A few years ago, I wrote about the importance of making sure we’re solving the right problem. In 2019, I explored this through Design Thinking and the importance of defining a problem before generating solutions. In 2023, I revisited the idea from another angle: The people closest to a problem often have perspectives that can help us better understand it and identify solutions.
Those ideas have stayed with me because I continue to see how easy it is for organizations to move from recognizing that something isn’t working to deciding what should be done about it.
Last week, I explored Engaging, the first process of Motivational Interviewing (MI), and how leaders can better understand staff hesitancy around organizational change. The next process, Focusing, asks us to take what we’ve heard and get clear about what we’re actually trying to address.
Make Sure You’re Naming the Problem, Not the Solution
Organizations often begin conversations about change with statements like “We need a staff training” or “We need more community engagement.”
But these statements don’t necessarily describe the problem. They describe something the organization thinks it should do.
Before deciding on the solution, ask what is happening now that needs to change. Why does staff need training? Are we making progress on our current strategic plan’s priotities? What information is the organization unable to learn from its evaluation efforts? Whose perspectives are missing from decision-making?
Getting more specific can reveal that the original solution may address the problem, but it can also reveal that something entirely different is needed.
Define the Problem With the People Experiencing It
In my 2023 post, Closest to the Problem, Closest to the Solution, I wrote about the importance of including people directly affected by an issue in developing solutions.
That involvement should begin even earlier.
The people closest to a problem can help us define it.
This connects directly to last week’s discussion about engaging staff. If leadership asks employees about their experiences, concerns, and needs, those perspectives should influence how the organization understands the issue. Staff may identify barriers, competing priorities, previous attempts at change, or consequences that leadership hasn’t considered.
Focusing creates an opportunity to bring those perspectives together and develop greater clarity about what actually needs attention.
Create a Shared Focus Before Moving Forward
In Motivational Interviewing, focusing involves developing a clear direction for the conversation. Applied to organizational change, this can mean making sure people have a shared understanding of what they’re trying to address before deciding what happens next.
That doesn’t mean everyone has to interpret the problem exactly the same way. Leadership, frontline staff, community members, and other stakeholders may experience the same issue differently. Those differences can provide important information.
The goal is to get specific enough that everyone understands the focus: What are we trying to change, and why does it matter?
Once that becomes clearer, organizations are in a much better position to explore possible solutions.
Key Takeaway
Defining the problem before solving it isn’t a new idea for me. Design Thinking helped me think about the importance of understanding a problem before generating solutions, and the idea of being “closest to the problem, closest to the solution” reinforced the importance of whose perspectives we include. Motivational Interviewing adds another layer: after engaging people and listening to their experiences, Focusing helps us turn what we’ve heard into a clearer, shared understanding of what needs to change. Before asking, “What should we do?” make sure you’ve spent enough time asking, “What are we actually trying to address?”
