Problem Solving: What's the root cause?

I heard it again today! I was working in a company with a lead executive when they said it: “The biggest problem I have here is that no one takes ownership.” So, I responded, “Success doesn’t wait for permission. It doesn’t wait for perfect timing. It starts when you stop pointing at conditions and start owning outcomes."

The hustle culture that we live in today glorifies hours worked. And that culture is well ingrained in most companies today. But it must go! Leverage beats effort every time and the introduction of AI into the workforce will make this even more prevalent. In the new environment, learning will be paramount. The adage was that wealth follows intelligence and knowledge. But automation is where real wealth will come from. So, stop trading time for money and start building assets that scale.

I also see the attitude in companies that every email needs a reply. The bottom line is that not every question needs an answer right now. In today’s environment, I see decision fatigue running rampant which is likely linked to my clients opening remark above. What they are missing is that if a decision is not necessary, it is not necessary to make it. Leaders must protect their mental bandwidth for decisions that actually matter. They need to default to not yet on non-urgent calls and save their energy for impactful opportunities.

I have found that if I can get the leader to write the problem down, we are halfway to solving it. Vague problems create overwhelming solutions. Clear problems create momentum because writing forces clarity and clarity forces action. So, I asked my client to spend fifteen minutes defining the problem—not the symptoms which he already gave me. I asked him, “What is the root cause?”

As he began to write he said to me, "I think part of the problem is that I have created an atmosphere here that basically says, 'If anything can go wrong, it will!' Because I always hit the failures hard and soft sell the successes." Unfortunately, most people hear this and freeze. They actually plan for disaster. They overthink it and they wait for the leader to make the decision. What needs too be conveyed to them is that preparation beats paralysis. Because fear without action creates the very failure that we are avoiding. There's a need to establish a culture of planning for the problems but moving anyway.

So, up to now, I have done exactly what a consultant does—he borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. So, I added the following, "Part of the problem with the leadership team is purely human nature. When we are given a difficult task, there is a fine line between 'Glad to do it!' and 'Do I really have to?' But one thing can make the difference—if the person giving the instruction will go with us."

It is human nature for all of us to resist a difficult task, especially one that we have never done before. So, we came up with one defining statement. I need to take the lead on the most difficult tasks and take my team through them. We need to plan for problems but move anyway. We need to write down the root cause of the problems in our team meetings. I need to take responsibility. I need to start building the infrastructure here to scale. I need to default to 'not yet' on non-urgent matters.

There is one more ingredient and I knew that my client was open to discussing. So I said, "You know, there were many instances in Scripture where God commissioned someone for a task. For example, when God commissioned Moses to go to Egypt and free the slaves. And Moses said, 'You want me to do what?' But God said, 'I will surely be with you.' The same thing happened when God chose Gideon to defend Israel from the Midianites. And Gideon said, 'How can I possibly do that?' And God replied, 'Surely I will be with you.' God asks us to do challenging things for Him every day: loving, serving, encouraging and more. Yes, it is very difficult in this modern environment to do these things. But we can be assured that God’s presence is always with us. Our awareness of his presence may falter, but the reality of his presence never changes."

I believe that one should always look at the "3 P’s” when helping a client to not only strive but thrive. The "3 P’s” are: people, processes and presence.