When the Solution becomes the Problem

If it works, don’t touch it.

This is kind of a mantra in western countries, and in western cultures in general. Now, you are reading this and you have probably figured out already that I’m going to talk about some eastern concept like Lean, Kaizen, and other Japanese-sounding words. If that’s the case, I’m happy to tell you that you are wrong. I’m not going to talk about eastern culture and Kaizen. You probably know that already, and if you don’t use it in everyday life, then my aim is not to persuade you to begin now.

What I’d like to talk about in this post (if you didn’t guess it already reading the title) is how a solution can become a problem. Not why it can become: there could be many, many reasons for a solution to become a problem, but the process is quite standard. And knowing the process we can do much to prevent this from happening.

Now, the basic problem of solutions is that they work, or worked in a particular context, space or time. Just think about Clickbait, which is basically the use of catchy titles to get yourself into a content. The solution itself seems good, if not for the fact that as many people started using it, the content associated became increasingly poorer. And I don’t know about you, but whenever i read a “You won’t think what happened….” I just know that I will land on a page with basically no content, and full of adv, and the “5 rules you must follow to…” will probably ask to make me to download an ebook through a newsletter subscribtion (and most of the times the ebook is not worth even your email address).

What you have here is something that once was a solution, that actually worked, but with its use (and abuse) became a problem: the fact that you may be diverting traffic from your site, potentially quality traffic (because I may be seriously interested in the products you offer, you know). I know you are just following some best practices, but that’s the problem with best practices: they only work if few people use them.

Now, this post is not about Inbound marketing, but about solutions that become problems. If you analyze the story, you can easily find the plot, but I will try and go further, describing in more general terms the conspiracy that makes problems out of solutions.

1. You find a solution that works in solving a particular problem. Obviously you apply it.
2. You start using the solutions to solve problems slightly different to the first one. It’s not your fault, your brain is wired like that: it spends so much less energy in fishing a past solution then developing a new one!
3. The solution usually works for different problems too, because they are actually similar to the first one. Steadily, you start applying the same solution to many problems which are much more different one from another. There could be also many other people that start using the same solution (this is the case of the best practices).
4. The solution start working less, in solving more different problem, but now you are very biased (because it worked so many times already!) and fail to notice that it’s failing you.
5. The solution start failing to solve even the original problem, usually because in some way context has changed. Still, it’s your bias that keeps you on that particular solution.
6. The consequences of the solution can now be problems.
7. The solution actually becomes the problem.

Ever heard of it? Being attached to a solution that once worked is a simple but extremely powerful cognitive bias. Interesting thing is that this plot can be amplified by a system, let’s say an organization. Is there any corporation which pops in your mind, that went bankrupt because they failed to see a shift in the market, or the world changing? Resistance to change is subtle, and usually is powered by a solution that once worked, and usually worked very well.

Obviously that’s not usually that catastrophic as to bring you to bankruptcy. When the solution is becoming increasingly less efficient, your brain starts giving you notice! Problem is, it can happen that a solution works very well, possibly to solve a wide range of problems. Now, that solution may be actually dangerous.

So what to do? Not everyone has a strong preparation in Strategic Problem Solving, which is a model that helps in solving these kind of problems, but anyone can start by understanding in which step of the scale they are. Start thinking about your solution. Does it really helps you in solving the problem, or there might be some perspective from where it doesn’t bring good results? Develop your Resilience, Start thinking about how does it work, not why you do it. The answer to the why is simple: this solution worked in the past; that’s not a good question! Instead start asking yourself how does this solution works, in relation to the problem you are trying to solve. Just this simple question may help you in early spotting dangerous solutions.

What is your experience? Did it ever happen to you to make a problem out of a solution? Let me hear your story!