The Power of Rephrasing

If you keep rephrasing the question, it gradually becomes the answer – Robert Brault

Before you can fix a problem or decide the course of action to take in solving a difficult issue, it helps to first of all spend some time defining what the problem is. It was after all Einstein who is known to have said “if I had one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution“…

The power of rephrasing – how to re-think a problem or redefine a problem with a new set of words – is not just a play of language. It helps to create new perspectives and provides clues on the way forward.

The Solution May Lie in the Description

Defining and describing the problem in the first place is probably the all-important starting point. This is because the quality of  the solution will usually depend on how you defined and perceived the problem.

Here are some examples of how changing the language and re-phrasing can help to shed light on the solution to problems:

1- What business are we in? 

A company is involved in the pick and drop business of school students. It’s primary business is taking school students from home to school and back. It defines its business as a school pick and drop business. Then one day, someone re-phrases the business as one of transporting people within the city. Suddenly, the question: “why can’t we extend our business to serving executives in companies as well” comes to mind. A new business segment has now become possible that no one thought of before because of the re-phrasing of some words.

2- Rephrase – even reverse – the conventional  wisdom

Everyone knows that in a business transaction, it is the seller who sets the price and buyer who says yes or no. Someone asked what would happen if this was reversed – viz. the buyer sets the price and the seller says yes or no. It was this thinking that led to the creation of the reverse auction. An air traveler indicates willingness to pay USD 150 for a domestic flight and five airlines respond that they can provide a seat for this.

3- Change the perspective or frame of reference

Imagine you are running a business and are looking at increasing your sales. The typical question “how can I increase my sales?” is from your perspective as the seller. To add value, ask the question as if you are a buyer. The question might become “what would be needed for me to buy this product?” The answers to this question might be able to contribute some new ideas.

4- Rephrasing the problem

In the early days of Japanese car production, the Toyota car company was beset by many quality and productivity problems. So Toyota embarked on the famous Kaizen or Toyota Way to address this problem. A Toyota manager asked staff “what are the ways to enhance productivity?“. This got little or no input. Productivity was not something that staff could easily relate to at the time.  But when the manager rephrased the question to “what are the ways to make your jobs much easier?”, there were more suggestions than he could handle.

4. Rephrase to indicate additional value

Suppose your sales pitch is “you will learn how to enhance your communication skills” . A slight rephrasing to “you will learn the 5 secrets to enhancing your communication skills” can indicate substantially more value.