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Don't do a job, solve a problem

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Today I want you to reconsider the nature of work.

And that's any type of work; employed work, contract work, freelance work, side-gig work, whatever.

If you don't understand the nature of work, you won't do the things that truly advance your career.

Most people think of work as an exchange of labour for money.

But you read Massive Effect(iveness), so you're not most people...

If you can't solve problems, you don't have an income

If your labour solves a problem for someone else, you're valuable.

If it doesn't, you're not.

If you're not valuable, you're not needed.

And I'll use McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food restaurant chain to illustrate my point:

A problem can be simple

Every McDonald's restaurant in the world has the same problems to solve.

They need:

• Orders to be taken
• Food to be prepared
• Food to be given to a customer

If they can solve these problems, they have a functioning restaurant.

If they can't, they don't.

But note that I didn't say that they need people to take orders, prepare food or deliver food.

Because that is an entirely different question.

They don't need people, they need problems solved

Historically, people solved all three of McDonald's core problems.

People took orders, people prepared food, people handed food to customers.

But those people were not needed because they were people, they were needed to solve those problems.

And once those problems could be solved without people, that's exactly what McDonald's did.

This graph shows the number of McDonald's restaurants worldwide - clearly growing:

And this graph shows the number of McDonalds employees worldwide for the same period - clearly shrinking:

When you overlay the year in which McDonald's started to roll out self-ordering kiosks, it all becomes clear:

People were no longer necessary to solve one of the core problems of the business, and therefore those people were removed.

They no longer had business value as they were no longer solving a problem for the business.

But I don't work for McDonald's Matt...

Who you work for doesn't matter.

Every business is the same - it needs problems solved.

For as long as you as the best means of solving them, you'll keep your job.

As soon as you aren't, you will be gone.

So I strongly recommend that you think about the problems you solve at work.

Forget what your job is, and focus on the problems that your employer, or your clients, couldn't solve without you.

Because that is your value to them.

If you can do that, you're on the path to being valued more highly & rewarded equally highly.

Because that path will lead you to solving those problems more effectively, and that is exactly what I want to help you do.

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Until next time,

- M

Matt Scaysbrook

​Find me on LinkedIn​

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