The source of the problem and its solution.

Let’s say you encounter a problem. You look at the issue and start fighting it. You come up with measures to combat it, invent strategies and rules. You manage conflict situations, reduce consequences, and so on. However, you do nothing about the source of the problem.

Of course, the problem didn’t arise all at once. It developed gradually, and you might not even realize when its first symptoms appeared. At first, you ignored the problem, but it kept growing. Then you tried to suppress it, and it grew even more, and eventually, you started fighting against it and… made it worse.

But the problem must have arisen from somewhere, right? Some facts, events, your reaction, something in your style, something in your behavior, or something else that happened at some point inevitably led to it. Why inevitably? Because no one knew that a particular behavior would cause this problem, and decisions were made without considering this current issue. In other words, under the same conditions, the same decisions would have been made—so it was inevitable.

So how can the problem be solved? Only by going back to the point where you made the decision and looking for the answer there, correcting the source of the problem rather than fighting it. It’s like playing chess against a computer. If at some point you find yourself in a losing position, it’s worth “rewinding” the sequence of moves and understanding what led to that position, instead of trying to salvage a losing situation.

I’m going around in circles here. Okay, a specific example: You can’t manage one of your employees, but you can’t fire him because he’s quite productive. In response to your requests for him to complete a task, he starts negotiating, citing his busy schedule and so on.

When the first symptoms appeared, you ignored them. When the problem worsened, you started to apply pressure. When the issue got out of control, you began to tackle it, for example, by adjusting the motivation system or requiring the employee to write daily reports on their work.

But what is the reality? Well, in reality, the employee might just be lacking something. attention whom you deprived of it, thinking that your job as a manager is only to assign tasks and monitor their execution?

A down-to-earth problem. You’re a student and not ready for your strength of materials exam. At first, you ignored your lack of knowledge—thankfully, no one asked you anything. Then you started to “wing it”—you cobbled together your coursework from some random source online. Eventually, you began to tackle the issue—preparing cheat sheets and writing “bombs.” But, in reality, all you need to do is simply learn the subject. Here and now, just a day before the exam, the best and most sensible solution is to sit down and study.

A management problem. In your firm the deadlines you set for delivering work to clients are not being met. At first you ignore the problem — so what, they were late. Then you tighten the screws, setting ever harsher deadlines in the hope that a close deadline will produce a wave of enthusiasm, and after that you start fighting the problem by introducing, say, penalties. Yet the source of the problem is lying right there on the surface: you are too optimistic when you set the deadlines for the work. Or else you treat the quality and the detail of the work too painstakingly, with perfectionism and workaholism, taking excellence to a level the client does not even need.

You know that modern motor oils are so good that the engine doesn’t really care what additional additives a particular manufacturer includes. Any modern synthetic oil poured into a regular car already fully meets all the technical requirements for motor oil. The rest is just marketing. But you’re not making motor oil, right?