3 Ways to Use Counterintuitive Thinking to Embrace Threats and Turn a Problem into the Solution

This post was written by Catherine Smith, Strategy Consultant at Jump Associates. Connect with her by commenting on this post.

While I was walking along Santa Cruz’s sand-strewn boardwalk last weekend, I noticed an interesting design on the ground: outlines of starfish, sea horses, and crabs were imprinted in the concrete walkway. These patterns would have been nearly invisible, except that the wind was constantly sweeping the sand over them, filling in the patterns and creating a beautiful mural.

I realized that instead of viewing the sand as a maintenance problem, the boardwalk’s designer observed the environment, and seeing the wind at work, chose to use the sand as an aesthetic tool. But this is not simply good design. It is a demonstration of how people can reframe elements of their world that they cannot control.

It may seem counterintuitive to use aspects of our environment that we cannot ignore or overcome to our advantage; our instinctive response is to tackle them head-on. Leveraging an issue in a creative way and reframing it positively can be an incredibly powerful problem-solving method. When companies are facing inevitable changes in their environment or entering new markets and they are not sure how to deal with obstacles that seem to impede their success, they should try reframing their problems as assets.
This is simpler than you might think. Here are three principles to use:

1. Weigh all the elements in a situation equally, both positive and negative.

A few years ago, the staff of a German senior center was facing morale issues because their Alzheimer’s patients frequently fled the center during episodes of agitation from memory loss. They would get on the nearest bus and ride it until they were hopelessly lost, and attempts to stop them from leaving the home often resulted in ugly confrontations.

Instead of viewing the escapes as a problem to be avoided altogether, the staff realized that there was an advantage in the residents’ predictable behavior: they always tried to get on a bus. The nursing home built a fake bus stop in front of the home where residents would go to wait when they escaped. They would then calm down while waiting and could soon be led peacefully back inside.

Their solution was counterintuitive and elegant; in fact, it was so successful that it became a common practice in Germany. Reframing a situation, and refraining from automatically dismissing any aspect of it because it might be part of the problem, can reveal new advantages and lead to even better solutions.

2. Pretend your challenge is actually an asset.

Many people would assume that news of a Starbucks opening a shop in town would forecast the end of independent coffeehouses in the area. Certainly, Starbucks has the potential to take business away from nearby coffee shops. But one coffeehouse owner refused to throw in the towel when he heard Starbucks was entering his neighborhood. He considered how it could be a great thing for him personally, theorizing that Starbucks creates more coffee drinkers but, at the same, has long lines, steep prices, and a limited menu that might leave people wanting more.

He realized that if he provided another choice right next to Starbucks, people might initially flock to Starbucks for coffee, and then switch to the coffee shop next door. He bought a Chinese restaurant directly next to the new Starbucks and converted it into a coffeehouse. In its first year, the store made $1 million, just about the same annual revenue as a Starbucks. Flipping a challenge on its head to find out how it can be an asset can result in a beautiful solution.

3. Consider the long-term advantages of inevitable forces.

Taxi companies have recently taken a hard hit with the rise of Uber and Lyft. In response to the development of the ridesharing economy, many taxi firms have taken to battling these unauthorized driving companies in court. However, some taxi companies realized this was a lost battle, and instead considered how Uber and Lyft were going to alter the ride-requesting market, focusing on the fact that people are now comfortable with requesting rides via apps on their smartphones.

Seizing this opportunity to update their own ride-requesting methods, these companies leveraged the widespread familiarity with e-hailing and banded together to build apps that mimicked Uber. As a result, they enjoyed instant adoption by customers. Because taxi companies work together in fleets, this model is easily scalable and has enabled them to remain competitive. The most popular taxi-requesting app, Flywheel, reduces taxi drivers’ down time and claims the potential to double the number of paid trips during a normal shift.

This future-facing mindset shift gives taxi companies the opportunity to find advantages in what could otherwise be a disaster for their business; it focuses on improving their efficiencies instead of wasting their time and money in a futile legal war. As my colleague Vijay Rajendran noted in his own blog, innovation inevitably wins out against regulation.

In the right light, threats can truly be blessings in disguise. This applies to all types of problems, from day-to-day human dilemmas to industry disruptions – and it doesn’t just apply to today’s problems. While smart business leaders reframe threats they currently face, wise business leaders reframe the threats they will be facing in their future.

A prime example of where this reframing problem solving method should be used is in the watch industry. The introduction of the Apple Watch last month marked the smart watch’s transition out of the realm of novelty wearable tech, giving it the potential to become a must-have accessory. This means that tech companies will be directly competing against watch companies, as Jony Ive — Apple’s famous designer — pointed out when he quipped that Switzerland is now in trouble.

Although it may be premature to claim that the Apple Watch will soon threaten high-end Swiss watchmakers, these companies do need to start envisioning how they can leverage a surge in smart watch popularity down the line. If they don’t respond by embracing the future and turning this problem on its head, it may be too late by the time that future arrives. One luxury watchmaker, TAG Heuer, is already embracing that future; it just announced that it will be creating its own smart watch.

The concept of reframing and embracing a threat is not a novel idea, but it goes against our intuition, which is why it’s not a natural step in problem solving. Attempting to reframe a difficult problem is something that anyone, in any industry, can and should be doing. How will you reframe a problem you’re facing and come up with a beautiful solution?

Originally published at www.jumpassociates.com.