Stop Guessing Quotes

“People mythologize hard problems in this way because it is comforting. If a problem becomes a supernatural titan, we can tell ourselves that there’s something special about it that has kept us from solving it, rather than our lack of skill. If it’s “more art than science,” then we’re no longer responsible for really fixing it at the root cause.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. —HENRY FORD, AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIST”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“how do you utilize experts properly? The first rule is stop asking them to solve your problem. Don’t ask them, “what’s causing this?” Ask them questions such as, “help me understand how this piece works”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“The “curse of knowledge” is a cognitive bias that leads people highly informed about a topic to be unable to think about it in a fresh way, with a fresh pair of eyes.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Don’t ask SMEs to make business decisions for you without stepping back and considering a possible conflict of interest.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Utilizing an expert means asking them questions that will help you understand a science, process, or asset; it means getting their help in clarifying information you’re seeing, or knowing where to find information you need. Relying on an expert means handing them the reins; it means giving them responsibility for solving the problem or declaring it impossible; it means giving them authority so their guess or conclusion is what you or your organization blindly follow.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“problem-solving that relies on pattern-finding is of no use at all. If we look at the Challenger space shuttle catastrophe, there weren’t any patterns to be found, period. It happened once.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“correlation is not causation”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“To dig into the fundamentals, you’ll need to learn both the particulars of that system, and some of the science behind it. Sometimes you’ll need to break out the manual or textbook, go online, and get support from someone who knows more about whatever you’re working on than you do.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“We need to understand what variables most directly control our primary variable by understanding the science behind how the system works.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“A great problem-solver won’t attempt to learn everything: To do so will waste tremendous time without making progress. Spending a few weeks or months learning about an entire system before getting to work is a great way to hide and avoid the challenge of actually solving the problem. Instead, they’ll dig into what’s relevant.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“When a system isn’t working right, someone has to understand how it’s meant to work, at the right depth, in order to fix it. Your job as a problem-solver is to dig deep enough into the fundamentals of the specific parts of the system that affect the problem so you can solve it in a methodical, step-by-step way.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“learning how things work at a basic level so you can build up the understanding you need to truly solve the problem. If you want to solve hard problems you are going to have to dig in and learn for yourself.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. —ALBERT EINSTEIN, PHYSICIST”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Clear your mind of prejudices and assumptions, and look to define the problem as something you can objectively measure to determine whether the problem is happening or not.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Always check that you are operating at the right level and get the facts to confirm that, even when you are not invited to do so!”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“One of the most dangerous—and most pervasive—mistakes when creating a problem definition is letting some assumption about the key drivers sneak in before really understanding the full scope of the problem.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“As some of my Canadian friends have told me: “There is no such thing as bad weather; just the wrong clothes.” This is particularly important in a commodity business: The slowest impala in the herd is the one that gets eaten, and you can’t run fast when you are busy thinking about things you can’t impact.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Defining the acceptable and unacceptable ranges for this variable means that the problem definition is objective and immune to opinion.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Perhaps the most useful approach for defining the problem well is structuring it as a measurable variable.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Great problem-solvers avoid being trapped into solving the wrong problem by defining the problem without prejudice or assumption”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Successfully solving hard problems requires knowing what problem you’re solving. You should put great care into defining the problem in an accurate and precise way, as a direct and measurable observation of the problem. It must be clear how solving it translates directly to your goals. And it must absolutely not be an assumption or jump-to-conclusion.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Perhaps many aid organizations make assumptions about the problem they are solving, and throw hundreds of billions of dollars at the problem to little or no effect.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.1 —CHARLES KETTERING, AMERICAN ENGINEER, HOLDER OF 186 PATENTS, INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRICAL STARTING MOTOR, LEADED GASOLINE, AND FREON REFRIGERANT”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“When you’ve received your bachelor’s degree, you think you know everything. Once you get your master’s, you realize you don’t know anything. When you get your PhD, you realize nobody really knows anything.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Great problem-solvers aren’t afraid of their ignorance, and they’re not afraid of others seeing it. Great questions shatter assumptions, provoke new insight, and position those that do know about the process or system to contribute their expertise. Great problem-solvers build confidence and don’t need to position themselves as all-knowing”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“People are socialized not to “challenge” what respected people believe.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Even when diving into a problem, there’s a fear of looking ignorant or “stupid” by asking questions one is “supposed to know.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“Great problem-solvers know that they must become masters of the unique problem and the process it affects, and that when they walk into a new situation they must be more focused on learning what they do not yet know than demonstrating the knowledge they already have.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers

“They realized they were on the frontier of understanding, and the assumptions they formed from past experience were detrimental.”
― Nat Greene, Stop Guessing: The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers