A Solution Orientation: What Floats Your Boat?

When you are confronted with a challenge, do you set your mental tent around the problem or do you set the tent around the solution?

One of the most amazing things to discover is that the most powerful solutions are not merely the opposite, or negation, of the problem. Another key concept, is that problems are usually the downstream result of a previous solution.

I first learned how to more rigorously and effectively apply these solution oriented approaches to my work after reading and studying the book, Breakthrough Thinking: Why We Must Change The Way We Solve Problems and the Seven Ways to Achieve This by Gerald Nadler and Shozo Hibino back in the late 80s and early 90s.

A solution orientation is always broader and longer in scope, results oriented and anticipatory of future problems - whose seeds are planted along with the new solution. A solution orientation is akin to playing chess where past play and the current board both provide data and each potential move can be evaluated in terms of the future. In fact, players who can not imagine and evaluate future scenarios will quickly lose interest in chess.

A sinking boat is a problem but what is the best solution? The solution orientation discerns between a penetration to the hull of the boat, leaking seams or joints in the hull of the boat, poor boat design, misuse or neglect of the boat and using the wrong boat for the task. While you still may need to pump quickly and get the sinking boat back to harbor, the most long term leverage comes from understanding what you are trying to accomplish and the best solution for achieving that. If you pay attention to boats you will quickly notice the size, shape and materials used in building the boat are all in anticipation of boat function.

A boat floats as long as the volume of water that the boat displaces weighs less than the weight of the water itself. More simply, all boats are like cups, if the weight of the cup is less than a cupful of water it floats. You can float a cup in a sink full of water and slowly fill the cup with weight until it sinks. Some cups weigh so much, even empty, or are shaped in a way that they do not float or can not stay afloat. A boat is a solution for staying afloat but whether or not you need a boat and what type of boat you need is a function of what you are trying to accomplish.

I like the boat analogy because nearly everyone as a child floated and sunk objects while playing. This experience allows us to see that some things work and some things do not and it's not based upon the personality, character or intelligence of the people involved. All the praying, begging and encouragement could not save a toy boat loaded down with too many rocks. A true solution works because it is in harmony with the true nature of the world in which we live. Much of the wasted effort and frustration in our lives is the direct result of trying to force a result that was not in harmony with the truth or true nature of the world.

If one wants to enjoy a day of running whitewater, a boat, probably a kayak is a great solution. But if the result you want is to move goods from one side of a river to another, a bridge may be a far better solution than the best designed ferry. If you want to move goods and people across a shipping channel, a tunnel may be a far better solution than a bridge. The solution orientation, as mentioned earlier, creates a bigger space for evaluating alternatives when alternatives are in response to desired results not merely the negation of an existing problem.

Organizations and people, whose sole orientation is the problems they face, may both effectively handle current problems and entrap themselves in a world where much less is accomplished and the end result is failure. This occurs because they solve their problems by elimination of the problem itself.

Negation problem-solving is like a snow plow, plowing a road in an endless winter. At first plowing is easy and slowly the snow banks build up. Eventually, the snow banks tower above the height of the plow and the plow merely pushes snow around in the canyon of its own making. If the snow keeps coming eventually the weight of the snow trapped between the banks is t0o great to push.

The true nature of the world contains both harmony and conflict. In saying yes, we are also saying no to other alternatives, yes and no are inseparable.

In his book, The Path of Least Resistance, Robert Fritz declares that "structure determines performance". Our solutions when implemented create structure whether physical or virtual and these structures support the desired result to a degree. Excellent solutions naturally produce the desired result for long periods of time without creating significant new problems. Excellent solutions leverage your strengths across "what works" in the world.

No amount of strength can overcome a boat which does not float because water and gravity without effort or regard to time keep pulling the boat downward and eventually the boat succumbs.

Visualization is an important part of solution orientation as the gulf between current problems (reality) and the desired result (solution) may only be bridged in the mind initially. Some excellent solutions require a number of steps. Each step solution addresses current reality with an implementable solution. Each step fully anticipates a future solution and naturally produces both interim results and provides leverage for achieving the future solution. This path of leveraged solutions is the antithesis of the snow plow analogy and is more akin to building bridges, where sometimes you need to build an island or a tunnel to connect two bridges as a one bridge solution will not work.

This orientation applies to both the spiritual path we take through life and the relationships we have with others but I will take those on in future blogs.