With all the problems each of us have, should we find time to solve other people's problems?
It's a tricky question. Unless the person with the problem is invested in the solution, the solution is not likely to work. But, can we offer help?
Helping other people with their problems (whether it's an individual or a peer's team) not only helps them, it helps us. We grow. We develop more skill. We learn from the mistakes of others. We explore new ways of looking at things that can transfer to our own uses. And, most importantly, we develop our relationships with other people.
It is by solving other people's problems that we solve our own.
It's not magic, but it can sure feel that way.
-- Douglas Brent Smith
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The mastery of problem solving begins with the mastery of self. -- doug smith
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Highly structured? Wildly improvised? Harmonic, or distorted? Fast or slow? Analytics help, but there's nothing quite like a touch of t...
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Whenever I find a way to embrace joy some part of a problem fades away. -- doug smith
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Do you try to do everything on your own? If you're part of a team, and especially if you are leading a team, it goes better by collabora...
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Things change. Problems deepen. Solving a persistent problem might require us to let go of what has fixed it in the past. -- doug smith
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Sometimes it's more important to be centered than to be right. -- doug smith
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We're all in a hurry. Urgency is a way of life. When we're working on a problem it feels as if the faster we solve it the better. Bu...
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We can push really hard on hard problems and not get anywhere. The problem may be too fixed to get fixed. It may be too tough to push over. ...
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It's the system. Or maybe it's the process. It might not be you at all. It might not be your team at all. Personal problems come fro...
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Problems are complicated. We need to think clearly about them, to analyze their causes. We also need to act quickly because, oddly or not, s...
