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.

Community: Technology Connects and Disconnects

One of the legs of creating personal legacy is using appropriate technology to assist you directly in your creative efforts and to connect you with others in your effort to create your vision.

Technology has connected the globe primarily through advances in transportation and communication. The networks of highways, railways, shipping lanes and air traffic that allow us to move people and things so quickly and so far also move diseases, criminals and economic power. The networks of computers, smartphones and video/audio production equipment not only move our voices, image and creations instantly but they invade our privacy and expose us to the lowest standards of decency, morality and responsibility.



A few years ago, I traveled to Arizona for a week. I spent three days camping and hiking in the Grand Canyon with my oldest son Andrew and three days working in an office in my hotel suite on the sale of one of my client companies to its employees.

I hosted conference calls with participants in Florida, Ohio and Utah but they could have been anywhere. When I returned home, I posted photos of my Grand Canyon hike on Facebook where I shared them with my family and friends, some of whom I have not seen in person since high school.

The story above is common place. While it might have astounded our grandparents, it would not even impress our children. Through infrastructure networks on the ground and in the air and between towers, satellites and over optical fiber we are all truly connected on a potential level.

At the same time, we are becoming disconnected from our families, friends and neighbors. As email replaces hand written notes and texting replaces conversation the quick blast has replaced a deeper level of communication. What is being lost is subtle but its long-term impact is not.

The movement from face to face to writing letters to phone conversation to email to texting and tweeting has removed both reflection in choosing what we really want to say and the nuance of receiving the subtle emotions which provide meaning from our interactions. The full range of human emotion and interaction has been reduced to only those things that can be communicated more bluntly.

My observation is that the first wave of disconnect came from families moving physically apart from each other but currently the biggest disconnect of technology is within our neighborhoods and local communities. People often do not speak to or even know the names of their neighbors. Our local contacts have become more transaction-based and less about socialization and building deep friendships or intimate relationships over time.

Within large organizations this problem also occurs as people spend little time face to face and more communication is done with large distribution list emails or conference calls which shift all interaction into asynchronous, disinterested, distracted and impersonal inputs and outputs. Where it is easy to escape making a commitment, interpretting discordant body language or bonding emotionally.

What is lost with this disconnection? Community building is the primary casualty. Community is not just a function of sharing but it is also a function ownership. While a physical and transactional sharing goes on regardless of ownership, both building a shared vision and cultivating shared values are stunted by the lack of ownership required for community building.

Reconnection is possible but only when both time and space are sufficient. Direct human interaction whether around a task/problem or in celebration are needed to establish emotional ownership and hence a sense of community.

Producing Value versus Being Important

Leaders and Creators need egos to persevere and enlist support for their endeavors. One of the traps of ego is the need for recognition. Receiving positive recognition for your accomplishments is rewarding for most people and in fact motivates many leaders. The trap comes up to bite you when you attempt to be important rather than of value to others.

In America today marketing takes precedence over research. The sizzle gets more attention than the steak. Do you remember the 1984 tagline, "Where's the beef?". It is common knowledge that we are both an impatient and impressionable society. This all feeds the ego into trying to be important rather than being of value. Being of value is a soft sell but a long term winner. Being important is a quick sell -or- a hard sell and typically temporary.

Joe Dominguez, referenced in other blog posts of mine, presented the following model in his workshop on "Transforming Your Relationship With Money"

HAVE-DO-BE versus BE-DO-HAVE

Have is the result whether its money or praise or recognition.

Be is the inherent qualities and attributes.

Do is the activity.

According to Dominguez, true success comes from BE-DO-HAVE. That is; BE honest, hardworking and professional when you DO your work and you will HAVE rewards.

He also says that failure comes when the focus is HAVE-DO-BE. That is; if I HAVE money, fame and resources then I could DO all these things and then I would BE happy or succesful.

Value is delivered in many forms whether it is the support and assistance you provide to those in need or the pleasure you provide to those who listen to your music and observe your art. Within organizations value can be multi-faceted across the various stakeholders.

Providing value to your customers is contexted by the product or service that you deliver but ultimately comes down to the customer receiving benefits that they value far beyond the money they pay you.

In educational organizations, some value comes from a degree or certification but true and deep value comes from the life-long benefits of the application of knowledge, skill and awareness or perspective imparted by the education. Value in education is also delivered through relationships both in the form of peer relationships with fellow seekers and in mentoring relationships with faculty members.

Leaders and creators who focus on providing value rather than being important are more likely to keep both themselves personally and their organizations, grounded and engaged in the work that will create value to society. When you regularly produce societal value then importance is an attribute given to you by others rather than an illusory and ego driven futile quest.