INTRODUCTION
How to Be a Great Problem-Solver

Hard problems are everywhere around us. They lurk in all facets of our lives, unsolved. They make us suffer in ways that we recognize and ways that we have blocked out.

When we fail to solve these hard problems, we often learn to work around them, throw money and resources at them, or simply learn to live with them. These hard problems can persist so long that we or our organizations have long forgotten that they exist, even though they’re costing us time and money. But while they are hard, they are not unconquerable. They can be solved.

This book will teach you about great problem-solving behaviors. These are the behaviors you need to solve practical problems—specifically, hard problems. If you are willing to apply and practice these behaviors as you approach hard problems, you will become a much better problem-solver, and the lives of everyone around you will flourish for it.

Take stock for a moment of some of the most frustrating situations in your life and work, and keep in mind the problems that you want to solve as you read. Perhaps at work you are having trouble gaining market share, or can’t control costs in your department. Perhaps some process in the business or a critical asset is underperforming and you’re getting endless phone calls about it. At home, you may be trying to get to the gym and can’t do it consistently. Maybe you have conflict with a family member. Perhaps you simply have a dishwasher that’s no longer really cleaning the dishes. Whatever problems you want to solve, think about how to apply each behavior to your efforts.

I’m incredibly passionate about helping to develop and nurture more great problem-solvers in the world. We certainly have no shortage of hard problems to solve in business, in our personal lives, and in society. It is frustrating to see deficient problem-solving all around. It’s rampant. But you don’t have to accept it.

I have often found it easier to illuminate what it takes to solve hard problems by looking at problems with physical systems that can be more easily understood and observed. This first story is one of my favorites.