12 Questions that Expose the Real Problem
The real problem is the pattern.
Pattern recognition is the issue when the same problem keeps coming back.
12 questions to expose destructive patterns:
- What do others say to you that you repeatedly ignore?
- How are your current responses the same as last month’s responses?
- How are your patterns of speech the same today as they were last year?
- What are you constantly complaining about?
- Who are your advisors? Notice if advisors are actually affirmers.
- What advice have you received? Record at least three responses. Keep saying, “And what else.”
- What advice have you rejected? Why?
- What advice have you followed? Why?
- What are you currently trying that you haven’t tried before?
- What are you learning about yourself? Others?
- When was the last time conditions were right for you to try something new? Is the timing never right? Are you always intending to do something but never doing it?
- When was the last time you changed your mind? About what?
Things don’t change until you change.
The stink you smell might be you.
When employees throw boomerangs:
Listen to the same concern twice. But when every suggestion is inadequate, stop talking. After you hear about the same problem three times, refuse to talk about it again until something changes.
Stop offering solutions because:
- Your solution may not be as brilliant as you think.
- The solutions you offer might work for you but not for others.
- You don’t know as much as you think.
- Their pain may not be enough to motivate change.
- Someday the solution you offered might be something they come up with on their own.
Recognize patterns or repeat the same problems.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Jessie Porter
What’s at the source of recurring problems?
What suggestions might you offer for leaders who face the same problems over and over?
Bonus material:
How to Break Destructive Patterns (Leadership Freak)
How to Recognize People’s Patterns (Tony Robbins)
The Most Important Leadership Skill You Will Ever Learn (Inc)
“Invert! Always invert!” Charles Munger
Patterns are equations; when they run successfully backwards and forwards with consistency, they tend to be a decent representation of reality. When they don’t, it’s because we’ve got the variables/ assumptions wrong (or, they’ve changed and we haven’t seen it/ accounted for it). That reality requires constant questioning – denials will corrupt the pattern.
As a designer, there are only 4 questions to bring to bear on “resolving” problems, and they are of our (progressive) wills :
1. What do we want? (Desire/Crave)
2. What can we do? (Power/Influence)
3. Which results matter? (Meaning/Consequence)
4. Do we achieve the effect we originally set out for? (Integrity/Elegance)
Whether we are deliberate and conscious and/or affirming about this pattern or not, “it’s what happens.”
And yes, it is iterative, and difficult, as no first draft (or dialogue) is immaculate or borne mature …
But the goal is elegance: achieving the greatest number of “goods” with the fewest “choices” necessary, all at once. Simplicity being the resolution of the complexity, not its origin.
And if the various “parts” (1-3) can be aligned such that the energy of the “whole” is greater than the sum energies of the parts, you have “created” value.
That’s leadership (no matter which other role you affirm).
And I offer this (confidently) as a summation of a 30 year career as a “fixer”/facilitator of processes and products, which also works around our “demons” of manipulation.
When presented with a problem the three questions I ask are:
1. Who owns the problem. Some people like to give you their problem.
2. How much time, effort and money, am I willing to put into solving this problem. Not all problems are of equal importance.
3. What approach should I use to solve the problem. Have a group meeting to discuss, delegate it to a staff member, or take action myself.
A common problem is we often just “put out the fire”–we only deal with symptoms. It’s important to take time and identify the underlying real problem.
Self reflection is such an important exercise of personal growth. Someone once told me to “train to be uncomfortable and everything else is easy.” I believe there is something to this message as it would pertain to this discussion. One of my personal goals is to stay clear of complacency – Although a constant work endeavor, I choose to place myself in places unfamiliar which will expand my perspectives through experiences, people, and academics. I have found that the human factor is my best teacher – in medicine, academics, and life; I am a student of life.
I often say that if life’s lessons seem to repeat themselves, one must need remediation – Ask yourself what is being missed in this lesson? If you can’t figure it out alone, ask for help. Ask your self whether or not you are on the path that is healthiest for you. Ask yourself if your current situation is contributing to your long term plan.
What’s at the source of recurring problems?
Doing things the old way (The good old days) can be a source of recurring problems.
Having the right people with the wrong mindset. (Negative People)
What suggestions might you offer for leaders who face the same problems over and over?
Leader may have good ideas but no followers. Maybe accept the problem and join another organisation that has the same vision.
OMG! So much to take in on this topic! I’m a libra with the worst case of OCD so patterns are my life, even the bad ones. Usually when I offer a solution to someone, and they do not accept it, I end up driving myself crazy trying to figure out why they do not take such simple suggestions for a solution. It never occurred to me that the same solutions that I consider to be simple and obvious, might not work for everyone. I completely understand the definition of insanity, but sometimes it is extremely difficult for me to break free from old patterns and habits. I guess the first step is admitting that there is a problem?
Good! Good; still … not quite right …
“Wisdom begins with discernment, of the terms.”
Socrates
What type of problems is this blog referring to? Problems with projects that are not becoming fruitful, or problems with employees?