Chapter 22 1. Identify the target: what is the problem?

Now that we have psychologically overcome our fear of the problem, we can now explore solutions to the problem. When it comes to solving problems, you may say: OK, tell us the skills to solve problems quickly, let me become a master in solving problems in the shortest time, so that my performance will be doubled, and all aspects will be improved. outstanding. Rushing to solve problems is a great temptation, but if you first go to the goal of solving problems quickly, it is likely to be fruitless, or even the opposite. why?Because, to solve a problem, first of all, it is not a skill, but a correct definition of the problem, that is, to figure out what the problem is?Identifying exactly what the problem is is tantamount to identifying the target you should aim at.

Let’s take a look at how a small worker in a factory helped his boss solve a big problem: The story happened in Robin, an American shoe king and industrialist.Wheeler's factory.At the time, Robin's career was just getting started.In order to achieve the best results in a short period of time, he organized a research team and produced several fashionable shoes and put them on the market: As a result, orders came in and the factory was overwhelmed with production. In order to solve this problem, the factory tried to recruit a group of technicians to produce shoes, but it was still far from enough.What can I do? If the shoes cannot be produced on schedule, the factory will have to pay the customer a large sum of compensation.

So Robin called a meeting to study countermeasures.The supervisors talked about many ways, but none of them worked.At this time, a young worker raised his hand and asked to speak. I don't think our fundamental problem is to find more skilled workers, as the problem can be solved without them. Why? Because the real problem is to increase production, adding technicians is only one of the means. Most people think his words are far-fetched, but Robin takes it seriously and encourages him to keep talking. He timidly proposed: We can use machines to make shoes. This was something that had never happened at that time, and immediately caused everyone to burst into laughter: "My child, what kind of machine do you use to make shoes? Can you make such a machine?"

The little worker sat down red-faced, but his words touched Robin deeply, and he said: This little brother pointed out a blind spot in our thinking: we always thought that our problem was to recruit more technicians, but this little brother let us see: the real problem is to improve efficiency.Although he doesn't create machines, his ideas matter.So I'm going to award him five hundred dollars. That was a huge bonus, equivalent to half a year's wages for a small worker.But the reward is worth it.According to the new idea put forward by Xiaogong, the boss immediately organized experts to study the machine for producing shoes.Four months later, the machine was produced, and the world has since entered the era of machine-made shoes.Robin.Wheeler has thus become a famous shoe king in the United States.

Robin.When Wheeler talked about this story in his autobiography, he emphasized that: This employee is forever worthy of my gratitude.This experience made me understand a very important truth: When encountering a problem, first define the problem.If this employee hadn't pointed out to me that my fundamental problem was increasing productivity rather than finding more workers, my company would not have grown as much as it did. Indeed, as the famous thinker Dewey said: A well-defined problem has already solved half of the problem.Undoubtedly, from solving various problems in work, creating inventions, and even governing the country, defining problems is the prerequisite for solving problems.

The following methods can help us better grasp the art of defining problems. (1) Back to the real purpose of solving the problem That is to find the right target.If you can't find the right target, you will be aimless.Once the target is identified and the bull's-eye is highlighted, there is a basic guarantee for solving the problem. In the 1950s, the whole world was researching germanium, the raw material for making transistors. Everyone believed that the biggest problem was how to refine germanium to a purer level.Dr. Jiang Ji and his assistant Kuroda Yuriko from Japan are also exploring this, but no matter what method is used, some impurities will still be mixed in the germanium, and each measurement shows different data.Later they reflected: the purpose of studying this issue is nothing more than to enable germanium to make better transistors.Therefore, they removed the original premise and opened up a new way, that is, intentionally added impurities little by little to see what kind of germanium crystal it could produce.As a result, when the purity of germanium was reduced to half, an optimal crystal was produced.This invention caused a sensation in the world in one fell swoop, and Dr. Jiang Ji and Kuroda Yuriko won the Nobel Prize and the private Nobel Prize respectively.

What did you learn from this example? Error definition: Purify germanium. : Correctly Defined: Making Better Transistors.Making better transistors is the fundamental purpose of solving problems. (2) Raise the level of the problem to be defined It is often difficult to define the root of the problem, but there is a trick: try to change the level of definition of the problem.As the level increases, the scope of problem solving will be appropriately expanded.The looser the scope of the problem, the wider the world of thinking innovation. In the 1980s, Guzweta became the CEO of Coca-Cola.At this time, Pepsi was competing fiercely with Coca-Cola, and a part of Coca-Cola's market had been eaten away by it.How can we regain lost ground and occupy a larger market?Guzweta's subordinate managers all focus on how to compete with Pepsi, and do everything possible to compete with it for a 0.1% increase in market share.

Guzweta thought about this issue from a deeper level, and he asked his subordinates to clarify the following issues: How much liquid food does the average American consume in a day? The answer is fourteen ounces. So, how much of that is Coca-Cola? The answer is two ounces. Upon hearing such an answer, Guzweta announced: Our competition is not Pepsi, what we need to do is to increase our market share in that market and occupy the remaining twelve ounces of water, tea, coffee, Milk and juice etc.When you want something to drink, you should go to Coca-Cola.In order to achieve this goal, Coca-Cola has adopted some new competitive strategies, such as putting vending machines on every street.As a result, sales rose steadily, leaving Pepsi far behind again.Since the problem-solving level has been raised, it is easier to find the root of the problem.

(3) Consider finding ways from other aspects or even opposite aspects During World War II, one night, the Soviet army prepared to attack the German army in the dark.But there were stars in the sky that night, and it was difficult for a large army to attack with a high degree of concealment without being noticed by the opponent. Marshal Zhukov of the Soviet Army thought about this for a long time, and suddenly came up with an idea, and immediately issued instructions: gather all the big searchlights in the entire army.When attacking Germany, one hundred and forty large searchlights of the Soviet army fired at the German positions at the same time.

The extremely strong light blinded the German soldiers hidden in the fortifications, and they couldn't see anything. They could only be beaten but could not fight back.The Soviets quickly broke through the German defenses.This became a famous battle example in World War II. Let us analyze the definition of the problem again. Wrong definition: It is dark to attack the enemy. Correctly defined: make the enemy invisible and attack. I originally thought that it would be too dark to be seen by everyone to launch an attack.Now, it is the complete opposite. Instead of making the sky dark, it is to solve the problem with doubled light.Here, darkness is not the correct definition.Invisible is the correct definition!