[ibimage==40397==Original==none==self==null]
Image: Shutterstock
Woody Allen once said: “If it weren’t for problems, the work day would be over by 10am.” But, being Woody, he thought that having a day full of exciting (and sometimes frightening) problems was a bad thing. I think it’s a sign of great management and a growing business. Woody’s ideal world of slow, steady and predictable everything – with Tuesday nights forever spent playing the clarinet at Bemelmans Bar – is dying a little more every day. Nostalgia is not an engine of growth – it’s a nasty nightmare composed of equal parts of apathy and avoidance. Maybe this is why Woody’s movies keep getting set further and further in the past which he clearly pines for.
And while the truth is that the view out of the rearview mirror is always clearer and less buggy than the straight-ahead scene rushing up at you outside the windshield (as you’re flying down the highway); those businesses which are spending their time looking fondly backwards and celebrating their prior glories and the status quo are sure to run off the road or into a wall even sooner than they expect. Clinging to the sterile past is a real problem. Embracing messy, but inevitable change is the only real solution.
Our world today isn’t neat and tidy or even well-organized any more – it’s a big complicated, uncertain and confusing place – just like a startup. Encountering, analyzing and addressing new problems – day-in and day-out - are crucial components of the ongoing developmental process of your business. This is an iterative process and a continual practice which hopefully never ends because we know that, in building a great business, there’s never a finish line.
And we also know there are no guarantees and that little or nothing is certain in a brand-new business. A business that’s expanding and bursting at the seams will never perform exactly as expected or predicted (or as written in some “ancient” business plan that you wrote 90 days ago) or, for that matter, like any other past business you’ve ever been involved with. Even the best businesses will have bumps and slides, rough edges and difficult patches, pleasant and other surprises, and a whole bunch of unexpected and unintended consequences. You can call all these things “problems”; I’d call them opportunities in the making.
The trick (there’s always a trick) is to create a business which offers you a steady stream of the right kinds of problems. A strong leader treats problems as normal, not special or unique. Good problems energize us – bad problems drain us dry. Good problems are about too much or too many – bad problems are usually about too few or too little. Too many orders, too much demand, and too many new opportunities – we should all have these difficulties because growth solves a lot of problems. But no one wants to hear about too many defects and returns, too little production capacity, too many overdue receivables, etc. Ultimately, good problems are almost always about the future – bad problems are generally about making up for or cleaning up after the past.
In addition, as a bonus, having a boatload of big, brain-busting and bewildering bogies that your teams are constantly chasing has another important benefit. It’s the surest way to attract the best, brightest and most talented people around. Because, in today’s hyper-competitive recruiting world, it’s no longer about snacks, scooters or snap chatting; the game-changing people – the ones who will matter the most to your company’s future – are looking to work at the companies doing important, challenging and meaningful work which is directed toward solving major concerns and addressing serious cross-industry issues.
So, although it may take some time, you need to get used to the idea that your business isn’t unique and that you’ll always have a set of pending problems (as will every other business) and the only differences between you and everyone else will be in the severity and the volume of the problems at any given time. Don’t let it get you down – and don’t take it personally. Instead, just get busy identifying the problems, categorizing them and knocking them off as quickly and smoothly as you can.
To help you get started, here are a few things that you should keep in mind.
(1) There’s never only one right answer to a problem.
We’re used to thinking that, if we apply ourselves and just keep at it, eventually we will find the one and only best solution to whatever the problem is. I always believed that, if I worked just a little harder, a little longer, a little more creatively, I would eventually figure it out. And when that magic moment arrived, everything would be perfect. What I discovered over time is that while there’s always an apparent solution which is neat and simple and even inexpensive, it’s almost always wrong. The trick is to avoid settling for a makeshift or partial solution which only hides or defers the real problem and to keep looking for a better answer. You never want to try to do something cheaply or quickly that you shouldn’t do at all.
(2) There are some problems that you will never solve.
Some very difficult problems never get solved, they just get older. And in many cases, this is because these aren’t problems – they’re facts of business or life that you simply have to learn to live with. In these cases, you don’t want to waste your time and energy – you need to understand that your best course of action isn’t going to be to fix the problem; it’s going to be determining how to cope with the problem and the fact that it’s not going anywhere any time soon.
(3) There’s no way to create a solution without listening to the problem.
We live in such a hurry up world these days that I often see teams of highly eager and energetic engineers swarming a problem and coming up with solutions that are created in a vacuum. Trying to find an answer without spending the time and effort needed to carefully listen to the problem is just like working in the dark. As often as not, this approach generates solutions in search of problems and not real results.
(4) The facts (and the problems) won’t disappear just because you ignore them.
Deferring a discussion and/or a confrontation doesn’t avoid an eventual problem; it just makes it much more likely that the next time around, it will be a full-blown crisis. If you refuse to face the facts honestly and openly; they won’t evaporate – they’ll accumulate. If you leave a small problem alone long enough, it becomes a big problem and one that is much more difficult to solve. Very often even good managers don’t understand that any problem which you can solve by writing a check isn’t a problem; it’s just an expense. You don’t have the time or the bandwidth to be penny-wise and pound foolish. Pay the man the money and move on.
(5) There’s a pony somewhere in almost every pile.
Much of the success that you and your company will have in handling problems will ultimately depend on your own attitude and how you approach each new issue or concern. Problems can be looked at as constant burdens or as potential bonanzas and all of the members of your team will take their lead from your behavior. Great companies have interesting and exciting problems that are likely to blossom into new and expansive opportunities. Great leaders can make even ordinary problems into people magnets which attract and draw the most talented employees into the process and engage them in the challenges surrounding the solutions. It’s all in how you define and articulate things.
At the end of the day, this problem business is pretty simple. You’re not alone – everyone has them. You can’t ignore them. You can’t solve them all. You can’t solve them by yourself. And most of all – you can’t let your business be pushed by your problems. You want it to be driven by your dreams.
PS: “You Get What You Work for, Not What You Wish for”
