What do we know?

Encyclopedias had an important place in my childhood home. Many of the things I wanted to know and asked my parents about got the response, “Go look it up!” Often when an organization tries to solve a problem, the first question that comes to mind is, “What do we know?” That is, how well do we understand the situation: the context, the people involved, and especially the causes of whatever the issue is. But what if that’s the wrong question?

Wrong Question?

The reason it’s often the wrong question is that it can easily become the barrier to actually doing something: we become so consumed with gathering information that we forget that’s not really what we wanted to do (just like I got lost reading about all kinds of things in that encylopedia!). Imagine going to the doctor with a complaint and the physician spending the entire appointment talking with you about how you got sick: where you’d been, who you’d been with, what you’d been eating, if you’d gotten enough sleep. The doctor is clearly very interested in the story, and enters lots of notes on the computer – but never provides any treatment. You’d walk out of the office no better and with no prospect of improvement. And, you’d likely feel that something you’d done must have caused your illness. If anything, the visit made you worse!

Kinds of organizational challenges

Ron Heifetz popularized a critical concept in our understanding of organizational issues: some of them are technical – we understand what the problem is, and there is a known solution or approach to deploy. Fortunately, that’s 90% of what most organizations face: how to fix a computer, get the payroll done, launch a marketing campaign. With technical problems, we gather the facts to diagnose the issue, apply the right approach, and we’re on our way.

The other kind of issue is the adaptive challenge. With an adaptive challenge, we don’t – can’t, even – have a complete understanding of the problem, and there is no established solution. Adaptive challenges are sneaky, because we think if we keep digging away at fact-finding, the solution will somehow magically appear.

Adding to the complexity, often what our organizations face is a set of problems, some of which are technical, some adaptive. One-size-fits-all approaches are unlikely to be successful. (Learn more about this way of thinking here).

The right way to address issues

What to do? Take stock, but do so from a place of observation, not pressure to fill in the blank spots in your understanding. Ask “what do we know?” in a new way.

Which problems have to do at least in part with changing people’s beliefs, attitudes, or values? Those are most likely adaptive challenges. Stop digging for the root cause. You’ll need to work through these through experimentation, reflection, and learning. Strategic Doing is designed to do just that.

Other problems probably have more to do with process: the way in which information and things are moving around your organization (whether physically or virtually) is too slow, too prone to error, or too costly. These are technical problems – you’ll need a disciplined way to examine the system in which that’s happening. Rapid Improvement (an methodology that borrows from lean) can identify the opportunities for improvement lie, which often can pay off quickly and without much financial investment.

How to get started

At the Lab, we can help you get to the right treatment, quickly. Contact us to explore how.