Implement!

How is your problem solving action plan working? Are you solving your biggest problem?

Centered problem solvers know that ideas are wonderful and yet only as useful as the plans AND actions behind them. We must move forward. We must actively do things to make a difference.

Implementing the solution to a problem is even more important than finding the solution.

Go all the way. Enjoy the benefits. Solve the problem. Work your plan.

-- Doug Smith

Let Your Creativity Flow

What if all your problem needs is more creativity to find a solution? 
Centered problem solvers let their creativity flow!

-- Doug Smith

Muscle Up!

Solving problems builds mental muscle.

Muscle up!

-- Doug Smith

Ramp It Up

When you're passionate about problem solving the possibilities are endless.

Ramp it up!

-- Doug Smith

Centered Problem Solvers Keep Learning

What will you learn today to help you solve tomorrow's problems?

Learn constantly. Every single day.

-- Doug Smith

Shift

Sometimes the smallest shift in thinking and acting creates the biggest impact.

Get ready to shift.

-- Doug Smith

More than one solution

If that problem has more than one cause it might need more than one solution.

Keep digging.

-- Doug Smith

Forget the Blame

Blame can feel good, but it does not solve a problem. And to someone, that blame feels terrible.

We don't need to blame anyone for their problem in order to help them make it better.

Drop the blame. Drop the excuses. Center yourself. Get busy solving the problem.

-- Doug Smith

Work on the Relationship

Have you ever been in a problem that seems completely caused by the people involved?

While most problems are process or design in nature, sometimes people are at the heart of it. And, fixing people is tough. Possibly impossible. I don't recommend it.

But there is a way to ease the issue. Without fixing people, we can fix our relationships with those people. We can increase our communication, spend more time, listen and understand more clearly what's going on.

Sometimes that's my favorite question when I work with a group that is stuck in a problem: what's going on?

Sometimes it's faster to work on our relationship before we work on the problem.

Because sometimes the problem is the relationship.

What relationships do you have that need more attention? What will you do to deliver that attention?

-- Doug Smith

Center Yourself First

Your problem can wait for just one thing. Your problem can wait until you are centered. You'll be better equipped. You'll be less likely to grab incomplete solutions. You'll be calm, focused, and flexible.

Our problems are easier to solve once we ourselves are centered.

Try that first.

-- Doug Smith

Focus On Possibilities

Are you held back by your problems? Do they seem to limit who you are or what you can do?

They will continue to do that if you let them, but only if you let them.

I've let problems inhibit my possibilities, but now I work to reverse that flow and let my possibilities limit, control, manage, or eliminate my problems. It's a useful switch.

Our problems don't limit us -- we do. Our possibilities can overcome any problem.

Why not expand your possibilities today and see how well that helps?

-- Doug Smith

Learn From An Imperfect Solution

How does it feel when the solution that you've implemented doesn't quite work?

That frustrates me. All that work. All that thinking. And the solution is imperfect.

Well, guess what? Many solutions are imperfect. Maybe every solution that is available to you is imperfect. We do live in an imperfect world.

We can still benefit from imperfect solutions. We can still grow and learn from the results that we achieve, even when they are flawed or temporary.

Just because a problem doesn't stay solved doesn't mean that the solution wasn't valuable.

Maybe it served a short term end. Maybe it solved a key part of the problem. And maybe, just maybe, it's a way to learn and find our way to a better solution. Broken solutions lead to better solutions. Problems test and expand our creativity.

Centered problem solvers know that the problem solving is never done. Evolving solutions is part of the deal.

-- Doug Smith

Looking for a way to bring your team together to collaborate on some solutions? Are you curious about how to train your organization to solve problems with a centered, creative approach? Contact me here: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Release Those Pre-conceived Notions

Centering, to help in solving a problem, requires seeing things the way they are, not the way you think they should be. It's not seeing things the way you thought they would be, either. It involves seeing as is.

To do that, we need fresh eyes. We need to be able to let go of our expectations. We need to remain open to possibilities and to surprises.

Centered problem solving requires the release of pre-conceived notions.

Give your inner judge a break. Let go of expectations. Stay curious.

-- Doug Smith

Centered Problem Solvers Build Relationships

When you are solving a problem with a team, how much time do you spend developing that team? How much attention do you pay to the chemistry of that team and to your team relationships?

Does it matter?

I think it does. Teams that get along do better work. People who build relationships while seeking better results usually end up with both. We can't ignore people and expect them to give us their best.

People on a problem solving team don't have to like each other, but it helps.

How can we get people to like each other?

