Many a times, be it at work front of in our personal lives, we find ourselves facing a lotsa problems and we just try to manage it some how or the other. In do so, we sometimes mismanage things instead of managing them. We get so engrossed with thr problem in our hands that we keep on focussing at it instead of focussing at the solution.

We forget the fact that simple things can do wonder in life. We should always try and focus on simple solutions to larger problems. For eg, incase of disputes twixt tow large companies I often see that people keep in fighting for no reason or just to satisfy their egos. And we keep talking bout the problems and consequences. Never do we try and find a solution to the problem. If both the parties agree that they have to get out of the rut as soon as possible, they will aim at finding a simple solution to the problem which shall be a win-win situation for both of them. Like the famous old song “tumhaari bhi jai jai, humaari bhi jai-jai….na tum haare na hum haaare” (sorry dont remember the name of the movie).

Focussing of simple solutions to larger problems can help you overcome dificultest of problems and not only in case of disputes. Problems between husband-wife, friends, or be it any other relationship can be sorted out if they all want it to be solved.

History has interesting examples to quote on the difference between focussing the problems and focussing on solutions which are nowadays taught in business schools as case studies.

One of the very interesting example is that of NASA trying to invent a pen that could work in zero gravity so that the astronauts can use in in space as no ball pen or inkpen works in zero gravity (ink doesnt flow in zero gravity). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

On the other hand, what did their Russian counterparts do?? They used a pencil. Now their lies the difference. The Americans foccused at the problem and tried to find out a pen that would work on the moon but the Russians focussed on the solution. They wanted something with which they can write in space. So they realised that they can use a pencil. They not only saved 12 million dollars but good 10 years of non-productive excercise.

Another memorable incident that happend in Japan was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty.

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral : Always look for simple solutions.
Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems. Always Focus on solutions & not on problems. At the end of the day, what really matters is HOW ONE LOOKS AT THE PROBLEM…. Good perceptions can solve tough problems.

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