Any problem created by a human can be solved by a human.
I wrote that long before AI started solving problems for us. Many days it feels like we will soon not even need to solve our own problems at all because AI will do it for us.
Honestly, we know better than that, right?
For as long as it's still true, humans can still solve human problems. Let's do that.
-- doug smith
Obvious solutions are great, except that they seldom work. The chances are that the solution that first occurs to you has already been tried.
Sticky, mysterious, subtle problems evade the obvious. They hide. They mask. They simmer.
Mysterious problems seldom surrender to obvious solutions. Dig deeper.
-- doug smith
Every year there is a new problem that is capable of completely destroying you. Solve it and move on.
No reason to surrender now.
-- doug smith
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
Problems that seem unsolvable at the micro-level may be manageable at their macro-level.
Check your perspective. Gauge your distance. Focus on what is possible.
Ask the questions you'd ask about any mystery. What's going on? How did we get here? Where do we want to go?
What other questions do you ask in order to move from impossible to possible?
-- doug smith
Highly structured? Wildly improvised?
Harmonic, or distorted? Fast or slow?
Analytics help, but there's nothing quite like a touch of the poet in solving problems. The deep pondering, the pedantic piecing together, the frantic splash of passion.
Whether or not they know it every problem solver has a touch of the poet.
Are you in touch with your touch of the poet?
-- doug smith
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 from things we say and do, and they can also come from an unfair, deeply flawed system. Personal problems can also be caused by broken processes.
And yet we often try to solve problems with personal solutions: work harder, work faster, work smarter, muscle up and carry on. Can't you just solve your own personal problem?
Personal problems with systemic causes are hard to solve with personal solutions.
Personal problems may not be personal -- the system or process doesn't care who you are -- but they're still problems.
-- doug smith
Have you ever held onto a problem just because you couldn't find the perfect solution, an elegant, efficient, bruise-free choice?
That effort -- for perfection -- has slowed me down a number of times. Perfection can be such a bother, because nothing is perfect in this life and never will be.
There's no perfect way to solve a problem -- but you don't need perfection to solve it.
If you can find the best way, that is certainly good enough.
-- doug smith
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. It feels like the problem is going to win.
What if you didn't push? What if you took a quiet, calm, centered approach to truly observing the problem. What exactly is going on? Who is being served or deterred?
Hard problems can benefit from soft solutions.
What do you think? Is it worth a try?
-- doug smith
Problems bring pain. Maybe it's physical, or emotional, or logistical-- as long as the problem is there, so is that pain.
When we solve the problems in front of us we can put the pain behind us.
-- doug smith
Who do you get to help you solve your problem?
You, of course, that's a given. Also, people who will be impacted by any solution you try. People who are feeling the effects of the problem right now. Even (especially) people who you think may be at the root cause of the problem.
Engage the right people in creating problem solutions so that they don't become the wrong people while implementing them.
-- doug smith
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.
But, have you ever solved a problem only to shortly discover that you haven't solved it at all? New complications arise. Surprises confound you. The problem roars back.
The worry creates the hurry. The rush is not enough. Better to find the actual cause of the problem and face that issue.
Taking time to analyze a problem will save time in solving it.
And that saves time overall.
That pause you take may be more important than you thought.
-- doug smith
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 collaborating. Working together. Helping each other.
People like to be connected. What better time to strengthen your connections than when you have a problem?
You don't need everyone in the world to help you solve a problem but you probably do need someone. Find out who that is, and get them involved.
Besides, it is way more fun that way, too.
-- doug smith
Need leadership training? That's what I do: doug smith training
Can you solve every problem?
Of course not. Some problems need more time, more resources, more miracles.
Sometimes the best we can do as a leader is not to make things worse.
Even if you can't solve a problem there's no reason to magnify it.
Look at that problem from the viewpoint of someone who just doesn't care. Does it look different? Is it really a mountain or simply a molehill (of course, if you've ever had moles you know what kind of problem that is).
Will any of it matter a year from now?
If yes, get busy. If no, breathe?
-- doug smith
Problems are complicated. We need to think clearly about them, to analyze their causes. We also need to act quickly because, oddly or not, some solutions expire.
Sit, or move?
Think, or act?
This isn't a universal assertion, but maybe one with value:
the situation isn't entirely the problem, and the problem isn't entirely the situation.
As closely as cause and effect may nest, there are likely other causes, other effects worth considering. It's a bit like widening the circle in a jam session. Yes, the new instruments complicate things, and yes, sometimes the notes are discordant, but oh! the miracle of the unexpected harmonies can make the how piece better.
That's the situation. What if it existed before the problem, and needs to exist beyond the problem?
We can sit with a problem without making that problem the entire situation.
What do you think?
-- doug smith
ps: The drawing is only partially related. It't a situation. It's a problem. I drew this dancing with the idea of problem vs. polarity...and other random situations.
Every problem leads to an outcome. Some you want and some you definitely do not want.
You're going to prefer the outcomes of the problems you solve.
Don't you think so?
-- doug smith
What looks like the root cause of a problem might have roots of its own.
Keep digging.
-- doug smith
Emotions can get in the way of solving problems. Stirring up anger, or fear is hardly ever helpful. But what if even in the toughest of situations we solved problems with love.
There can't be too much love, can there? And the supply is always renewable and inexhaustible if we stay with it.
Problems solved with love stay solved longer.
We also feel much better about the whole thing.
What do you think?
-- doug smth
