Why Do We Keep Solving the Same Problem?

Have you ever fixed a problem, only to watch it come back?  Maybe not once.

Maybe several times.

I remember a New Year's Eve installation from my balloon decorating days. At the time, it was the largest event I had taken on. The event was at a casino, and we were given a small room where we could inflate balloons and assemble décor before moving everything onto the floor.

Everything was going fine until balloons started popping.

At first, I blamed the helium. If you've worked with balloons long enough, you learn that the helium at the bottom of a tank can sometimes be problematic (the industry is deeply divided on this notion). So I switched tanks.

The balloons kept popping.

My next theory was temperature. The room was crowded, there was a lot going on, and I wondered if the balloons were getting too warm. I propped open a door to improve airflow.

That seemed to help a little.

But balloons were still popping.

Now I was getting concerned. Every balloon that popped was inventory I couldn't use later, and this wasn't the kind of event where I could run to the wholesaler for more supplies. I had planned for 20% attrition (prepare for the worst, hope for the best), and the extras were quickly getting used up.

So I kept looking.  It wasn’t the helium.  It wasn’t the temperature.  Was it a bad batch of balloons?  I looked at the date codes and there were three different date codes, so not likely a manufacturing defect.  All of those were normal reasons for balloons to be popping, and yet I still had no answer.

Then I noticed something.

The event planner and members of the casino staff were constantly walking in and out of the room. A carpeted room.  Every few minutes, the door would open, people would come in, discussions would happen, people would leave, and a few minutes later it would happen again.

Have you ever rubbed a balloon on a carpet or most any fabric actually, and then watched it stick to a wall?  That is static electricity.  Certain soles on shoes are more prone to building static charges than others.  The event planner and her team apparently had the wrong shoes and every time they came into the room, they were creating static that was causing the balloons to pop.

I eventually had to ask the event planner and staff to stay out of the room while we worked. It was not a popular request.

But once the traffic slowed down, so did the popping.

Looking back, what makes that story funny is that the problem was literally friction.

Actual friction.

Not the business kind.

The real thing.

What stuck with me wasn't the balloons. It was how many solutions I tried, that I knew could work, before I found the real problem. Every theory made sense. Every solution addressed something that could have been contributing to the issue. Some of those changes even helped a little.  Opening the door allowed a little humidity to enter, which decreased the static electricity in the air.  But the problem kept coming back because I wasn't addressing what was actually causing it.

It doesn’t matter the industry or the type of organization you work in. If the same problem keeps returning, it might be worth getting curious before implementing another fix. What are we missing? What assumptions are we making?

Or, what friction or symptoms are we ignoring, because we’ve grown so used to them, we don’t see them for what they are – a signal that something is happening, that shouldn’t be.

The next time you find yourself solving the same problem again, it may be worth pausing before jumping to another solution. Instead of asking, "How do we fix this?"

And, if you’re wondering about my New Year’s Eve example, was the static evident in the room?  It was.  I remember my skin feeling extra dry, and I remember seeing the ribbons stick to the balloons after I curled them.  I remember getting zapped a couple of times when I touched equipment.  But I was working fast, and besides, static happens.  Often.  But when multiple things are pointing to it, I should have known.

So I ask you,

"What are you looking at, but maybe not seeing?