Whenever I feel like problems are going to overwhelm me, and I’m in danger of getting discouraged, I pull out and read a story I came across years ago. It’s an account of what would happen today if Noah tried to build the Ark.
And the Lord spoke to Noah and said, “In six months I’m going to make it rain until the whole earth is covered with water and all the evil people are destroyed. But I want to save a few good people, and two of every kind of living thing on the planet. I am ordering you to build me an Ark.” And in a flash of lightning he delivered the specifications for an Ark.
“Okay,” said Noah, trembling in fear and fumbling with the blueprints.
“Six months, and it starts to rain,” thundered the Lord. “You’d better have my Ark completed, or you can learn how to swim for a very long time.”
And six months passed. The skies began to cloud up and rain began to fall. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard weeping. And there was no Ark.
“Noah,” shouted the Lord, “where is my Ark?” A lightning bolt crashed into the ground next to Noah.
“Lord, please forgive me!” begged Noah. “I did my best. But there were big problems. First I had to get a building permit for the Ark construction project, and your plans didn’t meet code. So I had to hire an engineer to redraw the plans. Then I got into a big fight over whether or not the Ark needed a fire sprinkler system. My neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.
“Then I had a big problem getting enough wood for the Ark because there was a ban on cutting trees to save the spotted owl. I had to convince U.S. Fish and Wildlife that I needed the wood to save the owls. But they wouldn’t let me catch any owls. So no owls.
“Then the carpenters formed a union and went out on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or a hammer. Now we have sixteen carpenters on the boat, and still no owls.
“Then I started gathering up animals, and got sued by an animal rights group. They objected to my taking only two of each kind. Just when I got the suit dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn’t complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn’t take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of a Supreme Being. Then the Army Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed new flood plain. I sent them a globe.
“Right now I’m still trying to resolve a complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over how many people I’m supposed to hire, the IRS has seized all my assets claiming I’m trying to avoid paying taxes by leaving the country, and I just got a notice from the state about owing some kind of use tax. I really don’t think I can finish your Ark for at least another five years!”
The sky began to clear. The sun began to shine. A rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. “You mean you’re not going to destroy the earth?” he asked hopefully.
“No,” said the Lord sadly, “Government already has.”1
I just love that story because it’s so outrageous. Nobody could face those kinds of problems in real life, right? Well, you may be surprised to learn that I had my own leadership experience that felt a lot like Noah’s when I was the leader of a church in La Mesa, California. I arrived and took over leadership in 1981, but it didn’t take me long to realize we had two major problems: we were in a poor location, and we would soon outgrow our outdated facilities.
I knew I needed to do something, so I started moving the people in the direction of change. And despite people’s emotional attachment to the location and facility, in 1983 they voted to relocate. I had built buildings in my previous two posts and relocated the people in one of those ventures, so I figured I knew what lay ahead. But was I wrong. This turned out to be my single greatest leadership challenge, and the source of problem after problem.
Imagine our excitement when we bought the plot of land: 130 acres for $1.8 million. That was a challenge, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t overcome. With great anticipation and hope, we started planning. The first problem arose because of where we wanted to situate our main building, right on top of the ridge of the property’s hill. That way it would have a wonderful view of the area, and people would be aware of us in the community. But local officials said that would be too intrusive to the community. That was a disappointment, but we didn’t want to alienate our neighbors, so we adjusted.
If you want to build in California, you have to pay for environmental studies. That just comes with the territory. So we did. In the course of that study, it was discovered that one pair of California black-tailed gnatcatchers sometimes inhabited the plot of land. You’d expect there to be animals on undeveloped land, so that didn’t seem like a big deal. There was only one problem: that is an endangered bird species. It was decided that during their six-month breeding period we would not be allowed to do anything that would disturb them. That greatly affected our potential building times.
Then it was discovered that coastal sage grew on the land. Guess what? That was another problem. We were told that we would not be allowed to build anywhere that the sage grew. So we changed the plans for our building site—again.
We changed them again when we learned that State Route 94 was going to be extended. Guess where? Through our proposed building site. Again we moved it.
Then somebody found a blackened stone on the property. We didn’t think that was unusual. Before the San Diego area was highly developed, people used to camp and ride dirt bikes all over the eastern part of the county. But there was a problem: an expert believed this stone might have been the remains of a cooking hearth used by the area’s inhabitants two thousand years ago. We had to pay $120,000 for an archeological dig.
