Be more productive in your everyday work by asking these brilliantly powerful questions, starting with the most powerful one:

• “What problem are we trying to solve?” (Discovery)

A logical next couple of questions would be:

• “How do we know it’s a problem? (Measures)
• “Is it a problem worth solving?” (Priorities)

It seems ridiculous to even spend time writing a blog and doing a video about this question, but I’m always surprised at how few people ask this simple question. When I work with clients it’s the first question I ask about my own gig with them – what problem am I here to try and solve?

It is also a question I ask in every meeting, about every piece of work, about everything that people do.

It’s a powerful question – very powerful.

The reason it is powerful is because it couches the answer in evidence, analysis and an understanding of why the work needs doing. To be more productive it’s important we work on the most valuable work.

Read, listen or watch the video.

Be more Productive

Busy Work

In many organisations there are lots of people doing busy work, but is this busy work solving problems that lay between where we are now, and where we need to?

Are they solving the right problems? Is this work valuable? Could they be more productive?

In one organisation I reckon at least 90% of the staff were spending their day preparing PowerPoint presentations.

When I asked people what problem that PowerPoint was solving – I never got a reasonable answer. They’d been asked to do it by a manager or exec – these people thought they were being effective at work, but the work they were doing was adding little value.

When I went to the manager or exec, and I asked them what problem the PowerPoints were solving – they never gave a good answer either. A leader and managers job is to ensure they are effective at work and their people know how to be also.

Why are people working on it?

When I asked the execs in another company why they were spending £100+ million on a digital transformation program – I got vague answers. It’s why the program was so flawed. So much busy activity was done but leading nowhere. How do you know the work is done, if you don’t know what the work is for?

If we don’t know what problem we’re solving, or what opportunity we’re opening up, then how can we ever know when the work is done?

And that’s the problem many companies are wrangling with. Lots of people, doing lots of work, but no quantifiable way to say it’s done, or that it’s adding value, or that the solutions are the right ones.

To develop the right solutions, we need to know the right problems, and that starts with asking powerful questions.

Rolling it out

When I first started asking this question people were taken aback. They’d never had to answer a question like that before.

• “Because I’ve been asked to”
• “Because it feels like the right thing to do”
• “Because I want to do this work”

After a while everyone in the organisation knew I would ask this question; leaders, execs, managers, the team – they would all come prepared with the answer. Great.

After a while longer everyone in our team started asking the question about all work heading their way. It became a cultural norm – to ask “what problem are we trying to solve?” about everything.

No more people doing busy work that added no business value.

Ask this question about everything; that new initiative, this meeting we’re about to spend an hour in, that new job opening, the strategy document, that new tech.

And trust me – there is so much work that goes on in an organisation that has zero due diligence, consideration, evidence or analysis about it. Work that costs people their energy and attention. Work that doesn’t need to be done. Money that doesn’t need to be spent.

Why it works

This question gets to the essence of WHY we’re doing the work – it gets to the heart of how to be effective at work.

• It gives you a decision-making tool.
  • Do we solve it this way?
  • Or that way?
• It gives you a way to prioritise.
  • Do we solve this problem?
  • Or that one?
• It gives you a critical thinking tool.
  • Will this solution actually solve the problem?
  • Does this problem even need solving?
• It gives you a way of measuring whether work is valuable or not.
  • If we know there is a problem we have evidence, we therefore have evidence that we no longer have the problem
  • Or we need to do some more
  • Or this solution didn’t in fact solve the problem.
• More importantly, it gives you a way to make yourself, and the business better.

Why focus on problems?

The reason I use the word problem a lot, is because business is the art and joy of overcoming problems. All businesses have more problems than can be realistically solved.

A good business has interesting problems that people want to solve.

A problem is really an opportunity.

• Low sales; a problem but also an opportunity to fix the process, define value and get the message out.
• Low customer retention – a chance to make your customer service better.
• Low quality product; a problem but also an opportunity to improve the stability, value or whatever else is causing poor quality.

By focusing on the problem and deeply understanding it, you stand a much better chance of solving it.

I encourage you to use this question liberally – ask it at all times.

What problem are you trying to solve?