Heart of the Matter LO20694

Fred Nickols (nickols@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 17 Feb 1999 17:34:09 -0500

Replying to Bill Buxton in LO20676 --

Bill writes...
>I'd like to offer an observation about the interesting dialogue between
>Fred Nickols and At De Lange on problems, solutions, and the heart of the
>matter.
>
>Implicit in Fred's definitions is someone who wants things to be
>different, someone with an investment in change. I don't see that in At's
>definitions. There are an endless number of things I understand
>incompletely, but they don't represent problems to me.

I agree. Absent someone who cares and who concludes that action is
required, no problem can exist.

>"Problems" are a case in which there is no sound in the forest without
>someone there to hear it. It's not a problem unless someone owns it,
>gives a damn about changing it. By the same token, in an organizational
>setting, there's no such thing as The Problem, meaning a situation that
>constitutes a problem divorced from the people who care about it.
>Thinking there is is a classic consulting error (and one I've certainly
>made more than once).

Thanks, Bill, for reminding me of something else: I don't believe in "the
problem" either, and that includes "the real problem."

-- 

Regards,

Fred Nickols Distance Consulting http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm nickols@worldnet.att.net (609) 490-0095

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