May I Speak Now?

Ok - fair warning...this one is going to be a rant! I've had 3 of these little gems today and it's only just past noon...

Why is it that certain people in business think it is appropriate to raise issues and then immediately escalate, make noise, send the hares running, release the cat amongst the pigeons, and just, generally, cause trouble before anything can be done about the problem?

Don't get me wrong. I think that appropriate escalations in business are very necessary when things do go wrong (Hint, people - stuff DOES go wrong) and no one does anything about it but, does anyone think that all the extra activity, angst, non-productivity, running in circles like a headless chook is the right way to resolve problems before there is an opportunity given to sort things out?

There are also serial offenders in this space (you know who you are). You've been around for years...you even existed in 19th century folk tales - they called you Henny Penny or Chicken Little or or some such thing...and, no, the sky STILL isn't falling!

Let's all try to remember to "breathe" before you fire off that email, copying the world, assuring them that doomsday is nye, and that you first think about the damage it is creating to everyone else, their time AND to your reputation.

Now...I'm finished...

The Whole Picture Requires Many Puzzle Pieces - Problem Solving

I found myself thinking about a couple of issues at work the other day and felt frustrated that I couldn't come up with the solutions. I had some good ideas on parts of what was needed but I couldn't exactly make it all fit together.
Then I remembered last Easter when I was away in Noosa, a group of us were, collectively, putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I hadn't done many of those before but we all soon realised that if we each focused on a particular area of the puzzle, instead of looking at the "whole" puzzle, each of us could quickly solve for that component. The puzzle came together amazingly quick smart (then we were a bit bored for the rest of the rainy afternoon, but that's another story...).
Solving for part of a problem most often gets you to the full solution faster than trying to think about it end-to-end to start with.
Very few problems are not made up of steps in a process to solve for rather than a simple single decision.
Whether it's via a team approach or mapping out your ideas, almost like a jigsaw puzzle, those components of the solution will help you to clearly and more quickly solve the problem.