So you can read the story here

OK, allow me to stretch the analogy a bit; you can decide if it works.

Though this story sounds like it should make some top ten list (you choose the title of the list), business leaders and managers do this all the time. They try to solve a problem at the same level that got them there (to the problem) in the first place.

There’s been a saying in TQM circles for years: Your processes are perfectly designed to produce the results you’re experiencing today.

Here’s another one from Einstein: The significant problems we face today, cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

OK, I’m stretching it a bit, but I think you get the point.

Where do you need create, what systems thinkers call, second order change— a qualitatively different way of thinking that has the potential to generate a real breakthrough, a true innovation?

The point: If you’re already in trouble with the police, calling them to rescue you from “them” isn’t going to cut. If you are trying to rescue your organization by doing more of what caused you to get stuck, it’s only going to generate more of what you already have.