Sergey Fire Troubleshooting: How to solve unsolvable problems by looking at the problem from the other side. Sergey Fire Troubleshooting: How to solve unsolvable problems by looking at the problem from the other side Sergey fire

Introduce youreself?

Sergey Fire, trouble shooter. A trouble shooter is a specialist who solves insoluble problems. Moreover, I solve them in completely different areas: from technical problems to advertising and marketing business, PR tasks - whatever. The most important thing is that these tasks are insoluble. If no one has dealt with this before me, no consultants, the company itself, the customer, then they can contact me. Solving unsolvable problems is my strong point.

Which area usually has more tasks?

There are a lot of promotion tasks coming in now. The crisis is growing, businesses are collapsing, competition is increasing. How to win in such a huge market? We need to reduce the price. How can you do this without reducing your profits? Reduce costs.

The second direction is to win the tough competition in the market. So that they only turn to you, buy from you, love you.

Does this include the political market?

Including. Business and politics are one and the same. It’s just that in politics and elections, a crisis always happens. That’s why I was dragged into election campaigns in 1991. By the nature of my activity I am a TRIZ member. TRIZ is the theory of solving inventive problems. I can solve complex problems. At first I solved them in technology, and then life forced me to solve them when consulting in insurance business, banking, advertising, marketing. This is where the money was while the factories lay.

In the end, I was dragged into election companies, because there is the toughest competition, the tightest deadlines and normal budgets. If in normal business new idea it takes a very long time to coordinate, since it is risky to take any step, especially if the decision is urgent, it takes a very long time to agree on the budget, implement, monitor the reaction (and this takes months), but in politics, in elections, all this happens instantly. There is no time to build up - if today someone attacked a candidate somewhere, you need to make a decision so quickly that tomorrow it will already be replicated by hundreds of thousands.

Very high responsibility, you can’t make mistakes; very tight deadlines and crazy competition. Everyone around is just hitting each other. You must learn to apply Aikido. If you have not learned to use the enemy's attack to your advantage, then you will not win any elections. I would say that this is an extreme sport. Therefore, such a school was very useful for training the brain of the future trouble shooter.

I’m not in the elections forever. I came here, worked for 15 years, trained in problem solving, earned money, reputation, developed my problem solving tools for trainings and returned back to business around 2006. Then I returned to my trainings on solving unsolvable problems, developing creativity, finding beautiful ideas in advertising, in business, in life.

How did you come to TRIZ? Who did you study with?

I was such a “turned” one from the tenth grade. I was interested in inventing and solving mining problems. I read scientific and technical magazines: Knowledge is power, Youth technology, Chemistry and life, Science and life. All my life I dreamed of solving technical problems; I was an inventor throughout my life. Suddenly I came across Altshuller’s book “Finding an Idea.” I fell in love with her and realized that this was what I needed, that I should quit all my jobs as soon as possible, that I wanted to solve other people’s problems for money.

And as soon as I was able to quit after college, I went into the free market. And then you could go straight from the street to the director of an insurance company or bank. Those were great times. I came, surprised them, solved their problems right away and immediately received good orders. It doesn’t matter what kind - advertising, managerial, invention of new types of insurance, banking services.

What does it mean to come in from the street?

This means that I entered the office, the director was sitting at the top, and his assistants and subordinates were sitting below. These were the small banks or insurance companies we had. And I needed to first surprise someone in the office, show them that they would have a chance to move up the career ladder if they introduced me to their director. They ask you to prove it. Immediately in front of them I begin to show some tricks, solving their problems.

They are surprised and try to introduce me to someone higher up, until we finally reach the director. I’m finally meeting the director, and I need to surprise him too. Miracles continue.

For example, my first meeting with bankers occurred after I first surprised the insurance company, worked with them, everything was great. In 1991, each Insurance Company She dreamed that the banks would pay attention to her and tried in every possible way to make friends with them. To do this, they created various projects, programs, and products. And then they see such an interesting guy who can help them make friends with the bank if he also does something interesting for them.

