Key points from this chapterNow let’s consider the second barrier to good problem solving: acting too slowly, which can be just as much of a problem as moving too quickly. There are six reasons why we sometimes delay a choice past the critical point:
Reason one: Defensive avoidance
I believe psychologists when they say that everyone has a built-in defensive avoidance of problems. In layperson’s language, that means we avoid problems and move toward opportunities. In problem solving this psychological desire to move away from problems causes three attitudes that slow the decision-making process:
1. It can’t happen to me.
2. I can take care of it later.
3. Let somebody else worry about it.
The first attitude is: This can’t happen to me. Sure, 10 restaurants have gone out of business at this location, but they weren’t doing what I’m going to do. I ’m not going to let that happen to me.
The second attitude is: I can take care of it later. Rather than recognizing we have a problem that needs a solution, we tend to think, “I’ve lots of other things to do, and this can wait.” It doesn’t occur to us that we’re procrastinating because the other things are much more fun.
And the third attitude that comes from defensive avoidance is the attitude of “let somebody else worry about it.” If you’re the president of your company, that’s a disastrous attitude to take and one you strongly need to resist. When you’re the one running the company, the buck stops with you. Unless you’re actively making things happen, the inertia that’s built into any organization will take over.
Reason two: A “don’t fix it unless it’s broke” attitude
The second reason for acting too slowly is being satisfied with what you’ve got. These days, the “don’t fix it unless it’s broke” attitude can sink you. In today’s fast moving business environment you must anticipate that it’s going to break. This translates into: It isn’t always going to be a best-seller, so improve it before its sales peak.
Gillette was riding high in 1990. They were the market leader in both disposable and cartridge razors by a three-to-one margin. Even so, they spent $200 million to develop the Sensor razor and an additional $175 million to advertise it. That’s far more than all their profits from the previous year. They had every justification for saying “Let’s not fix it, because it isn’t broken.” But they know you can’t get away with that for very long in today’s business environment. Never become satisfied with what you’ve got … always be improving.
Reason three: An obsession with brainstorming
The third reason for acting too slowly on a decision is an obsessive desire to involve other people in the problem-solving process. Brainstorming can be a very valuable aid to good problem solving, but don’t let it delay the decision too much. If a decision must be made, set a deadline for making it. Get as many people involved as you can, but not if it delays the decision too much. Unless something significant comes up to make you change the deadline, go for it. If you still can’t get a consensus and the deadline is near, let the manager closest to the problem make the decision.
In Section Seven of this book, you’ll find a whole section on when and if you should brainstorm a problem.
Reason four: Gathering too much information
Too much information is a real threat in today’s world. We have access to so much information, we easily become confused. It becomes like a mental noise that blocks intuitive thinking.
Be careful that your Internet searches are not too vague. If you Google a question and get 975,000 answers, your search terms are way too broad. You can drown in too much information.
Be cautious about storing information. Before you print something out and file it, say to yourself, “Do I really need to have a hard copy of this, or can I access the information on my computer if I need to see it again?
The Pentagon has long dreamed of digitizing all its records, just like your medical group did years ago. They haven’t been able to do it because they are drowning in too much information. Even the Secretary of Defense said that, “Trying to get information from the Pentagon is like trying to drink out of a fire hose.”
Reason five: Attempting to predict the future
The fifth reason for slow problem solving is time wasted in attempts to predict the future. Even economists can’t predict the future.
Economists fail in their predictions, because they won’t accept that people are well-informed, rational creatures who’ll always do what’s in their best interest. Every other business runs on that assumption, but economists refuse to factor it in. My conclusion about all this? Futurism is fascinating, but rarely accurate. Take hydrogen-fueled cars for example. We’ve been hearing for 30 years that hydrogen cars will clean the air rather than pollute it, but where are they? In 1965 Herbert Simon, a leading expert in artificial intelligence, predicted that by 1985 machines would be able to do anything a human could do. No sign of that yet.
Remember the prediction that once there was a computer in every home that all our traffic problems would go away? Futurists were convinced that most people would work from a workstation in their home. Not only would our traffic problems go away but there would be a huge population shift from the cities to the countryside as people realized that they no longer had to go to work every day. What happened to that idea?
How relevant are predictions to your business anyway? It’s far better to monitor what’s going on and react to it, than to waste time trying to predict what might happen.
Reason six: A fear of failure
The sixth reason for making decisions too slowly is an obvious one: fear of failure. Keep reminding yourself that you can’t win if you’re afraid of losing.
The best way I know to avoid the fear of losing is to figure out the worst-case scenario. What’s the worst thing that could happen if you make a wrong decision? It’s probably not as bad as you fear. Remember: The only person qualified to tell you that something won’t work, is a person who has tried it and found that it didn’t work! There are a million people out there running around telling you that things won’t work, but when you check their expertise, they don’t have much. They’re telling you it won’t work and yet they’ve never attempted it themselves. My rule is: Nobody’s entitled to tell me I can’t do something unless they’ve done it and failed.
Key points from this chapterThere are six reasons why we might solve a problem too slowly:
Defensive avoidance. We have built in psychological mechanism that encourages us to avoid problems.
A “don’t fix it unless it’s broke” attitude. Anticipating that what you’re doing now, won’t always be the best thing to do, keeps you one step ahead of the competition.
An obsession with brainstorming. Participatory involvement is great, but not if it delays the decision too much. Set a deadline, and when it comes, go with the best available solution.
Gathering too much information. Don’t let it bury you!
Wasting time trying to predict the future.
A fear of failure.