Because the cost of putting up a building was going to be so high, we decided to sell a section of the land that fronted the state highway to generate funds. This would do much to help with the cost of our building. But there was a problem. The county declared that the section of land we intended to sell had to be declared open space because of another bird, Bell’s vireo.
When we realized that the topography of the land was going to make parking difficult, we purchased eight more acres at the cost of $250,000. Although it was expensive, we knew this would provide us room for six hundred more parking spaces. But there was a problem. The county decided that piece of land needed to be used for “environmental connectivity” for wildlife. There went another quarter million dollars.
At this point, we had spent millions of dollars and nearly a decade trying to make our way through the bureaucratic red tape, and we still didn’t have our building permit! Our plan was to develop twenty-five of the 138 acres we had purchased. But guess what? There was a problem. Officials decided that we would be doing too much damage to the environment if we developed those acres and left only 113 acres for the wildlife. To mitigate the damage, we were required to buy another twenty-five acres in the mountains for $150,000 and turn over the deed for that land to an environmental trust.
Then—and only then—after twelve long years, did we receive approval from the County Board of Supervisors for a permit. Finally we could begin site work. By this time, my successor, Jim Garlow, had taken over the project. But guess what? We weren’t out of the woods yet. We still had more problems.
We always knew there was granite on the property, and had projected $38,000 for blasting. But it wasn’t until they started moving dirt that it was discovered that it was blue granite, which is six times stronger than concrete; the cost of blasting was ten times what was planned. While two required water pipes were being installed on the property, workers hit more blue granite; that added another $192,000 to the cost and extended the construction process by two and a half years.
During construction, it was decided that the road running along the edge of the property was to be turned into a freeway. San Diego County agreed to pay $1 million toward the construction and the church was ordered to pay $1.1 million. And due to changing construction requirements related to earthquake safety, the amount of steel and concrete in one of the buildings was increased by an additional $856,000.
Success at last!The run of problems looked like they would never end. But finally on the weekend of April 15–16, 2000, at Jim’s invitation, I walked into the new facility along with more than five thousand people and we all celebrated. It had taken a total of seventeen years and millions of dollars in overrun costs, but the mission was finally accomplished!
Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck said, “Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?” I did try to solve those problems, but I have to admit that I moaned a lot about them, too. I don’t even know if Noah could have withstood all of that! But I am grateful that we did finally succeed.
Often when dealing with tough issues, I think we feel like Charles Schultz, who said, “Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’ Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.’ ”
I think it’s important to remember that everyone has problems, no matter how high or low their station in life. We sometimes look at the lives of others, and if they are highly successful and seem to have it all together, we assume that they don’t have problems. Or we believe their problems are easier to deal with than ours. That’s a false belief. For example, Jeff Immelt is the CEO of General Electric, a position most leaders would greatly respect. And they might think Immelt’s lofty position would protect him from problems. But Immelt said this after the September 11 attack. “My second day as chairman, a plane that I lease, flying with engines I built, crashed into a building that I insure, and it was covered with a network I own.” That’s a day with a lot of problems.
The key to overcoming problems and learning from them is to approach them the right way. Over the years, I’ve learned that problems get better or worse based on what you do or don’t do when you face them. First, let me give you the don’ts:
This is certainly a lesson I learned the hard way from experience. My biggest mistake in the effort to build the facility in San Diego was grossly underestimating the problem. I was naïve, and I overestimated my prior building experience. Constructing a small building in rural Indiana or small-town Ohio is nothing like navigating the bureaucracy of Southern California! It would be like a high school baseball player being asked to manage a team playing in the World Series.
Many problems go unresolved or are managed ineffectively because we do not take them seriously enough. Years ago I read a wonderful book by Robert H. Schuller entitled, Tough Times Don’t Last But Tough People Do. The following paragraph helped me as a young leader to find a more realistic view of my problems and myself:
Never underestimate a problem or your power to cope with it. Realize that the problem you are facing has been faced by millions of human beings. You have untapped potential for dealing with a problem if you will take the problem and your own undeveloped, unchanneled powers seriously. Your reaction to a problem, as much as the problem itself, will determine the outcome. I have seen people face the most catastrophic problems with a positive mental attitude, turning their problems into creative experiences. They turned their scars into stars.2
When I first read that paragraph, I became inspired. It made me believe that the size of the person is more important than the size of the problem.
