Are You Navigating Problems or Solving Them?

Problems are an interesting aspect of the organization. People go to work every day to solve problems. Navigating problems may be different from solving them. Does this interest you?

The supervisor, manager, and leader, a big part of their day is solving problems. New supervisors often believe that they shouldn’t have problems. Someone may joke, “That is why you now make the big bucks.”

Solving Problems

People organize a meeting, a committee, or a task force, all with the aspiration of solving problems. Sometimes problems go on for what feels like forever. In other cases, the problem seems fixed only to reoccur.

Finding the solution that fixes the problem is important. In many businesses, that is why the business exists, it solves a problem.

Another approach though, is to go around the problem. Change your tactics, your navigation, move around the roadblock or hurdle. This may not solve it, but it eliminates it.

Is this really just common sense? Well, it seems that way, yet many people and organizations get stuck.

Navigating Problems

It tends to happen when the belief is that you must operate within the frame, color inside the lines, or go through a barrier instead of around it.

Problems can become an excuse. They also seem to have a way of granting power to the resistance. Problems can control a situation when the path for a solution seems fixed in one direction.

Instead we often have an option. Navigate the problem instead of solving it.

Navigation means you’ll build a bridge, choose a different vehicle, or make a swift change in direction. The problem may still be there, but it is not stopping you. You’ll navigate around it.

Simple really, problem solved.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.