#295: Face the Right Way or Back Into the Wrong Problem
Too many problems, too little time. Or so it seems.
Maybe we have simply not defined our problems correctly. A guy named Gharajedaghi once pointed out that “We fail more often, not because we fail to solve the problem we face, but because we face the wrong problem.”
He should have added that it also depends which way you are facing. George Shultz, who was both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State, although not at the same time, once said that we tend to face the past and back into the future.
You see, the future has different problems requiring new solutions. That’s why Henry Ford said, “History is bunk!” He faced the right way. Else he would have built a better horse and buggy instead of the Model T.
Or you might prefer Albert Einstein’s version, which he apparently never said. At least, not in these words: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Remember, history’s purpose is to get you where you are now. But, depending on how you see it or use it, history can hold you where you were.
So, I ask you, which way are you facing? Which way is your business facing? And which way are our politicians facing?
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.