Pig Wrestling

A book Review with Rebecca Mitchard

This little piggy stayed at home and read a book, cleaned problems and now feels much better. Pig Wrestling is a slim yet insightful book for problem solving. It may not resolve all of your issues, but it presents a fun, expertly written concept for taking a new approach to old problems. After reading the book and applying Pig Wrestling to real situations, Rebecca Mitchard shares her thoughts.

About the book

Outwit your pig of a problem and try a different approach. Pig Wrestling is a quick and easy read that can be devoured within an hour. The book is written as a short fable that follows the story of a business manager who is struggling with a problem. He meets various people along the way who help him wrestle the pig of the problem that he is trying to deal with. 

The book is simple, memorable and easy to read – it’s just fun!

Written as a mnemonic, the book showcases a series of object associations to help you remember the key takeaways.

Throughout Pig Wrestling, you’re taken on a journey to understand the problem by reframing, then carrying out ‘problem cleaning’. Often people tackle a problem head on and start finding a resolution before they are clear on what the issue is in the first place – then they wonder why the solution doesn’t stick.

About the authors

Pig Wrestling is written by the two co-founders of Mindflick, a Consultancy who specialise in making performance psychology accessible for everyone. Pete Lindsay and Dr Mark Bawden are both performance psychologists with prolific careers. Alongside the book, Mindflick also offer a two-day workshop where participants can become accredited and apply the ‘problem cleaning’ model. Why not go the whole hog?

Key takeaways

If you’re looking for an insightful book to read yourself or suggest to the team, I would definitely recommend Pig Wrestling which is a joy to read. It’s a light-hearted book around problems that you can quickly read at the moment and it will help you to think differently about your current situation.

For me, the key takeaways from the book were asking yourself, ‘what does the problem mean?’ rather than diving in to try and solve the issue. Framing is also a key point. One person may have framed a problem in a certain way which is meaningful to them, but other people may frame it differently. Pig Wrestling encourages you to adopt a new perspective and avoid getting stuck in a rut. Try something new and stop attempting to resolve issues in the same way you always have done. After reading this book, I altered my approach to problems and began to understand why I might not always be finding the best resolution. 

Reframing everyone’s current problem

Instead of immediately trying to solve your problem, Pig Wrestling encourages you to take a step back and consider ‘what does the problem mean for you?’ For example, the huge problem that the majority of the World are trying to tackle right now – Covid-19. 

Realistically, you are not going to find the cure (unless you’re extremely productive during lockdown!). You’re not going to be able to solve Parliament’s response to Covid-19, if that’s what you’re worried about. Instead, ask yourself ‘what is the impact of the pandemic?’ and ‘what specific problems does the virus create for you?’ The answers to these questions are the problems that you can successfully handle. 

For example, you may have a family member that can’t go out for grocery shopping; you can come up with solutions to this problem, such as online delivery, food parcels, etc. For organisations, the problem is likely to be ‘how do I make sure my staff are safe and happy?’ Again, reframing the problem in this way is something that you can deal with. For instance, implementing working from home measures, introducing software tools for team collaboration, researching available Government advice and schemes… there are endless possible solutions.

Stuck in a rut

Struggling with a reoccurring, long term problem? Often when an organisation enquires about Ad Esse’s services, they have been experiencing a problem for a significant period of time and have attempted to find a solution, but don’t seem to be getting anywhere. The authors suggest that when you try to ‘clean a problem’, you should have already invested time in handling the issue and have become stuck (like a pig in the mud).