E15: The Power of Changing Just One Word

What if changing just one word in a problem statement can completely change your thought process? Welcome to Invisible Solutions. I'm your host, Steven Shapiro. Each week we tackle your most complex problems using the lenses from my book, Invisible Solutions. If you need the lenses, go to getthelenses.com with that. Let's get started with today's episode. Today I want to talk about the power of language, and in particular, how you can change just one word in a problem statement and have it completely change the range of solutions that you're going to develop. And for that, we're going to talk about three of the lenses from the Invisible Solutions book. One is lens number 15, which is the substitute lens. One is the hypernym lens, which is number 10. And number 5 is the hyponym lens. So let's just dig right in. Let's talk about the one which is probably the simplest and most straightforward, which is the substitute lens. And basically this is saying, let's just change one word randomly, one word from something to something else. Now, in some cases, they could be synonyms, or they could be related words, or they could be completely different words. A few examples with this would be, for example, with NASA sending people up into space. One of the challenges that they ran a number of years ago was what they called their zero gravity laundry system challenge. And basically what this was is their attempt to take a washing machine from Earth and bring it up into space. Now, if you know anything about the way washing machines work, they rely on gravity. So you take one of those up into a place where there's no gravity, you have a mess. And so when they ran this challenge, it was a complicated challenge. They didn't get a lot of solutions because it was about pumps, valves, pipes, gravity. Very complex. And then they decided to change the question because what they realized was, and this is actually, in some respects, using the result lens, which is number seven. Well, why do we have a washing machine? Well, the result, the goal, the reason why we have a washing machine is to get our clothes clean. So if you ask the question, how can we get clothes clean? Well, now we're not looking at pumps, valves, pipes, or any of those types of things. Now we're actually looking at a cleaning fluid. So it's a different question. But the point of this episode is actually the power of changing one word. Imagine if you went from how can we get clothes clean? To how can we keep clothes clean? One word change. Fundamentally different range of solutions. Now, instead of talking about cleaning fluids, we are now talking about a material science problem. How do we build clothes that just don't get dirty? Maybe we use antimicrobials and other types of materials. One word, a totally different range of solutions. And in some cases, we can use words that feel similar, but they're not the same. For example, we might say, how can we increase sales? Which is different than how can we increase revenues? Which is different than how can we increase the number of customers? Which is different than how can we increase margins? So if we start talking about margins, for example, well, that's a slightly different animal, because now it's actually not just revenues, but it's also cost built into the equation. So changing that one word is going to have an impact. So we could go from how can we get more customers? To how can we get more revenues? To how can we get more margins? And maybe what we actually say is, how can we get, instead of more customers, what if we went to how can we get fewer yet more profitable customers? Well, now that means we're going to focus our energies in a particular area. And again, we're just playing around with one word. Now, we did weave in the reduced lens there, which is number three, which is fewer instead of more customers. What if we have fewer customers? And we combined that with a substitute lens, which was about margins. And we see this being used in a lot of different places in organizations. I know a lot of times right now there's a war for talent, especially in certain technology arena. So the question might be, how can we attract more talent? But you could change one word to how can we retain the talent we already have? Or how can we educate the talent we have so they become more valuable? Each of those are going to give us a completely different range of solutions. So that's lens number 15, which is the substitute lens. It's sort of a broad catch, all of changing one word into another word. You heard in the first episode of this podcast, I talked about baggage claim. And one of the things was, how can we reduce the wait time, which is about speed. If we change that to how can we improve the wait time? Well, now it's about experience. One word for fundamentally different range of solutions. Now I want to move to two lenses that are very powerful, but they're a little more complicated to use at times. And these are the hypernym and the hyponym. So the hypernim lens basically means how can we use a word that is less specific? And we'd use the hypernim lens anytime that we're trying to solve a problem that feels like it's very narrow. So we have synonyms which are at the same level of abstraction. Hypernym is at a higher level of abstraction. Let me give you a very simple example of hypernym in action that will at least help you better understand what it means. Using a very common everyday word. Imagine you're looking to buy a new car so that you get to work. Getting to work is probably the goal and the getting a new car is a means of the goal. But let's just focus in on hypernyms. So what if you swap the word car with vehicle? So vehicle is a less specific word of car. Well, now you have other options such as motorcycles, buses, bicycles, and a whole bunch of other different ways to go. But we could take vehicle and look at the hypernym for vehicle. And now you get to transportation. Well, transportation is even different because now it doesn't even mean we have to own. What if we had access, which is the access lens? What if we had ride sharing apps or hitchhiking or teleportation? If we are able to do that, each of these gives us a different range of possibilities. So one of the examples I talked about in the book, which I think is a really interesting one, is Tyson Foods. So they are the world's second largest processor and and marketer of chicken, beef and pork. And one of the things that they wanted to do is they wanted to invest in a plant based shellfish startup as well as vegan chicken nuggets. And they explicitly said that they're moving away from being a meat company to a protein company. Protein is a hypernym for meat. When working on invisible solutions, I actually used the hypernim lens to help me think through. Actually I used all of the lenses. But the way I used the Hypernium lens was to help me rethink what I'm actually offering. So I was writing a book. My original question was, how can I write a great book? How can I get something that'll be popular? And although that was the original goal, I replaced the word book with its hypernym, which is product. Okay, how can I create a great product? Well, a book is only one aspect of a product. So then I started to think about, well, what other pieces could I add? Digital products, physical products, non book products. What else could I create that would increase the level of value that readers would have when they experience the book and the content? This is also why we created a number of tools. So we created something called the Lens Browser. The Lens Browser is a tool which allows you to look at all 25 lenses and focus in on some that are more interesting. You can bookmark them, you can delete them, and it allows you, in a easier to use fashion, actually navigate the lenses than in a linear model. Like a book. We're also working on something called the Lens Bot. Now this is something pretty exciting. And if you're interested in learning about the Lens Bot, definitely drop me a line. I'll connect you with the developer, Adam Leffert. He's doing an amazing job at creating some of these tools. If you are interested in the Lens browser, go to invisible invisiblesolutionstools.com that's invisible solutions tools.com and you can actually do a trial subscription to the Lens browser. Give it a try. I think you'll like it. On the flip side of the hypernym is the hyponym. And that means we get something that is more specific. So we come back to the car example. A hyponym for car might be a sedan, and a hyponym for sedan might be a particular make or model of car. So now we're getting even more specific, and by changing those words, we're going to be able to change the range of solutions we develop. Another simple way to think about hyponyms are dogs. I mean, so a chihuahua would be a hyponym for dog, and a hypernym for dog would be animal. All right, enough of the explanation. Let's talk about hyponym. This is where we're taking a word and actually making it more specific. So if we're trying to deal with a big, broad problem, sometimes making it narrowly focused is actually going to help us. For example, if you look at the word customer, a hyponym for customer is going to be a patron or a regular. All right, so think about that for a moment. Instead of asking, how can we attract more customers, maybe we ask the question, how can we attract more regulars? Which is about repeat business. Subscriber is also a hyponymous customer. Let's just talk about restaurants. For example, like, if you think about a restaurant, how could you get more subscribers? Well, that's happening. Deal services such as Blue Apron, they do this. They have subscribers. There's even restaurant subscription services such as Meal Pal that allow customers to pay a flat fee for 12 meals a month at a variety of restaurants. These are just interesting word changes that lead to interesting solutions. And in doing this, you might end up with a fundamentally different business model. So one of the things you may be wondering is how the heck, do you find hypernyms and hyponyms? You know, if you want a synonym, you go to a thesaurus. Well, there's actually an equivalent to that on the Internet for hypernyms and hyponyms. And I created a domain which will redirect to a Princeton website where they manage all of these entries. So if you go to hypernims, hypernimsplural, hypernims.com, you'll be redirected to the Princeton site and there you will be able to play around with different hypernyms and hyponyms and really get a sense of how it all works. So today we covered actually quite a few lenses. I mean, the, the three core lenses were number 15, the substitute lens, number 10, the hypernym lens, and number five, the hyponym lens. But we also, as you could hear in the conversation, we talked a little bit about the result lens, the axis lens, and the reduced lens. As you can hear, as you start to change questions, you will start to see new ways of reframing problems that will then get you to start thinking about other lenses. And that's the power of this. It is a great way to take any problem you are trying to solve and twist it and turn it and look at it from a different angle. And. And every time you do that, you're going to see something you didn't see in the past. And with that, we are at the end of this week's episode. As always, you can submit a problem that you want me to solve in this podcast. To do that, just go to www.invisiblesolutionspodcast.com and remember to download the lenses. Go to getthelenses.com I look forward to being with you next week. Until then, happy problem. Sol Sam.