From Problem to Solution—A Road Worth Traveling

An Aesop fable for children, The Crow and the Pitcher, portrays a desperately thirsty crow in the middle of a desert struggling to find a drop of water. Finally, his search leads him to a pitcher of water. The pitcher stood high, had a narrow neck, and was only partially full. The crow struggled to get his head deep enough within the pitcher to reach the water settled at the bottom. The crow now faced the reality that he could meet his end without a drink. 

 With that reality in mind, he begins to look around. The crow notices pebbles on the ground. He picks up one with his beak and drops it in the pitcher. The water rises. He grabs another pebble and plops it in, and again, the water rises. The crow does this a few more times until, finally, the water reaches a level that allows him to easily drink, quench his thirst, and look forward to another day ahead. 

How often in our endeavors do we come to a moment similar to the one the crow faced? We identify a need, but solutions seem to be far and few. Faced with the worst-case scenario, we scan our surroundings for answers, hoping to find one. There are very few options before us when challenges knock on our business doors. Truly, in my professional and personal opinion, I believe we are given only two choices. We can decide to meet our end, or we can choose to problem solve and therefore innovate. 

Our crow in the fable walked down the solution-oriented road, leading him to an innovative milestone (pun intended) along the way. His destination: a town called “Need Met.” If we want answers and desire solutions, we must be bold and courageous enough to build and flex our problem-solving muscles. And yes. We all have this muscle engrained in the anatomy of entrepreneurial makeup. 

Let’s define this muscle called problem solving. It’s the ability to identify an issue that needs to be resolved and create the best solution for resolving the issue at hand. Did you catch that? There are two parts to problem-solving. You ID the problem, and then you move from identification to solving for X. Here’s what that looks like practically for me and the steps I tackle to get me from problem to solution. 

1. Clarify and Define the Problem: Before we can put a challenge behind us, we must first take the time to understand it. We are aware that the problem exists; however, we may not know that what we are looking at is a symptom created by a root cause. The best solution we can come up with deals head-on with what’s driving the symptom. This will require us to spend time with the problem and confront it. After intimately connecting with this obstacle, we can then seamlessly define it. 
2. Assess the Problem at Hand: Defining our culprit will mean understanding the impacts. In this step, we ask, “How does this problem and the symptoms that stem from it truly affect my business?” We are creating a list, noting the influence this challenge has on our professional and personal lives, whether good or bad. We are also detailing the threat it poses, weighing what it will look like if we do nothing about it versus what it could be if we do. Worst and best-case scenarios should dominate our thinking.
   
   
3. Identify the Best Decision: After completing our list, again, we are calling for intimate time spent with what has been divulged in this process. We’re noting what we have learned about the pitfalls that could occur if we let this problem continue to run rampant, and we are using this as our motivation to do the hard thing—make a decision. We must choose a realistic and confident way forward to make our best-case scenario our new reality and send our problem packing. In this selection process, we’ll also create what I would like to call a “Lookback Plan.” This is an evaluation plan that will help us measure if we’re tracking toward our intended progress.  
   
   
4. Assess the Implemented Solution: Now it’s time for us to look back. We’ve already determined at what point, after implementing our solution, we will stop and review our choice. We have also already defined our measures of success. So, we pause and review our landscape to ensure that the problem we began this process addressing is indeed eliminated. The next portion of our appraisal includes pulling out the evidence that our intended outcome is the results we are experiencing (or at least heading in the right direction).

Problem-solving takes practice. The more you engage in these steps, the better you will become. It will be your knee-jerk reaction when challenges come to face off with your business.

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Remember our crow in the beginning? He IMMEDIATELY leapt into action when he saw a barrier in his way. He innovated his way to a solution. That’s the sneaky gem hidden within the problems we encounter. They force us to think and do differently. An innovator bursts through without even trying. 

So, anticipate with pleasure the day when problem-solving is your second nature, and join me back here next month as we unwrap the gift of innovative solutions that problem-solving brings us! In the meantime, I invite you to connect with me. Let’s talk more about the steps we can take to move from problem to solution. I would love to hear about the things that have presented challenges to you along your path. Reach me at Elissa Kelly #Contact-Us.