Fear and Change

Change, while necessary, can also provoke fear.

Solving problems requires change. 

Given a choice, it's easy to shy away from the fear of change.

We hold onto our problems when change causes fear. Stay centered, manage those emotions, and reach for courage instead of fear. What if you DID solve that problem by changing the process, the situation, or the interpersonal dynamics?

You can. Fear might just be the excitement you feel from the shift of the solution.

-- doug smith

 

Change the Questions

 

"To solve our problems, we first need to change our questions; otherwise we'll probably just keep getting the same old answers, over and over again."

-- Marilee Adams

Solve Problems for Yourself AND Others

When you are solving a problem, do you consider the impact your solution will have on other people?

I've seen leaders who impose solutions on their teams that make the job worse, not better. While some degree of resistance to any solution is natural, your problem has a much better chance of staying solved if the solution you pick is supported by your team.

Does your solution make the job easier?
Does your solution make your customers happier?
Is your solution elegant and simple and yet robust enough to solve the problem?

The purpose of problem solving is to make life better for you AND for others. Centered problem solvers consider the needs of everyone impacted by the problem. There's no need to let your solution ruin your solution.


Do the whole job.

-- doug smith

What About An Unwilling Person?

Have you ever tried to help someone with a problem and discovered that they were not about to use your help?

People can be funny sometimes but they can usually be relied on to need to come up with their own solutions. We can each be grateful for help, but unless we have some influence on the solution, that solution won't seem valuable.

If solving a problem requires changing an unwilling person, we might need to redefine the problem.

Unwilling people see the situation differently. Unwilling people need willingness before change becomes a possibility.

What if we could achieve that by asking them to define their problem? And, taking it a step farther, what if they rephrased that problem as a goal? Once we've made it that far, all kinds of collaborative possibilities emerge.

But jumping in with a solution, especially one that requires someone else to change, seldom works.

-- Doug Smith

Maybe Change?

Sometimes a problem will require you to change before IT will.

Are you willing to make that change?

-- Douglas Brent Smith