The ultimate problem-solving technique – Plan it all or React to situation

What is the first feeling that comes to your mind when you face a problem? Do you prefer to plan your action items before you start solving or you prefer to jump into action with basic overall understanding, but with an attitude to solve issues as they appear? Let us solve a riddle to demystify these two approaches – Add a single word(either the front or back) to each of the following three words to generate a new compounded word. The goal is that the new compounded word needs to be related to the food & beverage industry.

Sauce                                         Jack                                   Pine

There can be multiple approaches adapted by you to solve the riddle. Some of you might be tempted to think about different foods & beverages and then try to think of the missing word. While others might wish to find a word and then combine with the words defined to generate a new word. Both the approaches are correct in their own way, while one of them is more procedural which would eventually give you success, other is more random and might be quick for many of us. One of the many solutions to the riddle is Apple.

The above riddle might be trivial for many of us, but when we face real-world scenarios with complicated options things tend to be difficult to grasp. Allow me to introduce you to my friend Adam. Adam is a software solution architect with more than 20 years of experience in inventing solutions to complex computer science problems in his lab in Paris. But recently he started looking for new ideas for his next big start-up. Having tasted success in the world of technology, he was very confident of transferring his idea into a successful business. He felt the task was all about inventing a novel solution using technology, but unfortunately, he underestimated the impact of business requirements and their feasibility options. Due to his passion for technology, he felt an urge to construct the entire landscape before execution. Unlike his lab, in the real world, businesses never get the defined variables from the outset, but things need to be improvised. It did not take long for Adam to realize that there was a major disconnect between his expectations and reality. Although he had delivered several successful projects as a leader, this new adventure was something different as it was more about problem-solving skills to ad hoc issues faced, unlike inventing ways of solving a well-defined problem.

In today’s world, the terms, innovation (representing plan) & problem-solving (representing react) are more often than not used interchangeably, but more often than not, people miss out on the differences between them in business. In business, more often than not, people are unable to map all the areas of concern perfectly, so they prefer to keep a contingency plan to equip them to react to crisis scenarios. This approach is termed as problem-solving, where the goal is to make up for lost ground and restore the status quo. On the other hand, innovation is more about taking a proactive methodology, where the focus is on the new opportunities by improving performance and exploring unknown territory in order to break through the status quo. As an example, people in technology organizations tend to switch jobs every couple of years, as they seek newer challenges. From the management point of view, there are two ways of resolving this high turnover issue. Firstly, the focus can be made to minimize the loss by trying to reduce the turnover, which would be a reactive mode of solving the problem. The focus is more on short term and mitigating the issue for the present. The alternative approach could be identifying the causes of people leaving organizations after a couple of years. In this approach, one digs deep and tries to identify the reasons behind the high turnover. This is the proactive innovative way. This might require a lot of time and effort, but the solution would be for the future. The focus here is on the long term and solving the issue permanently.

As the world is changing rapidly around us, we need to combine both the processes in order to reap the benefits. We can classify people under 4 categories based on their approaches to handling issues for long-term or short-term:

1.    Problem Solvers: These are the pragmatic people who take rational decisions when issues require desperate attention.

2.   Problem Preventers: This category belongs to those people who are mindful of the entire execution and try to accommodate possibilities of future roadblocks.

3.   Work Architects: The people who are always on the lookout for improving the efficiency and performance of work, through continuous innovation.

4.   Future Makers: These are the visionaries, fully engaged and strong motivators encouraging people by leading by example and showing the way forward.

When looked upon from the position of innovation and problem solving, one can find different patterns appearing in the form of outcomes from each of the categories.

As we move forward in this dynamic era, we need to be aware of the demands of the market and adapt our decision-making style accordingly. There are times when one needs to plan in advance and then make the first move, as an example consider the case of launching a new product in a competitive market. One does know that if the planning is not proper, the chances of loss is high due to the fierce competition. On the other hand, there are times when people need to get their hands dirty in order to learn and grow. Consider the case of creating a new technology to solve business bottlenecks. The technology won’t be full-proof in the initial draft but needs to experiment with different use cases till it reaches its perfection in the GA(general availability) release.

Aspiring leaders should equip themselves with the know-how to approach the different issue with different methodology. Sometimes it is good to invent a contemporary solution, while other times might require a more analytical approach to mitigate risk at a fast pace. We are never sure regarding which one to apply and that might be a good topic of research for the future. I would love to investigate and come up with numbers on the application of these concepts in practical life in a future article.

References:

1. https://www.minutesmagazine.com/the-1-problem-solving-strategy-tech-companies-always-overlook/ as on dated 16th June 2019
2. https://www.juiceinc.com/blog/show/is-problem-solving-the-same-as-innovation as on dated 16th June 2019