Many years ago I’m sure I saw a study (or a report about a study) carried out by a large company.
Essentially they were looking at how they solved problems in the company. They discovered that some large percentage of issues (50%?) had already been solved elsewhere in the company. The upshot being they spent far too much time solving problems that they didn’t need to.
Now, this was probably five years ago or so and my memory is bad at the best of times. Does anyone remember something like this, any details that might help pin down the company, the report or some article about it.
I’ve Googled, but it’s just too vague without some extra detail.
I vaguely recall something like this being used as an example in a college intro course. I have a (possibly mistaken) recollection of it being an example from the 50’s or 60’s involving an aerospace or military hardware oriented company such a Lockheed etc.
A lot of vendors selling collaboration or social networking tools (ie software) to big companies trot this idea out. As far as I can tell, most ads are just quoting everybody else’s ads.
I don’t doubt there has been some actual acedemic study on this topic. Finding it however …
I’d also bet the study would be inconclusive at best. What constitutes a dintinct “problem”? How situational was the first solution? etc. So even if yuo found it, what really could we all learn from it?
I know this isn’t a real helpful post, but it’s the best I’ve got.