The authors write, “We may find that what initially was
presented as the problem is, in fact, only a symptom of the underlying
problem.” I have found more often than
not that this is true. “She’s always on the phone” (initial problem) may very
well be a symptom of the real problem, an issue at home (underlying problem) that
she needs to deal with on a regular basis. “He never spends time with his
family” (initial problem) could be because he needs to work long hours because
his is the only paycheck (underlying problem) allowing his family to survive.
“Poor people are hungry” (initial problem) could very well be because they are
unemployed due to age or other discrimination (underlying problem).
I have found that groups often try to solve a problem only
to discover that the initial problem is really a symptom of an underlying
problem. I belong to a group that has
had declining membership over the past couple of years. Declining membership is the initial problem,
but once board members started researching the problem, they discovered that
the underlying problem was that members didn’t feel there was enough value in
belonging to the club so they didn’t pay the yearly dues required to keep their
membership.
I feel that many places do not take the underlying problem into consideration since everyone is a "time is money" type of person. Workplaces can treat you unfairly for you being late to work at face value but if the workplace found out that someone close to you passed away or you're on some type of house arrest the workplace can end up feeling differently.
ReplyDeleteIts tough to fix an underlying problem such as your group's membership values. I currently attend a Wing Chun Kung Fu school where people come and go so much that my instructor decided to raise the prices to see who actually desires Wing Chun Kung Fu themselves. My instructor feels that the money will do the talking for the desire and the hands will do the talking to show the work! Great Post!
Lee, I really liked your blog on initial problems, symptoms and underlying problems. vYou used great examples for both initial and underlying problems. The most interesting concept I took out of your post was when you explained underlying problems. The quote you used, "He never spends time with his family" was a great example to show both sides of the problem. In life, we know there are always two sides to every story. This is a perfect example to show both sides. The father is being blamed for never spending time with his family, yet, he needs work these long hours in order to support his family. The initial problem is that he never spends time with his family, but there is a backed up reason for his actions. We always see the negative side of situations such as these, which is why initial problems go further than just one statement. "Poor people are hungry" is also a great example. The initial problem is that they're poor because they're hungry. The assumptions create these problems because we don't see the underlying problem They may be poor and hungry because of a reasonable problem that they faced. They are poor not because of choice. After reading your post, it made me open my eyes and broaden my prospective of our society. Just because you hear a certain stereotype or negative comment does not mean it's true. There is probably a justification of why you're hearing or seeing these certain things. Finding and realizing the underlying problem is incredibly important to find out the real reasoning behind what you see. In most cases, our initial outlook on someone or some group is probably wrong because we are not digging to find the underlying problem. Great examples and great back-up information, Lee!
ReplyDelete