If only compiling lists of problems was a job... But there is a beauty in the problems. They are very specific areas where there is opportunity for growth. The trick is deciding that if a problem is worth considering, then a solution is also worth considering, and should be prioritized. If you and your team can align on this, everything can change. Tony Robbins says, “It’s a belief: Life is always happening for us, not to us. It’s our job to find out where the benefit is. If we do, life is magnificent.” Listen to this episode to find out how to use problems to your benefit with Solution Oriented Thinking.
Credit to my coach, Leigh Newsome, for pushing solution oriented thinking on me (probably in retort to a long list of problems I brought him).
Learn more about Leigh Newsome:
Hunter Powers: Welcome to The One. I am your host Hunter Powers broadcasting live from our nation's capital DC proper, Washington DC. Today's one idea is solution oriented thinking. I don't know the exact origins of solution oriented thinking, but this idea was brought to my forefront by my coach Leigh Newsome. Leigh is a CTO coach who I have worked with for the last three years. Leigh has been incredibly influential and important in molding my management theories and philosophies, and I really can't give him enough credit. So one day Leigh pushes on me the idea of solution oriented thinking. Here's the basics. I guess before the basics. There's really two contexts to examine solution oriented thinking. One is from a management context and one is from a personal context. And so we're going to start with the management context because that is how the idea was introduced or brought to the forefront for myself. And then we will expand to the personal context to see how we can leverage this or greater growth. So here's the basics from a management context.
Hunter Powers: You are no longer allowed to complain about things. You are no longer allowed to bring a list of problems to your manager, to your peers. And by the way, if you've never been in management, a lot of management is sitting there while someone brings a list of their problems and reads through them, and you listen and you've probably experienced this if you haven't been in management and you've been the person saying, "Look, these are, these are my issues." And there isn't anything inherently wrong with that, with writing down the list of issues that you have and taking them to your boss, your manager, your mentor, and you're looking for some advice. But solution oriented thinking says you're not allowed to do that. That activity is no longer permitted and now let's just make the carve out right now that any sort of significant HR issues, et cetera. Those problems are still broad and those problems are brought to HR. These are productivity issues that we're talking about.
Hunter Powers: So let's stay focused. But you have this long list of things. I can't get this project done. This technology that we chose, it's not working out. I can't seem to get anything from this person. They won't tell me anything. I never know what's going on with this other team. I'm learning about everything too late. I don't have enough time. Like, these [inaudible 00:03:00] sort of standard issues and problems that make it on that list that then the person reads in the one on one. So you're not allowed to bring these to the forefront anymore, and in their place, what you must bring to the forefront are solutions. You have to take the next step after identifying a problem, which put another way is an opportunity, an opportunity for improvement and consider how it might be improved. If you're never getting the information from another person, they never keep you in the loop. Well, maybe you're going to set up a weekly sync, 15 minutes on Monday where you're going to touch base on the status of it.
Hunter Powers: If the technology that you chose for a project isn't working out, you're going to spend some extra hours going a little bit deeper on the information to make sure that you truly understand it. And if you find that really is the wrong choice, you're going to go out and identify three new choices and bring those to the table. So it really is about taking the very next step that happens after you identify the problem and starting to think about how do we move it forward? How do we take advantage of this opportunity to move the company, the business forward? And what you bring to the table and your conversation with your manager, with your peers, are a list of potential solutions. I have some ideas and you're never the person bringing the problems to the table. You're always the person bringing the solutions to the table. And once you get into this mindset, it becomes easier.
Hunter Powers: You stop thinking about things as problems and only think about things as potential solutions. You go straight from seeing a problem to thinking, okay, what are three ways we could solve this? Three ways we could make it better? Not just sitting in the room and, oh this is so bad. Oh I can't believe it. And again, this changes everything. It changes everything from a manager standpoint when you can convert your team to practicing solution oriented thinking. When your meetings become about discussing the solutions to problems rather than the problems. And it changes everything as an IC, which stands for an Individual Contributor, you're someone that's reporting into a manager. When your mindset and what you bring to your manager is solutions. This is where you start that transformation from just being a contributor to being more of a leader because you're taking ownership over the situation.
Hunter Powers: You're not just pointing things out. You're saying, here are ways that I and we can contribute towards moving things forward. And there is a next level to this by the way. After you get comfortable practicing solution oriented thinking and you go ahead and take the action, you see a problem, you identify potential solutions and you take action on them and then you simply bring results to other people. And that's what a leader does by the way.
Hunter Powers: So that's a management context, solution oriented thing. You've got a bunch of people working for you, working with you, they're intelligent, they're well-paid, you tell them their job's no longer to point out problems. Their job is to point out solutions, bring solutions to the table, take the time to and brainstorm about how we can move this forward. Come to the table with 18 solutions. Let's talk about that. Wow. What a better conversation to sit and talk about 18 solutions than to talk about 18 problems. So if that's the management context, what is the personal context? How can you take this idea of solution oriented thinking and apply it to your life?
Hunter Powers: So it's the same basic idea. You're no longer allowed to have problems. Sorry, yesterday you were, but now today it's no longer one of the options. And when you catch yourself stewing, oh, woe is me. You've got to remind yourself that this is no longer one of my options and you've got to switch. Switch the mindset to thinking about solutions. Like if I'm going to take the time to really ruminate about a problem, then I'm going to focus that time on what are potential solutions to that problem? How can I move it forward? How can I view that problem as an opportunity?
Hunter Powers: Because there really is a great thing, a great quality of problems in that they pinpoint areas for improvement. If you have no problems, then it's kind of tricky to figure out where do I go next? But if something's going really, really wrong, it becomes pretty obvious. It's pretty easy to pinpoint where to focus those solutions. Tony Robbins has a quote, he says, "It's a belief. Life is always happening for us, not to us, and it's our job to find out where the benefit is and if we do so life is magnificent."
Hunter Powers: So you've got to think that these problems are not happening to you. They are happening for you, and they are giving you the opportunity to find the solutions and those solutions are going to move you forward. And once you get just a little bit of practice in this, once you stop thinking about geez, what is everything that's going wrong? Instead think about, let me think about something that's not quite where it is because I want to start thinking about some solutions. I want to find the area that I'm most excited about moving forward. Your mindset will change, it will become easier and you will naturally start going to these solutions and that's the trick. In the beginning it seems impossible but you just have to start and then it will become so easy, it becomes natural because you just practice solution oriented thinking in everything. You'll start looking for problems so that you can find solutions.
Hunter Powers: Whereas before maybe you didn't want to. I don't want to look for any more problems. It's so overwhelming. But now you get to use them to your advantage. Solution, solution, solution, solution, solution. And that is your one idea for today: solution oriented thinking. Try it out. Try it out in the management context. Try it out in your personal context. Try it out as an individual contributor at your company. In your next one on one bring a list of solutions to your manager and see how it goes, see how the tone of the conversation shifts. See how your tone shifts and how you present things. I am Hunter Powers broadcasting live from our nation's capital, as we say in the city, DC proper. And until next time.