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July 22, 2024 ·

Podcast: Are You Asking The Right Questions?

5 Min, 51 Sec
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By Derek Cheshire

We really do need to make sure that the questions we ask before deciding on a course of action scope out our probably properly. Out of all the people in the world, the people we tend to trust the most are probably doctors. We believe them to be experts, because if we didn’t we would probably be terrified every time we became ill. Given this faith in doctors, how often do you suppose they actually get it right? Or more terrifyingly, how often do they get it wrong? It is not very likely that your doctor will tell you are okay when you are critically ill but what about the cases where they diagnose a common cold but your elevated temperature is related to something much more serious? Are they solving the right problem? Studies in the US indicate a 40% misdiagnosis rate with a reasonable percentage (around 10%) resulting in avoidable death. These statistics are easily verified following autopsy. In medicine, as with many other disciplines we need to diagnose the right condition in order to treat it. In the world of creative problem solving we must do two things. Firstly correctly identify that the problem really is causing the symptoms (business issues) that have been observed and secondly when we apply a solution, it must be tailored to the actual problem. So what is the issue here, how does this come about? Overconfidence and over-familiarity are two good reasons. If experts become complacent or see the same problems day in, and day out, they might be tempted to assume that the problem is the same.