problemsolving Archives - Page 3 of 3

“I don’t know”

It’s impossible to learn something if you think you already know it.
If you find yourself responding to every question asked, commenting on all conversation topics, or talking about your experiences without a breathing moment, you’re manifesting ignorance more than anything else.

When we pretend to know what we think we know, we ignore anything that will contradict our beliefs. When we strive to give others the impression that we know-it-all, we portray the image of being better, more important and smarter. We also shut off incoming signals from outside sources that can greatly educate us, leaving us less smarter than what we thought we were.

There’s nothing more powerful than a leader who says eloquently “I don’t know.”
This is the ultimate wisdom from those who know.
It opens mind, ears and attention to what might be the answer. It grounds the person and connects with others who are eager to explore the question together.
Are you open for knowledge?

Textures

Different textures evoke different moods and thinking patterns.

Rough, unfinished textures such as undyed linen or weathered wood feel warm and natural and signal rustic charm. Polished marble and ironed fabric, on the other hand, are cool, sleek and formal.

Same goes into what you touch and feel at the office.

Those big oak boardroom tables are beautiful. But they give you a feeling of being formal, decisive, unchangeable. You can’t easily move them around to fit the needs of the people. They are fixed.

They don’t allow a chance to pivot according to market input. They don’t give juniors the confidence to speak up nor the sense of being heard. They are made for a final act of war plan. The chain of command (that goes in one direction) is louder than the chain of communication, which needs to go in all directions.

Pick and choose wisely for the desired effect of creativity you wish to create in your meetings and conversations. Be where the flow is visible. Let the space help you think more creatively.

Why keep learning?

I was recently asked the question: What is the main cost in maintaining an organizational learning environment and what is the greatest benefit?

I believe “time” might be the greatest cost in maintaining a learning culture. The time we take to understand our systems, our customers, our audience, our employees, and the time to find ways to better serve them and better work together.

The benefits are priceless.

If we don’t have a learning environment then we’re going to fall into the same problems on a regular basis and find ourselves firefighting most of the time. We may even be very successful in business but the tasks that we create become mundane, which affects the motivation of our people.

If we don’t have a learning environment, then people will not bother learning new ways to make things better. If they are constantly trying to finish off tasks and get things done and there’s no “time” to reflect and experiment with new methods, then we’re not learning as an organization and we will easily be outlived by our competitors. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, said Peter Drucker, and learning is one main ingredient in this culture.

Body Experience

In Tony Robbins’ legendary in-person events, every ninety minutes the music cranks up and everyone gets on their feet to jump and dance. His assertion is that when you stay in your peak state, have a longer experience, and involve your full body, you can see new possibilities and perceive problems differently. This, in essence, levels you up to have a stronger will and have more faith in your exponential abilities.

What if your body has different ideas than your head?

How would you allow it to communicate with you?

What do you think it will say?

Normalize play at work.

Though it was once believed that only mammals played, researchers have observed playful behavior in surprising corners of the animal kingdom:

octopuses playing with Legos,

turtles batting around balls, and

crocodiles giving each other piggyback rides.

Think about it: Octopus playing with Lego! Are you playing with Lego?

(From “Joyful” by Ingrid Fetell Lee.)

List of problems found

Last week I invited you to go find problems at work (not make problems, just find them).

Let’s take this up a notch and exercise your creative thinking at work.

Make a list of 30 things that bothers you at work. Anything from finding a
good parking spot to getting a working pen when you need it, to being inspired
during a long and monotonous meeting. Ask your colleagues for their problems.
Collect them.

Now look at your long list and think: what simple tweaks in your daily
routine or small changes in work setting that will result in being closer to
solving this mini problem?

Remember what Muhammad Ali said, “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that
wear you down. It’s the pebble in your shows”.

Celebrate your small win.

Rinse and repeat.

Problem Finding

We talk a lot about problem solving, but what about problem finding? What if we shift our thinking from fixing things, into finding the gaps instead?

In order to look for problems instead of solutions, start with your mindset. Be ready to embrace your curiosity and learn how to live with ambiguity for a little bit longer than what you’re used to.

Next, pump up your observation skills. What are you doing that doesn’t make sense but you do it because that’s how things have been, or that’s how you remember learning in the first place?

What’s in the context that triggers an unneeded action? What makes people tick? What excites them to join? What else is missing from the picture?
Collect and note down your observation. Then, sleep on it.

Seven hats and minds

Here’s a thought experiment that will help you wear different hats to increase the chances of finding creative solutions.

When facing a certain problem at work, on a piece of paper write 7 types of jobs that are as far from your current career as possible. For example, a nurse, a truck driver, an architect, a fire fighter, a winter sports athlete, a carpenter and a lawyer are examples far from my line of work.

Now thinking about one specific challenge you have at work, frame it as a question and write it down. “i.e. In what ways can we speed up our client’s onboarding process?”.

Write a few ideas on how to solve it in a list.

Next, using the list of jobs you have, ask again the same question of your challenge borrowing their heads this time.

For example: how would a nurse see this problem? In our example: In what ways can a nurse speed up the “onboarding” of patients?. How would a truck driver view it? “How would a truck fleet owner onboard ongoing new drivers?”

Provide a list of ideas for each one of the suggested professions and questions. Or better yet, ask someone who has this role for ideas. The more out-of-your-way the career is, the better ideas to pollinate from.

The end result will show you not only how boring your original ideas are, but how magnificent those creative juices started to flow in your head coming from different directions. You know how seven, no, eight, lists of ideas. If each list is only 10 ideas, well, you do the math.

Stay creative, while staying safe.

Randah

Two young men smiling as they build a tower out of various office supplies.

What experiences do you want to have next?

It’s easy for us to have goals and plan for them. But how many of your goals are experience-based?

Same process applies.

Start with the end in mind.

Visualize objects, concepts, systems, groups and processes as you plan your next successful creative achievement. Ensure richness of imagery you create; varied, strong, vivid, lively and intense images that help you feel your successful future now, experiencing what you hope to feel then. Create a picture that brings your full senses into action. Illustrate in front of you as your hand coordinates with your mind and your third eye vision.

Scribe or draw it. Play around with colored pens to highlight connections of the parts, or even use different types of markers to emphasize importance. See what speaks to you the loudest.

When you have decided on the direction you’re moving towards, figure out the experiences you wish to engage with.

What roads do you take? Are you hiking or sailing? Do you prefer to travel alone and fast or with others and far? Do you collect things or you connect them instead?

These are your experience decision principles. You consult them every time you’re faced with conflicting signs for roads ahead.

There are no good or bad choices. Only good or bad for you.

That’s why many people miss out on happiness and waste their energy choosing the roads without much planning. To avoid this, align your intentions with your compass, write them down in a journal and then embrace your experiences will full heart and mind.

To happiness and beyond,

Randah

What are you counting daily?

Did you know that the first ideas you come up with on any topic are usually the most common among those working steps away from you?

It is no surprise that when you sit together to think of a solution, you’ll usually come up with very similar ideas or small detours to previous ones.

Nothing original.

You’re swimming in the same murky pond every time.

When you force your brain to connect new ideas, build on the previous ones, change its point of view, you start to see new things. The way to keep this muscle is have a daily dosage of idea quota so that your brain learn to extend its boundaries and look beyond the obvious. Not only it will surpass the regular ideas suggested by everyone else, it will find new ways of seeing things.

To expand your horizons, try practicing ideation on a daily basis until you become mentally fit. So fit that you’d go from zero to sixty ideas in only 5 minutes.

How many ideas did you think of today? Start counting.