The Problem You Can See May Not Be the Problem You Need to Solve

Most leadership teams can recognise when something is wrong.

• Growth has stalled.
• Margins are weakening.
• Sales opportunities are slipping.
• Technology is underperforming.
• Execution is slowing down.

What is harder to establish is why.

The visible problem is often a symptom of a constraint somewhere else in the business.

A sales shortfall, for example, may not be caused by insufficient sales activity. The constraint could sit within:

• How customer needs are understood
• Pricing or commercial approval
• Operational capacity
• Decision-making authority
• Information flowing between sales and delivery
• Ownership of the customer relationship

Responding with more targets, pressure or activity could leave the real problem untouched.

I have seen this firsthand.

In one organisation, more than 100 visible operational symptoms were eventually traced to 13 underlying root causes.

That changed the leadership conversation.

Instead of repeatedly reacting to individual problems, the team could focus its attention on the smaller number of constraints affecting performance across the wider organisation.

This is a central principle of Mining for Growth:

Before deciding what action to take, move beneath the visible symptom.

Examine the evidence.

Investigate how behaviour, structure and processes operate across the client interface, transformation, human and financial parts of the business.

Then bring together the people with the knowledge, responsibility and authority to identify:

• Where the constraint sits
• What needs to change
• Who will own the action
• How progress and value will be measured

Better action begins with a better diagnosis.

What recurring problem might your organisation be treating as the cause when it is actually a symptom?

WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/oV40GY1mtrU

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