Rethinking Results: The Limitations of Solution-Oriented Thinking
Our tendency to be solutions oriented doesn’t always serve us. Sure, there are times when solutioning has its place. I’m cooking dinner and the recipe calls for heavy cream, an ingredient not sitting in my fridge. Either I pause and run to the store, or I mix together butter and milk, staples I do have. Problem, solution!
But what about when our challenges are more complex? You have that repeating and circular argument with your spouse. Or you’re trying to change careers. Or you need to find a way to break through and inspire a new team member you manage. These are no small challenges. How do you solve them?
What if the key to solutioning was to let go of the idea that our aim is to find a solution? What if we completely took ourselves out of the center of our own story?
Let’s go back to that circular spat. Imagine suspending the idea that there is a way to prove your logic and instead shifting your focus to curiosity. Not with the motive of collecting ammo for your next point-counterpoint. But with the intent to listen, learn and understand.
Our how about the career search. Imagine pausing on scrolling through job postings and instead shifting your focus to seeking out conversations with people whose lives, careers, companies and professional journeys interest you. Not with the motive of asking them for a job, but with the intent to listen, learn and understand.
Finding ways to inspire that new team member? What if, rather than starting with a host of tactics and seeing if one sticks, you created space to ask, listen and learn about where, when and how they’ve felt most inspired throughout their lives?
When we take ourselves and our “need” to solve out of the center of our story, we break down the walls to our self-limiting beliefs and open ourselves up to new perspectives. We begin to reimagine what’s possible while also creating genuine spaces for others to help us discover new possibilities.
By setting aside our ego, we offer ourselves the opportunity for self-awareness and self-discovery. We can see where and how our original thinking might have been self-limiting, and we can more easily shift and adapt.
In what ways are you stuck in “solution” mode? What’s got you fixated on an end result? What are you doing to change your perspective? How are you removing yourself from the center of your story?
If you’d like to explore these ideas, I’m here to help. Feel free to send me a message or set up time on my calendar.
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