Most of us are great problem-solvers, once we have properly defined the problem. But that is the hardest, or perhaps most overlooked, part of the process. Sometimes we’re solving things at the wrong level, something above the root cause level—meaning we’re attacking a symptom. Sometimes we’re looking for solutions in the altogether wrong area, because our assumptions, mindsets and biases point us in the wrong direction. Sometimes we pour so much time and energy into solutions we forget the original problem entirely. (Perhaps that helps explain feature creep!) And sometimes we don’t cast our net widely enough. As MIT’s Peter Senge says, “we tend to focus on snapshots of isolated parts of the system, and wonder why our deepest problems never get solved.”

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If you follow this blog you know I'm a huge fan of "I Wrote this for You." (Iain Thomas contributed a piece for this blog here.) Here's Iain talking at a recent TEDx event is South Africa. It's a heartwarming story about the power of story. It's a must-see, if you want to change the world. And even if you don't.

Most of us are in goal-setting mode right about now. We’re making lists of all the great things we will accomplish in 2010. Alas, all too often the items on the list look a heckuva lot like the ones on last year’s list. We’re all guilty of it. I know I am. It’s time to make sure that doesn’t happen again a year from now. It’s time to scan and sift the list, and turn those high-potential, high-priority goals into cool projects.

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Every year, millions of people “resolve” to lose weight. It’s the number one goal set each January 1. And by about this time each year, it’s the most abandoned one. There are dozens of theories about why that might be, but the explanation I like most (because we can do something about it) is that our optimism tends to overpower any thought of contingency planning...

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I've been asked by dozens of people in the media to comment or opine on the Toyota recall situation. I've declined all, for the simple reason that I don't like to speculate on something I know nothing about, don't have the facts on, and could at best add little insight into what must be a terrible ordeal for Toyota people. And I would hate to offer some "here's yesterday's weather" kind of comment that would only appear glib and unintelligent. 

Having said that, I can offer this. I've read all the stories and blogs. I've digested the expert commentary. I can find only two examples of real clarity. Two examples that are representative of Toyota thinking, which is to focus on the facts. This first is over at Gemba Panta Rei, where Jon Miller discusses the issue with colleague Chris Schrandt, a former Quality Engineering Manager for TMMK (Georgetown plant). The second is by Dr. Jeffrey Liker, on the BusinessWeek site. Dr. Liker probably knows more about what goes on inside Toyota in Japan than any other outsider.

This much I know: Toyota will do the right thing. They will once and for all find the root cause of the problem. And when they do, they will provide the right countermeasure and remedy, no matter what the cost. This is a pressing time, and it will reveal the leadership of Akio Toyoda. I predict they will emerge stronger for it. The situation is eerily similar to the total recall Lexus had when they first launched in 1989, though not nearly on the same order of magnitude. It's being compared to the Tylenol situation facing Johnson & Johnson years ago. And we all know how J&J fared.

Finally, because the easy but ignorant "hits" are coming from those looking for big T to stumble, I'm reminded of the words written by Ted MacManus in his 1911 Saturday Evening Post missive -- an advertisement, really, for Cadillac -- called The Penalty of Leadership:

“In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails to nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live – lives.”