Page 138 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Blocks to problem solving and change
Perceptual blocks

1 Stereotyping: we see what we expected to see. Over recent years we have become
increasingly aware of stereotyping. Women only come to work for ‘pin money’
– therefore there is no point in reviewing jobs to see if they can be improved.
This is an obvious example. There are many, many more.
2 Difficulty in isolating the problems: a friend of mine gave a classic example of
this. He was a member of a team of consultant designers given the brief to
design an apple-picking machine. All sorts of solutions were put forward. None
seemed feasible – in general all the machines were too big and too unwieldy. It
was a month before a team member said: ‘Our problem is that we are focusing
on the wrong problem – we should look at the design of the tree.’ Eventually,
a new strain of apple trees only a few feet high was created. The problems of
designing the machine then disappeared. The height and spread of apple trees
had been the essential difficulty, not the design of apple picking as such.
3 Tendency to delimit the problem area too closely: all too often we define problems
very narrowly. In the CAC Consultants case study (see page 133) each group of
partners defines the problem narrowly; thus neither faces the real problem –
their own motivation.
4 Inability to see the problems from various viewpoints: increasingly we talk of ‘trained
incapacity’. As we train and develop professionals (doctors, lawyers, account-
ants, engineers) we run the risk that people see problems only in terms of their
own discipline. Seeing problems from different viewpoints helps to conceptual-
ize the problems. It also helps when we come to attract support for solutions.
5 Saturation: data may come in large measures, or in large measures only occa-
sionally, or in the presence of distracting data. It can be difficult to distinguish
the relevant information from all the available data.
6 Failure to use all sensory inputs: we need all the data we can get, but do we utilize
everything that is available to us? Thus when trying to decide on a new orga-
nizational structure for a new venture we should try to find other organiza-
tions facing similar problems. How have they solved them?

Emotional blocks

1 Fear of taking a risk: the fear of making a mistake, to be seen to fail, is a com-
mon block. If managers ‘punish’ failure, then this fear is at least realistic. But
often the worst that can happen is pretty minimal. Excessive importance is
attached to the risk of failure.
2 Incapacity to tolerate ambiguity: the solution of a complex problem is a messy
process. The data will be misleading, incomplete, full of opinions, values and so
on. While creating solutions, plans, etc. requires that we eventually establish
order, too early an attempt to do so may mean that we miss promising ideas.
3 Preference for judging rather than generating ideas: judging ideas too early can lead
to early rejection. The onus of proof is all too easily placed on the person with

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