Our perspective on problems is so important. Shug Jordan, a former football and basketball coach at Auburn University, was reported to be explaining to one of his new coaches how to recruit ball players for the team when he asked, “Do we want the player who gets knocked down but doesn’t get back up?”
“No,” said the new coach, “we don’t want him.”
“Do we want the player who gets knocked down, gets back up, gets knocked down, gets back up, gets knocked down, gets back up?”
“Yes,” said the new coach, “we want him!”
“No, we don’t,” said Jordan. “We want the guy who keeps knocking everyone down!” The bigger the person, the smaller the problem.
Some people experience one problem three or more times. They experience it the first time when they worry about the problem. They experience it the second time when it actually occurs. And they live it again as they keep reliving it! I’ve done that. Have you? When faced with a problem, my first instinct is often to exaggerate its impact. Do that and you may be defeated before the problem ever occurs!
Cy Young was one of the greatest pitchers in major league baseball. After his career was over, he commented on the tendencies of managers to take their starters out of the game at the slightest hint of trouble. He observed, “In our day when a pitcher got into trouble in a game, instead of taking him out, our manager would leave him in and tell him to pitch his way out of trouble.” Sometimes the problem is not as big a problem as we anticipate, and by tackling it, we shrink it down in size.
In an interview, leadership author and professor John Kotter said that one of his executive students gave him a two-page letter that his CEO had sent out. Part One said, “We’re in a mess. Denial doesn’t help. Here are some statistics to show it.”
Part Two said, “It is useful to look at history. Thirty years ago this company was in a worse mess. Look at us now. We’re ten times bigger. The U.S. economy had deeper recessions every twenty years in the nineteenth century. And here we are——the most powerful nation on earth.”
Part Three said, “We’ve got to link arms and address this thing, and it’s going to start with me. I’m going to try my damnedest to figure out (1) how this doesn’t hurt us and (2) how we can find opportunities in this. Because there are opportunities.”
The last part was, “Here’s what I’m going to do, and here’s what I need your help with.” The final note was hopeful but not naïve.
It seems to me that the CEO was doing his best to neither underestimate nor overestimate the problem the company was facing, but rather to look at it realistically and tackle it.
That brings us to the next lesson I’ve learned about problems. You can’t wait for them to solve themselves. Patience is a virtue in problem solving if you are at the same time doing all that you can to fix the situation. It is not a virtue if you are waiting, hoping that the problem will solve itself or just go away.
Problems demand that we pay them attention. Why? Because left alone they almost always get worse. Nina DiSesa, who led the ad agency McCann Erickson in the late 1990s, observed, “When you step into a turnaround situation, you can safely assume four things: morale is low, fear is high, the good people are halfway out the door, and the slackers are hiding.” Those things won’t improve on their own. They require intentional problem solving and active leadership.
Not only do problems not solve themselves, but we can actually make them worse by how we respond to them. One of the things I’ve told staff members for years is that problems are like fires, and every person carries around two buckets. One bucket has water, and the other gasoline. When you come across a problem, you can use the bucket of water to try to put the fire out. Or you can pour gasoline on it and make it explode. Same problem, two different results.
Taking a potentially volatile situation and making it worse is only one way of aggravating a problem. We can also make problems worse when we respond to them poorly. Some of the ways we can do that include:
Instead, we need to try to remain positive. Author Norman Vincent Peale asserted, “Positive thinking is how you think about a problem. Enthusiasm is how you feel about a problem. The two together determine what you do about a problem.”
If you want to overcome problems and turn them into opportunities for learning, then I recommend that you do the following:
They say the punch that knocks you out is not necessarily the hardest one, but the one you didn’t see coming. I once read about a prisoner in Sydney, Australia, who succeeded in breaking out of jail. He hid in the underpinnings of a delivery truck that had stopped briefly in the prison warehouse. He held on desperately as the truck drove out of the prison. A few moments later, when the truck finally stopped, the prisoner dropped down to the ground and rolled outward to freedom. Unfortunately he discovered that he was now in the courtyard of another prison five miles from the first. He sure didn’t see that coming.
