“Let’s not get into solutioning”

Welcome to the “The Catalyst,” Kevin Noble’s weekly newsletter about becoming a more effective leader.

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Quick Note

We haven’t talked about fitness goals in a while. How are yours going?

I recently tried getting 10K steps every single day. I didn’t love it!

One of my 2024 fitness goals is to average 10K steps per day. I’m on track, but each day I’m all over the place.

Somedays I hit 15-20K steps. Other days I’m at my computer most of the day and lucky to hit 6K steps.

I like experimenting, so I wondered what it would be like to get 10K steps every day. 🤔 I did it for 20 days in a row.

I noticed a few things:
1️⃣ It was hard! I had a lot of post-dinner-cleanup walking around the living room to get me over.
2️⃣ There was zero observable benefit. Qualitatively and on my Garmin I noticed zero sleep, stress, or other measurable benefit (although this is probably something that operates on a longer timescale, and you’d see it in your bloodwork).
3️⃣ I started to not like walking 😬. It became more of a chore than something I looked forward to. Every day I had to figure out when my schedule would let me go for a walk or run.

The cost was high, there was zero observable benefit, and I turned something I loved into a chore. Successful experiment!

What was the final thing that made me drop the goal?

Last Friday I was about to go on a walk, but one of my kids was shooting hoops in the driveway.

I looked down the road, then looked at my son.

I realized my goal was making me miss out on opportunities like this. So I asked my son if it was cool to join in, and we played basketball instead, and I’m all the happier for it.

How are you doing on your fitness and health goals for 2024? Check in by sharing with me at heykev@kevinnoble.xyz.

Get after it, and don’t forget to have fun! 😁

Kevin

A Quote

“ Let go of thoughts, including judgements, labels, expectations and stories. For example, you realize that your mind keeps creating problems by chattering on about something that has no relevance to what’s happening now. You learn to witness – or observe – the thoughts and let them go. Now you can get on with life. — John Purkiss in “The Power of Letting Go

Three Things

1 – 📙 The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon – Jeff Bezos is extremely capable, and there’s a lot to admire in him. But he was also a real a-hole to his staff. “Are you lazy or just incompetent?” “If I hear that idea again, I’m gonna have to kill myself.” There’s a lot more in the book than Jeff being confrontational. If you’re interested in how one of the most dominant companies of our age came to be, this is a great history.

2 – 👨‍💻 Replit.com – I’ve been using ChatGPT for help writing Python, but you can’t execute code there of course. I found Replit, where you can execute and deploy code. I’m not a software developer, so there’s a good learning curve for me, but the AI support helps immensely. My goal is to be able to build very simple apps and websites to prove out ideas. Check it out if this is something you’re also interested in.

3 – 🧩 Puzzle, For Process Diagrams – This is a cool tool for process mapping that was recently shared with me. Most tools I’ve used for this aren’t custom-built for that purpose, and they honestly don’t work very well. I’ve got this bookmarked for the next time I need to map out and improve a process.

Deeper Dive on Avoiding Problem Solving

I’ve gotten really curious about a phrase I started hearing more in the past year.

It’s a phrase about not solving problems.

You can say it about yourself: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get into solutioning.”

You can say it to others: “Hold on, let’s not get into solutioning.”

Have you heard this?

When I first heard this, my reaction was a bit of mimicry and support, like, yeah, let’s not solve this problem right now.

But then the deeper part of my brain was like, wait a second – isn’t solving problems what we’re here to do?

Should we always be solving problems? When should we not solve problems? How do leadership behaviors contribute to this term being used?

With multiple sides of this phrase to explore, let’s dive into this anti-problem-solving term in today’s newsletter.

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When is it Appropriate to Say “Let’s Not Get Into Solutioning”?

I see three circumstances when you wouldn’t want to solve problems, and thus the use of this phrase would be appropriate:

1) When the problem isn’t a priority.
2) When you need more time to frame the problem.
3) When you want to create more solution options.

The world, and your business, are full of problems. You can solve anything, but you can’t solve everything. You’ve got to focus on the few problems that are worth solving.

If you’ve got an enthusiastic team, you might need to create time for pause and reflection by saying, “Let’s not get into solutioning.” You don’t want anyone to waste their energy on something that may not be on the critical path.

The second appropriate use is when you need more time to frame the problem before trying to solve it.

