DO YOU WANT TO BE A GREAT PROBLEM-SOLVER?
Similar to the TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? this title invites you into the direction of a great outcome. Here the great outcome is what you will be or become rather than what you will have. Yet, of course, when you become a great problem-solver, you are much more likely to become a millionaire in the process. That’s because when you develop the know-how and the skills for being an effective problem-solver, you will be in high demand.
And that’s because while there are many people who claim to know how to solve problems, and claim that they do solve problems, the actual solving of problems is another story. And this is true of individuals as well as organisations and companies. And it seems to be even more so with cities and countries.
Problems abound — arguments, fights, conflicts, separations, divorces, lawsuits, insults, hatred, prejudice, debt, over-spending, bankruptcy, addictions, financial incompetence, firings, and on and on. And while sometimes even ‘common sense’ knows what needs to be done to solve a problem, the actual solving the problem lags far behind. Sometimes it’s because a person just does not know what to do. Sometimes one knows, but fears taking the course of action to solve the problem. Sometimes one knows and wants to do, but is unskills and incompetent to make it happen.
What does it take to become an Effective Problem-Solver?
To answer that question and empower people to become effective problem-solvers, we have designed a training. It is a training with four stages:
- The knowledge about what a Problem truly is. You can’t solve a problem without understanding what constitutes a problem, how it is a problem, how to clearly define a problem, and knowing where the problem is. Many people solve false problems, pseudo-problems and think they are actually solving the real problem. They are solving symptoms and other things, not the real problem.
- The Questions for cutting through the noise and mess. Problems are tricky little bastards. When they show up, the presenting problem is almost never the real problem. They show up with lots of noise—distractions, emotions, drama, mis-diagnosis, mis-understandings, gossip, hearsay, etc. An effective problem-solver knows how to ask surgerical questions to cut through the noise and get to “the heart of the matter.”
- The Conversations needed for solving problems. Problems arise in language and by language which is why an effective problem-solver starts with a clearly stated problem. He knows that a problem well-formed and defined is half solved already. The conversation a person has in his head, that a board has around a table, that a coach has with a client—that conversation is central to solving the problem. It may be a clarity conversation, a decision conversation, a change conversation, or a conversation on a dozen other subjects.
- The multiple dimensions of Solutions resolves the problem. Solutions come in many forms and sizes. What all solutions have in common—they reverse the inadequate thinking of the problem and set out a correct ‘course of action.’ An effective problem-solver knows that the solution is often inside of the problem and so looks there first.
There it is. Four stages: Problem, Questions, Conversations, and Solutions. And those are the four days of training in The 5 Minute Manager—the manager who can facilitate that kind of conversation. We devote time to each of these stages and in doing do, provide all the tools that a person needs to solve a great majority of problems in five minute. Obviously, while not all problems can be solved in five minutes, imagine how much time and energy you could clear up for yourself if you could get many problems resolved that quickly.