Of course, anticipating problems doesn’t mean worrying all the time about everything that could go wrong. I enjoy the story of a man who was awakened by his wife. She thought she heard a burglar downstairs. He slowly got up, went grumpily downstairs, and found himself staring into the barrel of a gun. The burglar ordered him to hand over all the household valuables, then started to leave. The husband stopped him. “Before you go,” he said, “I’d like you to come upstairs and meet my wife. She’s been expecting you every night for over thirty years.”
Former college football head coach Lou Holtz quipped, “Don’t tell your problems to people! Eighty percent don’t care and the other 20 percent are glad you have them.” I laugh every time I think about that statement, because for the most part it is true. On the other hand, if we work with other people, we must communicate about our problem to the people whom it will affect. We owe them that. Besides the solution often lies in receiving help from someone else who is able to help us solve it.
Lack of communication and poor communication not only prevent us from solving problems, they can also create problems of their own. Bernd Pischetsrieder, former chairman of Volkswagen, said, “I do know that the principal conflicts I have experienced have always had one simple cause: miscommunication. Either I didn’t understand what other people wanted, or they didn’t understand what I wanted. These conflicts were caused by a lack of communication and not just merely misunderstanding someone’s words, but also misunderstanding a person’s intentions and the background from which someone has formed an opinion.”
Whenever I’m preparing to communicate regarding a problem, I first try to gather information and find out people’s experiences and perspectives. That process helps me to better understand what’s going on and where everyone is coming from. Sometime I find out that the problem we have isn’t the problem I thought it was. Occasionally, I discover that the problem I was concerned about wasn’t actually a problem at all. Or that people on the team are already solving it. But no matter what, whether it involves family, friends, employees, or teammates, when you are facing problems, it’s crucial that you all get on the same page and work on it together.
They say you should never open a can of worms unless you plan to go fishing. Too often, I’ve been quick to open up the can without first thinking through the situation. I would have been better off trying to evaluate first.
How do you do that? First, you need to ask yourself, What is the issue? If someone says the moon is a hundred miles from Earth, no big deal. Let it go. Unless you’re a scientist, it doesn’t matter. If someone is about to eat food that is poisoned, deal with it immediately. You have to adjust to the size and weight of the issue. Sometimes that’s hard to do, especially for a type A person who wants to jump in on every little thing. To keep myself from doing that, for years I had a laminated card on my desk with the question, “Does this REALLY MATTER?” It helped me keep perspective when an issue was being discussed.
The second question you need to ask is, Who is involved? Often problems are problems because of the people in the middle of them. Some are like Charlie Brown in the classic Peanuts television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. When he just can’t seem get into the Christmas spirit, Linus tells him, “You’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
As you evaluate problems, try to maintain perspective, and always keep the end in mind. I saw something when I lived in southern Indiana that captures this idea concisely. It was a sign on a farm fence that said, “If you cross this field you had better do it in 9.8 seconds. The bull can do it in 10 seconds.”
Appreciating a problem is counterintuitive for many people. Most people see a problem as a nuisance and try to avoid it. However, if we have the right attitude and appreciate a problem, not only will we work harder to solve it, but we will also learn and grow from it. Problems always bring opportunities, and opportunities always bring problems. The two go hand in hand. If we can learn to appreciate that truth, we have a real advantage in life.
A fantastic illustration of the benefits of adversity can be seen in the way an eagle meets the challenge of turbulent winds.
A problem isn’t really a problem unless you allow it to be a problem. A problem is really an opportunity. If you can see it that way, then every time you face a problem, you will realize that you’re really faced with an opportunity. At the least, it’s an opportunity to learn. But it could become even more if you pursue solving it with the right attitude.
In 1960, when John F. Kennedy was a senator campaigning for the presidency, he gave a successful speech to a crowd at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, site of the historic battle where a small group of American heroes was defeated by the Mexican army. When Kennedy finished, he wanted to make a quick exit, so he said to Maury Mathers, a local politician, “Maury, let’s get out of here. Where’s the back door?”
“Senator,” Maury replied, “if there had been a back door to the Alamo, there wouldn’t have been any heroes.”4
If you and I want to gain the full benefit from every problem, challenge, and loss, we need to stop looking for the back door and face the difficulty with the determination to gain something from it. Do that, and you can become a hero in your own life.