Are 90% of your worries caused by asking the wrong questions? — The thinking technique of "problem-solving" as seen by a brand strategist

Honestly, I think I'm the type of person who worries a lot.
When my proposals don't go through.
When I can't decide on the direction of a strategy.
When time passes without me seeing the next move. I often found myself stuck in a loop, repeating the same thoughts while worrying about how others would perceive me, all without ever reaching an answer.
However, at some point, I realized something.
I started to feel a bit uncomfortable calling that state "worrying."
The trigger was the words of Mr. Kinoshita, the president of Kitano Tatsujin Corporation.
Within what he said about a "worry-free thinking algorithm," there was a definition that struck a chord with me.

■ The definition of worry

This is what it means to be "in a state of worry." That was how Mr. Kinoshita defined it. Worry is not an emotional issue; it refers to a state where thinking has stopped. And there is usually only one reason why thinking stops—The problem has not been converted into a "task."
Looking back, the moments I feel I am "worrying" are usually just like that. It's not that there is no answer; it's that the way I'm framing the question is wrong.
I start looking for the cause before confirming the goal.
In this article, I would like to explore the thinking technique of "task-ification" that I learned from Mr. Kinoshita, within the contexts of both brand strategy work and career design.

■ "Not going as planned" and "not working out" are different things

First, as a premise, we need to distinguish between two states that are easy to confuse.
"Not working out" means a state where you cannot reach the goal itself.
On the other hand, "not going as planned" is merely a state where you didn't reach the goal using the method you had scheduled.
For example, when a train stops while you are on your way to a business meeting, "not being able to reach the destination" and "the train as a means of transport has become unavailable" are completely different stories.
If it's the latter, you can take a taxi. You could also suggest switching to Zoom with the other party. There are plenty of options. Yet, many people just stand there praying for the train service to resume.
This is the true nature of a "state of worry."
The moment you misread "not going as planned" as "not working out," your thinking stops. And the longer that stopped state lasts, the deeper the worry feels, even though nothing has actually changed.
The exact same thing happens in brand strategy work.
If you don't look accurately at where the cause lies, your actions won't change. You repeat the same things, and only the conclusion that "it didn't work after all" piles up. This is not a brand failure; it is a thinking failure.
Most of the problems in the world are "just not going as planned." There is something to do before worrying.

That is to re-confirm "what the goal is."

■ Three approaches to eliminating worry

Methods for dealing with worry can be broadly organized into three categories.

① Solve the problem itself
The simplest approach. However, trying to solve the same problem that didn't go as planned using the same method is often a bad move. Unless you are certain that doing it better will solve it, you should consider the next option.
② Make the problem not a problem
This is what is known as reframing. If there is a problem like "Person A dislikes me," and there is no physical disadvantage caused by being disliked by Person A, then it is not a problem; it is just you feeling uncomfortable.
About 80% of the worries in the world can actually be ignored. This is because what you feel is a problem is not the event itself, but your interpretation of that event.
Separate the event from the interpretation. Separate facts from emotions. Separate what is happening externally from how you receive it internally. Once you can do this, the total amount of worry will decrease dramatically.
③ Digest the problem into a concrete task
The most important and skill-demanding approach of the three.
A "task" is a problem where what needs to be done is clear. The moment you see the next step to take, the problem ceases to be a worry. Conversely, it becomes a worry because you don't see the next step.

■ "Task-ification" can be done in 1 minute

The episode Mr. Kinoshita introduced was impressive.
During his student entrepreneur days, a senior colleague supposedly asked a colleague who was worrying only four questions.

“What are you worried about?”
“What needs to happen for that to be okay?”
“What do you need to do to make that happen?”
“Then, do it.”

This conversation took about 1 minute. The worry became a task, and the person started moving.
The point is that they did not explore the cause of "why it didn't work out." They started by confirming the final objective of "what needs to happen" and redrew the path to it.
I call this "Final objective reverse-calculation thinking."It is easy to understand when contrasted with cause-elimination thinking.

• Cause-elimination thinking: A problem occurs → Search for the cause → Take action to remove the cause

• Final objective reverse-calculation thinking: A problem occurs → Confirm the goal → Search for a different route to the goal

When the path from the start to the goal is blocked by a rock, cause-elimination thinking starts training to "build the muscle to move the rock."
Final objective reverse-calculation thinking re-asks, "I just need to reach the goal, so isn't there another way?" and flies over it by helicopter.
Which one is "not worrying"—ever since I heard this story, I have felt that the direction of my thinking has changed.

