Some problems you go over or around, rather than crash straight into them
Writing down a list of your business problems is a good start. The next thing to do is analyse them into priority and solvability before committing your resources to something you could just as easily sideline.
In 1984 Steve Bunk Neil Lawrence wrote a book called The Stump Jumpers about successful Australians and how they used attitude and opportunities to get what they wanted, solve problems and achieve great things.
The list of characters the book wrote about includes a number who have come undone over the years. I remember reading it and loving the metaphor of the stump-jump plough to look at problems.
There is an exercise for you at the end of the blog, so please read on.
The stump-jump plough, also known as a stump-jumping plough, is a kind of plough invented in South Australia in the late 19th century by Richard Bowyer Smith and Clarence Herbert Smith to solve the particular problem of preparing mallee lands for cultivation.
The problem
Mallee scrub-covered initially large parts of southern Australia. Because of its growth habit, the trees were difficult to remove entirely because the tree would shoot again after burning, cutting down or other kinds of damage. The large roots, known as lignotubers, remained in the ground, making it difficult to plough the soil.
The breakthrough In June 1876, a remarkable plough was invented by agricultural machinery apprentice Richard Bowyer Smith and later developed and perfected by his brother, Clarence Herbert Smith, on the Yorke Peninsula (where the problem was particularly acute). The plough consisted of any number of hinged or pivoting ploughshares or blades (initially three), which worked independently of each other. When the blade encountered an underground obstacle like a mallee stump, it would rise out of the ground. The attached weights forced the blade back into the ground after the root was passed, allowing as much of the ground to be furrowed as possible. Although a little unorthodox, the plough in action appeared “like a ship in a storm”, it proved remarkably effective and was dubbed the “stump-jump” plough.
To remove a large mallee root in the ground (just one) was arduous work, and so the solution was to go around it and get a crop in any way.
I love this idea,
So, what are all the problems your business faces today, or more to the point, what problems do you think you are facing.
Could you make a list and break them up into?
While we should have goals and plans to reach goals and the priorities to reach those goals, we can also have a problem and barrier list and work out what needs our energy and resources now, and what can be left so we find a solution later, and some even fade to black.
We all have experiences of being kept awake by some problem. I bet the things that kept you awake a year ago have faded to a distant memory, a solution presented itself, or it was something you learn to live with.
History is full of people who knew the problem was too significant and went around it and full of idiots who could have gone around the issue and tried to solve it. Termessos is primarily known as the city that could not be conquered by the Macedonian emperor and warlord Alexander the Great. So, he went around it to conquer other cities.
In the second world war, the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy was of idiotic proportion where NZ and other troops were sacrificed in a battle for a hill with an ancient monastery when it could have been “gone around”.
While the comparisons of conquers and major battles may seem a bit too much to compare with business problems, many business owners use up their resources battling problems that should be sidelined.
If you have some business problems you want to discuss with us, please contact your client coordinator and make an appointment to review your business difficulties. Let’s find a strategy and ways to resolve them, even if it’s putting them to the side and managing them.
