Dr. Daneen Skube
Tribune Content Agency
Interpersonal Edge
Q: My work the last few years has become complicated. I end up staring at the same problems. As a manager, people expect me to supervise people who solve things. How can I become more innovative with entrenched problems?
A: You’ll become more innovative if you follow a three-step process:
1) Validate your frustration.
2) Congratulate yourself on knowing things you can rule out as solutions.
3) Pretend the sky was the limit. What would you try if nothing was impossible?
A brilliant unknown person quipped, “When life hands you lemons, make grape juice, and let the world wonder how you did it!”
As an executive consultant, I find my clients get stuck staring left and eventual solutions end up coming from the right. Unfortunately, what we think we know about the problem can actually end up blocking solutions.
Many creative thinkers and innovators have noted the importance of taking a break when we’re stuck. A nap, a walk in the woods, or a game with friends all work. The brain gets stuck in a dead end alley, and needs to have a new activity to help the gears loosen up.
If we refuse to take a break, our brain is like a car stuck in the mud while the driver keeps reeving the engine. If you won’t get out of your car and push your brain in a new direction, the mud and your frustration just get deeper!
No limits brainstorming doesn’t mean we don’t have budgets, staffing constraints, or laws to contend with. However, when you use no limits brainstorming you pretend you have no limits which frees up your imagination.
Our brains see roadblocks easier than roads. Even in group problem solving, someone may suggest an idea and five people will explain why that won’t work.
When our brains feel safe we can use the wild side of our imagination, we can see how to combine resources in innovative ways. The lowly salad dressing is a good example. We say vinegar and oil don’t go together but when we integrate them, we create a delicious solution.
Consider the personal computer, online shopping, or cell phone. When a computer required a whole building, when retail shopping dominated the market, or when phones hung off walls, proposing these ideas would get you laughed out of the room!
Many transformative ideas at first look crazy and eventually become the bedrock of our lives. Realize also that just because you can see an innovative solution does not mean you can quickly implement it. You or your team may need to work diligently toward the outcome you can now imagine.
Being stuck and having an informal job description of, “He or she that stares at problems,” is not rewarding. When you continue to try things that fail, you at least have the benefit of continuing to learn about the problem.
Many of us, as adults, worry that failing makes us look foolish. What makes us look foolish is having the same problems day in and day out. If you try, and keep failing you’re learning what doesn’t work. The courage to try means each failure gets you slightly closer to a breakthrough.
The price of making grape juice from lemons, is we prioritize our effectiveness over our image to others. Giving yourself the freedom to innovate means you put your well-being and results above your temporary reputation.
On Monday, let your wild imagination run loose in the face of your stagnant problems, and feel a fresh breeze of possibilities loosen up old thinking. Being stuck is just a way station on the path to breakthrough ideas, which can transform your world and maybe even the world!
The last word(s)
Q: My boss has criticized me for being impatient and I know I am. I just find it really hard to not get upset when people waste my time. Is there any trick you teach to work on patience?
A: Yes, I agree with Guy Kawasaki, an American author and venture captialist, who observed, “Patience is the art of concealing your impatience.” Feeling upset is fine, but acting upset will alienate the people you need to help you.
(Daneen Skube, Ph.D., executive coach, trainer, therapist and speaker, also appears as the FOX Channel’s “Workplace Guru” each Monday morning. She’s the author of “Interpersonal Edge: Breakthrough Tools for Talking to Anyone, Anywhere, About Anything” (Hay House, 2006). You can contact Dr. Skube at www.interpersonaledge.com or 1420 NW Gilman Blvd., #2845, Issaquah, WA 98027. Sorry, no personal replies.)
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