Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg’s What’s Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve tackles the issue of problem solving in organizations. The author’s background is in educating businesses in what he refers to as reframing: taking a problem and asking key questions to address the real underlying issues that accompany the problem and subsequently figuring out a solution. According to his research, 85% of companies he surveyed stated that they often struggle with problem solving and waste resources in the process. This book is his attempt to help businesses and business leaders improve on that ongoing struggle.
What's Your Problem? outlines the process of creating that “reframing” state of mind through a series of questions, analysis, and introspection. This ensures that the problem a business is trying to solve is really the problem at hand. The book also incorporates a canvas that businesses can utilize to help hem through this the process for the first time.
The target market for this book is the business community and would be beneficial for managers and those within any leadership position within a company. It provides an outline to problem solving that is different than what many in business were taught. However, for it to have an impact in changing a business’s problem solving success, it will require some adjustment in thinking in how a business gets from point A to B. Given organizations often have competing silos and group dynamics that can impact success and the ability for teams to address problems collaboratively, the challenge will be in the full and total buy-in. While the author tries to address this somewhat in his book, buy-in may be the hardest problem to solve.
MY RATING - 3.5
