The problem is in the eye of the beholder

Something is a problem depending on the personal view of the observer. One person may view a situation as normal and another person may view the same situation as a problem. How someone defines something as a problem depends on many factors, such as their professional background, life experience, cultural background, dominate culture of their team / department / company, project methodology, objective risk and issue evaluation criteria etc.

For example, two burger restaurants on the same street in the same city that use the same ingredients to sell the same products have different ways of providing burgers.

Restaurant 1 needs 20 people to make a burger and every time they make it, they create the burger from scratch and cook it as if they have never cooked a burger before. So sometimes it takes 10 minutes and another time 40 minutes to make a burger. There is no recipe or standardisation. No one person can explain to their colleagues or clients the whole process to make and sell a burger. The burger may taste different to another burger cooked immediately afterwards by the same group of people in the same kitchen.

Restaurant 2 needs 5 people to make a burger and they follow a recipe, so the burger always takes 10 minutes to make and it is always made to the same high standard with the same taste. Every employee of the restaurant can explain to their colleagues and clients the end to end process to make and sell a burger as the whole process is documented.

Both restaurants make a profit. However, the profit from restaurant 2 is 10 times more than the that of restaurant 1.

The question I ask is “Is this a problem?”. From the viewpoint of restaurant 1, they make a profit in spite of their inefficient behaviour and ineffective approach.

A problem occurs if a chef from restaurant 2 went to work at restaurant 1. As they would struggle adapt to the different culture and way of working as they are from a culture of standardisation, repeatability of excellence, effectiveness and high profit. The same would be if a chef from restaurant 1 went to work at restaurant 2, as they would struggle to adapt to the different culture and way of working.

In conclusion, before something can be classified as a problem the culture of the organisation and how they work needs to be understood. As maybe the organisation accepts their way of working and does not want to change. So, the problem is not in how the organisation works but an employee’s ability to adapt to the organisation they are in and to accept a way of working that may be different.