They help you meet with bankers. I come to the office of two bank owners and ask about their problems. the main problem- this is non-repayment of loans. I decompose their task, as a result of which a huge tree slowly grows before their eyes over the course of an hour, where each task is connected to the other, the main contradictions are visible, key tasks and long cause-and-effect chains. They understand that it is enough to break the chains anywhere for the final task to disappear, etc.

They were surprised by this trick - it turns out that a major problem can be dealt with in dozens of ways. As a result, I receive several orders from the bank. These were the times when you could walk in from the street and get an order.

A person works for half his life for a name, and then for half his life the name works for him. My task was to make sure that I worked for my name not for half my life, but for two years. Just as you have “explosive PR,” I had explosive name creation. Of course, in the end it took seven years to create the name. These same seven years also included the creation of the book.

Each election campaign is about 30-40-50 complex and beautiful insoluble problems. This is a tremendous experience. I have more than 40 election campaigns behind me. When I started writing the book ( "Techniques of strategy and tactics of the election struggle" - approx.int.), there were already about 20 of them. And with such rich experience it was already possible to create your own techniques, your own stratagems, your own principles of working in elections in Russia.

An interesting point is how I got to the polls. It is clear that I have already had several years of work in the advertising and marketing market, but I have never participated in elections. And then my friends tell me that I can try myself in the elections with one of the candidates. He's in pretty stressful situation: There is no team, there are two weeks left before the elections - in general, he has already lost almost everything. They say, but suddenly you can help him with something. And I decided to try.

CONFESSION OF A TROUBLE SHOOTER No. 31.

1991 Local elections. I'm getting to know the candidate. He is as new to politics as I am to political technology. I'm starting training. It turns out that the candidate is completely unprepared to speak in front of an audience, he even gets confused in his biography - he doesn’t know what to say and what is unnecessary.

- “We’ll train,” I say.

- Why train? There's a local cinema there, and there aren't too many people there. Moreover, the first meeting, the people have not yet warmed up, the candidates are not yet ready. Let's come, talk to the grandmothers, look at the competitors...

***Think. For my candidate, this meeting is just a passing meeting, it doesn’t decide anything, that’s why he is so relaxed and peaceful. But competitors are feeling the same way now... it would be a shame not to take advantage of this. Got some darlings! We urgently need to prepare and practice the performance. Our candidate will be great - we will do everyone! But what will this give? Well, five grandmothers and three grandfathers will see his brilliant performance, so what? How can we win not just this meeting, but the entire campaign?

Paradox: “A meeting in a rural club with a dozen random voters. How can you win the entire election campaign with just this one meeting?”

We will benefit if everyone in the community sees this debate. The solution matured instantly; it was only important to pose an impossible task.

…“Let’s practice performing live,” the candidate continues.

- Stop! We will now very carefully prepare the speech, polish the biography and hone the program. Because tomorrow we must win and put an end to the entire campaign.

Everything he thought about me was written on the candidate’s face in 72-point letters. It’s a common thing that those who hear my paradoxes for the first time always react this way. (Dear reader, then look at the footer of the page - I wonder how you will react to paradoxes? )

How the debate went: An almost empty cinema hall. The presenter and eight candidates are on stage. There are 10 pensioners in the front rows. But no one is looking at these voters from the stage. No one sees or understands anything at all! And this is no wonder. Because all eyes are fixed on four working video cameras with some bright labels, on microphones, on cameramen, on spotlights... Not only were all the competitors unprepared, but they were also paralyzed from fear.

Each person was given 3 minutes to speak. But it would be better if they remained silent... Our candidate performed well.

The cameramen were my friends, the video cameras were fake - no film, and there was only one recording camera. And this video was enough for us for the rest of the campaign - they played the combined film, without cuts, on cable channels that were fashionable at that time.

The most important principle of a trouble shooter: there can be no secondary steps. Our every action should bring us closer to victory! If we do something, it should be an order of magnitude stronger than that of our competitors.

I have had a million such situations! If I make a biography, then I set myself a task: it should not be a passable biography, it should not lie in the trash, it should be read and then retold to each other, it is not super expensive, but voters should line up behind it, it is exhaustive, but It's easy to read and hard to forget.

I must say that I am not outside the system in elections. There are institute teams that specifically dealt with elections, sociology, political science... I’m an engineer, an inventor, a creative person. And suddenly I come to the elections and begin to defeat first one Moscow team, then another super team. In general, he defeated political strategists, candidates and doctors of science - no one could resist the engineer ( laughs).

At first my approach was this: pure brain. I don’t know how to conduct elections or what it is. I don't have any templates or stereotypes. I just look at what problems and tasks there are, and then gradually begin to solve them. This is how I come up with all these leaflets, moves, and PR campaigns. I don’t know what they write about this in books, I just see a problem and know that it must be solved. For every election campaign I invent something new. I make sure that my every program, biography, any leaflet never disappears in the trash. I brought advertising principles into the political realm.

The competitors were flying somewhere in the clouds, using political science, psychology, and sociology. And they often spoke in a language that people did not understand.

The easiest orders were received by large Moscow companies, which were well known to everyone. I got what everyone else refused. These are the most disastrous campaigns where it is impossible to win. It is thanks to this that I have such a huge practice in solving insoluble problems.

However, have you become seasoned in elections?

Yes! And another principle: I have never dragged dirt into elections, no “black” PR. All my campaigns were white and fluffy.

Marvelous!

For example. Teachers and parents are the most appreciative audience during elections. But how to talk to them? In a language that they understand and are interested in. We talked about how to raise children through creativity if you don't have time for it. While you are taking your child to kindergarten or school, you have five minutes to do such and such simple exercises.

We made such amazing materials that sold millions of copies. People asked for five leaflets at a time so they could distribute them to their neighbors. When has it ever happened that during elections people stood in line for election materials?

What determines the success of any promotion campaign to a greater extent?

Firstly, from the idea. A fruitful opening idea, as Ostap Bender said. I call it strategy. And this strategy should not be imposed, not brought in from the outside. It must grow itself from within, from the resources that the team, the director, and those around them already have. In the concept of “resource” I even include the problems themselves. Everything that is bad should also become our victory, turning harm into benefit. If we sweep some minuses and negativity under the rug, competitors will still dig it up and hit us when we don’t expect it at all. Our strategy must also take into account our shortcomings in order to turn them into a plus and benefit in the future. This is the first key to success.

The second is when we initially have a potentially strong project, client, product, service, company. Third is courage. In business it is even tougher, because no one will take risks there. There is more risk in elections, because there is nowhere to go, you have to move somehow. If we mess up somehow, then we’ll replay it somehow.

If the candidate is a coward who cannot afford sharp steps, then nothing will happen to him at all. Especially if he does not have super administrative resources to count the votes correctly. We have always used very bold moves in elections. There is no other way to respond to dirt, rumors, and “black” PR. Americans have an expression that shows that it is impossible to wash away rumors: “Rumors are like throwing a dead cat. They throw the cat away, but the stench remains.”

Well, rumors began to spread against the candidate. So what should we do? Show me a certificate that I am not gay, have not been in prison, am not a drunkard, have not molested minors, will not expel Ukrainians, etc.? Nonsense! Rumors are an abomination, but very effective. How to deal with them? I haven't seen anyone do it well. But my team and I have always done this successfully. Any dirt against us was always reversed.

We are always thinking about how to make sure that our clients, our voters, clearly understand that this is a lie, and clearly understand who exactly planted it.

How good is the reception when accusations against you are taken to the point of absurdity?

This is a great trick! For example, there is one old story that has been circulating since the times of the USSR. Journalists gathered to interview the director of some sausage factory, where some kind of emergency occurred. And while they were figuring out what the emergency was, one of the journalists asked a completely unexpected question: “Is it true that you put toilet paper? After all, there really was such a rumor among the population. So how to answer him? Should we immediately run and show that everything is in accordance with GOST, show the laboratory, the production process, quality control? No, that won't work.

You need to answer quickly, also head-on, and bring it to the point of absurdity. So he replied: “It’s too expensive to put toilet paper here, it costs more than meat. You can calculate it yourself.” All! The question was dropped, people laughed, and the story immediately began to spread like a virus. This is a cool trick.

Sergey Faer

Troubleshooting: How to solve unsolvable problems by looking at the problem from the other side

Editor L. Lyubavina

Chief Editor S. Turco

Project Manager M. Shalunova

Corrector N. Vitko

Computer layout K. Svishchev

Art direction and layout Yu. Buga

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Introduction

Troubleshooter weapon

IN Lately The word “troubleshooter” has become fashionable. In the imaginary interview below, we will put together the scattered pieces of the puzzle and try to understand what it is. And how does this relate to me?

Who is it?

English word troubleshooter translated as “shooting problems.”

This is a person who has made it his profession to solve other people's insoluble problems. He takes on a problem of any complexity, and is ready to deal with it relatively quickly. It's also a station wagon. He works in all areas.

Is it possible to be an expert in all areas?

This is not necessary to solve problems. It is imperative to excel in the analysis of problem situations and master the methods of formulating and resolving contradictions. And also be able to moderate the process of making collective decisions.

What problems does it solve?

Completely different. But they have one thing in common: the customer failed to cope with them. That is, these are unsolvable, dead-end, complex problems from any field.

How to become a trouble shooter?

Typically, those who go into this area are those who have managed to solve problems in their company well. Gradually, a person becomes closely within this framework, and he grows into a super-specialist in his narrow field of activity. A kind of brilliant financier, a super-capable lawyer or a high-class inventor... Then he can go beyond the boundaries of his specific field of activity and in this case becomes a generalist - someone who knows how to solve any problems, not only in his field. And this is already close to troubleshooting.

How many problems do you need to solve to call yourself a trouble shooter?

There is no exact figure. But it's big. It is necessary to accumulate a critical mass of solutions to intractable problems, and at some point quantity develops into quality.

It is important that by positioning himself as a troubleshooter, a person seems to be signing an oral agreement, pledging to cope with any task. This is a serious responsibility! There are many specialists who solve complex problems, but do not call themselves that. If it doesn’t work out, there are no complaints against them. But if you give your name, there is no turning back: you have to solve the problem. Even in time pressure.

So it will take a lot of time?

Of course, it's huge responsibility and challenges. It takes years to master this profession. A person first learns from his own tasks and mistakes, and then takes on others. He first tries to solve other people's problems in a calm mode (when he has a couple of months to immerse himself in the situation and carefully analyze it), and then learns to work under time pressure - to solve problems very quickly, in four to five hours. Now this is a high-level specialist.

Does a troubleshooter always need to solve problems in a short time?

Not always, but quite often. And you need to be prepared for this. That’s why practice is also needed – to forge character.

Imagine a typical situation for me. The corporation gathered top managers from all over the country in Moscow (their total salary for one day is equivalent to the cost of an apartment in Moscow) and set them, for example, the following task: “A bonus bonus system has been prepared for the corporation. The entire “Big Three” took part in the development. We would like to consult with you one last time. Can you suggest any improvements?" So we have four hours to solve this “problem.”

People have arrived... And now try not to decide! This shouldn't happen. Do you understand what responsibility and what stress load? Therefore, a troubleshooter must work towards his title for decades, so that in a difficult situation he does not get confused or lose heart, but calmly cope with any problem. And then the whole life turns into a constant personal growth– every new dead-end task leads to development.

Are you called only in desperate situations?

People are often invited to “put out the fire,” but not always. According to my observations, most of the problems that threaten a company with a serious decline or complete collapse relate to the area of PR. And they are time-sensitive, require immediate action, and their consequences quickly manifest themselves. For example, there was a scandal recently: an airline threw an Asian passenger off a plane to smuggle its employees through. The video was included in social media and instantly gained millions of views. This was a blow to the company's reputation; its value fell by a billion dollars. Often such problems are not solved at all or are solved ugly.

Election campaigns are rich in such PR tasks, where the feeling of putting out a fire never leaves you.

But in business, out of hundreds of consultations, only three to five concerned cases where “everything was lost.”

Most of the consultations were like this: the company is working, but there is “pain”: something is not working out, there is a contradiction, there is a dead end. This “pain” brings difficulties to the company: financial losses, reputational problems, organizational difficulties. Often contradictions are not resolved for years. I help eliminate contradictions - and the company breathes a sigh of relief and reaches new milestones.

Can you give an example of a “non-emergency” task?

Yes. In this case, we are no longer talking about four hours, but about a longer consultation format.

A typical example is a construction company. We encountered the following problems.

How to reduce unproductive work of expensive equipment? (Up to 70% of the time - downtime and use of equipment by contractors for other purposes.)

How can I find out the instant output for each area of work? (It depends on whether we are on schedule or behind schedule; whether there are enough materials, or whether we urgently need to buy more; whether there are enough workers; planning construction equipment etc.)

Negligent attitude towards the customer's material on the part of the contractor.

At a construction site, several versions of drawings with errors are saved! Foremen do not destroy old drawings and do not take new ones. (Hence the defects and alterations.)

It should become clear to everyone present how to proceed. My task is to ensure that after four hours of work I am no longer needed. Therefore, I make it a condition that the task leader be present at the meeting, since he will simultaneously:

1) an expert with knowledge in the subject area;

2) the decision maker - what concept to implement, what solution suits him, and

It is important that experts within the company become co-authors of ideas, and for this they draw out small steps “down to the last screw.” The devil is in the details, and you need to be attentive to the details - even a small problem can be the source of a “fruitful endgame idea” that can complement the basic solution concept.

That is, it is important that the team not only finds a solution, but also thinks about how to implement it?

Yes. But this is not the final goal. After consultation, the ideal result is when the team learned to solve problems themselves. In my experience, when people solve a problem with me, at some point they begin to nod, implying that, they say, we understand the principle. But I prefer not to stop the consultation until my interlocutors say out loud: “We understand.” As soon as they say this, it means everything is fine, they have no problems. There are only microtasks left that they can solve themselves. Usually, strong teams invite me to solve complex and beautiful problems, and they don’t have to chew on everything down to the last nuance. Sometimes the team quickly enters the “flow of creativity”, and it is possible to step aside and not interfere. I see that they like the idea, they like to spin it, come up with ways to implement it, they can’t be stopped, they get a kick out of it. I’m not only a solver, but also a coach - I know how to teach and warm up a team. For the first hour and a half, I explain the methodology in parallel with the solution - why we are going exactly there, why we are taking exactly this formulation of the problem... In four hours I manage to combine the solution of the problem and express training.

Do all troubleshooters use this approach?

Not necessary. I roughly divide them into three types.

The first is a “connected person”, one who saves companies from financial losses and blocked bank accounts only through acquaintances. He has “his” people in the security and government structures. Using them and his communication skills, he opens any doors. In general, it is difficult to say: he solves problems or simply uses his connections.

The second type is an expert who knows how to solve problems due to his vast experience. He has ten specialties, ten foreign languages, and in general he saw a lot of things in life. Such a person is good at finding solutions at the intersection of areas.

And I initially belong to the third type. I am proficient in analysis and problem solving tools. This skill can be transferred, it can be learned. That’s why in my seminars I teach how to solve the most complex problems. Whereas it is impossible to quickly learn the skills of the first and second types.

How do you choose which task to take on and which not?

I don’t have specific criteria; all tasks are interesting in some way. Although it is worth emphasizing one point. The solver should not immediately attack the problem. First, you should turn to experts who have proven themselves in a specific subject area. These could be financiers, lawyers, managers... Why reinvent the wheel? Maybe a specialist will find a ready-made solution based on his own experience. But it happens that there is no such solution. Where the best experts have not solved the problem is the edge of science, technology, business, the front of today's knowledge. There, experts encountered a contradiction that stalled the development of the entire industry. And here, in order to take a step further, the troubleshooter should get to work.

How to check whether the troubleshooter in front of you is real or not? After all, they are not given diplomas...

Need to be judged by results, ask to show dozens, or better yet hundreds of solved problems from different areas of high complexity, to demonstrate a wealth of experience. I don’t keep such statistics, but I can roughly say that in technology alone I have more than 300 engineering consultation problems, in business - more than 400 beautiful solutions, and the greatest experience in the field of elections - these are hundreds of dead-end problems, not only political technology issues themselves, but and organizational, legal, advertising, design...

There are very few such strong universal solvers. There are not thousands or hundreds of them - there are dozens or even just a few. Often they are not public. They are constantly busy - there is only enough for those who know them. Therefore, they do not need to advertise widely. And it is not profitable for the companies themselves to talk about those who work with them and pass them on to others - why help potential competitors?

