The Difference Between a Solution and Answer
The “solution” is usually obvious. It’s cold and you have to go out, so what do you do? You wear a coat. The “answer” is not a simple problem solution. Suppose you don’t have a coat. Or can’t afford it. So what do you do? What options are available to you? Do you really need to go out?
It’s a bold challenge from a young entrepreneur.
He found a weak link in an important aspect of my business (“this is kind of bad” was his actual prediction) and offered his services to fix it.
Now, I always hear this type of pop on Just For Laughs, and I suspect similar choruses are often heard in company hallways everywhere. I was not put off by him; the challenge to the status quo is what this man does, and how he makes a living.
Because I’ve been trying to embrace anything that makes my business better and more profitable, I’ve given this young man a chance to showcase himself.
At the meeting, he summed up the problem: part of our social media output is weak and underdeveloped. It needs to be rethought and supported.
Then he came up with a solution: Hire him and his company to support it with extra manpower and hours. Male-dominated terminology aside, I stopped when he was done and looked him in the eye.
I’m kind and polite (I really like this guy), but I’m also very direct in my answers.
“Tell me something I don’t know” is how I started. Then, the floodgates opened. I hope you don’t think I’m stupid, but do you really think I don’t see the problem, or know the solution? If I had the money, I’d step up and add people; that’s the solution. I don’t need you tell me this.
What I need is an “answer”.
How can I do this without adding labor costs? Are there new tools to make things easier? Is my overall strategy confusing? If more people are inevitable, where/what should I cut to provide for them? Tell me something I don’t know.
He didn’t answer me looking for one.
Even though they appear to be cut from the same cloth, there is a huge gulf between the “solution” and the “answer”.
The “solution” is usually obvious. It’s cold and you have to go out, so what do you do? You wear a coat.
The “answer” is not a simple problem solution. Suppose you don’t have a coat. Or can’t afford it. So what do you do? What options are available to you? Do you really need to go out?
Today, people are getting smarter and business problems are getting tougher. Unfortunately, the “solution” doesn’t solve the problem anymore.
Take, for example, the controversial fiscal cliff scenario facing the U.S. government.
The “solution” is simple – change the law.
But this is far from the “answer”.
The “answer” to the fiscal cliff may never be found, but it requires tough action, swaying public opinion, people skills, new paradigms, and courageous leadership to approach.
In other words, the “answer” is what differentiates competitors from pretenders.
The “answer” requires deep research, critical thinking, and often a mind-bending creative wiggle to connect the two together and develop an action plan that actually confronts and solves the problem.
In other words, the “solution” is superficial, textbook theory; the “answer” is deep street action.
At the end of the day, a “solution” is the difference between “what’s wrong” and “what’s right”; an “answer” is the difference between “what’s right” and “here’s how to make it right”.
Question, What, Why, Importance, Necessity, or utility of Questions
