I had been listening to a summary of the book, Flash Foresight, by Daniel Burrus with John David Mann. In the book, they identify 7 triggers that can be used to jump start your thought process about what may be needed to transform your life or business.

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The specific trigger that they called "Take your biggest problem and skip it", really got my thoughts crankin'. I will admit I was really skeptical and surprised when they introduced the concept. Boy was I in for a paradigm shift of my own.

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The premise is to identify the biggest challenge you are facing and proceed to ignore it or set it aside for a bit. Here is their logic. Most people grab the problem, and, in their attempt to solve it, get really wrapped around the axle. They don't see the issue from an objective point of view.

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I am excited because I was able to combine their thought process with one I used while at Procter & Gamble Manufacturing. The key to solving an issue is acknowledging that what you think is the problem is probably not the problem - - it is only a manifestation of the problem.

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Let me provide an example from a sales perspective.

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If your salespeople are struggling with making cold calls and getting appointments, one could go about running a training session or two in an attempt to skill build your way out of the problem.

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Using the premise of the book, however, you could ask yourself, what would we have to do to eliminate the root of the issue?

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One answer could be to build such high customer or prospect demand leading to so many inbound inquiries, that it renders the salespeople’s inability to generate cold appointments moot. This is similar to a busy doctor's office in a high demand period. The outbound appointment generationability of the office staff just doesn't matter anymore.

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So going forward, ask yourself whether you are surfacing the real issue. As many of you reading this have heard me say, "the power is usually in the question".

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