The most expensive problems in your business are usually the ones you already know how to solve
Every owner and CEO faces all kinds of challenges. Restaurateur Danny Meyer’s distinction between unpleasant and difficult problems is a simple yet remarkably powerful framework that brings clarity to the toughest decisions.
Two very different animals
An unpleasant problem is simple but uncomfortable. Delivering hard feedback. Holding a long-tenured manager accountable. Enforcing a policy everyone has been ignoring. You already know what to do. You just don’t want to do it. Ignore these problems and they compound into demoralized teams and a culture that learns the rules are negotiable.
Difficult problems are complex by nature. Entering a new market, restructuring a process, or responding to a competitor that changed the game requires strategic thinking, input from your team, and time. Decisiveness alone won’t get you there.
A recent Wall Street Journal article captured the difference. “Difficult issues require lots of attention, lots of consideration, more fact gathering and analysis,” said Meyer’s colleague Steel. “Unpleasant, you kind of know the answer, you just don’t want to deal with it, so you pretend it’s difficult when it isn’t difficult. It’s just unpleasant.”
Read that last line again. We dress up unpleasant problems as difficult ones because “I’m still analyzing” sounds better than “I’m avoiding.”
Sort your list
Look at what is sitting on your desk right now and put each problem in one of two buckets.
Unpleasant problems call for action. Persistent underperformance, especially from long-standing employees. Conflict between key people or departments. Policies that have quietly become optional. In each case the answer is known. The conversation is what’s hard.
Difficult problems call for analysis. Customers who research and buy differently than they did five years ago. A business model that needs restructuring. A culture that needs rebuilding around accountability and continuous improvement. These deserve patience and rigor.
The order matters
Resolve unpleasant problems fast. They will never become less unpleasant, and delay converts a single hard conversation into a systemic issue. Every week an unpleasant problem sits unaddressed, your team watches and draws conclusions about what you will tolerate.
Acting quickly on the unpleasant does something else for you. It frees your best thinking for the difficult problems, the ones that deserve weeks of your attention.
Leadership Takeaway
Before you wrestle with any problem, name it. Is this difficult, or just unpleasant? If it’s unpleasant, you already know the answer. Schedule the conversation this week and have it. If it’s difficult, give it the analysis and the time it deserves. Leaders who make this distinction stop confusing motion with progress. They act where action is required, they think where thinking is required, and their organizations perform accordingly.
Jim Peduto, Esq., Schedule a 20-minute executive briefing to discuss trends that will impact your ability to make your number.