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3 Types Of Change Problems (And How To Solve Them)
When asked about how he solves problems, Albert Einstein is purported to have said, “If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would spend 19 days to define it.” Whether he said it or not, it does accurately portray his approach to problems. He would spend years engaging in thought experiments to correctly define the problem before working out the math.
This also underlines a crucial difference between the manager mindset and the changemaker mindset. Managing everyday operations is done in an environment of consensus and predictability. The main task is to execute consistently. Pursuing change, on the other hand, requires us to operate in an environment of uncertainty which requires exploration.
That’s why not all change initiatives can be approached the same way. Some demand communication and coordination across large groups, while others focus on shifting individual behaviors. Still, others rely on collective action, where adoption among some people is necessary to influence others. In each case the solution needs to fit the problem.
1. Strategic Shift
By the early 1980’s, Intel’s President, Andy Grove, realized he had a problem. The company had pioneered DRAM memory chips and had built an enormously successful business on that foundation. But competition from the Japanese was killing its profits and there was no clear path forward. Certainly jettisoning its core business didn’t seem like an option.
As he described in his book, Only The Paranoid Survive, things came to head in the middle of 1985. He turned to Intel’s Chairman and CEO Gordon Moore and asked him what a hypothetical new CEO would do if they were both fired. Moore replied without hesitation that the new CEO “would get us out of memories.”
It was right then and there that a decision was made to focus on microprocessors. But given that Intel’s history, culture, investment and identity were so tied up in DRAM memory chips, making the change would take an enormous amount of communication and coordination. Factories would have to be closed down, people’s jobs would have to change. Customers would be disappointed. Inevitably, there would be layoffs. Some would resist the change.
