Reframing a Problem to Find a Solution
Posted December 7th, 2015
So, you have got a sticky problem, one that has been plaguing you for some time. You have tried everything you can think of to solve the problem, all sorts of things. Yet, the problem still remains.
Instead of racking your brain to find yet another possible solution – that probably won’t work – what you should be doing is looking at the situation with fresh eyes, according to business experts. In other words, your real problem may not be what you think it is; it may actually be something else. Maybe that is the reason why all of your solutions are not working.
If the problem is not the one you think it is, what else might it be? For example, you may think you have a problem getting motivated. You have tried all sorts of things to get yourself geared up for your project, but nothing seems to work. You can’t seem to get anything done. In this case the problem may not be your motivation. After all, the fact that you have spent a lot of time and effort trying to solve your motivation problem in itself is evidence that you think your work is important and you want to get it done – which is the very definition of motivation.
It could actually be a problem with your work habits or your time management. You are constantly putting out fires elsewhere, so that you have little time left and even less energy to work on the project you really believe is important. If something like this is the case, maybe the solution is to set your alarm earlier in the morning and tackle your project first thing.
Or, for example, you may have an employee who is not meeting expectations with productivity, and you feel the problem is that the person is not accepting responsibility for his or her work. But maybe the problem is that the person does not have the right skills or temperament for the job, or that the expectations for the job have not been made clear. These are very different problems with very different solutions.
When you reset your perspective on a problem, you get to begin again as if for the first time. You give yourself permission to experiment, to do trial and error.
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