Problem Solving Made Simple by Using Effective Communication Skills
Do you flow with stress events or does your canoe get capsized, making you as mad as a wet hen and a drenched human? Do you feel as if you’re drowning in a pity party whose constant refrain is “Why does this always happen to me?!”
How you frame a problem IS often the solution. And here’s the point of change: Making people the problem is useless…but making the situation the problem is useful.
Blaming isn’t brainstorming. Pointing fingers of blame takes your eye off the prize. Ready now to canoe down a river of change with your life partners to make a difference today?
Let’s use a metaphor of paddling a canoe to highlight effective vs. ineffective problem solving and talking. (See my earlier entry “Why Teamwork isn’t Working”) Imagine you and your team are straining to paddle down a rain-filled river. Here’s what to do for a change:
- Paddle calmly in the right direction.
- Paddle any way you can that effectively works.
- Paddle together in a positive mood.
- Paddle easier when times are tough.
- Paddle while talking honestly and openly.
- Paddle while playing “the change game.”
- Paddle and give plenty of positive encouragers to everyone.
- Paddle and listen attentively to others.
- Paddle and focus on solving the problems of today.
- Paddle as a team instead of quibble and quarrel.
This same teamwork approach works very well in partnered couples, marriages and extended family situations where blame outruns common sense.