Finding Solutions From Inside Out

There are causes. And there are effects.

Duh!

If we are unhappy with an effect, then we adjust the cause.

Duh! Why are you wasting our valuable time stating the obvious?

Duh, indeed! So you and I are in total agreement then. If we want to change an effect, the best course of action is to change the cause. If we only fiddle with the effect but don’t do anything to the cause, then we are doomed to get an unending stream of the same undesirable effects. Right?

Then how come government, business, education, medicine, agriculture, parents, and, for that matter, everyone else attack effects (symptoms, problems) and ignore (for the most part) the causes?

Look at modern medicine. You have a headache? Modern medicine doesn’t care what the cause may be. It could be structural, chemical, viral, etc. Here, just take this pill to mask the pain (effect).

You can’t sleep? Take this pill. You have high blood pressure? Take this pill. You are depressed? Take this pill. Very little attention, if any, is given to addressing the causes of those effects/symptoms/problems. Instead of locating the cause, they attend to the effect and hope the cause fixes itself. To this end, an obscenely greedy multi-mega-buck industry was built for the sole purpose of masking effects/symptoms/problems instead of addressing causes.

Modern medicine isn’t the only offender. There’s government’s approach, and agriculture’s approach, and education’s approach. The list is painfully long. While everyone will agree with the theory that addressing the cause is the best way to get a different effect, few people and/or institutions actually do it in practice.

How come?

It is because the effects are easily seen yet the causes are frequently hidden from view and, as a result, are completely misdiagnosed.

So instead of dealing with the cause that they cannot see and/or locate, people attack the effect. They paint the leaves green as opposed to watering the root.

Some quasi-wiser people try to figure out the cause of a problem by analyzing the symptoms. That can be a tedious hit-or-miss approach which results in mostly misses. A deeper wisdom is required when it comes to locating hidden causes of problems. That wisdom requires a new perspective – one that conceptualizes a problem-free or ideal state and uses that model as its basis. In other words, instead of looking at symptoms and trying to figure out a cure, the alternative approach starts from the perspective of the healthy body and using reverse-engineering figures out what imbalances must take place in order for those symptoms to arise.

It is a subtle yet powerful distinction. The first way starts with the effects and looks inside. The other way starts inside and looks out. The first way looks at the effects and tries to discern the cause. The other takes the perspective of the cause and looks outward.

The difference can be seen in the approach of Abraham Maslow who studied healthy, self-actualized people versus the orientation of other clinical psychologists who focused exclusively on mental aberrations.

When you take this type of inside-out, Maslovian approach, solutions become more readily evident. Your focus switches from treating symptoms to bringing strength and immunity. Instead of dealing with the darkness, you bring light. Instead of dealing with hate, you bring love. Instead of dealing with problems, you bring solutions.

If you applied this approach in a business setting, you would start with a vision of your ideal. Then by “looking back” to where your business and/or situation currently is, the kind of activity that would be necessary to realize your ideal would become obvious. So instead of scrambling about putting out fires, you quietly build strong, sustainable, fire-retardant systems.

Hard work advocates run around like heads with their chickens cut off dealing with endless symptoms, solving nothing, and then wondering why they aren't getting anywhere. On the other hand, there are those rare, blessed souls who blissfully luxuriate in the lazy way. They simply see the job because they first have a vision of the ideal. They then get the job done (effortlessly), avoid any future misery, and enjoy the fruits of great success from the comfort of their divine hammocks.

www.lazyway.net

Comments

[steve in sunny Florida]

Fred,

I have found this approach of working backwards (or bringing in the light, so to speak) to work very well with my students. Most teachers call home when students are acting up, which just further frustrates the students and wastes the teacher's precious time. Rather, I have found that by calling parents when disruptive students have a good day or turn in homework or score high on a test does wonders since it's proactive not reactive.

[Eric N.]

As a Software Analyst you are spot on. I find the team I work in is constantly challenged by extreme aberrations resulting in major challenges to our production software. Some of the team focuses on the metrics, and numbers of the problems in the system. Others try to figure out what part of the system needs a bandage. And others, like me, work to placing the bandage.

More often than not I take a step back from the craziness that follows one major day of the week when we're processing large amounts of data and realize that the reason for many of these problems isn't necessarily about shoving a square peg into a round hole, but more so that they should be looking at stacking cubes instead! The entire analogy at times is flawed and someone with much more seniority than myself needs to decide when they'll consciously accept the reality of what they're doing and develop positive incentives to keep folks engaged.

If you want different results...

[Mike]

Fred,

Why focus on what you don't want when you can focus on what you do want? Great post, and that's why I'm so glad you took on that new challenge!

Cheers,

Mike

[SCOTTIE D]

when some of my friends saw the title of your book "the lazy way to success" they all thought it was a joke book turns out the joke is on those who decide not to read your book . i myself have only perused it but i am too lazy right now to read it properly which I will .

[Rachel]

Thought provoking post as ever Fred. Do keep cranking them out. Yours site is a gem.

[Julie Plenty]

Great post Fred and it makes perfect sense to use reverse engineering. Anything less is often "stinking thinking".

I think you're right in that the effects can be easily seen and that we're not very good at locating the hidden causes. Where I part company with you is WHY.

I actually believe that governments, medical, educational establishments, as well as individuals all know deep down that what they're doing in solely treating the effect is not very effective in the long term.

I actually think that they scared of locating the real cause because it'd mean that their survival would be threatened. For instance if people really understood how much of their health lies not just in their lifestyle, but in their feelings, emotions and if they knew simple, effective ways (and there are such ways) of managing their emotions and reducing illness, we'd all rejoice and doctors would be telling their patients all about it right?

Wrong.

The medical profession would feel threatened, because their whole edifice is based on treating people when they are ill, rather than helping them maintain vibrant good health (and in fact the healthcare system, should be called the illness system, because that is what it deals in!).

So I think that there's a certain amount of wilful blindness within institutions based on their need to survive.

It happens on an individual level. Deep down individuals KNOW that what they're doing to treat the symptoms(no matter what area) isn't helping, but there is a great deal of fear in really getting to the cause because they're likely to start beating themselves up, which of course, isn't very productive.

Great food for thought, though

[Cait]

It seems that while you are in the midst of a dilema, be it in government, education, health or for that matter any other part of your life, myopia reigns supreme and you can't seem to get a larger perspective on the problem/s. When you consider reverse engineering, it is what most effective leaders know intuitively and practice readily. Thanks for the reminder about keeping an eye on how I got here in the first place. I'm currently overwhelmed by the effects at present and it is quite reassuring to consider the causes and how I might be able to jump off the merry-go-round to start examining the causes. Cheers.

[Tokunbo Tonade]

No doubt the best book i ever previewed. Too bad we dont own credit cards in Lagos Nigeria. I intend to buy your book one way or another. Keep up the good work.

[regis]

hi, fred
all my life people said that I should work hard to get what I wanted, so I did it. But the frustrations of not getting anywhere with hard work is starting to annoy me. So your inside out lazy way sounds too good to be true. How do we start all the process? I mean, you are telling me I have to reprogram myself, but that would take a lot of work, you know...