Most project professionals can see problems. That does not require any special skill or talent. The majority of project professionals see the obstacles; the few see the opportunities. Someone who thinks in terms of solutions instead of just problems can be a difference maker. A project team filled with people who possess that mind-set can really get things done.

 

Your personality type, upbringing, and personal background may affect how solution oriented you are naturally. However, anyone can become solution oriented. Consider these truths that all solution-seeking people recognize:

·         Problems are a matter of perspective: No matter what anyone may tell you, your project problems are not your problem. If you, as a project manager believe that something is a problem, then it is. However, if you believe that something is merely a temporary setback, an interim obstacle, or a solution in the making, then you don’t have a problem. For instance, when I worked for a multinational services company in Madrid, I managed a project in the North of Spain for the government sector. My head office was located in Madrid, and every Monday morning I went to my office to report to my manager. As soon as I arrived, several people from Sales, Delivery and Support organizations came to me complaining about project problems and issues. They told me: “Oh Alfonso your project is generating…., your project is creating problems…, your project…”.I had to call them for a meeting and explain to them that it was not my project, it was the project I was leading and obviously during the project life cycle you will find obstacles to overcome, issues and some problems which are part of the game. It took time to convince them because complaining is easier than acting and moving forward. In this real case, my perspective and the rest of the project stakeholder’s perspective was different.

·          Project obstacles, setbacks, and failures are simply parts of project life: You cannot avoid them. But that does not mean you have to allow them to become problems. The best thing you can do is to meet them with a solution-oriented mind-set. Curiosity, imagination, creativity, drive and determination, passion, persistence and a positive attitude applied to a solution oriented mindset are all essential attributes of a successful project manager. Yet there is one simple yet profound premise from which all other success habits stem, the basis from which all things become possible. It’s a universal law and the basic premise from which all project managers must operate. It’s a simple secret that holds the key to personal and professional mastery. It’s the law of cause and effect.

      

      Understanding and accepting the law of cause and effect forces us to take responsibility for ourcircumstances. It forces us to realize that we are where we are as the result of the choices we made, choices that may have been limited by our knowledge and understanding, but choices we’ve made nonetheless. Our success is the sum of our knowledge and our effort. Once we realize that our circumstances are the result of our knowledge and our efforts, an awakening occurs. Once we accept this self-evident truth, all things become possible. With different knowledge and new behavior, we’ll get different results. Curiosity and creativity, innovation and initiative, passion and persistence, drive and determination and a positive attitude, characteristics essential to success, are all natural outcomes that stem from this basic premise.

     

      The law of cause and effect forces us to stop complaining about changes or the increasing demands from customers, clients or the boss. It forces us to separate the things we can change from those we cannot. Stop wasting precious time, energy and resources focusing on the things over which you have no control. Don’t buy into magical thinking. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of complaining. Don’t blame others. Focus instead on solving problems. Harness your innate creativity and imagination towards possibilities and potential rather than liabilities and limitations. Increase your learning velocity. Push the limits of what you think you are capable of. Take what you have and find a way to make it work. That’s what professionals project managers do.

·         All problems are solvable: Some of the great problem solvers have been inventors. If you want to be solution oriented, then you must be willing to cultivate that attitude in yourself too. Involve your people, brainstorm, discuss, ask the experts. Olaf Diegel, project professional from New Zealand propose the use of a “creativity breakdown structure” that consists in taking the following steps in an organized and well documented fashion:

a.     Decision on how to divide up or breakdown the design problem into individual partitioned tasks

b.     Decision on the order in which to approach each partition

c.     Development of a clear recognition of dependencies and relationships between individual partitions

d.     A breakdown of each individually partitioned task into forseeable fundamental problem areas

e.     Assignment of responsibilities to resources best suited to the task for each partition

·         Problems either stop us or stretch us: I believe that many project obstacles will look or small to you according to whether you are large or small. Problems either hurt you or help you. Depending on how you approach them, they will stop you from succeeding or stretch you so that you not only overcome them, but also become a better person in the process. The choice is yours.

How do you look at life? Do you see a solution in every challenge or a problem in every circumstance? Do your team members come to you because you have ideas about how to overcome obstacles, or do they avoid telling you about difficulties because you make things more difficult? Who you are determines what you see. When it comes to approaching problems, you really have only four choices: flee them, fight them, forget them, or face them. Which do you usually do?

To make yourself a more solution-oriented team player I would like to give you some suggestions:

·         Refuse to give up: At the same moment that one person wants to say, “I give up”, someone else is facing the same situation is saying, “What a great opportunity” Think about an impossible situation you and your team members have all but given up overcoming. Now determine not to give up until you find a solution.

·         Refocus your thinking: No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. Set aside dedicated time with key team members to work on the problem. Make sure it is prime think time, not leftover time when you are tired or distracted.

·         Rethink your strategy: Nobel Prize –winning physicist Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. Get out of the box of your typical thinking. Break a few rules. Brain-storm absurd ideas. Redefine the problem. Do whatever it takes to generate fresh ideas and approaches to the problem.

·         Repeat the process: If at first you don’t succeed in solving the problem, keep at it. If you do solve the problem, then repeat the process with another problem. Remember, your goal is to cultivate a solution-oriented attitude that you bring into play all the time.

Please don’t be focused on problems, be focused on solutions and transmit positivism to your people. Life is not easy, project are not easy but it is possible to achieve the project success.

Related Links
Cinda Voegtli challenges readers to choose between being victims or vanquishers when project issues crop up. Brian Irwin has advice for disarming project landmines. Kimberly Wiefling and Carl Pritchard have both encouraged readers to celebrate failures and ordinary moments, not just resounding success.