it’s a way to do what you want and say God led me.
The need for quick answers is the path to shallow solutions is such a dangerous way of living!I This really resonated with me as I think of my current challenges, regaining my conditioning and strength and our current challenges locally, nationally, and globally. We did not get here over night and we are not going to solve our challenges over night either. It is going to take looking at our challenges from multiple angles while incorporating multiple view points. Hard work for sure.
Such powerful ideas, Philip. Thanks for adding your insights. A problem that developed over months/years isn’t solved in a day. A hope for magic pills is unrealistic.
Trade-offs. Prohibition may have contributed to the development of organized crime but it was successful for what it intended to do. Work absenteeism declined, abuse of family members by a drunk father/husband declined. So was it worth it? It was ultimately repealed because of taxes. Solutions can create other problems, but are those other problems worse than those being addressed?
The airplane created plane crashes, but few would want to ground every plane. Same with the car. The automobile created suburbs, pollution, fatal accidents, but few would want to return to horses.
Appreciate your point. Drill down to the real issue. I like your photo of the lightbulbs…..should the US government regulate the type of bulb on the market?
Thanks for bringing this up. So true. It’s that way with many things. The Sevareid quote is aimed at copy machines. They were going to cause the use of more paper and deplete our forests.
I think the point still applies, but how and when is a deeper question.
Perhaps the most important point all solutions are imperfect and if we think they are, we should think again.
Good one, Dan. And timely for me…
I am gathering info about the issues around The Galapagos islands to frame up a board game on identifying and solving problems. Like anywhere else, solutions create problems that create new solutions to solve. Tourism is a good example — the islands NEED it but it creates demands on infrastructure and wildlife and all kinds of stuff.
The game will be used to focus people on cultural issues and environmental demands and be realistic insofar as we will focus on a real place with real issues and real needs. Needless to say, our government here in Ecuador is both helpful and harmful and the island residents appreciate it and hate it. (Normal, right?)
Here are some general thoughts way before I started data collection:
https://performancemanagementcompany.com/2023/03/06/learning-lessons-from-the-galapagos-culture/
Thanks Dr. Scott. I’m always glad when you add your insights. Our granddaughter went to the Galapagos Islands. Great experience.
Decisions about environments are hot topics everywhere it seems. Do we manage and use resources, or do we protect them from human engagement? Big issues.
I wish you well on this project.
As a retired tech executive with many years of experience in leadership, and now having a podcast where I often speak with scientists and other experts about these kinds of things, one of the biggest challenges is the blind spots, where we see things like confirmation bias in others, but cannot see when we’re doing it ourselves. I’ve seen “solutions” become weaponized. There’s so many ways things can go sideways. It’s key to be adaptable in the face of changing circumstances.