Mark Bloomberg

It was a dreary Thursday afternoon in October. The air hung heavy with the scent of stale coffee, and the office buzzed with the hurried shuffle of employees lost in their own tasks. I slumped into my chair, defeated, after a particularly disheartening meeting with my project sponsor. It felt like everything was unraveling, not just the project but my entire career.

Six months earlier, I was in a role as a subject matter expert and team lead of a small team of engineers who were responsible for the development of software and control systems that ran our equipment.  I had been with the company for 9 years and as someone who had a passion for engineering and technology, I considered myself lucky to be able to work with such an elite team.  We were good at what we did and very successful.  With success came opportunities and I had just accepted a role as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.  The role was developmental in which participants left their existing job for a two-year assignment where they needed to complete their Black Belt certification and then look for a new job.  The success rate was extraordinarily low with many either rolling back into another job without completing or leaving the company altogether.  This, unfortunately, was a fact that I learned only after accepting the position and I was now understanding why. 

So, there I sat in my darkly lit cubicle, the smell of stale coffee in the air, staring at a blank computer screen.  A million thoughts were racing through my mind, and a sense of uneasiness had set in.  To say my project was going nowhere at that point in time would be a severe understatement and I needed to vent.  Sat with me in the darkly lit cubicle was a colleague (we’ll call him Frank) who, several years earlier, had embarked on the same journey and was one of the few to have seen their way through to the other side.  Surely Frank could offer some words of sage wisdom on what I should do.  After all, he had successfully navigated several projects and knew how to influence the organization.  Perhaps he could even offer to help remove some roadblocks for me.  Feeling optimistic, I took a deep breath, waited for Frank to finish an email he was writing, and began to unload.

My list of problems was long and seemingly unsurmountable.  I had been assigned a project to address delivery problems in a critical area within the business.  My sponsor, the director of that department, was up to his eyeballs in his own problems, had sponsored three previous projects that had delivered only marginal improvements (none of which made his life any easier), and was not excited to be sponsoring another project.  He had no budget and had spent already spent a lot of his political capital completing the other projects.  To help with my project, I had been able to pull together a team; however, they all had day jobs, and solving this problem was just one more thing on their already overflowing plates.  Furthermore, the team felt they were powerless to make any real change if the problem could even be solved at all.  Some initial data we had looked at pointed to the problem originating upstream in Engineering, a function that was not represented in my initial team and a did not have spare capacity to provide resources to solve a manufacturing problem.  One key stakeholder whom I had met with earlier in the week was adamant that he knew the solution to the problem which involved significant investment, an idea, the team was not sure would do anything to solve the real problem but one they felt they needed to implement. I went on and on, and after about 15 minutes, I was exasperated.  After about 30 seconds of silence Frank looked at me with an expression that seemed to say, “Yeah, man. I’ve been there.”.  He then nodded, gave a wry smile and, in a calm voice, said, “He who starts with many problems ends with few”.  He then turned his chair and went back to his work. 

‘He who starts with many problems ends with few’?  What kind of advice was that?  Of course, I had many problems.  That is what I had just finished saying!  I knew how to solve problems, as an Engineer I had spent my entire career up till that point solving problems but these problems were different.  They involved engaging stakeholders who were busy fighting their own problems, they involved creating a sense of urgency amongst people who didn’t understand the importance of the project, they involved getting additional resources with no budget and no authority to actually get the additional people to join my team, they involved managing a key stakeholder who already had an idea of what he wanted the solution to be and was not interested in exploring the problem to better understand the cause.  All of these things were supposed to already be in place and getting them resolved was outside my sphere of influence.  I had just left a great job to take this developmental role and at the start of my first project, I was about to fall flat on my face.  He knew this and the only piece of advice I was offered was ‘He who starts with many problems ends with few’!

As I sat in that dimly lit cubicle, frustration and uncertainty clouding my thoughts, I realized I couldn’t keep drowning in the endless list of problems. It was then, amidst the chaos, that a seed of determination sprouted within me. The cryptic advice from Frank, ‘He who starts with many problems ends with few,’ echoed like a mantra in my mind, challenging me to see beyond the overwhelming obstacles.

That cryptic phrase, which initially sounded like an empty platitude, became my guiding light. I resolved to turn each problem into an opportunity, a puzzle waiting to be solved.   I pulled my team together and armed with nothing more than a box of sticky notes and a dogged determination, we meticulously dissected each issue, mapping out roadblocks and potential allies within the organization. It was a daunting task, but slowly, methodically, our team began to unravel the knots that had once seemed insurmountable.

With each meeting, a palpable shift occurred. The defeated faces transformed into ones brimming with enthusiasm. Our shared commitment to tackling these obstacles united us, and every small victory fueled our determination to tackle the next challenge. The once overwhelming list of problems gradually morphed into a structured plan, following the DMAIC framework, as we navigated the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control phases.

As the weeks turned into months, our persistence paid off. The seemingly impossible hurdles we’d faced became stepping stones. We didn’t just solve problems; we catalyzed a transformation. Our project not only reduced lead time by 58% and variation by 85% but also fostered a culture of collaboration and problem-solving across the organization.

For me, this journey wasn’t just about fixing issues; it was a personal metamorphosis. I emerged not only with a successful project under my belt but with a newfound belief in my ability to navigate challenges and inspire others to do the same. The once daunting problems became stepping stones, propelling me toward a future where obstacles were no longer roadblocks but opportunities for growth and innovation.

The piece of advice that I received that cold autumn day was something that has stuck with me.  While it offered no real guidance on how to solve my problems it offers something I have found even more useful, something more than just hope that things will get better.  It is an offer of belief in oneself and encouragement to keep fighting.  That we are all capable of moving mountains, even if those mountains cannot be moved by ourselves with a single push.   It has shaped the way I approach new challenges and shaped the way I work with teams faced with the seemingly impossible.  Through this journey, I learned that we cannot let problems keep us down but rather see them as stepping stones that pave the path toward achieving our goal. In overcoming each hurdle, we are presented with a series of opportunities to learn, improve, to overcome. 

Throughout the journey of our lives and our careers, there will be times when we are faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  Where the list of problems is long, and it feels that everything is stacked against us.  When you find yourself in that inevitable pit of despair, and I guarantee you will, I offer this one piece of advice.

“He who starts with many problems ends with few”