I have a sore hip. When I do certain movements it hurts. The feedback loop is sharp and sudden. My body is telling me there is a problem so the rational thought process is to address the hip, but in most cases this won’t solve the issue because its looking at the wrong problem.
When creating solutions or looking for ways to improve, there are always two things happening simultaneously that you need to address.
- The situation in front of you.
- The thought process that created the situation.
Most people start and finish with the first situation. This is because it is usually simple to diagnose. Often it is in the form of a problem, my hip is sore. Something isn’t working and so you look at possible solutions. The first part is cosmetic and right in your face, or in my situation, in my hip.
I should go and see someone about my hip, boom, problem solved.
However, the problem you are addressing isn’t the problem that needs to be solved. The real problem you need to address is what is the thought process that got you into this problem.
What thought processes created this process? What was trying to be achieved? Does the process achieve that goal? Should you be aiming for another goal?
I had a challenge at an organisation I worked in. To increase performance they needed to change how they were dealing with their people. We created dashboards to show them hot spots, opportunities, risks. They loved them, looked at them, thanked us for them, then did nothing. The issue wasn’t informing them, the issue was that their weren’t incentivized to change because their performance wasn’t measured on they lack of possible improvement.
We had to address the second problem, before we could solve the first one.
You can keep tweaking the process but if you don’t understand what is meant to be done then the superficial tweaking can go on forever and not create any value.
If things aren’t adding value or resources, they are taking them away. Figure out what you are trying to achieve with the situation before you attempt to fix the process.
As for my hip, its because I injured my ankle, so I need to address the ankle and the hip will follow.
Be awesome out there.
Luke
Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe 