WHERE IS YOUR PROBLEM-SOLVING FOCUS?

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Try an experiment

Think of three problems you have faced recently ...

When confronted with an issue do you see it as a problem or an opportunity?
What is your criteria for controllability?
If it was within your control, how and when did you move forward?
Were there systems and sub-systems to consider?
Was your response situational or default?
Did you change focus when needed to ensure better solutions and pathways?

dID you …

Get it done by taking it on?
Model an approach and attitude?
Recognise that many problems cannot be solved alone?
Know how to calmly explain the problem in all its dimensions and effectively communicate to all involved?
Set priorities?
Skilfully influence others and develop capabilities?
Bring about change?
Understand the context and not just a workable solution?

DID YOU HAVE A focus …

change and solutions

“When we encounter changes, we need to make decisions and do something different because we face a different phenomenon. We need to decide and act, and whatever we decide to do is itself a change that leads to new problems. Every problem or opportunity introduced by change generates a solution, which causes more change, and we face a new reality and a new set of problems or opportunities. Thus as long as there is change, there will be problems and opportunities.” - Ichak Adizes (Managing Corporate Lifecycles, Prentice Hall Press 1999)
“A work of art does not answer questions. It provokes them, and its essential meaning is in the tensions between contradictory answers.”- Leonard Bernstein
“It's not about being optimistic that things will work out. It's about being optimistic about what happens when they don't.” - Kfir Damari, cofounder of SpaceIL