“We can’t improve our reach until the new digital marketing manager is onboard.”
“We can’t….until…” How often does the solution to one issue depend on the solution to another? But does it really have to?
Sitting in a prefect’s common room some decades ago, a group of us were putting the world to rights. I can’t remember the topic. It was the 60’s so probably communism or more broadly socialism or something equally broad-brush. Simon Cohen said something along the lines “what we need to do is…” and Martin Blank (no that was his real name, not trying to be discrete here) asked “Why?”. When Simon replied, Martin again asked “Why?”. So started a) one of the most frustrating and eventually heated debates in my sixth form career and b) a sobering lesson in delving below the surface.
The heat and frustration came from others interjecting with “well its obvious…” to which Martin would again ask “Why?”. But whether wittingly or not, Martin had struck upon one of the most powerful and important lessons in strategic thinking (or indeed, any business thinking). He could have varied the question occasionally to avert the raised temperature, he probably enjoyed that part in any case, but ultimately, as the continuing “Why?s” were asked, we did find ourselves considering the issues at a much more fundamental level.
Whether or not any of us believed in the ideology under discussion, in those days it was easy to see some superficial issues with the idea, but at the outset, did we really understand the fundamental philosophy or its pitfalls. I don’t think any of us had read Marx (except probably Martin himself, who was so inclined even as a school boy). But by drilling down, we could start to appreciate such things as the rationale for Marx’s thought process, what communism might actually do for the good and in what circumstances, but then also the underlying issues as well.
I don’t suggest you use this exact methodology in your next Trustee or management meeting, simply repeating “Why?”, but consider two things. What is the ultimate outcome of not dealing with an issue and what is the root cause of the issue. In each case, be prepared to ask for the next level each time until you really cannot go any further.
If the ultimate outcome or consequence has a negative impact on your key business drivers, you must solve the problem. But if it doesn’t, then perhaps…let it go. (I’ll talk about business drivers in another article.)
When you get to a root cause that is outside your control, one level up is the issue you really have to address.
In the SCQuAREtm methodology, this process is called the ‘Causal Chain’…again, I will discuss this further, separately.
Bringing this back to the beginning of the article, when you seem stuck with a circular challenge, one solution dependant on another, dependant on another etc., by examining the ‘Causal Chain’, finding the ultimate consequence but more importantly here, the root cause, you may well find that a completely different solution can be found that breaks the circle. Try it and let me know how it goes.