The Difference between FOCUSING on PROBLEMS Vis-a-Vis FOCUSING on SOLUTIONS
Had a deep, socio-political conversation over coffee with a good friend since college and whom I only got to see now after 3 years. It was one of those conversations were it didn't end up with bitterness because we didn't argued over the presidential nominees.
Case 1 :
When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million.
They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.
Case 2 :
One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty.
Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly! Line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty.
Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.
Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution.
He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line.
He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.
Morals
Always look for simple solutions.
Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems.
Always Focus on solutions & not on problems.
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Comments
Great post. As I read it I wondered how frequently I might be focusing on the problem while I think I am looking for the solution. I wonder if there is a checklist we could come up with that when completed would provide input into which type of focus most accurately described our thinking process.
My own personal example was from a time when I was on crutches. I had bought an "ice machine" that was about the size of a small size cooler. It was heavy and difficult to move from room to room on crutches. I tried everything - wheeled it on a chair, tied it to a walker, and other ideas. Finally, I just put it on the floor and attached it to a belt and pulled it along like a pull toy. Bingo, it moved effortlessly. I thought the problem was that it didn't have wheels. Wrong, the problem was I needed to move it. I was trying to solve the wrong problem all along. I needed to move it without spilling water and ice all over the floor, which until it was stable on the floor I was not doing very well, having had several messy accidents. And … Picking up ice and water off the floor on crutches is dangerous and frustrating!