Yesterday, I attended a Power Pod, a peer business group I’m part of, and it sparked a reminder.
So much of the advice we give is just retelling our own stories.
What worked for me. What I did.
But real problem-solving starts with "their" story.
Their goals.
Their constraints.
And that’s a challenge, because often most of us aren’t fully aware of these either.
We think we are. But we’re often solving for the wrong bottleneck just because it's something we know.
That’s where systems thinking comes in.
If we throw effort at a problem that isn’t the #1 constraint, we’re just wasting energy. The needle doesn’t move. Because we’re not fixing the thing that’s actually slowing us down. And so you work hard and without getting closer to where you actually want to be.
Fast food joint, trying to bring in more people but not being able to serve those people fast - it's marketing designed for disaster.
A person trying to lose weight, looking for the perfect diet, ending up overeating each week - the diet was never the problem. Overeating was.
Here’s a question I loved from the book Reset by Dan Heath, "How to change what's not working", all about leverage points, finding them, solving for using them better to move your vision forward faster,
“If you were allowed to hire one person to help you achieve your goal, what would their role be?”
It’s a beautiful shortcut.
Because it points to, if not to the main problem, then to the best place to search.
Maybe it’s knowledge. A missing skill. Lack of consistency that you need help with.
For me? I’d hire someone to do lead generation.
To book more conversations with potential clients.
Because I know that’s where I get better at figuring out how to apply my skills to solve problems people want to be solved - learning their pain points, refining offers, and building things that people want.
What about you?
Whether it’s business, health, or relationships...
If you could hire one person right now to help you move faster who would it be, and what would they do? And are you sure?
Because also, constraints only make sense in the context of your ultimate goal. Trying to serve millions of people and working with people 1-1 are 2 different futures entirely. A solution for one won't solve for the other.
