Which do you focus on, the problem or the solution? Josh Makower says the problem. Why? When you focus on the solution you have closed yourself off to all the other possibilities.
Case in point. I heard a story once (and I will probably butcher it, but no matter) where a breakfast cereal plant was getting empty boxes coming down the production line in unpredictable intervals. The solution? Buy an expensive piece of equipment that weighed each box as it passed over and then remove it from the line, right? Of course.
That worked until it didn’t. It broke down. So what do you do? One clever employee grabbed a fan and put it up to the production line and turned it on. Any empty box would be blown off of the line. Done.
Of course there needs to be a point at which there is a decision. Especially if there is a purchase to be made. But most problems don’t require a purchase, only a solution with given resources.
My point: Be open to possibilities even when you think you know the answer. Too often, one variable changes (or is discovered) in the process. If you are stuck on the solution, you may not recognize that what was the right solution previously is now the wrong solution.
Iterate.
