Are you feeling lucky?

Overheard today: "I've hired more people than I can count to fix this problem, and they all did what they said they would do, and none of them have fixed the problem."

I'm wondering: Did any of these people know what the problem actually was? Did any of them say they would actually solve the problem? Was anyone measuring the results and the leading indicators?

Here's the thing:

If you don't identify the problem out loud, and measure leading indicators along the way, there's a good chance you're relying on luck, at best. Getting lucky is lots of fun, but it's no plan for success.