What Is Your Game-Changer Problem?

No business is perfect. After all, no human being is perfect, and businesses are created and run by human beings!

 So, we all admit that our businesses have problems. Some of them are more like minor inconveniences. Others are big-picture stuff that affect every aspect of the business and how it operates.

 Sometimes, though, it can be tough for us to see through the many issues to the root of the real problem we’re dealing with. It’s often too easy for us to get distracted fixing things that provide an insignificant positive impact. Sometimes, we fix something because it is what our Senior Manager or GM have decided is on their importance list vs. the yet undefined root causal problem. Right? We have all been there. Better to be seen doing something!

 It is challenging when there can be so many potential distracting issues. Time may not be available to dig, ask questions and think. The result is the potential of missing the changes that can make monumental impacts.

 The key is to figure out what our “game-changer” problem is and work on that.

What’s a Game-Changer Problem?

Like I said, we often get sidetracked trying to fix small issues that seem bigger than they are. Or we make changes because it’s “easy” to tweak this one little thing, versus making a big change.

 A game-changer problem is one that affects almost the whole business. Addressing it takes us from improving by 10% to making the business 10xs better.

 Let’s look at marketing as an example. Our social media team isn’t meeting their targets. Maybe our new ad campaign didn’t test well with customers. Why?

 These are not “small” problems, ultimately. But these might be symptoms to a bigger underlying strategic problem. What could be game-changer here is understanding our customers more or getting back to the essence of our brand. If we understand our customers better, then our ad campaigns and social media targets will follow.

 That’s why understanding your audience or even digging down to the core of the brand is a game-changer.

Change the Game and Everything Else Follows

When you are in the weeds, all problems may seem the same in size. At the Collective Women’s Entrepreneur Community Meetup last fall, everyone was sharing around the table. Each business owner was struggling with long lists of issues that needed to be sorted out. I spoke with one of these smart leaders and advised that what she needed to do was pause and tell me what the one issue was that if solved would make a big, big positive difference. I explained the importance of simply solving only one thing first. Then breathe and identify what is the next big “one” thing to solve for. Interestingly as you solve, each thing…many issues resolve naturally, or the real problems become clearer.

 It is not about the easy win. It is determining simply one game-changer problem and solve it. Then the next. Then the next. By adopting this single-minded focus, we can pool everyone’s resources to solving the big-picture problem. And you feel successful. Nothing is more motivating than winning a few.

 Imagine if you brought the social media team and the ad team and everyone else in the marketing department together to tackle this idea of brand identity, brand essence. Working together, you come up with the insight you need to understand your brand. And then the social media team and the ad team have better ideas of what they need to do. They can even share ideas and make their efforts mesh together more seamlessly.

What’s Your Game-Changer Problem?

The next step is to look at your business and break the issues down while you determine what the “one” to focus and solve for would make the greatest game-changer difference. Focus vs. spread your time and team wide. 

 Often, game-changer problems are those that your team, agencies, and other partners can’t seem to solve as they may be fighting the symptoms vs. the root causal problem. Don’t be afraid to dig deeper than the surface to get to the core of issues. Something deeper, more essential, may be the game-changer you need to solve.

 When you can identify the issues at the core, everything else becomes clearer or simply falls into place—and it all starts with the why!

--Margo

Meet Margo…brand visioning & marketing

Margo Jay is a Master Brand Strategist with a career leading globally recognized brands; developing and launching a proven model that maximizes competitive sales potential and consumer appeal. She has built the model to help companies of all sizes. Her Client roster includes entrepreneurs through to Fortune 100 brands: NHL teams, Global QSR brands, CPG brands, Broadcast brands, Agencies, Non Profit brands, Hard goods…this model and process provides competitive advantage in any category.

Complete clarity. Ownable distinct selling proposition. Shared values. Brand Clarity. Brand Focus. Brand Inspiration. Brand Obsession. Unlocking brand potential is what she does.

And it all starts with why!