Flexport CEO on how to fix the US supply chain crisis
About 7 years ago I wrote out a quick list of issues (or steps) in problem resolution.   Ryan Peterson&#x27;s Tweet thread here seems like a near-perfect fit for my formulation.<p>Phrased positively,[1] the steps are:<p>- Awareness. Registering that there is, in fact, a problem. &quot;The first step is admitting you&#x27;ve got a problem&quot;.  Here, &quot;The ports of LA&#x2F;Long Beach are at a standstill.&quot;<p>- Diagnosis. Recognizing a problem, <i>and</i> correctly identifing the type or symptoms.  Failures often occur through superstition &#x2F; mythology, poor understanding, or other modeling &#x2F; framing errors, frequently of the &quot;what you know that just ain&#x27;t so&quot; variety.  Here, trucks that can&#x27;t unload empties cannot load new, loaded containers for delivery.<p>- Etiology. Correctly identify the root cause. Here:  &quot;If you can’t get the empty off the chassis, you don’t have a chassis to go pick up the next container.&quot;<p>- Objective. Determining a preferable (or attainable, or stable) resolved state.  Here, &quot;overwhelm the bottleneck and create yard space at the ports so we can operate&quot;.<p>- Redress (or method). Having figured out where you are and where you want to be, how to get there. Here, &quot;allow truck yards to store empty containers up to six high instead of the current limit of 2&quot;.  (Among other measures.)<p>- Communication. Convincing others. Peterson&#x27;s Twitter thread and CTA, of which the HN discussion is a part.<p>- Execution. Having secured agreement and&#x2F;or support, acting and executing effectively. The Getting Shit Done problem.  Apparently in process, as the box-stack-height limit has been lifted:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nitter.kavin.rocks&#x2F;RobertGarcia&#x2F;status&#x2F;1451679404757688320" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nitter.kavin.rocks&#x2F;RobertGarcia&#x2F;status&#x2F;1451679404757...</a><p>- Assessment. Did you actually solve &#x2F; address the situation effectively? Learning from it and passing this on for future knowledge? Not so critical in terms of the present problem, but useful for future iterations.  We&#x27;re not there yet, but that&#x27;s the final step in the loop.<p>My earlier list (phrased as the negative of the above) here:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;2fsr0g&#x2F;hierarchy_of_failures_in_problem_resolution&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;old.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;dredmorbius&#x2F;comments&#x2F;2fsr0g&#x2F;hierarc...</a><p>________________________________<p>Notes:<p>1. I&#x27;d originally written the list as a &quot;hierarchy of failure&quot;, itself a tool to properly identify stuck processes.