Focusing on a problem on paper is the first step towards discovering the solution.
Like so many other things, what looks good in concept doesn’t always implement well in practice.
There is a pattern of behavior among many executives in many companies: obsessing over a problem or challenge and investing time, not in the solution itself.
Take back the time your company deserves to spend focused on driving results and the outcomes that look beyond the challenge in your path.
In today’s video, Tim Flemming discusses the issue of fear-based company culture and how to escape that cycle for one that values opportunity and solution.
I’m Tim Flemming, a coach with Transcend. I’d like to talk about a pattern of behavior that we’re seeing with too many leaders and in too many companies. That’s the fact that we’re focusing so much on the problem and not as much time on solution and opportunity. We spend time investigating it, placing blame around it, ruminating about it, having meetings about the problem or the challenge, probably too many meetings about the problem or the challenge. By focusing so much of our time discussing and exploring, it actually feels like we’re making progress. However, we know we’re not and by using so much time and attention, it not only consumes a one-hour meeting, but it actually extends into a pattern of behavior that extends into the culture. You’ve seen what this looks like. You’ve been a part of it, I’ve been a part of it and actually what it does is that it fuels negativity, anxiety, fear, pessimism, and the drains on productivity actually distracts from the values and the strategy that you’ve worked so hard to create.
We’ve seen teams and businesses spend as much as 90% of their time focused on problems and challenges. That means only 10% of their time on solutions and opportunities. The good news is that leaders have the ability to be a catalyst for change, where they flip the scenario and only spend 10% of their time focused on the challenge or the problem. Just long enough in order to understand and learn from it, but then spending 90% of their time focused on the opportunity and solution. Imagine if you’re spending 90% of your time focused on the opportunity and solution of what becomes possible for your culture, for your performance, for your productivity, and reinforcing your strategy. So the bottom line is value, opportunity, and solution more than the problem and challenge.
