Hack #5: Be Literal to Get Lateral
Forget the additional research, the solution to your problem often lies in the very words used to describe it in the first place.
Welcome to the 5th post in our #Hacks series where we provide you with all the tools you need to solve your most stubborn challenges in 2 hours (or less).
When faced with a stubborn challenge, we often feel that it’s due to a lack of information. Maybe we don’t truly understand customers’ needs or we simply just don’t know our market well enough. We feel that with more research or analysis we’ll find our solution.
I’ll be honest, that’s generally bullshit. People are usually much closer to their solutions than they think (and much closer than consultants will ever lead them to believe). In fact, your solutions are often embedded in the very vocabulary you use to describe your problem in the first place.
The Power of Your Own Words
Take the following problem statement which has been adapted from a recent Hackathon we hosted for a client’s retreat in New York.
“We started a new division of our business a year ago as a complement to our current offering. We have a group of talented freelancers that do the work, however we’re struggling to sell this new service to our existing clients. We’d love to get our existing team engaged, so they can identify high-value targets that might need this service. However, right now the new addition just doesn’t feel like part of the family.”
Now, look for words in the problem statement that may have a more literal or obvious meaning. Look for instances where if you extracted those words and looked at them in isolation you would be thinking about something completely different. These words are going to help us find our solutions
Be Literal
So, let’s look at the problem statement to see if there are any words or phrases that have a more literal meaning. Any instances where we would expect to see these words used in a different context. You can easily come up with your own suggestions, but here are 3 that jumped out at me:
- “Get..Engaged”
- “Identify High-Value Targets”
- “Doesn’t Feel Part of the Family”
By simply concentrating on the phraseology itself we can look at the problem from a completely different perspective. We shift the context to its most literal or obvious meaning. If you hear the phrase “get engaged”, your initial reaction has nothing to do with business. The same goes for “doesn’t feel part of the family”. When I think of “identifying high value targets”, I’m not thinking of customers, I’m thinking of Pablo Escobar and Osama Bin Laden.
Get Lateral
If the language we use to describe our problems has a more literal meaning, it’s likely to have sufficient explanatory power to inform our solutions — otherwise we wouldn’t have used that vocabulary in the first place. So, let’s look at the literal meaning of our words and how they could be adapted to inform solutions to our original problem:
“Get Engaged”
The secrets to getting engaged can teach us a lot about potential solutions to our challenge. Ensuring love runs both ways, knowing your role and creating collective goals are key to both getting engaged and the challenge at hand.
Consider the penultimate step in the engagement process — asking the father’s permission. Perhaps the staff weren’t asked if they agreed with the creation or structure of the new division ahead of time. Perhaps they felt blind-sided and as a defense mechanism are shunning the venture. Maybe, open communication upfront to secure buy-in would help going forward.
“Identify High-Value Targets”
During the hunt for Bin Laden, the CIA built a “pattern of life” to locate Bin Laden by employing satellite imagery, pursuing couriers, eavesdropping on family communications, interrogating associates and even torturing potential informants.
They even created a fake vaccination drive in an attempt to extract family DNA from Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. Perhaps the team needs to map the entire DNA of their clients to identify demand for all services rather than focusing on isolated cells. If they identify the client’s growth, development and reproduction patterns they will be better placed to anticipate and identify those high-value targets.
“Doesn’t Feel Part of Family”
When I think of people who don’t feel part of the family, I think of stepchildren. Successful stepparents do many things to make their families work. They don’t overpromise, they treat all kids the same, they respect the other side (yes, the dreaded ex) and they create a collective vision for the entire family — all things relevant to the challenge.
They also don’t hog together time, providing plenty of alone-time for all family members to bond. Perhaps the division manager needs to promote alone-time between the external and internal team members. After all, it’s very difficult to expect the core team to sell work performed by outside freelancers if they haven’t had the space to build those personal relationships and family dynamics.
Wrapping Up
This all reminds me of a famous catchphrase from Blankety Blank, a popular TV quiz show on BBC in the UK during the 1970s and 80s— “Remember, the clue is in the question”. The next time you’re struggling with a stubborn challenge, look for clues in the question (literally)— I assure you, you’re much closer to your solution than you think.
