A lot of times when I sit down with consultants or businesspeople, they talk with me about their role as “problem solvers.”
And, I think if I am being honest with you, I used to do the same thing…
But life and business are often about growth and change and one of the big changes I have made in my career is understanding that the real value of what you do isn’t in solving the problem, but in understanding and identifying the right problem and fixing that thing.
In looking at challenges in any organization, there are likely a lot of different issues that are going on at any one time.
Which means that there are always challenges that need to be overcome. The real challenge for anyone is to clear aside the clutter and to look at the problems and use discernment to understand not just the problem, but to look at the problems and understand which one is the one with the most impact on performance in the organization.
I’d love to give you a short list of ways you can identify the most pressing issue in an organization, but there isn’t really a formula. It is reliant on you to ask really tough questions and push for more than surface answers.
The closest thing I have to a formula would be to always follow up any assertion with the question, “Why?”