Years ago I inherited the task of trimming $400,000 out of a $3,000,000 budget.<\/p>\n
The first $200,000 had been relatively painless. But now the job needed deep cuts; I needed to trim another $200,000, and I had run out of ideas. I was stumped.<\/p>\n
But a leadership mentor of mine asked me the question that changed everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cScott, what bucket are you looking in for your solution?\u201d<\/p>\n
I pressed him to explain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it seems to me you\u2019re looking for answers in your \u2018easy fix\u2019 bucket. You\u2019ve already emptied that one. That\u2019s how you trimmed the first $200,000. But to finish this job, you need to learn about 3 different buckets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSupposing I were to tell you that you had to run the entire organization next year with only $1,000,000,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhat would you do? I\u2019ll tell you exactly what you\u2019d do. You would figure out a way to run the organization for $1,000,000. But you would figure it out using radical innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was right.<\/p>\n
The \u201ceasy fix\u201d bucket doesn\u2019t solve unsolvable problems. You need utterly new approaches.<\/p>\n
Those are found in the radical innovation bucket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll bet you faced little push-back with your first round of cuts,\u201d he went on. \u201cThe next round will face serious opposition. That\u2019s when you need uncommon courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
At some point, unsolvable problems\u00a0will always require\u00a0a level of bravery not found in the \u201ceasy fix\u201d bucket.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you start implementing your radical solution, you need to find a way to navigate some tricky relational waters,\u201d he concluded. \u201cPeople are emotionally invested in their work. Keep your emotional wits about you at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The higher the stakes, the greater the need for emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the point. Solving complex problems with the \u201cEasy Fix\u201d bucket will usually be ineffective at best, frustrating at worst.\u00a0Leadership often requires the difficult work of pressing into innovation, courage, and emotional intelligence.<\/p>\n
So when you next need a solution for an unsolvable problem, start by looking closely at the kinds of solutions you\u2019re bringing to the table.<\/p>\n
Be ready to move beyond the easy fixes. You might be just \u201cone bucket away\u201d from finding the solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some leadership challenges remain unsolved, because you\u2019re looking in the wrong bucket for the answer. Years ago I inherited the task of trimming $400,000 out of a $3,000,000 budget. The first $200,000 had been relatively painless. But now the job needed deep cuts; I needed to trim another $200,000, and I had run out of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,7,1020,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-leadership","category-problems","category-wisdom-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6778,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6777\/revisions\/6778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}