Here are a few ways that I've found helpful:

• Reach agreement on your team's values. What traits are most important?
• Set agreements on how you'll interact with each other.
• Listen, listen, listen.
• Spend time with each other. There's no such thing as quality time, only time. Invest it in your team.

What ways have you found to be helpful in building strong relationships in a problem solving team?

-- Doug Smith

Centered Problem Solving Similarity #1

This entry is a set of notes for my work in Centered Leadership and Centered Problem Solving. If you're interested in dimensions, personality types, and core concepts behind Centered Problem Solving this may interest you. If not, it won't.

My work in CPS (Centered Problem Solving) is based on four personality types. I've interpreted them as four core leadership skills in my Centered Leadership Model and added a fifth - Centering.

There are many similarities with other personality models so this work is somewhat derivative. It's also I hope an evolution and synthesis of several similar and yet disparate types of sorting mechanisms. The purpose is to help leaders become more effect and efficient problem solvers who are capable of building great relationships while achieving great results.

Our tendency, since we are strongest in one of the four types (however you define them) is to focus on either results or relationships. When we do that we incur a cost to the dimension we are no focusing on. It does not need to be that way. In the parlay of improv, it's not an either/or choice but rather a both/and possibility. We can have both. The key is centering our focus and remaining flexible in our leadership strengths. That does require us to develop those three strengths that we are not as strong in, while also managing and regulating the strength that we are most strong in.

I'm calling this article Similarity #1 not because it is the first that I've encountered but simply as a way to sequence my occasional writings on this topic. It is by no means the first similarity I've found but I did stumble into it today (while looking for images around Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements, which also fit within the category of similarities -- at least I can see how the four agreements relate and apply to the Centered Problem Solving and Centered Leadership model.)

The similarity I found today is Adizes Methodology. Here's a link to some useful information on that:

http://paei.wikidot.com/adizes-methodology

I encourage you to read it. Part of the reason for writing this is so that I can save that link and refer to it again later.

This chart, taken from that source, is especially interesting in tracking personality types (or strengths) and their dimensions:

Source: http://paei.wdfiles.com/local--files/adizes-methodology/1-PAEI_Big_Table.gif

It's delightful how it does correspond to the four types of personalities identified in many sorter tools such as those mapped in this chart:

I've also hand-drawn an overlay chart for my quick take on The Adzes PAEI Model slightly rearranged to correspond with my Centered Leadership quadrants, with Ruiz's Four Agreements tracked to each quadrant. Some people might see this as a stretch. I see it as a helpful view of how our strengths can be expanded, strengthened, and made more flexible.

The Four Agreements, while not an exact fit with the types, can be thought of as much as challenges for each type as they are strengths. Someone whose main leadership strength is Courage (Effort) must be careful to always do their best. Those of us who have Creativity as a core strength must learn the agreement "don't take anything personally". Those who are strong with Clarity are very interested in making sure that none makes assumptions. And, those whose core strength is Compassion must strengthen their ability to be impeccable with their word.

Of course, absolutely, all four types benefit from embracing and developing all four agreements. The more I think about it, the less I think the four agreements map to type. They are skills. They are agreements. They are major life changes. All four core leadership strengths should develop them.

Still, I found it curious and decided to share it here for future reference and as part of my ongoing work on developing Centered Leadership and Centered Problem Solving (and yes, I am well aware that there is ample and useful -- even brilliant work on Centered Leadership with a slightly different approach. Again, it's not either/or here but rather both/and. I highly recommend that you read up on the approaches to centered leadership (also sometimes called mindful leadership) as detailed in the fine work of Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie in Centered Leadership, and from Janice Marturano in Finding The Space To Lead.)

Big Questions

1. What similarities do you see in any of the popular personality sorters?
2. Do you see preferences as another term for strengths? Why or why not?
3. How can learning about our personality strengths help us develop our leadership and problem solving skills?
4. What implications exist to apply personality sorters to collaborative, creative, and centered problem solving?
5. For that matter, what similarities or differences do you see in what is described as collaborative problem solving, creative problem solving, and (my spin) centered problem solving?
6. What personality types have you been avoiding when you assemble your problem solving efforts? What should you do about that?

-- Doug Smith

Solve Problems Together

Centered problem solvers collaborate. When we involve other people we get better ideas, more cooperation, and more lasting solutions.

Solving problems together can be one of our strongest relationship builders.

We struggle together, we talk together, we build together, we fix together. We help each other see what we can't see alone.

Solve problems together -- you'll like the results.

-- Doug Smith