Seek every problem as an opportunity to focus on the ideal state

Many people have advanced their careers by covering up problems, solving them without anyone knowing, or by waiting for problems to get so large that they require heroic leadership to lead the task force required to get through the crisis. None of these modes of problem solving are acceptable if you want to build a world-class organization. World-class requires teaching everyone to adopt the attitude that every problem is an opportunity. A problem is not just when bad products gets into the customers’ hands. A problem is any gap between current reality and the ideal state, and there is always a gap. When someone says “no problem” then you have a big problem, because the gap is actually there, people just aren’t recognize the gap.