When did you realize that you were a trouble shooter?

This very word appeared in Russia ten years ago in a well-known article on the Internet, which said that sneaker factories, in order to avoid theft, began to produce separate left and right shoes. And also that in order to increase sales of a certain directory, they reduced its size - and then it always ended up on top of the pile. These were beautiful bikes. A few years later, the first publications of real people began to appear. They lacked real-life examples, but I realized that “troubleshooting” was another name for what I was doing. And I study at this moment for 30 years already. The term is interesting and memorable. And this bright banner was quickly picked up, and it became fashionable to talk about it. However, no one will be able to call themselves that, because it can be easily verified - using the Hamburg account. “Oh, are you a troubleshooter? Then be so kind as to show us your solutions to unsolvable problems.”

It turns out that you became a troubleshooter even before you knew the term. How did this happen?

At first, around ninth grade, I liked inventing. Then there were puzzling tasks set for myself, the invention of a perpetual motion machine... In my first year at the institute I already wanted to create a method of invention. And in my third year I learned that there is such a technique - TRIZ. It was a shock! And the understanding that this is my occupation for life. I set a goal to become a professional problem solver. At first I was engaged in technical consulting, for two years. Then a new discovery: TRIZ can be used to solve non-technical problems - I had to create new methods myself based on TRIZ. It was also interesting to push the boundaries of TRIZ applicability and solve problems from new areas of activity.

As a result, experience and methods for solving the following range of problems emerged: advertising, marketing, PR, elections, organizational and managerial, social...

For whom: for construction companies, insurers, banks, retail, mobile operators, lawyers, agricultural producers, advertising and PR agencies, oil and gas industry, private education... These are hundreds of solved problems. With such baggage, it was already possible to say that I was a trouble shooter.

What is TRIZ?

In short, this is the science of how to invent. More details about TRIZ are described in the help below.

During consultations, do you talk about TRIZ and troubleshooting techniques?

Yes. Ideally, a company should have at least one solver of its own. At corporate seminars, I try to ensure that each participant, after training, becomes one and solves the company’s problems. But I understand that this is most likely an unattainable goal. A realistic number is this: if the workshop turns one out of ten participants into a strong solver, then the company will fly. It will become difficult for competitors to compete with it.

Over the past ten years, about 4,000 people have passed through my seminars. On average, 5–10% of participants are charged with my ideas, they want to solve unsolvable problems. This team is growing, there are more and more of them.

Who can master the proposed techniques?

Any. I sure that everyone can and should be able to solve problems. This sounds revolutionary, but this is what I strive for, and TRIZ as a whole provides such opportunities. But it teaches how to solve only technical engineering problems, and troubleshooting performs broader functions - it allows you to take on non-technical problems for business.

Decisive tools are important and necessary for every person. Just like mathematics, physics, Russian, history. If a person does not have at least a general understanding of methods for solving problems, he will stumble even on simple problems - both in his personal and business life. Armed with problem-solving techniques, he will be more successful. This should become an element of a person’s general culture. I believe that students mastering any profession (be it an agronomist, a doctor, or an engineer) should have discipline in curriculum and a line in the record book “Methods for solving problems.” And everyone will be a little troubleshooter.

It turns out that troubleshooting can be learned?

Yes. The fundamental difference between my methods is that they can be taught. This is not shamanism or magic, but technology. There are only a dozen analysis tools, and even more solution tools. And this “weapon” is constantly evolving. Every year I create new tools for analyzing and solving problems. When I solve a problem, I immediately think how to turn this beautiful solution into a rule/technique/principle/stratagem that can be used in other circumstances, to solve other problems, with another resource.

I'm not afraid of competition. In my youth, I developed the following attitude: a complex unsolvable problem is a challenge for me, I must solve it. And if there is a strong solver somewhere, I must surpass him. It's like a sport.

And I even complicate my task - periodically I give my weapons into the hands of competitors. My weapons are my tools for solving a problem. So, I once published my PR struggle stratagems. I give away new tools at seminars, on social networks, and in this book.

So, dear readers, here is my main weapon!