ONE SENTENCE MAGIC

There is a ‘magic’ that occurs when you are able to put a thought into a single sentence. I didn’t realize this until I began formatting the 5 Minute Manager training. Having modeled the process by which a person could solve some problems—detect the meaning that creates problems—I discovered that one of the pieces of the puzzle involves summarizing a problem into a single sentence. It’s also much harder than it sounds.

In the problem-solving process, the conversation begins very broadly as we ask, “What’s the problem?” “What is stopping you from achieving your goal?” Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? It is not. At this point, even if a person has been working to solve a problem for days or weeks or even months, most of the time the person will still do lots and lots of talking about the problem and around the problem. The person will start down one line of thought, then back up, take a turn, and go off in a different direction.

Now in the problem-solving conversation, we help the person by asking numerous questions. We ask about the words being used, the references, the contexts, the nature of the problem, those involved, the timing (when it began, when it occurs, when it doesn’t), and many other aspects of the problem. We even have a list of nearly 100 questions which comprise the Well-Formed Problem questions. And with all of these questions, the subject of the problem narrows. We begin to more specifically define the problem and locate its context.

At this point we are ready to ask for the single sentence. “I want you to know take a moment, and in one sentence, tell me what the problem is.” You are now asking much more narrowly for a description of the problem—but not just for a description, you are asking for a precise description that specifically focuses on what is stopping, blocking, or interfering. Now if the person defaults to an over-general statement, “My problem is that I procrastinate,” well you are a bit closer, but still up in the air. The statement has to be brought down to earth.

∙ You procrastinate by putting of doing what specifically? “I put off practicing ‘framing’ with a friend as we had planned.”

∙ When do you put this off with your friend? We plan for Tuesdays and Fridays, but I have been cancelling.

∙ How do you put it off by cancelling? What are you thinking? “That I’m not ready.”

∙ How do you make the judgment that you’re not ready? “I know that since I have not practiced, I will make lots of mistakes.”

∙ How does thinking you’ll make lots of mistakes lead you to want to put it off? “I dislike the feeling of making a mistake.”

∙ How does thinking and feeling you will make mistakes lead you to put it off?

All of these are narrowing-questions helping the person to become more specific and to ground the problem. Now ask for the single sentence again. “If you were to describe in a single sentence your problem, what would you say?”

“My problem is I begin thinking ‘I’m not ready,’ ‘I haven’t practiced,’ ‘I don’t like feeling wrong of making a mistake,’ so I use that as my self-talk, then feel discouraged, and then decide to put it off.”

Now the magic of coming up with a problem described in a single sentence is to tap into the magic of precision, the magic of specificity, the magic of summarizing, the magic of focus that gets to the heart of the matter, and the magic of being succinct. That’s a lot of ‘magic!’ You are now tapping into the power of a clear problem definition. John Dewey wrote, “A problem clearly defined is half solved.” And sometimes it is 90% solved.

A clearly defined problem gives you a crystal clear target to hit. Now you know exactly what you are aiming for. There’s also a deeper ‘magic’ in this. Often, a clear description of a problem implies the solution. Take the problem description above. What does it imply?

The problem description implies that I’m assuming I have to do something very well, at a high level when I first start, and that I have to achieve good results. That implies I’m expecting too much and being unrealistic about the develop process. And that implies I should lower my expectations to focus on learning instead of achieving results. It implies I’ve been discouraging myself instead of encouraging myself.

So the solution? Two things: Change your expectations and learn how to encourage yourself. Do that and you’re on the way to solving the problem. How about that for one sentence magic! And this lies at the heart of the Neuro-Semantic approach to facilitating a problem-solving conversation. Your mission this week if you are up to it— practice developing some one sentence magic.