Leading your team to be solution focused
Here are some fantastically easy ways of helping you focus on solutions rather than problems, which can be adapted to developing people to be solution focused.
1 June 2018
Enhancing problem-solving skills within your team.
We have so many decisions to make in our everyday life, that solving complex decisions or problems can sometimes seem paralysing. If like us, you work with people, the most empowering question you can ask a person who comes to you with a problem, is " what do you think is a possible solution?". They will not always thank you for this the first time and may need some gentle coaching to think about the problem in a different way BUT given time and some reassurance, they will soar with confidence.
- Ask people to not focus on the problem, but look at possible solutions. The problem stays the same, it's how we fix it or solve it that can change and develop. Don't linger on what went wrong or who's fault it is as you can get fixated on this, and not see a solution.
- Adapt 5 ways to define what the problem is. Using 'why' questions helps to get the root of the problem. Ask your team to think about 5 'why' questions when they are thinking about the solutions
- Simple solutions - look for the easy and most obvious ways to solve the problem. Over complicating things can not only give you a headache but not focus on the true issues. Sometimes writing the information down helps as well.
- List out all possible solutions, people problem solve in different ways, so visual thinkers may have a Eureka moment if something is written down or graphically illustrated. Remember no idea is a stupid idea!
- Think laterally, this goes back to what we mentioned at the beginning about the problem not changing but the ideas on solving may well be many. Flip objectives around and change the direction of thought. What do you want to achieve in the end?
- And we have saved our favourite to last - Language is a huge motivator and creator of new ideas. Use phrases such as " What if", and " imagine if.."
In order to motivate people to think differently, to make decisions and have the confidence to problem solve, we ourselves need to be prepared to work towards the end goal. It will not happen overnight, and there will always be some decisions you as a manager will need to make yourself. A solution-focused team is a happy team!
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“We completed our L3 Safeguarding Children’s training with First Step Training and it was very insightful and interactive. The trainer was very knowledgeable and skilled at getting staff to think how they could safeguarding children and how to implement best practice in our service. The First Step team made sure they talked to us and understood our service and what we did so they could make sure the training fitted our business, and used our policies to educate staff on understanding how important these were.”
Residential Children’s Service Manager
