Turn a challenge into winning opportunity

By the way I am starting two new projects besides to what I do. Check at the end of the letter. Thanks.

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The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem.” — Peter F. Drucker

Whenever there is a challenge, there is uncertainty, which means you’re unclear on how to approach the challenge. You don’t know where to start, don’t know the priorities, and don’t know the risks.

Most of the effort you put in is aimed at finding a solution. You only think about what the solution should be.

When you implement the solution, you later learn that it’s not the right one. Like the product you build or acquire, you instinctively think of an instant solution. You drain your mind trying to find a solution, as if you have a magic wand.

Not every challenge has a solution across the street

The problem is that you repeat the same pattern, the same behavior. You can’t control your mind to look deeper into the problem. Your mind is always running in default mode.

You know that the most tangible consequence of finding the wrong solution is financial loss. If a solution completely fails, the cost of removing it and implementing a replacement can be significant.

If the new solution complicates processes, it can increase the workload for staff, leading to decreased productivity and higher costs.

Most people solve business and personal challenges this way, thinking that for every problem, there is a solution just across the street waiting for them to pick up.

You need to learn how to reach clarity. It’s important to understand that any challenge has its own phases and processes that it goes through.

You can’t skip these steps if you want to find the right solution, save time, cost, and effort, and avoid mental pain.

Learning phase in business should not be catastrophic

Don’t convince yourself that this is just a learning phase and it’s okay to fail. Yes, you do learn, but during the process of designing the solution. After you deliver a successful solution, you learn how to fix the small issues that arise.

You wouldn’t build a single column to support a 23-floor building just to save costs and then call it a learning phase after it collapses. The consequences are catastrophic.

No one likes their effort, money, and time to go to waste. Even with courses you take, you hope they deliver value in exchange for the money you spend. You want to see a return on your investment, whether it’s financial or added value.

Hershey, the chocolate company, lost over $100 million in sales after a failed software implementation, causing them to miss the entire Halloween season.

Nike lost $400 million on an initial investment in a glitched software upgrade. The financial loss was severe.

Here are the stages that every challenge should go through

1. Uncertainty

2. Pattern

3. Insights

4. Clarity

It doesn’t move from one stage to another on its own.

What you should do at every stage:

Uncertainty is where things are ambiguous. You don’t know the root cause or who is affected and involved. To address this, take the following actions:

• Understand what the challenge is.

• Map the affected audience and stakeholders.

• Define and frame the boundaries of the challenge.

Pattern is where you discover repeated and common information from stakeholders. To do this, take the following actions:

• Engage with the affected audience through interviews/workshops.

• Capture pain points, desires, and risks.

• Map affected systems, tools, and processes.

Insights is where you grasp the essence or underlying truth of a situation. To do this, take the following actions:

• Synthesize captured data from different sources.

• Analyze the data and make sense of it.

• Group data, quantify it, and prioritize it.

Clarity is where you see direction and know how to move forward. To do this, take the following actions:

• Identify opportunities.

• Design and test ideas.

• Iterate and optimize.

You must reach the clarity stage to understand the direction and what it entails. How to find the right solution is often overlooked, which is why many fail, drain their energy, and waste money. It requires an exercise of steps and the will to reach solutions that meet needs, wants, and goals.

Thank you for reading. We’ll talk in the next letter.

Ahmed

If you want to:

1. A fun way to connect with people that leads to opportunities Toilet Mind

2. Learn problem solving strategies for business Creative System Thinking

3. Innovate and solve business challenges Neo Strateje