Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems

I am reading a book that sometimes makes me mad, sometimes makes my head ache but consistently makes me think. Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership is an annoying book, it tells you what you know ain’t so. If you like paradoxes, this is a book for you. If you like things straightforward and uncomplicated stay away.

One of his easier concepts is “Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems.”

According to philosopher Abraham Kaplan, there is a difference between problems and predicaments. “Problems can be solved, but predicaments can only be coped with. Most of the affairs of life, particularly the most intimate and important ones, such as marriage and child rearing, are complicated, inescapable dilemmas - predicaments where no option look very good or better than any other.”

Take the “problem” of crime.

“We would prefer it to be a simple matter of cause and effect” brought on by bad parenting, pornography or violence on TV. “Instead, absurdly, crime comes mainly because of aspects of our society we wouldn’t think of giving up – affluence, urbanization, mobility, freedom, materialism, individual liberty, progress.” Sure we have unemployment and poverty but there are places with more of both and much less crime. “In America, as paradoxical as it may sound, crime is associated with developments that we think of as advancements.” Even our efforts to control it, prisons, for example, “harden and train criminals.”

“Thus, a predicament is often made worse when we treat it like a problem.”

Most of us think our job is to solve problems. Isn’t that what service/knowledge workers do? Find a need/problem and fill/solve it! That works OK on a day to day level.

But to address big issues like government stagnation and bureaucracy is to address predicaments, not problems. They must be seen in a larger framework for actions to have any chance of success. There are no quick fixes, and quick fixes usually backfire and make things worse. Farson concludes this chapter with the observation, “Alas, predicaments can not be handled smoothly.”

So big change will not be neat and orderly, all laid out with a complete plan and an exit strategy. Paradoxically, solving our problems is relatively easy if you accept the definition of problems as something that can be solved. Predicaments are not solved, they are changed, improved slowly, two steps forward, one step back. Predicaments are like life because life is a predicament.