WHY "DON'T BRING UP PROBLEMS WITHOUT SOLUTIONS" IS TOXIC
This saying has been around for over 100 years and has become a key component of many leadership styles and organizational cultures. Although the spirit of the statement has value, the application of it by today's leaders is killing innovation and employee engagement.
"Don't bring up problems unless you have a solution," is meant to prevent people from whining and complaining without giving any actual thought to any solutions. When applied situationally and with this spirit, I think it is an acceptable rule.
When it is applied by leadership as a written or unwritten corporate value that becomes part of the day to day company culture, it causes significantly more harm than good.
I have seen the unintended consequences of this philosophy for decades in my work as a facilitator and advisor to organizations. Let's get specific.
An employee has identified a big problem or opportunity that affects the company's ability to remain competitive. They've got some ideas as to how we go about solving it but they'd like to discuss it more as a group. They've seen others bring up problems and opportunities in meetings before only to see them chastised or belittled by leadership for not having the complete solution ready to present.
They say, "Yikes!! I don't want that to happen to me! It's clear that leadership expects the problem has to be solved already before bringing it up in the meeting but we really need everyone's input and ideas in the meeting to see what the possible solutions could be. I don't know what to do! I guess I won't say anything until a solution becomes clear although I don't know if it ever will and even if it does, it might be too late!"
This scenario happens on a daily basis in many organizations and it's killing innovation and problem solving. You could make a strong argument it happens in almost every meeting if the leadership doesn't encourage the open discussion of problems and opportunities without a predefined solution.
Don't get me wrong here. Employees should identify problems and work hard to create and implement solutions when they can. Problem solving is a critical competency for all organizations.
The issue is that most big problems and big opportunities are not easy to solve! They require input from many people and discussions that may span across many meetings over a significant period of time. They also involve input from senior leadership since they should have perspective and experience that aides in determining the best path moving forward.
This must be and open, honest and iterative process where employees can share problems and opportunities without the fear of getting yelled at for not having the answer.
If leadership has created a culture of "no problems without solutions," you run the huge risk of having:
Problems that are known but never discussed
Opportunities to capitalize on that are never explored
The failure to address these two risks have sent many companies into bankruptcy!
I don't know how many times I've had client employees share with me that most of the organization knows where the big issues lie but are afraid to bring them up to leadership. This should never happen if you want to have an innovative, solutions based organization.
So what's the solution? Leadership.
Leadership must change it's philosophy and accordingly change the culture that it is responsible for creating. If the current leadership is incapable of changing, then new leadership is needed.
Leadership needs to:
clearly state to all employees that it is okay to bring up problems and opportunities that require more input from more people.
encourage a culture of openness and honesty without fear of retribution.
reward and recognize individuals for bringing up difficult issues so we can work on solving them. Also, there are consequences for management that still employs the fear based approach.
understand that solutions to big problems cannot be done in a vacuum behind the scenes at lower levels. They need the collective resources and energy of the entire organization.
live and breathe this on a day to day basis. If they don't, it's just words and the culture won't change. This change in culture has to consistently show up in conversations and meetings. The leader is the only one who can drive this change. Everyone else will follow their lead.
As the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous states, "Admit you have a problem." You can't go about solving a problem unless you can admit there is one and then talk about it.