Problems are complex and you’ll want to look at it from multiple angles before solving it. You don’t want the team to dive in too quick.

The third appropriate use is to prevent the team from falling in love with the first solution that came to mind. You can use this phrase to encourage the team to stay in divergent thinking, generating more options. Later you can pick on to dive deep on.

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When is is NOT Appropriate to Say “Let’s Not Get Into Solutioning”?

I’d argue that the phrase is not appropriate to use in any scenario other than the three identified above.

Be alert when the phrase doesn’t a) completely cancel work on a problem, or b) lead into broader thinking on the existing problem. These are clues that it’s more of an avoidance mechanism, rather than effective leadership.

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The Impact on Culture When Used Incorrectly

The word “strategy” has this strange appeal. People love it. It certainly has a notable prestige over the word tactics.

If you slap the word strategy on anything, it immediately gets +5 points to cachet.

You’re no longer planning, you’re doing strategic planning. You’re no longer a Business Advisor, you’re a Strategic Business Advisor. This is not just any report, it’s a strategic report.

More important for our discussion today is how this admiration of strategy creates a negative implication for tactics. If you’re doing something tactical, then you’re not doing something strategic, which means you’re lesser than.

Strategy good. Tactics bad.

The issue of tactics being lesser than gets combined with the phenomenon where layers of management need to figure out their role in work getting done. To be seen as a senior leader, there’s a desire to be see as “above the fray,” and therefore more strategic. Let the layers below you do the tactical work.

Strategy – wrongly! – is seen as picking the problems to be solved, not actually solving them.

Behaviorally, this looks like avoiding problem solving because to engage in it would be to indicate that you’re tactical, which means not strategic, and not senior.

This is where a senior leader starts to reinforce that they’re senior by saying “let’s not get into solutioning right now.” Saying this feels like being strategic because you’re not bothering yourself with the messy tactical work of problem solving.

Next, other leaders in the hierarchy start to emulate the senior leaders by avoiding being seen as tactical. Everyone’s being “strategic,” but no one is doing the work.

The net effect of all of this is a culture where problems are frequently discussed, but infrequently solved.

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Problem Solving – “Solutioning” – Is an Integral Part of Strategy

I consider problem solving a core capability of effective leadership.

The phrase “let’s not get into solutioning” can have its place when used correctly (see earlier sections), but it becomes dangerous when used incorrectly because of the negative impact on a business’ ability to get things done.

Larry Bossidy (CEO of Honeywell) and author Ram Charan assert in “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done” that “Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy. Execution is the major job of the business leader. Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.”

The leadership principles at Amazon were created in part because Jeff Bezos identified that they needed to ensure they hired builders and architects, not managers. Bezos himself was deeply in the details, and helped get problems solved.

Amazon’s current CEO, Andy Jassy, even explores this tension and describes the importance of getting into the details as he explains the “Dive Deep” principle here:

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Final Point – This is fun 😁

I don’t know about you, but this is one of those things that make leadership fun!

This is not black and white, and there’s a complex interplay between language, behaviors, and psychology in getting things right.

If you want a culture where execution happens, where problems are solved – not just discussed – you’ll want to encourage and reward problem solving up and down the org. chart.

While delaying solutions can be appropriate in specific circumstances, mis-applying the phrase can stifle progress. You want to be very mindful of when your language creates artificial barriers and roadblocks to getting things done.

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Call to Action

A few actions for leaders come out of this exploration.

1️⃣ – Use The Anti-Solutioning Phrase Mindfully
If you’re ever tempted to utter “let’s not get into solutioning right now,” make sure you’re being mindful, and not on auto-pilot. Are you trying to slow down to make sure this problem is worth solving? Do you want to understand the problem more fully? Then you can safely proceed with this phrase.

2️⃣ – Model Ownership by Engaging in Problem Solving
The best leaders I work with are actively engaged in problem solving. They don’t solve every problem because that would be a bottleneck, but they are deeply engaged in the work. They have a perspective. Make sure you get involved in the work of your teams and model problem solving.

I was able to ask a few people about this phrase during the weekend’s leadership ruck, and I’d love to hear your experience, too! Have you encountered this phrase in your work? What are your thoughts?

Please share them with me at heykev@kevinnoble.xyz.

Kevin 😃

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