Solving Problems

A wise old man once said, “If you see only problems, you will live without solutions.”

I don’t know who he was, or why these people are always ‘old’ and ‘men’. I’m sure there are many wise women among us now and throughout all of history, surely!

Anyway, I think the quotation makes sense. If we spend our time complaining and spotting the problems in life, we tend to lose focus and purpose. Frustration leads us on a wild goose chase. We flit from one talking point to the next without actually solving the problem we are griping about.

Of course one has to identify a problem if we hope to do anything about it. So spot the problem, talk about it enough to define it. But then commit to take action. Do something about the problem. Solve it. Or at least attempt to do so!

I spent most of my career in strategic planning. I gravitated to that career quite naturally. I found myself in the midst of many problems in organizations filled with very bright people. I just knew we had the answers; all we had to do was sort through the details, organize it a bit, and then focus efforts on creating solutions.

Essentially that’s what strategic planning does. It is a process. It is a discipline. The contents of each planning process deals with the specifics of the organization looking for solutions to their own problems. But the process remains the same most of the time.

It begins with clearly identifying what your organization’s mission is – the purpose of the group, why it exists, what it does. Bare bones, nothing fancy.

Once mission is clarified, dream what you all hope the organization will look like in 10 or 15 years. The time span is important; it should be long enough that you cannot have a direct effect on the outcome. You can, however, begin identifying and setting the intermediate needs and goals to make the long term future happen the way you want it. That’s a vision statement.

The mission statement says who and what we are about; the vision statement states where we want to go with it.

Making the future unfold our way then becomes a process of putting efforts together logically to achieve desired outcomes. Those efforts will demand creativity but that’s where the fun comes in.  Thinking outside the box is just one of the exercises that bring relief to the stark realities of problems. We are moved off center and gain perspective.

It is the change in perspective that ventilates the problem, allows fresh light in, and pulls us toward the thinking we haven’t had before.

From there the creative process can and should go into overdrive. The challenge will become channeling and controlling reactions to that overdrive burst of activity and thinking. Sorting through the possibilities comes next. Picking the things that are more immediately doable, and also most likely to gain desired results. Those are the items we will want to work with first.

Save the other ideas. Our experience will help us decide which to use later when we are better prepared for them and have more experience under our belt. Creativity is like that. challenging, refreshing and energizing. New ideas. Stunning possibilities popping to mind. And suddenly solutions to old problems emerge.

In some cases the old problems simply disappear. Fresh thinking frequently erases the problem as a wasted effort, and replaces it with an entirely new process, product and service. The old vanishes and the new becomes a fresh reality. Sounds simple; it isn’t. But it often works this way with little effort. It just requires us to think about things differently.

Of course nothing gets done if nothing is attempted. That’s the first step. Know that something different is needed. Then look for it and make it happen.

Try it. You’ll be amazed at what you find. And it was there all the time!!

Now, let’s focus on national healthcare. What do we need? What do we want? What is the consensus on the issues? Any? When these basics are known, attempt to solve the problems. Let me know when you are ready. Not before!

March 15, 2017