In this video, we're going to talk about collaborative problem-solving, especially
in professional settings. So let's unpack it.
In their famous book, Getting to Yes,
the authors Fisher and Ury said that to make progress we have to quote "separate
the people from the problem" In this video, we're going to talk about collaborative
problem-solving. There are a lot of benefits to becoming a problem solver.
First of all if you're offering solutions in any discussion you are
automatically adding value to that discussion and you will be seen as much
more of a leader. Another benefit is that collaborative problem-solving is
naturally energizing people get fired up and excited when they're solving
problems with other people. This can create the exact kind of atmosphere that
you want to work in. The bottom line for this video is that leaders solve
problems and I'm going to give you three ways to move you in that direction. The
first tip is about your mindset. You want to adopt a collaborative spirit toward
other people not a controlling attitude. In other words, you don't want to feel
like you have to control the outcome and so you have to steer the conversation in
your favorite direction otherwise something bad might happen. You have to
let go of control when you're trying to solve problems. The other thing you don't
want to do which is related is you don't want to see the other people in the room
as potential competitors as adversaries because that is going to set exactly the
wrong tone if you're arguing against people and trying to win then you're not
solving problems together. If you're not collaborating, you don't get any of the
benefits of collaboration. Even if your solution gets picked, it's going to
change the tone of the group in a very negative way. So instead you want to
adopt a collaborative spirit where you see the other people in the room in that
moment no matter what level they're at as genuine partners that are there to
help you solve that problem together.
Next tip is also about mindset and that is to be flexible. You don't want to
think that there's only one right solution for whatever problem that you
are trying to solve. when you get stuck thinking that oh there's only one right
way to solve this, it can put up a lot of boundaries between you and the other
people around you. Abraham Maslow called this the law of
the instrument. Other people call it the law of the hammer. And it goes like this.
When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Now sometimes
a hammer is the right tool for the job but only sometimes. It's very unlikely
that your predetermined favorite solution is going to work in every given
case. You have to be flexible. You have to look at all the possible solutions that
the group is offering and then move toward the best solution in that
particular case. And the third tip is very practical in these discussions you
want to make sure that most of the time you're offering actual solutions, not
simply pointing out the problem or pointing out the flaws in other people's
solutions that they have offered. I've seen this happen time and time again in
a group problem-solving situation where somebody will offer a solution and then
a person will just start critiquing that solution and everybody kind of gets
bummed out and then another person offers a solution and that same critic
will talk tell you why that solution is never going to work. You do not want to
be this person. Some criticism is necessary. Sometimes, we need first 20% of
a conversation to identify an analyze the problem but that last 80% of the
discussion should be focused on reaching a solution and that's where you want to
be. When you're offering solutions you are adding value.
Don't be the critic. Be the problem solver in the discussion. I use all of
these tips personally. In fact, a few years ago, I had a very difficult
conversation with a supervisor who was a couple of levels up from me. I had
submitted a document that I thought was really strong
and the supervisor called me into his or her office and told me for about an hour
all the problems with this document. The person was not in a collaborative
problem-solving mindset but I had to be. I had to look for a way forward in this
discussion because I did not want to scrap months worth of work. And so what I
did was every time they came up with a problem I said well what do we think
about this? And what about this solution? How about we work it this way? And I went
into that collaborative problem-solving mode. And issue after issue, we worked
through and found potential fixes for it. Now, the person never really did snap
into a collaborative problem-solving mode. they were competitive and they were
really committed to seeing one right way but I maintained my resolve toward this
collaborative spirit and got through the interaction about as well as I could. A
few months later, that person followed up with me and I said you know I was really
impressed with the way you handled that and I was wondering if you would consider
this leadership opening that we have. That is the last thing I expected to
come out of that meeting but it goes back to the overall point of this video.
Leaders solve problems. Your homework is pretty simple. In your next
problem-solving interaction, maybe it's today, maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's
next week, I want you to spend only 20% of your time talking about the problem
and analyzing it and spend 80% of the time offering solutions. If you get into
this habit you will begin to add value every single discussion and people
around you will see you as a leader in no time. I'd like to finish with a
quotation from Reed Hoffman. He is the co-founder of LinkedIn. I think this
quote goes right to the heart of collaborative problem solving. He says no
matter how brilliant your mind or strategy if you're playing a solo game
you will always lose out to a team. Thanks and I'll see you in the next video.
I hope you enjoyed that video on collaborative problem-solving. That is
the last of five videos in a free mini course that I created on essential
Professional Communication Skills. If you missed any of the videos, I will put a
link to them in the description below this video and
also have a downloadable PDF Quick Guide to the course that summarizes all the
tips in writing and it links to every single one of the videos I encourage you
to check that out below so thanks I hope you enjoyed this course.