Before you jump into problem-solving mode...

Albert Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” 

How often do we jump to solutions before spending time actually defining the problem? *raises hand* 

I heard about a concept called “The ‘XY Problem’” and hope I can do it justice here because once I learned about it, I notice it everywhere. 

The XY Problem, commonly used in software development, is that people make the mistake of stating a problem with assumed solutions. ”How do we get more likes on social media?” assumes that more likes equal more engagement. You could buy likes, or get all your friends to follow you, but does that solve the real problem – the lack of engaging content.

Here’s another example: “How do we get more people to listen in the 6 a.m. hour, our lowest-rated hour?” This question assumes that the way to increase ratings is to beef up the weakest least-listened-to hour, which might be a lot of work, for minimal payoff since available audience is so low. 

One more: "How do we get more people to call in for our topics?" Hmm… better? "How well do we understand our audience? How welcoming do we sound? Do we understand the types of questions that get more engagement? Are we asking too much of them?"

If we assume a solution and ask the wrong question, we waste time and energy and still may come up with the wrong answer. 

A winning formula? 

State the problem. We need to grow our ratings so we don’t all get fired.

Ask the question: How do we grow our ratings so we don’t all get fired? 

NOW, ask the question 10 different ways, using this phrase – In what ways might we…? 

• In what ways might we grow our ratings?

• In what ways might we increase our cume? 

• In what ways might we get our P1s to listen longer?

• In what ways might we get listeners to listen for one more day a week?

• In what ways might we improve our systems to make higher ratings more likely? 

• In what ways might we take advantage of competitive weaknesses? 

• In what ways might we leverage our digital platforms back to the radio station? 

• In what ways might we make noise in town to get back on people’s minds? 

A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved. (Charles Kettering)

Keep showing up!

~ Angela