It’s possible to look at a problem and discover how it can be described as a business problem as well as a people problem. It’s common to recognize how both are present and somehow intertwined.

What’s nice about the business problem is that it often seems easier to describe and get a hand on it. Solving the business problem bears the promise to see a result that helps sustain or develop the business.

Addressing a people problem is much more complex. The challenge starts with one’s ability to assess the problem and relate to it oneself. Whenever there is a people problem, there are differing frames of reference and thus differing ways in which people make meaning. To develop an idea of possible solutions it is necessary to first uncover that meaning-making process. It requires making the related differences in understanding visible as far as they are a source of the so-called “people problem.”

In essence, understanding a people problem requires uncovering tangible information. Doing so seems to be a messier process than analyzing the details leading to the observed business problem. It is easy to imagine how this leads to a preference to address the business problem first.

However, this underestimates how often the people problem prevents understanding the business problem. The people problem keeps all individuals in the organization busy with something that emerged in their respective situations. It can be the business problem itself, it can be a leadership or commitment problem, and it can be a problem with the situation in general. Whatever it is, it keeps people busy and trying to solve it on their own.

The multitude of individual solutions and sense of responsibility scales the business problem. That is true even though a seemingly easy-to-solve business problem became visible.

It’s only what creates the most discomfort, or what is most widely spread.