Are you focusing on problems rather than outcomes?

An outcome focus unleashes strategic creativity.

→ This is the sixth in a 7-part series on building strategic capacity in your organization. Part 1 here. Read Part 7 here.←

THINK ON IT: Are you focusing on problems rather than outcomes? 

We have become instant answer addicts with Google, ChatGPT, YouTube and a myriad of other dealers dispensing fast-answers to our problems.

Having fast answers means we can get to the next problem faster, often with little consideration of whether the answer we just consumed was the best one for our business.

It’s full on reaction mode. What’s next? Bring it!

But what might happen if we resist that for a moment? What might happen if instead of focusing on THE PROBLEM we focused instead on the outcome we want to achieve?

What if we took time to imagine the outcomes we want to create rather than trying to save time looking for a fast answer to a current problem?

Robert Fritz made this important observation: 

“The problem solvers propose elaborate schemes to define the problem, generate alternative solutions, and put the best solution into practice. If this process is successful, you might eliminate the problem. Then what you have is the absence of the problem you are solving. But what you do not have is the presence of a result you want to create.”*

The strategic CEO knows their most important work is creative, not reactive. And they purposefully make time for it because the future of their business should not be defined by the mass-market peddlers of fast answers.

Paid subscribers, there’s more below about the difference between the creative and reactive cycles and how you can unleash more of your creative power. (Become a paid subscriber.)

“If you didn’t have problems, what would you think about?” — Robert Fritz

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*The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz, 1989.

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