Whose Problem Is It?

Definition

Every problem belongs to someone, and misidentifying the owner leads to solving the wrong person's problem — or solving it in a way they resent and won't sustain. The book's rule for the common case where the owner also happens to be the solver-in-residence is "DON'T SOLVE OTHER PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS WHEN THEY CAN SOLVE THEM PERFECTLY WELL THEMSELVES." For the harder case — where the person able to act doesn't personally feel the problem — the rule inverts: "IF A PERSON IS IN A POSITION TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT A PROBLEM, BUT DOESN'T HAVE THE PROBLEM, THEN DO SOMETHING SO HE DOES."

In the Book

A cigar smoker in an otherwise nonsmoking classroom is fouling the air, and the teacher — a "problem resolver" by trade — is tempted to mandate a fix. Instead he lets the class run its own ad-hoc problem-solving session; within an hour the smoker himself proposes giving up cigars for a rotating snack the whole class shares, a solution that sticks because the group, not an authority, invented and owns it. The chapter contrasts this with an absent-minded professor who, having forgotten his wallet at a restaurant, always says "We have a problem," never "You have a problem" or "I have a problem" — deliberately including the other party in ownership. At a university campus starved for parking, the president who issues the space-elimination policy has a reserved spot and never personally experiences the problem; students respond by parking in his space so that he does, escalating until faculty members declare, "It's MY problem" and start acting on it directly, rather than waiting for someone with formal authority but no stake to act.

Why It Matters

Fixing a problem for people who could and should fix it themselves strips their ownership and their motivation to sustain the fix, while fixing nothing for people who lack the standing to act just perpetuates the problem. Explicitly asking "whose problem is this?" — and, when the answer is someone insulated from the consequences, deliberately engineering their exposure to it — turns a stalled problem into one with an owner who is both able and motivated to resolve it.