Do you have a nasty problem you are trying to fix? Something that has resisted multiple attempts at a solution? Here is a simple mental manoeuvre that could transform your problem from insoluble to soluble, maybe even easily soluble.
Let me illustrate with an example. There was a piece in one of the daily newspapers recently on "How to Fix the National Health Service." There have been no shortages of fixes for the NHS - it seems to have lived in a state of continuous revolution for the past twenty years. Yet there was one very striking thing in the article that gave me pause, and should give you pause before you start trying to "fix" anything in your area of expertise that might appear to need "fixing."
The striking thing was that, although all the people canvassed for their solutions worked in the NHS, many of their solutions actually needed to be implemented outside the service altogether. Excessive drinking, for example, puts huge pressure on ambulance and emergency services on Friday and Saturday nights. Diabetes, heart disease and lung cancer make huge demands on all parts of the service. Yet all these things are the results more than anything else of unhealthy lifestyles. The health service can't of itself fix any of these damaging behaviours; it can only try to deal with the consequences.
The point is that you can't "fix" part of a system. Your attention is automatically drawn to where the problem manifests, and away from where it is created. For the health service the system is not the National Health Service but the health of the nation. The hospital or the doctor's surgery is the place where the problem manifests, but it has been created elsewhere, probably many years in the past. This explains why people are still talking about "fixing" the NHS after twenty years of continuous reorganizations and huge budget increases.
So what do you do if you have a problem which seems to resist fixing? Look at the wider system. If for example you have a software company which struggles to deliver projects, don't look at the development process, look at the way in which those projects are sold. Maybe you are making unrealistic promises. If you are a manufacturing company struggling to be profitable, you will probably start by looking for ways to make manufacturing more efficient. But that may not be where the problem lies. Look at the way the products are sold. Do you obtain adequate prices? Do you have a somewhat superior product which you sell to customers who don't need, and won't pay for, the superior features? Are you agreeing to rush orders or special packaging or some other costly special treatment that you aren't getting paid for?
It seems counter-intuitive - we naturally try to solve problems by zooming in. But often we need to start by zooming out, expanding the picture, looking at parts of the system which seem to have nothing to do with the problem at hand. It seems like hard work, but it is the best investment of time you can possibly make.
