There’s not consensus on who coined the phrase, but I’ve thought about this bit of genius hundreds of times over the course of my work and personal life.
Sometimes problems are hard to solve because the solutions are hard to execute. The solution might require a very difficult conversation – a conversation that will elicit all sorts of emotions as the other person scrambles to defend themselves or throw someone else under the bus even though they’re clearly in the wrong. Maybe a long-time employee has to be fired. Maybe a product you dearly love, that you developed with your blood, sweat, and tears, has outlived its useful life and needs to be retired. Maybe a vendor that’s been a long-time trusted partner has dropped the ball so dramatically that they must be replaced. Maybe a customer who, in previous years, has generated millions of dollars in revenue for your organization has become so unreasonable in their demands for product changes or preferential service has become impossible to profitably satisfy and must be cut loose. Nobody runs cheerfully and enthusiastically into these situations. So instead, we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. We skirt around the real issues when we have conversations with the offending party. We make small accommodations that inconvenience our staff but will temporarily appease the demanding customer. We “encourage” the vendor to “do better” but kick the can down the road on finding their replacement. You get the idea.
This month, there’s no four point action plan or chapter from my book that addresses the issue. It’s just a firm reminder (one that I’m going to heed myself) that you can’t fix a problem that’s a 10 with a solution that’s a 2. Have the hard conversation. Take the decisive action. Take the quantum leap.
In a month or two or six, after the dust settles, you’ll be glad you did. The people that depend on you to run the organization will be glad too. They most likely know the problem exists and are stuck as well. Your refusal to rearrange the deck chairs but instead take the corrective action will be an example for them as well.
