Pause With Uncertainty

Leaders and others strain under the weight of not knowing. The tension of transition that is uncertain can feel unbearable. We want answers. We want decisions. We want to move ahead.

I've learned to pause. If there is a moment to breathe, take it. If there is time to make a decision, make it -- clearly and unemotionally.

Speed is wonderful, until it isn't. Going too fast and over a cliff is, well, going too fast.

Can you endure the tension of uncertainty long enough to discover objective truth?

It's not obvious. It's not easy. It's just best.

-- doug smith

 

Decisions and Solutions

The decisions you make during problem solving are as important as the solutions you develop, even if they do not lead to solutions.

Decisions around relationships, around results, around permanence and transition. 

Do you want everyone to be better off because of the resolution of the problem, or do you just want a quick fix?

Do you value how people respond to your efforts? Do you really know more about the impact and urgency of the situation than the people who will be most affected by your solutions?

Decide carefully. You know that, and I know that, but sometimes we do forget, don't we?

-- doug smith

 

A Deep Dive into Legal Learning and Problem Solving Analytics

This is a bit off center for this blog, and yet related. To focus on developing a way of centered problem solving takes willingness to examine possibilities. It takes curiosity.

This has me curious. This presentation (I couldn't find any sound recording, just the slides, but there's plenty of content here to prompt some useful problem solving learning) focuses on making better legal decisions, or predictions using a three prong approach:

- Crowd sourcing
- Expert opinions
- Algorithms (machine learning)

Surprisingly, it's the combination of all three that provides (according to their data) them most accurate predictions (and presumably best solutions to their problem.)

It's as lot of slides. Many of them click thru quickly (there are even many blank pages for some reason) so give it a half hour or so and see how it influences or enhances your perspectives on problem solving in such a rapidly changing technological world as we live in.

I take heart in the fact that there's not only room for people in the mix -- people are an essential and dominant part of the mix.

Here is the presentation.