As Jay-Z says: “I’ve got 99 problems …” and you know the rest, but I won’t write it here. The important part is we’re all just like Jay …
Not that we’re billionaires and married to Beyonce. The 99 problems part.
While our problems likely don’t include foes that want to make sure our casket is closed and cops pulling us over for driving 55 in a 54 mph zone, our problems have a tendency to bug us.
A lot.
A few of them even turn into obsessions where all we can focus on is the problem and work like mad scientists to figure out the solution. It gets worse when we hit wall after wall and it feels like the problem is something we’re just going to have to live with.
When that’s happened to me, my experience is that what I thought was the problem wasn’t really the problem. My bet is, it’s the same for you.
For example, you may think your problem is “not enough sales” or “not enough qualified applicants to fill your company with good people.”
If it’s personal, you might think your problem is “being overweight” or “I get in too many fights with my wife/husband.”
Without even knowing you, dear reader, I know for certain that none of those are your problem. They are symptoms of a bigger problem.
“Not enough sales” is a symptom of a lots of other potential problems. It could be that you don’t market enough to have consistent leads or that your product isn’t positioned any different from your competitors or that your sales team hasn’t been trained well enough.
“Not enough qualified applicants to fill your company with good people” is also a symptom. Is it not possible the problem is your recruiting, interviewing and hiring practices are in need of a serious upgrade?
“Being overweight” is a symptom of having a poor diet and/or not doing what you need to do for your fitness.
“Fighting with your spouse” is a symptom of whatever behavior led to the spark that starts the fights.
Without an investigation, the problems we see on the surface are hardly ever the real problem. Once we find and solve the real problem, it unlocks everything we really want.
An investigation means you start asking questions instead of making statements.
There is finality in saying “I don’t have enough sales.” Your brain shuts off as if it were something impossible to solve.
Questions, on the other hand, leave your brain wide open to figuring things out. Why don’t I have enough sales? How did it get this way? Why does it stay that way?
Your job here is to find the unasked question because that’s most often where the solution lies. You just have to make sure you’re solving the right problem because there is nothing worse than running enthusiastically in the wrong direction.
So, how do you make sure you’re solving the actual problem instead of the symptom?
It starts by understanding that what you most often identify as the problem is actually a description of the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
We think we know what our problem is because we can identify the places we don’t have what we want … but the core problem is never the obvious gap comparison between point A (where we are now) and point B (where we want to go next).
To find the root problem, you have to discover the obstacle sitting in the gap between your point A and point B. It’s the thing that’s impeding your progress between the two points.
I’ll give you an example of this in a second, but want to cover why it’s such a big deal to misdiagnose the root problem.
If what you diagnose is a description of the gap instead of the problem itself, you ask yourself questions and come up with solutions that are tactical. If you ask yourself “how can I get in shape?” your brain will immediately shift into “what should I do about it?” mode …
That means you’ll come up with tactical answers about buying a new treadmill or new workout shoes. Neither of those address the root problem, so the symptom of being out of shape will remain.
That’s why so many Peloton bikes end up as clothing racks.
Let’s translate all of this into a business problem we’ve all faced at one point or another … revenue is flat or not growing fast enough.
If that is the problem you diagnose, you’ll start asking yourself questions like “What marketing initiative should I start? or “how many new sales people should I hire?”
Those both lead to tactical answers, not strategic. What’s worse is that the tactical answers will lead to tactical solutions for problems you may not even have.
Remember, you have to find the obstacle.
Let’s say you spent 30 minutes brainstorming what the real obstacle might be that’s preventing your sales from being higher …
You might come up with a list that includes things like not having enough prospects, bad lead conversion percentage, lack of referrals, not priced competitively and maybe hundreds of others.
Each of those possible reasons require completely different solutions. Not having enough prospects would require a lead generation solution while having a bad lead conversion percentage might require training for your sales team.
You could drill down on those even further. Lack of referrals might be the reason revenue isn’t higher, which opens more questions like “What would need to happen for every single one of our existing customers to refer another customer to us?” or “What’s our structure to ask for referrals? When do we ask? Who do we ask? How do we ask? What do we specifically ask for?”
The more questions you ask, the higher your probably of finding the real problem and coming up with the right solution.
But that’s not what most people do …
Way too often, people rush to action in the name of ‘doing something.’
Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Just because you’re sweating doesn’t mean you’re working.
The best way to figure out the real root problem are to ask yourself these three questions:
What are the possible reasons I’m noticing this symptom?
i.e. if I notice I’m getting fat, could it be that I eat fast food four times a week and go to the gym once a quarter?
What isn’t happening that if it did happen, would cause the perceived gap to either narrow or disappear?
i.e. when I’m honest, my referral ‘strategy’ isn’t really a strategy so much as it is luck and my team isn’t even asking for referrals. Our customers are happy so if we did ask, we’d probably get referrals.
What is happening, that if it stopped happening, would cause the perceived gap to narrow or disappear?
i.e. I’m getting home at 8:00 PM every night. If that stopped happening, I wouldn’t constantly fight with my wife about working too much and missing out on the kid’s lives.
The bottom line is this: your first response to what your problem is, is very seldom the real problem. If it is, you got lucky.
If you take your first response at face value, you’ll end up spending lots of time, energy and focus fixing problems you don’t have only to experience the massive frustration that comes with stagnation.