■ Brand strategy and task-ification have the same structure

I feel that this thinking of "task-ification" overlaps with the structure of brand strategy work.
Where to Play, How to Win, and what are the strengths and capabilities for that—this is the basic framework of brand strategy, but the premise of this framework is the act of "deciding the goal."
A brand without a decided goal is a brand that is worrying.
When a competitor appears, when sales drop, when the market changes—if the goal is not fixed, you return to the question of "what should I do?" every single time.
Thinking turns toward searching for causes, and the next move doesn't emerge.
Conversely, a brand with a clear goal can shift to the question of "then how do I redraw the path to the goal?" even in the same situation.
It can be processed as a task, not a problem.
"Final objective reverse-calculation thinking" has the exact same structure as brand strategy thinking.
It felt like I was given language for what I was naturally doing in my brand work.

■ This thinking is tested at career crossroads

For example, imagine a state of "I want to start a business, but I have no funds."
Many people stop here. Raising funds becomes the problem, the fact that I have no funds becomes the problem, and the situation where I cannot proceed becomes the worry.
But try re-asking. "What is the final objective in the first place?"
In many cases, the final objective is not "to obtain funds," but "to deliver a certain service to the market."
If so, having no funds is just a "constraint condition," not a "problem."
Faced with a constraint condition, look for a different route. Redesign the service in a way that doesn't cost money.
If you calculate backward from the final goal, you can take action.
I thought this applied to careers in general.
When trying to take a new step, many people stand still, perceiving risk as a "problem."
But risk is not a problem; it is a bundle of tasks.

“Risk of unstable income” → Task of “how to design an income structure”
“Risk of having no track record” → Task of “how to visualize expertise”
“Risk of not knowing if it will be accepted by the market” → Task of “how to verify what to deliver, to whom, and how”

The moment it is converted into a task, you can work on it.
As long as it remains a worry, you cannot move.
The goal has not changed.
Just by changing the direction of your thinking, you can start moving.

■ "Not worrying" is not coldness, it is speed

It is easily misunderstood, but "not worrying" does not mean discarding emotions.
When something unpleasant happens, it is natural to feel uncomfortable.
The problem is whether or not you convert that discomfort into "worry."
Worry is not born from external events, but from the internal interpretation of how you receive those events.
Mr. Kinoshita called this "Lucky Daigiri" (Lucky Comedy Game).
When something unpleasant happens, you first say "Lucky!" and then play a thinking game of "what is lucky about this?"
If you fail an interview, you can read it as "I found out I wasn't a match for this company."
If you are scammed, you can process it as "I'm glad I learned this before it happened on a larger scale."
Even the experience of almost losing all his assets shortly after founding his company could be converted into "I learned before I got caught up in something on a larger scale"
—that is what he said.
This is not positive thinking, but training to increase the speed of interpretation conversion.
By repeating this for small daily discomforts, the speed increases. And the speed of interpretation becomes the speed of action.
The same can be said for brand work. The market changed, a competitor appeared, sales dropped—these are facts. But whether you read it as "checkmate" or "a next move is needed" is a matter of interpretation.
The speed of interpretation becomes the speed of strategy.

■ Use the time you spend worrying for tasks

It is better to set aside a specific time to focus on your worries.
Instead of dragging around a vague sense of discomfort, schedule one hour to focus on organizing your thoughts. If you don't find an answer in that hour, set aside another hour. Just because a worry has persisted for years doesn't mean it will take a long time to resolve. There is no correlation between how long you have been worrying and how long it takes to resolve the issue.
In fact, the longer you spend worrying aimlessly, the longer it will take to resolve.
Everyone has had the experience of a long-standing worry disappearing the moment their interpretation of an event changed. The moment of resolution is instantaneous. Whether you wait for that to happen by chance or intentionally set out to create it—that is what makes the difference.

■ Conclusion

Since hearing Mr. Kinoshita's story, one of my habits has changed.
When a problem arises, I have started asking “What needs to happen for things to be right?” before asking “Why didn't it go well?” Just by doing that, the time I spend stuck in thought has clearly decreased.
Organizations where strategy doesn't move are those where the goal isn't defined, so no actionable steps emerge. They keep searching for causes and lose sight of the thinking required to work backward from the goal.
The same can be said for one's career.
When you cannot take a new step forward, in many cases, you are looking at the “problem” rather than the “goal.”
You list risks, count obstacles, and think about “how to make the problem go away.”
But problems do not just go away.
You simply need to work backward from the goal and convert them into tasks.
The thinking process of converting worries into tasks can be trained. By simply placing the question “What needs to happen for things to be right?” one step ahead, the direction of your thinking changes.
Thinking is a skill.
And that skill becomes faster the more you repeat it.

Valeur.inc | Partner for Brand Strategy and Value Creation
Representative: Masafumi Abe

Valeur.inc provides comprehensive support for management, marketing, and branding, centered on “execution-based brand management.”
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