A PROBLEM IS A QUESTION

I recently came across a different definition of a problem. Almost everyone who writes about problems talk about a problem in one of two ways. First, a problem is the gap between what you have now and what you want. Second, a problem is a block or interference that stops one from reaching a goal. A definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2021) recently struck me as another way (perhaps a new way) to think about a problem:

A problem is “a question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution, an intricate unsettled question, a source of perplexity, distress, or vexation, and difficulty in understanding or accepting.”

How about those three definitions of a problem? First, a problem is a question. Interestingly, to define a problem as a question implies that a question is the structure of a problem. It answers the question, “How is a problem formatted?” Answer: a problem is structured or formatted as a question which someone has raised as an inquiry into something they want to understand. As a question, it is a consideration of how some experience works, or as a possible solution,

And there’s more. Second, a problem is an unsettled question. It is a question for which we do not know the answer. And it is a question that leaves us in a state of perplexity, distress, or vexation. Third, finally a problem is a difficulty in understanding something or in accepting it.

Thinking Through This Definition

First, if you have a problem, you have a question. So, what is your question? In the 5 Minute Manager books and trainings, I turned this into one of our key probing questions, “If your problem was a question, what is the question?” After all, problems call for solutions—and what is a solution but the answer to some question.

As a problem-solver, that’s critically important. But why? Why is that an important distinction? Here’s the thing—when you state a problem, you are asserting, telling, and presenting and that implies you know what the problem is. Yet that’s a pretty big assumption. Further, give that you are making a statement, you are not inquiring, exploring, wondering, being curious— you are more likely to be in a know-it-state. But when you question, when the problem is a question— you are in a very different state of mind. Now you are open, searching, staying fascinated, receptive, etc.

Second, if a problem is an unsettled question, then that form of a problem has motivational energy built into it. There’s tension in a unsettled question. We want an answer! We feel

incomplete without an answer, and so we keep searching. This brings us back to John Dewey’s definition of thinking itself. “The origin of thinking is some perplexity, confusion, or doubt.” (How We Think) How about that? A problem and thinking are defined in very similar ways. If both arise as an unsettled question— then at the heart of every problem is some unsettled thinking— thinking which is not bringing us to a conclusion or solution that allows us to reach our goals. And given that, we better take a second look at our thinking. “What’s wrong, inadequate, missing, or distorted with our thinking?” Find that and you probably are right on top of a solution.

Third, if a problem is a difficulty in understanding something or in accepting something, now we have landed right square in the heart of thinking. Of course you have a problem if you are working with something and you are having “difficulty understanding” it. How many problems are due to mis-understanding, confusion, false reasoning, using the wrong kind of thinking for the subject, etc.? If you do not know how to do what you want to do— you are lacking an adequate strategy and that’s the problem.

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Then there are problem due to the fact that you have difficulty in accepting something. And once again, of course you’re going to have problems if you don’t accept reality as ‘that which is.’ You may not like it —fallibility, mortality, natural disasters, the weather, your job, taxes, death, etc.— but accepting what is does not require you to like it. Just that you acknowledge it. How many problems do we have due to our refusal to accept things— the past, the negative experiences you have been through, the things people have said or done, etc.?

Problem— questions raised for inquiry; unsettled questions that trigger perplexity, and difficult thoughts regarding understanding and acceptance.