[Neurons] 2026 Neurons #18 PROBLEM-SOLVING--- 1981

Mon Apr 27 00:38:58 EEST 2026

From: L. Michael Hall

2026 Neurons #18

April 27, 2026

Problem Solving Expertise #18

PROBLEM-SOLVING - 1981

Alfred Schoennauer published his book, Problem Finding and Problem Solving
(1981).  What a great title!  Given that, it should be a great book!  That's
what I immediately thought.  And even though I read it years ago, I was in
for a shock when I re-read it this year.  The shock came because I began
modeling the phenomena of 'problems.'  So in re-reading the book I realized
something incredible-the author actually does not know what a problem is!
Nor does he know how to find one or to solve one!  Now if you're thinking,

"Wow!  That's a pretty radical statement.  He did not know what a problem
was at all?  Or how to solve it at all?"  Then let me show you how I came to
that conclusion.

First of all, how did Schoennauer define a problem?  For him, a problem is a
performance deviance.  It is a "wrong course of action."  And in
organizations, he views them as caused by the decisions of managers.  As
this is how he thinks about problems, his model is a stepwise search for
deviations.

"Up to now the problem finder has been engaged in gathering historical data
in order to determine the basic causes for performance deviations." (153).
Implications: problems are external things-performance deviations, and they
are 'caused.'  And if you do a historical search you can find the cause. Yet
that sounds like searching for symptoms.

"One of the most effective devices is to ask at each stage of the
problem-finding process the simple question, Why?  If resources are
inadequate-Why?  When schedules are inappropriate- Why?  The purpose: Find
the most basic decision that relates to a clue." (101) "Why were
inappropriate resources provided or allowed?  Why did management respond in
this way?  Why did management make that decision?" (16)   'Why' is
effective?  Six years earlier NLP founders picked up on what Fritz Perls
argued, Don't ask why!  It only leads to blaming.  It does not help with
solving problems.

"Problem solving embraces a process in which an attempt is made to find a
course of action that will erase the significance deviations in
performance." (171) The problem is the course of action that has deviated
from being effective.  This circular thinking doesn't pinpoint the problem,
it only identifies the external evidence of a problem.

"Problem solving is concerned with correcting courses of action, or
instigating new ones, for those decisions identified as probably
inappropriate." (235) More circular thinking.  If a decision led to a
successful result, it was appropriate; if it did not, then it was in
appropriate.

All of this implies that a problem is an external course of action.  And the
cause is the manager who made some decision about the course of action.
These ideas do not help!

Now because "the manager is ultimately accountable for the performance of
his subordinates" it is "decisions that make things happen in the final
analysis, and therefore, when things do go wrong, the chances are that
decisions are the most significance contributing factor." (33).  "The aim of
problem finding is to identify the most basic causes over which the decision
maker has discretionary authority to make changes." (101) "Problem solving
is in essence decision making" (16).

Schoennauer was aware that where there are problems, there are internal
variables, but he dismissed them by putting them under the category of
"other considerations" (p. 200).  He labeled them as "extra-organizational
forces."  In that way, while thinking is implied everywhere in his book, it
is hidden in such words as: consider, assess, decide, attitude, etc.   Never
once does he even consider the real problem as being in the mind.  It is
always in what is done (a behavior), in the course of action, in actions
which deviate from plans and decisions.  For him, it is always "decisions
that make things happen."

Because of this misunderstanding, the entire book is focused on correcting
deviations in behavior by making better decisions.  And while it does cover
all of the areas of concern in an organization, style of leadership,
planning, communication, attitude, payment, scheduling, relationships with
peers, etc., the problem is always a superficial surface problem-one of what
someone does or does not do.  It is never viewed deeper than that.  He did
mention "attitude" frequently, but he never explored the thinking within an
attitude.  For him, what's inside of a person is a "black box" and cannot be
opened up (136-7).  He did ask:

"Did the decision makers reflect a healthy attitude toward change? Toward
strategic, long-term planning deliberati ons, toward risk, toward people,
and toward authority? (142).

His problem solving in 1981 operated from a false premise, one that could
have been easily corrected if only he had asked, "What is a problem?"  If he
had only examined the word itself, he would have realized it is a
nominalization (that is, a verb turned into a noun).  You can't put a
'problem' in a wheelbarrow. You can't weigh it or smell it or handle it.  It
is not a sensory-based phenomena.  Instead, something is being "throw in
front" of you as a block or hindrance.  That's the verb.  What is being
thrown in front of you?  And literally?  No.  So it is actually a metaphor.

Metaphorically, a problem occurs when some mental idea, memory, belief,
statement, etc. (the way you are thinking) is thrown in front of your mind
and emotions so that you cannot mentally see the path forward and you feel
stuck, blocked from moving forward.  A problem is only a problem when you
have an objective that you want to reach and do not know how or believe that
something is interfering.  In this pretty straightforward and simple way, we
can quickly discern what a problem is-a mental-emotional state of thinking/
feeling blocked.  Every problem is inside of someone's mind.  No problem
exists 'out there' in the world beyond the mind.  The solution to any and
every problem occurs in the mind.  And when you know that, you know where to
search.  You know your next step is to do a meta probe into the mind of the
person.

Now in spite of my critique, there are some good things in the book.  I
liked his orientation about problem finding "before the fact," before an
external 'problem' arises.

"The perspective of problem finding, before the fact, is different from that
of problem finding, after the fact.  While the initial focus in
after-the-fact problem finding is directed to results, the before-the-fact
problem-finding focus is on the environment, on decisions, on resources, and
on activities, in order to detect elements that in the future may cause
unsatisfactory results." (154)

And yet still there is no awareness in that paragraph about the true essence
of a problem as a problem in thinking.  About information gathering he did
write, "The decision is usually only as effective as the information on
which it is based" (139).  That should have opened his eyes.  He even asked,
Is it sufficient, current, and based on the best sources?  While that book
was a good first attempt at problem-solving, today we can do so much better
with the Neuro-Semantic modeling of 'problems' and 'solving.'

NEURO-SEMANTIC NEWS

*       We'll be in Mauritius in July, contact Bruneau at
bruneau at gometaltd.com or Joyce at thecleversayinfo at gmail.com 

*       I'll be in Australia in August this year.
https://the-coaching-room.mykajabi.com/michael-hall-event-2026.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

 <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com 

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